virtualbox.org

I dual boot Windows 7 (64 bit) and Ubuntu 11.10 (32 bit). There appear to be different approaches concerning how to access a Windows XP 32 bit VM in a Virtualbox from these OSes. I need access to the VM from both Win7 and Ubuntu because there are no 64 bit drivers for my Canon LBP-1120 printer, and the 32 bit Linux driver leaves much to be desired.

After having created the VM and installed everything from the Windows partition of my HD, I went to the Ubuntu side and created a "new" XP box, pointing it to the XP .vdi that I had made and using the same settings. Could someone confirm that this is the preferred approach?

I went to the Ubuntu side and created a "new" XP box, pointing it to the XP .vdi that I had made and using the same settings.

Did it work?

Well, I am able to use the USB printer, which was my main objective. Apart from this, no problems as far as I can see - although I am not sure how it would work when using bridge mode in order to make my router give it a MAC-based, stable IP-address (haven't tested if the MAC addresses are identical). However, this is more important for a Debian VM which I would also like to access from both OSes.

Anyways, I would like to do this correctly from the outstart. Discovered Virtualbox yesterday, and I am very fascinated.

In theory your path should work. Myself I would have made the original file immutable and used differencing disks on each guest to help and cut down from differences between the OSes, but that is a choice that you need to weigh and make. Just keep a good backup of the main guest, and I would stay away from snapshots. IMHO.