Help using WinXP on 2 mac user accounts

[paul911]

I have loaded VB 4.0.0, and it works with the 2 user accounts I have on my Mac.
However, when trying to load windows XP via the 2nd user, it wants me to install XP again.
Is there a way of sharing between the 2 accounts?
Thanks,
Paul

[rbiemans]

Hello Paul,

I don't have an answer, but wanted to add something similar. It may help finding an answer.

I have a couple accounts on my OSX (v10.6.5) system. I wanted to use VirtualBox (v4.0.0 r69151) on 2 Mac accounts, so it would be possible to have one virtual disk, with one instance of Windows XP Pro. I thought of setting the system up in one account first, then switch user and open the same virtual disk in the other. I put the disk/partition in a shared folder, so data wasn't limited to one account. After installation of VirtualBox and setting up XP, I switched to open the same virtual disk in the other user account, but VirtualBox won't allow this.

I have checked permissions in both accounts (read/write) for the shared folder and its subfolders. I have tried to also create the exact same set-up in the other user account and then replacing it by the virtual disk created for the first user account. VirtualBox will see the disk, but will not connect to it. This means, effectively, that I would need to set-up 2 instances of a virtual disk with its own Windows XP.

I assume it's a security thing, in order to prevent copying one virtual environment with all its data and using it on a different computer or in a different account.

Gr.R.

[rbiemans]

Hello Paul,

I may have an answer now I have played around a little...

Once you have installed your virtual drive on OSX and installed the Windows XP instance in one user account, close it and shut down VirtualBox. Go to your User Library (not the System Library) and find a folder named 'VirtualBox'. Copy that to the same path in the other user's Library folder as to have both accounts use the same info. If you do as I did (have the virtual drive files (name.vbox, name.vbox-prev, name.vdi and the folder 'Logs', where 'name' stands for the name you gave your virtual disk) in a shared folder that both user accounts can access) and you are using the same files in the User Library, you should be OK to have the exact same thing run in these two user accounts.

Check permissions on both accounts, so that these have read/write access. This should do the trick.

I can't say anything about whether it's stable and future proof: I have only just (literally a couple of hours ago) started to use VirtualBox.

Hope this helps. Would be nice if you'd post your feedback.

Gr.R.

[rbiemans]

Hello Paul,

There's one other thing to mention: I got all exited that it worked initially, but after a restart (had to because playing around with USB drives, my Time Machine drive suddenly disappeared), neither user account could access the virtual drive anymore. I had to remove the virtual drive from the VirtualBox main interface first, then add a new one using the existing virtual disk, got an error, but then could launch the virtual disk as before.

So, it seems to be unstable. But it is consistent: I can at least load it on both user accounts by using the pretty awkward workaround of removing/adding/launching the virtual disk.

Gr.R.