2 Laptops(Vista and XP) - 1 Guest (XP) Best Way to use

[paulinuk]

Hello

I have a virtual box xp guest that is set up in perfectly for my requirements. Now here is the tricky bit, I want to share the guest between 2 different machines.

One is a netbook with XP which I use on the train to and from work, the second is a Vista Sony laptop which I want to use all other times

I thought that the best way was to get a portable HDD and install everything to do with Virtual Box on there which I have done but now I am getting into problems with XP activation. The XP copy that is on the virtual machine guest is genuine, as is XP on the netbook and Vista on my laptop. The XP guest has detected that the hardware is considerably different, which it def is because I am running it on a different machine. I dont mind activating the XP guest but am worried about the key getting locked?

What is the best way to do this?

Before I got the message about Windows requiring activation the guest os was working perfectly, but now the display has changed to 4 bit, I am assuming this is a side effect of the activation warning? I have 3 days to resolve this.

There is one folder on the guest machine which I will be changing.

Do I have to install the Virtual Box on both machines seperatly and then try to keep this folder in sync? I would rather not do this but I will if needs be. It is a tricky situation because I am a developer and all of the projects currently point to the c drive so I cant even easily move all the data to a different drive

Hope someone can help

Paul

[MarkCranness]

You have to make sure the VMs are exactly the same. Do a compare of the XML for the machine on each laptop to see any differences.
Likely the network card MAC will be different, and that may be enough to trigger reactivation.
Easiest may be to detach the VDI from both VMs (on both laptops), Delete the VM on one laptop (VirtualBox GUI Machine>Delete), copy the XML from the other laptop and register it then re-attach the VDI to both VMs.

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VBoxManage registervm "<VMName>"

If you have any snapshots then let us know, that adds a complication.
Having triggered the reactivation once, you may be stuck with at least one reactivation before things settle down.

[paulinuk]

Thanks I will look asap

What do I do to detach a VM from both laptops? Sorry not experienced in this! Does this mean I will lose the Guest? Not a problem if I do I guess

ok so the VM is setting itself up based on the XML file and windows has seen that the MAC addresses have changed so thats enough to trigger activation yeah?

Paul

[paulinuk]

Also, do you think that the 4 bit display which has suddenly started is a side effect of the activation alert? If it isnt how do I resolve it? There are no other options available in control panel and Device Manager shows no problems other than the processor driver I disabled to get round the blue screen on boot up

[MarkCranness]

To minimise activation problems, get that sorted and over with before trying to copy the VM to the other laptop.
Probably on the original laptop, take a snapshot, and boot. Reactivate if needed so it's good and shutdown. If that stuffs up Revert to Current Snapshot and curse, otherwise Discard Snapshot (DO NOT use Discard Current Snapshot and State!)

Then copy the VM:

• Remove snapshots from both VMs, if there are any. If you have snapshots, and are not 100% sure what to do then ask here first for advice...
• Detach the VDI hard disks from both laptops: On both laptops:

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  select VM in VirtualBox GUI
  Settings>Hard Disks>Attachments>select each Slot in turn and Right-click>Remove Attachment (same as '-' icon on right).

• Decide which laptop has the 'source' VM that will be kept. On the other 'target' laptop:

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  select VM in VirtualBox GUI
  Machine>Delete>Delete

• Using Windows Explorer or whatever, copy the Machines\blah\blah.xml file from the source laptop to the same folder in the target laptop.
• Using a command prompt, navigate to the Machines\blah folder on the target laptop and:

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  "C:\Program Files\Sun\VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe" registervm blah.xml

• On both laptops:

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  select VM in VirtualBox GUI
  Settings>Hard Disks>Attachments>'+' icon (on right)>select your VDI(s) in the Hard Disk dropdown

You will temporarily lose the guest VM on the 'target' VM but will get it back when you registervm the copy.
The VDI virtual hard disk file will not be lost, it will just be 'removed' from the virtual machine and then put back afterwards.
I don't know what the 4 bit display might be, perhaps the Guest Additions need to be (re)installed, sorry.
If Windows has seen the MAC address change then that often triggers activation, and it likely remembers that in the hard disk.

[paulinuk]

Thanks for your help

I will let you know how I get on

The key thing I need to do is to be able to plug my portable hard drive into the netbook (XP) and work, then unplug it and put it into the laptop (Vista) and be able to carry on working

Looks like the above should make this possible

[paulinuk]

Hi

What do you mean by Guest Additions? Sorry not really got much of a clue about administering Virtual Box lol

Paul

[MarkCranness]

Please see section 4 of the user manual, which describes Guest Additions. They are programs and drivers installed on the guest to make it work better in VirtualBox.