There is a problem with Fedora 12 kernel version 2.6.32.9-67 and the VirtualBox 3.1.4 Guest Additions. After you install the Guest Additions and reboot the virtual machine, you can only see a black screen. Usually, I would either press CTRL+ALT+F1 to get to the shell terminal to change settings or edit the Grub menu to boot to a different run level. However, the key combination CTRL+ALT+F1 on VirutalBox does not work. The Grub menu on Fedora 12 is also hidden, and the timeout is set to 0, so you cannot modify it (talk about some nice design!).

After playing around with it for a while, I found a way to work around the problem. This is not a detailed guide, but I will outline what I did to fix it.

1. Mount a Linux LiveCD to the CD/DVD devices. I prefer the KDE version of LiveCD.
2. Restart the virtual machine. Press F12 immediately when the VM is starting up. Press C to boot to the LiveCD.
3. Mount the boot partition of your primary disk.
4. Use a text editor to edit the menu.lst file in grub directory of the boot partition. You might need to become superuser (root) to edit it.
5. The default is set to 0, which is the latest kernel that doesn’t work with the Guest Additions. Change the value to 1, so the Guest Additions will not be loaded. While you are here, change timeout to 10 and comment out the hiddenmenu. This way, you can get a chance to modify the grub menu without using a LiveCD next time. The result is like the listing.

   default=1
   timeout=10
   #hiddenmenu

6. Save the file and reboot.

The system will be booted to the previous kernel without the Guest Additions.

To install VirtualBox 3.0 Guest Additions on a Fedora 12 virtual machine, follow these steps.

1. In the virtual machine’s menu, click on Devices -> Install Guest Additions .
2. The guest additions CD image is mounted. A message pops up asking about autorun. Click on Cancel.
   
3. Click on the Applications -> System Tools -> Terminal to bring up a terminal window.
4. Now you do the following steps in the terminal. Enter su and press enter. Enter root’s password to get a root prompt.
5. We need two extra packages to install the guest additions. Enter the following commands.
   yum -y install gcc kernel-devel
6. Now change the directory to the guest additions media. The path is different, if you use a different version of VirtualBox.
   cd /media/VBOXADDITIONS_3.0.12_54655/
7. Run the guest additions script for 32bit machines. If you use a 64bit VM, use VBoxLinuxAdditions-amd64.run instead.
   sh VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run
8. Reboot the VM and it’s done.

I do not have a full guide on installing Fedora 12 on VirtualBox, but the whole process is very similar to installing Fedora 11. Please see this post for reference.

I downloaded the ISO image of Ubuntu 9.10 last week. Before I created a new virtual machine in VirtualBox, I realized that I have never upgraded Ubuntu before. So I decided to try upgrading my old installation of 9.04 to 9.10.

The upgrading process is very simple if you have 9.04. There is an official page on UbuntuLinux.org about how to do it. Here are the steps:

1. Click on System -> Administration -> Update Manager.
2. Click on Check to get all updates for your system.
3. Click on Install Updates if there are updates available. Reboot the machine if necessary.
4. Once you have all the updates installed. Run the Update Manager again.
5. You can see that the new release 9.10 is available. Click on Upgrade and follow the onscreen instructions to start upgrading.
   

Overall, I am very impressed with the upgrading process. It’s very intuitive even for new Linux users. If you are installing Ubuntu on VirtualBox, remember to install the Guest Additions after upgrading. Please refer to step 30 of this post if you do not know to install the Guest Additions.

A few days ago, I read an article about Google Android is gaining popularity among cellphone makers. One research firm predicts that it will grow to 14 percent of the global smartphone market in 2012. The Android will be the number 2 platform after Symbian.

The popularity of Android has also expanded to other devices. Acer today announced the availability of the Aspire One AOD250 netbook with a dual-boot  option including Android and Windows XP. The inclusion of Android gives the system instant-on ability that users can quickly turn on the system and surf the internet in no time.

If you want to try out Android, you can download Live Android, a LiveCD version of Android. Here is a tutorial on how to run the LiveCD on VirtualBox. The version of Live Android used in this tutorial is 0.3 and the VirtualBox version is 3.0.8.

1. Download the iso files from this site. There are two files to download: liveandroidv0.3.iso.001 and liveandroidv0.3.iso.002.
2. Combine the two files on Windows by using this command in a command prompt.

   copy /b liveandroidv0.3.iso.001 + liveandroidv0.3.iso.002 liveandroidv0.3.iso

3. Run VirtualBox. Click on File -> Virtual Media Manager. Click on CD/DVD Images tab and then click on Add to add the iso image. Click on OK when you are done.
   
4. Back to the main windows of VirtualBox, click on New to create a new virtual machine.
   
5. Enter a name for the virtual machine and select the OS type. Click on Next to continue.
   
6. Set the memory size. 1024MB is plenty. Set it to 512MB or smaller if you do not have a lot of memory for your machine. Click on Next to continue.
   
7. Uncheck Boot Hard Disk, since we are not using the hard drive for this virtual machine. Click on Next to continue.
   
8. A warning pops up about not having a hard drive. Click on Continue.
9. Click on Finish to finish creating the new virtual machine.
   
10. Back to the main window, with Android LiveCD selected, double click on CD/DVD-ROM.
    
11. Check Mount CD/DVD Drive, click on ISO Image File and select the Live Android cd image we added in step 3. Click on OK to continue.
    
12. Back to the main windows. The virtual machine is configured to mount the Live Android.
    
13. Start the virtual machine and select the resolution if you  want and press Enter to boot.
    
14. Live Android boots up. You are ready to try it.
    

Note that this can be adapted to other LiveCD. Use the Virtual Media Manager to add a different iso image and choose the newly added cd image in step 11.

For those who are new to Android, there are some special keys.

Left Windows key: Home

Application key: Menu

ESC key: Back

Here is a pic of Home and Menu keys on your keyboard.

I wanted to try out Ubuntu Remix 9.04 on VirtualBox, so I went to the official Ubuntu site and downloaded the file. When I first downloaded the file, I didn’t notice  the download for Ubuntu Remix is an image file not an ISO file. This makes sense, since most netbooks do not have an optical drive. The IMG file is intended for installing using a USB drive. You are supposed to flash your USB drive using the IMG file.

This is a problem under VirtualBox, because VB cannot mount an IMG file like an ISO file. Fortunately, you can convert the IMG file to VirtualBox’s disk format VDI according to this post. The utility is called VBoxManage.exe which is part of your VirtualBox installation. Open up a command prompt, change directory to VirtualBox and type the command to convert the image.

cd "\Program Files\Sun\VirtualBox"
VBoxManage.exe convertfromraw -format VDI f:\Images\ubuntu-9.04-netbook-remix-i386.img f:\Images\ubuntu-9.04-netbook-remix-i386.vdi

Substitute the file name with the one on your system. If you use Vista or Windows 7, you need to use an elevated command prompt to enter the command. After the conversion is done, you can click on File -> Virtual Media Manager in VirtualBox to mount the converted vdi file.

Note that it’s mounted as a Hard Disk, not a CD/DVD Image. To install from this hard disk, I mounted this disk as IDE Primary Slave.

To start the actual installation, I have to press F12 when the virtual machine boots up and select 2) Primary Slave.

If you have experienced no sound problem for VLC player on Fedora 11 under VirtualBox, you can try the following steps.

1. Click on Tools -> Preferences.
2. Click on Audio on the left.
3. Under Output section, change the Type to ALSA audio output.
   
4. Close VLC player and invoke it again.

If the sound is still not working, try to select other types of auido output and see if it works.

To install VirtualBox 2.2 Guest Additions on a Fedora 11 virtual machine, follow these steps.

1. In the virtual machine’s menu, click on Devices -> Install Guest Additions .
2. Click anywhere inside the VM. Click on the Fedora -> Computer. Scroll down and click on the VBOXADDITIONS CD.
   
3. Click on the Fedora icon again. Enter konsole and press enter to bring up a terminal(konsole).
   
4. Now you do the following steps in the terminal. Enter su and press enter. Enter root’s password to get a root prompt.
   
5. We need two extra packages to install the guest additions. Enter the following commands.
   yum -y install gcc kernel-devel
6. Now change the directory to the guest additions media. The path is different, if you use a different version of VirtualBox.
   cd /media/VBOXADDITIONS_2.2.4_47978/
7. Run the guest additions script for 32bit machines. If you use a 64bit VM, use VBoxLinuxAdditions-amd64.run instead.
   sh VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run
8. Reboot the VM and it’s done.

If you are interested in the full guide on installing Fedora 11 on VirutalBox. Please follow this link.

If you want to try Fedora 11 without buying a new machine or partitioning your hard drive, VirtualBox is a good choice. This guide assumes you have downloaded the Fedora 11 KDE iso and you also have installed VirtualBox 2.2 or above. You also need enough disk space to hold the virtual disk on your hard drive.

1. Run VirtualBox and Click on New to create a new virtual machine.
   
2. Click on Next to continue.
   
   
3. Name your virtual machine and select the proper OS Type. Click on Next to continue.
   
4. Set the memory size for the virtual machine. I used 512MB. Click on Next to continue.
   
5. Click on Next to create a new virtual disk.
   
   
6. Create New Virtual Disk Wizard starts, click on Next to continue.
   
   
7. Select Dynamically expanding storage and click on Next to continue.
   
   
8. Specify a location for the disk image and size. If your system drive is low on space, you might want to use a different drive. Click on Next to continue.
   
9. Click on Finish to finish creating a new virtual disk.
   
10. Click on Finish to finish creating of the new virtual machine.
    
11. Now back to the main windows of VirtualBox with the newly created virtual machine for Fedora. Double click on CD/DVD-ROM. Note that a lot of features are turned off by default. If you want to change the settings, click on Settings to modify them.
    
12. Check Mount CD/DVD Drive and select ISO Image File. Click on the folder icon.
    
13. Click on the Add icon to locate the iso image you downloaded. Click on Select and you will be brought back to the dialog in previous step. Click on OK.
    
14. Click on Start icon in the upper left corner to start installation.
    
15. Click anywhere inside the virtual machine window, so that you can use your keyboard and mouse inside the virtual machine. If you ever want to release the mouse and keyboard from the virtual machine, press right Ctrl key. Double click on Install to Hard Drive.
    
16. The installer runs. Click on Next.
    
    
17. Select the language and click on Next.
    
18. A warning dialog shows. Click on Re-intialize drive to continue.
    
19. Set a hostname and click on Next.
    
    
20. Select a time zone and click on Next.
    
21. Create a user and click on Forward.
    
22. Enter root’s password and click on Next.
    
23. Use the default scheme for partitioning. Click on Next.
    
    
24. A confirmation dialog shows. Click on Write changes to disk.
    
25. The installer copies the live image to the virtual disk. When the installation is done. Click on Close.
    
    
26. Click on the Fedora icon -> Leave -> Shutdown.
    
27. When the virtual machine is in the shutdown state. We want to un-mount the Live CD, so the virtual machine won’t boot to it again. Double click on CD/DVD-ROM and uncheck Mount CD/DVD Drive. Please see the screenshots for step 11 and 12.
    
    
28. Start the virtual machine.
29. When the VM boots up the first time, a setup wizard runs. Click on Forward.
    
30. Click on Forward.
    
31. Create a user and click on Forward.
    
32. Click on Network Time Protocol and check Enable Network Time Protocol. Click on Forward.
    
33. Click on Finish.
    
34. The basic installation is done!
    

In my next post, I’ll show you how to install the VirtualBox Guest Additions. Stay tuned. Ok, here is the link to the guide on Guest Additons.

Ok, this is a precaution if you have installed XP Mode (Virtual Windows XP) and VirtualBox on Windows 7 x64 RC. I was testing XP Mode and I wanted to do a side by side comparison and guess what. BSOD!

My workstation is a Core i7 machine that I built myself. It’s running the latest Windows 7 x64 RC. The VirtualBox version is 2.2.2 which is the latest at the time of this writing. Further diagnostic shows that it’s probably caused by ntkrnlmp.exe. The file is part of the Windows 7 kernel.

There is no fix for the problem now, but I found that both programs still run fine. Just do not run them at the same time.

Do you experience the same problem with 32bit Windows 7 RC? Please share your experience.

I was testing the networking under VirtualBox 2.2 environment. By default, the network adapter is set to NAT. The adapter gets an intranet IP and the host computer serves as a rounter. This works fine without any additional configuration. The problem is you cannot use VPN for it.

In order to use VPN, you have to set up the network adapter to attach to a  bridged network. In this configuration, your virtual machine is like attached to the Internet directly. The VituralBox user manual 6.5 has some details about this.

When I tried to use the bridged network, I found that it’s not working for me. The option to select the network adapter is not available. I found a post about a similar problem and the fix is just to uninstall VirtualBox and re-install it again. This approach did not work for me because I cannot uninstall VirtualBox.

So, I ran the installer one more time and choose to Repair the installation. Luckily, it worked this time. After I rebooted the machine, I was able to choose the network adapter as the bridged network.