virtualbox.org

Hi, Virtual noob here.

Not sure if this is possible, but I'd like to think it is...

I currently have my machine dual booting to windows & linux. I've installed Virtualbox on both and I am trying to figure out if I can have a single VM/guest that is accessible through the VBox Manager on either windows or linux.

I know that this setup kinda defeats the purpose of VM's, but I need to test the VM's in both environments and besides, my PC was already setup to dual boot.

I've currently installed "duplicate" VM's on both and if this is the only way to go, so be it. But it would be nice if I could just install & test apps, etc on the one "instance" of a guest regardless of whether I've fired it up in the windows or linux environment.

My original thought was to put the VDI on an external HDD, but it looks like it would have a different config depending on which host it is running on?

I haven't had much of a chance to completely read through all the docs yet, but if somebody knows how to do this or can point me to the relevant docs, it would be a great help.

Thanks

Of course you can use the same VM from different hosts or with dual-boot. Just make sure that the VM image isn't used at the same time by two different VM processes but with dual-boot this is not the case. Also the best way to use the VM with both OSes is to create a separate VM for both OSes and attach the same VM image to the respective VM config.

Wow, thanks Frank.

That almost sounds too easy!

So basically all I do is create idendical VM's on both Linux & Windows, then point them both to the same VDI file? I'll give it a shot right now. If it's as easy as the rest of the setup has been, I'll be laughing.

I couldn't find anything in the help files on my quick scan through. I'm trying to come up to speed pretty quickly with VBox/virtualization and your fast answer is a big help and a big confidence booster for me to push ahead, knowing there is plenty of knowledge out there if I need it.