2 questions

[Georgetoon]

Question 1).  Now that I have a nice freshe instll of a Windows XP in VitualBox, what is the proper method of moving it over to another PC?

Questions 2.) Where is Virtual Machine?  I looked under "Virtual," "VirtualMachine," and "VMWare."  Noting came up in the repo.

Okay, three questions....is Virtual Machine better than VB?  I moved over to VB, because it ha a few more features. I'd like to give VM a try again.

[GermanTux]

Questions 2.) Where is Virtual Machine?  I looked under "Virtual," "VirtualMachine," and "VMWare."  Noting came up in the repo.

Can you be a little more specific?  What program are you looking for?  VMWare's virtualizer is now called something different, and they have gone so ESXi heavy (hypervisors) that they barely develop it anymore.  I do not believe VMWare is in the repos anyway.  If you want to install it, you can go to VMWare's site here.  Looks like it is now called VMWare workstation. 

Question 1).  Now that I have a nice freshe instll of a Windows XP in VitualBox, what is the proper method of moving it over to another PC?

OK, you have to go to your virtualbox directory.  By default, this is /home/user/.virtualbox.  There, you will see a folder for your virtual machine.  You just copy that folder on to a different computer.  On that new computer, inside Virtualbox, go to Machine->Add, then fine the folder you copied, and select the vm.vbox file.  That's it! 

[pags]

Answer 1)
  If by "proper", you mean directly supported as a function of the software, then I would suggest >File >Export Appliance
This will create a file (at least as big as your virtual hard drive, plus a little more) that can be moved to another machine (or, machines) where it can then be IMPORTED.  The benefit of this approach is it keeps all the settings, and is portable across OS', etc., as well as accommodating changing paths.  The other (possibly simpler) approach is to make a copy (if going to another PC), or clone (if staying on the same PC -- VBox will give the VDI file a new UUID) and then re-creating the virtual PC settings manually, and pointing to the existing VDI instead of creating a new one.

Answer 2)
  I don't think VMWare is in the repos...you would need to download and install it from outside (if I'm mistaken, I apologize...I'm sure someone will correct me).  Unless you're using VMWare Workstation, it is really better for use on servers, usually in a headless environment (not that VBox can't run headless).

3?)
  Better?  I suppose that is more opinion than fact...it's different, with a different intent, I feel.  The goal (as I see it) of VMWare Workstation is to provide a test bed, or development area, that creates compatible files with the server offerings (where they get their money).  For personal, desktop use, I've found (and, it's been a long time since I've used VMWare Workstation) that VirtualBox seems to perform better (more responsive "feeling").  For server consolidation, I prefer VMWare (although work is pushing Hyper-V, now  ).

[Georgetoon]

Answer 1)
  If by "proper", you mean directly supported as a function of the software, then I would suggest >File >Export Appliance
This will create a file (at least as big as your virtual hard drive, plus a little more) that can be moved to another machine (or, machines) where it can then be IMPORTED.  The benefit of this approach is it keeps all the settings, and is portable across OS', etc., as well as accommodating changing paths.  The other (possibly simpler) approach is to make a copy (if going to another PC), or clone (if staying on the same PC -- VBox will give the VDI file a new UUID) and then re-creating the virtual PC settings manually, and pointing to the existing VDI instead of creating a new one.

Answer 2)
  I don't think VMWare is in the repos...you would need to download and install it from outside (if I'm mistaken, I apologize...I'm sure someone will correct me).  Unless you're using VMWare Workstation, it is really better for use on servers, usually in a headless environment (not that VBox can't run headless).

3?)
  Better?  I suppose that is more opinion than fact...it's different, with a different intent, I feel.  The goal (as I see it) of VMWare Workstation is to provide a test bed, or development area, that creates compatible files with the server offerings (where they get their money).  For personal, desktop use, I've found (and, it's been a long time since I've used VMWare Workstation) that VirtualBox seems to perform better (more responsive "feeling").  For server consolidation, I prefer VMWare (although work is pushing Hyper-V, now  ).

Thanks.  I knew I messed up when moving that last virtual machine.

VM not in repos?  No problem. VB does everything I need.

Better?  Just was curious.  I recall using VM and I switched to VB because it was a bit easier to use.  Was wondering if VM had new features/improvements.  I only install from repo.

Thanks again.

[rich2005]

Coming a bit late to this but just goes to show there are different ways.

FWIW this is how I go about it.

You can find the location of the WinXP VM in the VM settings. If you accepted the default settings it will be in your home folder probably ~/VirtualBox VM's. I never use this, any VM I put in a 'data' partition but location is up to you. Whatever you do there will still be a /VirtualBox VM's/winxp folder that keeps details of the VM.

To set up in a different machine I copy the winxp.vdi file to its new location then make a new Virtual machine using this .vdi as the drive. There is an option to make new or use existing.  This is just the basic machine without snapshots.

Then it is just a matter of working through the settings adjusing system/video memory, CD locations, shared folders, snapshot folder etc.

A couple of screenshots for ref.


I am assuming here that guest extensions are already installed so you would want the destination VB version to be the same or later than original.

[Georgetoon]

Coming a bit late to this but just goes to show there are different ways.

FWIW this is how I go about it.

You can find the location of the WinXP VM in the VM settings. If you accepted the default settings it will be in your home folder probably ~/VirtualBox VM's. I never use this, any VM I put in a 'data' partition but location is up to you. Whatever you do there will still be a /VirtualBox VM's/winxp folder that keeps details of the VM.

To set up in a different machine I copy the winxp.vdi file to its new location then make a new Virtual machine using this .vdi as the drive. There is an option to make new or use existing.  This is just the basic machine without snapshots.

Then it is just a matter of working through the settings adjusing system/video memory, CD locations, shared folders, snapshot folder etc.

A couple of screenshots for ref.


I am assuming here that guest extensions are already installed so you would want the destination VB version to be the same or later than original.

Thanks. I thought that this is what I did. But something got fouled up.  I can always go back to that VM and try again.  The file is 9.9 gigs. I stl have it, so I'll go through your steps and fiddle around with it just to try.

The good news is, I have a fresh install of WinXP in a virtual machine and I have an existing WinXP in VB on my main machine.  S, I can either move the new install to the main machine or just work between the two.

Thing is, I only need Windows for Quickbooks.  If i grab my main box and set it up side by side to my spare box, then I can run PCLinuxOS on my main box (as I always do) and plug in the Windows XP drive on the spare box and run Windows there exclusively for Quickbooks (and off the internet).

[stealth]

This thread has been quite for a while. Here goes anyway.

Maybe by now you have figured out everything you need.

It appeared that you were getting confused about Virtual Machines (VM).

VMWare and VirtualBox both create and and run VMs.

VMWare is not in the repository because it is a proprietary software and not free.

VM will not be in the repository because you have to create it.

VirtualBox is there because it is Open Source Software and is free.