Page 1 of 1

Hardware dependency to the guest O/S

Posted: 4. Apr 2014, 17:19
by Pasckal
Hi all.

Is it possible to setup the guest O/S in such a way that the software installed within the VM doesn't detect a change in host computer when running the VM off another computer?

One example I can think of is iTunes. If I setup iTunes in a XP VM on my laptop and connect/sync my devices to that VM, iTunes and those devices will work fine as long as I work off my laptop.

But if I take my XP VM to my desktop and connect my devices, iTunes will detect my devices as being connected to a different computer and prompt accordingly.

Thank you all for reading/replying.

Pasckal

Re: Hardware dependency to the guest O/S

Posted: 4. Apr 2014, 17:53
by mpack
Pasckal wrote:Is it possible to setup the guest O/S in such a way that the software installed within the VM doesn't detect a change in host computer when running the VM off another computer?
VirtualBox is a supervisor, not a CPU simulator, so the guest will be able to detect any CPU changes. Whether it will care or not - who knows. Actually, it's possible to do some fakery with the CPUID, but it probably isn't a good idea if you want the guest to run properly.

Otherwise, all the other hardware the guest sees is simulated, so it shouldn't be aware of any changes provided you take care to always move the entire VM, and not just the disk.