Hi,

just wondering if you can install VirtualBox on a Linode machine, the reason I am asking I would like to install Window 7 platform.

Thanks

you probably can, but not sure why you'd want to. the performance probably won't be great.

what are you trying to do?

Thank for the reply,

I need to install Windows 7 for a project that I am going to start for a few months so others can work on it as well.

Thanks

It does install just fine (at least on Ubuntu 10.04), but it does require kernel modules, as well as a whole slew of other stuff:

# sudo apt-get install virtualbox-ose
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  binutils dkms dmsetup fakeroot fontconfig fontconfig-config gcc gcc-4.4
  grub-common grub-pc launchpad-integration libasound2 libaudio2 libc-dev-bin
  libc6-dev libdevmapper1.02.1 libdirectfb-1.2-0 libfontconfig1 libfreetype6
  libgl1-mesa-dri libgl1-mesa-glx libgomp1 libice6 libjpeg62 liblcms1 libmng1
  libqt4-network libqt4-opengl libqtcore4 libqtgui4 libsdl1.2debian
  libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsm6 libsysfs2 libtiff4 libts-0.0-0 libxcursor1
  libxdamage1 libxfixes3 libxmu6 libxrender1 libxt6 libxxf86vm1 linux-firmware
  linux-headers-2.6.32-33 linux-headers-2.6.32-33-generic
  linux-headers-generic linux-image linux-image-2.6.32-33-generic
  linux-image-generic linux-libc-dev manpages manpages-dev os-prober patch
  tsconf ttf-dejavu-core virtualbox-ose-dkms virtualbox-ose-qt wireless-crda
  x11-common
Suggested packages:
  binutils-doc defoma gcc-multilib autoconf automake1.9 libtool flex bison gdb
  gcc-doc gcc-4.4-multilib libmudflap0-4.4-dev gcc-4.4-doc gcc-4.4-locales
  libgcc1-dbg libgomp1-dbg libmudflap0-dbg libcloog-ppl0 libppl-c2 libppl7
  multiboot-doc grub-emu desktop-base libgnome2-0 konqueror libasound2-plugins
  nas glibc-doc libglide3 liblcms-utils qt4-qtconfig fdutils linux-doc-2.6.32
  linux-source-2.6.32 linux-tools ed diffutils-doc virtualbox-guest-additions
  libpulse0
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  binutils dkms dmsetup fakeroot fontconfig fontconfig-config gcc gcc-4.4
  grub-common grub-pc launchpad-integration libasound2 libaudio2 libc-dev-bin
  libc6-dev libdevmapper1.02.1 libdirectfb-1.2-0 libfontconfig1 libfreetype6
  libgl1-mesa-dri libgl1-mesa-glx libgomp1 libice6 libjpeg62 liblcms1 libmng1
  libqt4-network libqt4-opengl libqtcore4 libqtgui4 libsdl1.2debian
  libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsm6 libsysfs2 libtiff4 libts-0.0-0 libxcursor1
  libxdamage1 libxfixes3 libxmu6 libxrender1 libxt6 libxxf86vm1 linux-firmware
  linux-headers-2.6.32-33 linux-headers-2.6.32-33-generic
  linux-headers-generic linux-image linux-image-2.6.32-33-generic
  linux-image-generic linux-libc-dev manpages manpages-dev os-prober patch
  tsconf ttf-dejavu-core virtualbox-ose virtualbox-ose-dkms virtualbox-ose-qt
  wireless-crda x11-common
0 upgraded, 62 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 96.6MB of archives.
After this operation, 379MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? 

...

Setting up virtualbox-ose (3.1.6-dfsg-2ubuntu2) ...
 * Stopping VirtualBox kernel modules                                    [ OK ] 
 * Starting VirtualBox kernel modules                                            * No suitable module for running kernel found
                                                                         [fail]
invoke-rc.d: initscript virtualbox-ose, action "restart" failed.

Setting up virtualbox-ose-dkms (3.1.6-dfsg-2ubuntu2) ...
Loading new virtualbox-ose-3.1.6 DKMS files...
First Installation: checking all kernels...
It is likely that 3.0.0-linode35 belongs to a chroot's host
Building for architecture i686
Module build for the currently running kernel was skipped since the
kernel source for this kernel does not seem to be installed.
 * Stopping VirtualBox kernel modules                                    [ OK ] 
 * Starting VirtualBox kernel modules                                            * No suitable module for running kernel found
                                                                         [fail]
invoke-rc.d: initscript virtualbox-ose, action "restart" failed.

So, it's probably a good idea to set up and boot with pv-grub first; also remember to install linux-headers-virtual. Should you forget to do so before installing virtualbox-ose,

# apt-get remove virtualbox-ose-dkms
# apt-get install linux-headers-virtual virtualbox-ose-dkms

Then, ssh in with X11 forwarding (ssh -X yourlinode.example.com), run "virtualbox", and there you go. Ought to work just fine. Well, as fine as you'd expect for virtualizing a GUI-based proprietary operating system inside a virtual machine without hardware virtualization support under the control of a X11-based management application over a wide-area network.

Currently waiting for it to boot the Ubuntu installer... I'll advise when it finishes.

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Hi Hoopycat,

Thanks for the info, I am not to familiar with linux or that well, but I appreciate the info and I will have a go. Also is there away to transfer an existing Windows 7 to the the VM.

Thanks

Note: be sure to uncheck System -> Acceleration -> Enable VT-x/AMD-V. Somewhat unusual things happen when that box is checked.

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I wouldn't use this for any sort of production situation, at least not without using something like VNC (or Windows' own RDP). I'd also only do this as a last resort. There's a reason Linux server configuration is almost exclusively text-based, with web-based systems being a distant runner-up. Real-time interactive streaming video over wide-area networks has painful response times.

You will also need a fair amount of RAM... plan on being able to use a maximum of 75% of a Linode's RAM for VirtualBox. Since Windows 7 (32-bit) requires a minimum of 1 GB, this means a Linode 1536 dedicated to the task, just to have enough to boot. 64-bit requires 2 GB, or a Linode 4096.

However, I'm not yet booted into the Ubuntu installation CD. I'm not even at the "POST" yet. I suspect network latency has something to do with it -- my test Linode happens to not be on the same side of the world as me -- but I'm thinking it might be hung. If so, my next step would be to install VirtualBox 4 directly from Oracle.

(Unfortunately, I'm not going to get that far, as I gotta get back to work.)



Assuming it's already in VirtualBox (and assuming VirtualBox is working fine on a Linode with a simple case), you should just be able to File -> Export Appliance and scp the resulting file to the destination.

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I cannot see Windows 7 running at anything approaching useable speed and response like this.

_________________
--
Chris Bryant

Running Windows 7 in VirtualBox on a Linode over the internet strikes me a "cool but useless" kind of thing in the same category as that JavaScript x86 emulator that runs Linux in your web browser (http://bellard.org/jslinux/ if it still works)

I'm not sure what's worse here. The intention to run Windows 7 in Virtualbox on Linode, or the community support for such an endeavor.



Just joking, no offense friends. Also, what Guspaz said.

Thanks guys for your comments its only a short term project and it wasn't going to run long