Installing VirtualBox 2.0.0 On Ubuntu 8.04 Desktop

I wonder why this How to Forge article didn't encourage readers to install Virtual Box in Ubuntu by adding repositories rather than downloading .deb packages.

I imagine that if you add the repositories, you'll continually get updates without needing to look for them.

Yeah I wonder sometimes about these HowTo articles that tell you to do the download and install when it's so much easier to simply do it from the package manager.

There are two versions of VirtualBox. The lesser-featured version is GPL, and the full-meal deal has some proprietary extras, like the Guest Additions and USB support. So going with the OSE (open source edition) costs you some pretty important features. It's a dumb dodge to differentiate the "enterprise" edition.

TC, having tried both, I must say the restrictions built into the OSE are insane. The lack of USB support is absurd, it's crippleware. "Dumb dodge" is an understatement worthy of a blue-blood Brit.

Oh well, it's now Suns problem.

It's crippleware, but for what reason? You don't pay for the non-free version, so it's only an annoyance.

I will give them credit for providing seamless mode for a Linux guest. That really is a nice feature.

It appears to me that you can't use the binary version for business use. The license is called the "VirtualBox Personal Use and Evaluation License" and the Editions page ( http://virtualbox.org/wiki/Editions ) states

Quoting:If, instead, you wish to purchase licenses for enterprise use and/or enterprise support for VirtualBox, please do not hesitate to contact your Sun representative.

So apparently you are supposed to purchase licenses to use the binary version in business.

Okay, perhaps I need to read the licenses from now on.

So if you download the packages from the Linux page (http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads) instead of adding a repository, you get the "enterprise" edition?

It would appear so. Considering that that's the page linked under the binaries section and that page also mentions adding non-free debian sources.

I'm using Mandriva Powerpack, so I get the Full version in the repositories.

tracyanne, what do you think of Virtual Box?

tracyanne,

Does the mandriva powerpack also have the licensed codecs to unencrypt DVD's? Canonical has announced a deal similar to the Mandriva deal with Fluendo so Ubuntu users can purchase a codec license, like the Mandriva Powerpack users can http://ostatic.com/173388-blog/canonical-opens-codec-sales-a...

My personal preference is to use a distribution based in a country that does not honor the DMCA nor the validity of banning decss. All the codecs and functionality OOB.

Quoting:Does the mandriva powerpack also have the licensed codecs to unencrypt DVD's?

No, the Fluendo thing is available, as it is with the One, and I assume the Free versions. Mandriva is no more likely to do a deal with Microsoft than is Canonical.

I use the PLF repositories, which install automatically (root password required, as usual) when you use the new easyurpmi interface. But for non technical ex windows users, especially those in the US, the Fluendo thing is an excellent idea. I'd actually like to see all the Linux distros do a deal whereby it is possible to obtain commercial, even proprietary, software through the Package manager, I think this is important froma security standpoint.

@Steve I like it, it's got a very simple UI, and can be set up very quickly. I like, but don't use very often, the seamless mode. I've used it a couple of times, once to fool my boss into thinking I was running VisualStudio 2008 on Linux, mostly I prefer the windowed mode as it's easier to recover if the VMed OS does funny (not Ha Ha) things.

I like it too, for the simplicity that Tracyanne addresses.

Limitations seem to be limited to video acceleration. As in none. USB devices have to be pre-defined. Since "enterprise" applications, the ones that are the main reasons for people to not use Linux, don't generally use video hardware acceleration, VirtualBox seems to me to be an excellent answer to the "But I have to have...." problem.

Since it's just another application, albeit with a kernel module, just try it out. I've noticed lots of pre-made .VDI images at the bittorrent sites, although that would seem to be an interesting virus vector. Better to install something from known-good sources I guess.

I have discovered one limitation of VirtualBox. The largest fiesize I can have on my laptop is 16 Gig, Virtual box won't split files, like VMWare does, so I can't have more than 16 Gig of Virtual harddrive, which is a bugger, as my Win XP install has just hit 16 Gig, and wants to grow bigger, which means the Virtualbox crashes. I'm about to move the Virtual harddrive to a 1 Terra Byte USB drive and see if it still works.

Tracyanne it does allow for secondary and tertiary drives. Even on my vbox installs of Windows I follow the old guideline of OS on one partition (drive) and everything else on any other drive/partition than the one the OS is on. hmm, come to think of if that habit has followed me into linux as well.

@az, the problem isn't that I can or can't have scondary drives, the problem is that none of them can be more than 16Gig on a 60 gig ext3 filesystem, which is what my /home partition is on this laptop. VMWare gets around this limitation by breaking a virtual drive up into multiple files.