So yeah, I’ve managed to bring up VMware (which was removed because compatibility issue with Ubuntu 8.04). But then again, someone in id-gmail mailing-list came up with an opinion that VirtualBox is much better than VMware, because it is faster, has USB support, and so on. So in the name of curiousity *grin*, I’ve decided to give it a try but with disk image (vmdk) that I’ve previously built on VMware.

First of all, the installation.

In Ubuntu repository, we could find Open Source version of VirtualBox called virtualbox-ose. But it doesn’t have some features which has been offered by the full version, including RDP server and USB support. So i installed the full-version.

The file is available to download at Sun Microsystem’s page. The version I downloaded is Sun xVM VirtualBox 1.6. It is a .deb package, by the way. The easiest way to install is by double-click it in your file browser to bring up Deb Package Manager, and click install.. :D

In the mean time, we should add our linux userid to vboxusers group. The easiest way is by executing this command line in your shell.

sudo adduser $USER vboxusers

Second, bring up VMDK.

The installation should be done without errors, and we could start bringing virtual OS to our desktop. But I decided to use vmWare’s VMDK which I have use earlier. And fortunately, the newest VirtualBox do support this format. Just open up Virtual Disk Manager and find the VMDK.

First time running, all I got was only blank screen without any indication that any process is running. But then I found some tips, and tweak the settings a little by enabling IO APIC and set IDE controller to PIIX4.

Third, install guest edition.

It was pretty easy. The virtualbox has compiled the drivers needed and also mouse support to a single virtual disk. To install them, just execute Devices –> Install Guest Edition on client window.

Last, setting up USB Support.

USB Support is VirtualBox is disabled by default. But we can enabling it by edit:

/etc/init.d/mountdevsubfs.sh

.. and uncomment all the lines on the section called “## Magic to make /proc/bus/usb work”. If it doesn’t work, extra tweaks are needed. Please refer to this page for details. And don’t forget to unmount the USB on host machine before mount the it on virtual OS.

Well, I like this. The USB support is an attractive feature. And that’s not all. It has been said that virtual box can share folders from the host.

I guess I’ll use it to replace VMware. Eh, should I? :-p