VM VirtualBox OSE^®

User Manual

Version 4.1.20_OSE Edition

ALT Linux Team

http://www.virtualbox.org

Copyright © 2004-2012 ALT Linux Team

Table of Contents

1. First steps

1.1. Why is virtualization useful?

1.2. Some terminology

1.3. Features overview

1.4. Supported host operating systems

1.5. Installing VirtualBox and extension packs

1.6. Starting VirtualBox

1.7. Creating your first virtual machine

1.8. Running your virtual machine

1.8.1. Starting a new VM for the first time
1.8.2. Capturing and releasing keyboard and mouse
1.8.3. Typing special characters
1.8.4. Changing removable media
1.8.5. Resizing the machine's window
1.8.6. Saving the state of the machine

1.9. Snapshots

1.9.1. Taking, restoring and deleting snapshots
1.9.2. Snapshot contents

1.10. Virtual machine configuration

1.11. Removing virtual machines

1.12. Cloning virtual machines

1.13. Importing and exporting virtual machines

1.14. Alternative front-ends

2. Installation details

2.1. Installing on Windows hosts

2.1.1. Prerequisites
2.1.2. Performing the installation
2.1.3. Uninstallation
2.1.4. Unattended installation

2.2. Installing on Mac OS X hosts

2.2.1. Performing the installation
2.2.2. Uninstallation
2.2.3. Unattended installation

2.3. Installing on Linux hosts

2.3.1. Prerequisites
2.3.2. The VirtualBox kernel module
2.3.3. Performing the installation
2.3.4. The vboxusers group
2.3.5. Starting VirtualBox on Linux

2.4. Installing on Solaris hosts

2.4.1. Performing the installation
2.4.2. The vboxuser group
2.4.3. Starting VirtualBox on Solaris
2.4.4. Uninstallation
2.4.5. Unattended installation
2.4.6. Configuring a zone for running VirtualBox

3. Configuring virtual machines

3.1. Supported guest operating systems

3.1.1. Mac OS X Server guests
3.1.2. 64-bit guests

3.2. Emulated hardware

3.3. General settings

3.3.1. "Basic" tab
3.3.2. "Advanced" tab
3.3.3. "Description" tab

3.4. System settings

3.4.1. "Motherboard" tab
3.4.2. "Processor" tab
3.4.3. "Acceleration" tab

3.5. Display settings

3.6. Storage settings

3.7. Audio settings

3.8. Network settings

3.9. Serial ports

3.10. USB support

3.10.1. USB settings
3.10.2. Implementation notes for Windows and Linux hosts

3.11. Shared folders

3.12. Alternative firmware (EFI)

3.12.1. Video modes in EFI

4. Guest Additions

4.1. Introduction

4.2. Installing and Maintaining Guest Additions

4.2.1. Guest Additions for Windows
4.2.2. Guest Additions for Linux
4.2.3. Guest Additions for Solaris
4.2.4. Guest Additions for OS/2

4.3. Shared folders

4.3.1. Manual mounting
4.3.2. Automatic mounting

4.4. Hardware-accelerated graphics

4.4.1. Hardware 3D acceleration (OpenGL and Direct3D 8/9)
4.4.2. Hardware 2D video acceleration for Windows guests

4.5. Seamless windows

4.6. Guest properties

4.7. Guest control

4.8. Memory overcommitment

4.8.1. Memory ballooning
4.8.2. Page Fusion

5. Virtual storage

5.1. Hard disk controllers: IDE, SATA (AHCI), SCSI, SAS
5.2. Disk image files (VDI, VMDK, VHD, HDD)
5.3. The Virtual Media Manager
5.4. Special image write modes
5.5. Differencing images
5.6. Cloning disk images
5.7. Host I/O caching
5.8. Limiting bandwidth for disk images
5.9. CD/DVD support
5.10. iSCSI servers

6. Virtual networking

6.1. Virtual networking hardware

6.2. Introduction to networking modes

6.3. Network Address Translation (NAT)

6.3.1. Configuring port forwarding with NAT
6.3.2. PXE booting with NAT
6.3.3. NAT limitations

6.4. Bridged networking

6.5. Internal networking

6.6. Host-only networking

6.7. UDP Tunnel networking

6.8. VDE networking

7. Remote virtual machines

7.1. Remote display (VRDP support)

7.1.1. Common third-party RDP viewers
7.1.2. VBoxHeadless, the remote desktop server
7.1.3. Step by step: creating a virtual machine on a headless server
7.1.4. Remote USB
7.1.5. RDP authentication
7.1.6. RDP encryption
7.1.7. Multiple connections to the VRDP server
7.1.8. Multiple remote monitors
7.1.9. VRDP video redirection
7.1.10. VRDP customization

7.2. Teleporting

8. VBoxManage

8.1. Introduction

8.2. Commands overview

8.3. VBoxManage list

8.4. VBoxManage showvminfo

8.5. VBoxManage registervm / unregistervm

8.6. VBoxManage createvm

8.7. VBoxManage modifyvm

8.7.1. General settings
8.7.2. Networking settings
8.7.3. Serial port, audio, clipboard, remote desktop and USB settings
8.7.4. Remote machine settings
8.7.5. Teleporting settings

8.8. VBoxManage clonevm

8.9. VBoxManage import

8.10. VBoxManage export

8.11. VBoxManage startvm

8.12. VBoxManage controlvm

8.13. VBoxManage discardstate

8.14. VBoxManage adoptstate

8.15. VBoxManage snapshot

8.16. VBoxManage closemedium

8.17. VBoxManage storageattach

8.18. VBoxManage storagectl

8.19. VBoxManage bandwidthctl

8.20. VBoxManage showhdinfo

8.21. VBoxManage createhd

8.22. VBoxManage modifyhd

8.23. VBoxManage clonehd

8.24. VBoxManage convertfromraw

8.25. VBoxManage getextradata/setextradata

8.26. VBoxManage setproperty

8.27. VBoxManage usbfilter add/modify/remove

8.28. VBoxManage sharedfolder add/remove

8.29. VBoxManage guestproperty

8.30. VBoxManage guestcontrol

8.31. VBoxManage debugvm

8.32. VBoxManage metrics

8.33. VBoxManage hostonlyif

8.34. VBoxManage dhcpserver

8.35. VBoxManage extpack

9. Advanced topics

9.1. VBoxSDL, the simplified VM displayer

9.1.1. Introduction
9.1.2. Secure labeling with VBoxSDL
9.1.3. Releasing modifiers with VBoxSDL on Linux

9.2. Automated guest logons

9.2.1. Automated Windows guest logons
9.2.2. Automated Linux/Unix guest logons

9.3. Advanced configuration for Windows guests

9.3.1. Automated Windows system preparation

9.4. Advanced configuration for Linux and Solaris guests

9.4.1. Manual setup of selected guest services on Linux
9.4.2. Guest graphics and mouse driver setup in depth

9.5. CPU hot-plugging

9.6. PCI passthrough

9.7. Advanced display configuration

9.7.1. Custom VESA resolutions
9.7.2. Configuring the maximum resolution of guests when using the graphical frontend

9.8. Advanced storage configuration

9.8.1. Using a raw host hard disk from a guest
9.8.2. Configuring the hard disk vendor product data (VPD)
9.8.3. Access iSCSI targets via Internal Networking

9.9. Launching more than 120 VMs on Solaris hosts

9.9.1. Temporary solution while VirtualBox is running
9.9.2. Persistent solution, requires user to re-login

9.10. Legacy commands for using serial ports

9.11. Fine-tuning the VirtualBox NAT engine

9.11.1. Configuring the address of a NAT network interface
9.11.2. Configuring the boot server (next server) of a NAT network interface
9.11.3. Tuning TCP/IP buffers for NAT
9.11.4. Binding NAT sockets to a specific interface
9.11.5. Enabling DNS proxy in NAT mode
9.11.6. Using the host's resolver as a DNS proxy in NAT mode
9.11.7. Configuring aliasing of the NAT engine

9.12. Configuring the BIOS DMI information

9.13. Fine-tuning timers and time synchronization

9.13.1. Configuring the guest time stamp counter (TSC) to reflect guest execution
9.13.2. Accelerate or slow down the guest clock
9.13.3. Tuning the Guest Additions time synchronization parameters

9.14. Installing the alternate bridged networking driver on Solaris 11 hosts

9.15. VirtualBox VNIC templates for VLANs on Solaris 11 hosts

9.16. Configuring multiple host-only network interfaces on Solaris hosts

9.17. Configuring the VirtualBox CoreDumper on Solaris hosts

9.18. Locking down the VirtualBox manager GUI

9.18.1. GUI customization
9.18.2. Host Key customization
9.18.3. Action when terminating the VM

9.19. Starting the VirtualBox web service automatically

9.19.1. Linux: starting the webservice via init
9.19.2. Solaris: starting the web service via SMF
9.19.3. Mac OS X: starting the webservice via launchd

9.20. Memory Ballooning Service

10. Technical background

10.1. Where VirtualBox stores its files

10.1.1. Machines created by VirtualBox version 4.0 or later
10.1.2. Machines created by VirtualBox versions before 4.0
10.1.3. Global configuration data
10.1.4. Summary of 4.0 configuration changes
10.1.5. VirtualBox XML files

10.2. VirtualBox executables and components

10.3. Hardware vs. software virtualization

10.4. Details about software virtualization

10.5. Details about hardware virtualization

10.6. Nested paging and VPIDs

11. VirtualBox programming interfaces

12. Troubleshooting

12.1. Procedures and tools

12.1.1. Categorizing and isolating problems
12.1.2. Collecting debugging information
12.1.3. The built-in VM debugger
12.1.4. VM core format

12.2. General

12.2.1. Guest shows IDE/SATA errors for file-based images on slow host file system
12.2.2. Responding to guest IDE/SATA flush requests
12.2.3. Poor performance caused by host power management
12.2.4. GUI: 2D Video Acceleration option is grayed out

12.3. Windows guests

12.3.1. Windows bluescreens after changing VM configuration
12.3.2. Windows 0x101 bluescreens with SMP enabled (IPI timeout)
12.3.3. Windows 2000 installation failures
12.3.4. How to record bluescreen information from Windows guests
12.3.5. No networking in Windows Vista guests
12.3.6. Windows guests may cause a high CPU load
12.3.7. Long delays when accessing shared folders
12.3.8. USB tablet coordinates wrong in Windows 98 guests
12.3.9. Windows guests are removed from an Active Directory domain after restoring a snapshot
12.3.10. Restoring d3d8.dll and d3d9.dll

12.4. Linux and X11 guests

12.4.1. Linux guests may cause a high CPU load
12.4.2. AMD Barcelona CPUs
12.4.3. Buggy Linux 2.6 kernel versions
12.4.4. Shared clipboard, auto-resizing and seamless desktop in X11 guests

12.5. Windows hosts

12.5.1. VBoxSVC out-of-process COM server issues
12.5.2. CD/DVD changes not recognized
12.5.3. Sluggish response when using Microsoft RDP client
12.5.4. Running an iSCSI initiator and target on a single system
12.5.5. Bridged networking adapters missing
12.5.6. Host-only networking adapters cannot be created

12.6. Linux hosts

12.6.1. Linux kernel module refuses to load
12.6.2. Linux host CD/DVD drive not found
12.6.3. Linux host CD/DVD drive not found (older distributions)
12.6.4. Linux host floppy not found
12.6.5. Strange guest IDE error messages when writing to CD/DVD
12.6.6. VBoxSVC IPC issues
12.6.7. USB not working
12.6.8. PAX/grsec kernels
12.6.9. Linux kernel vmalloc pool exhausted

12.7. Solaris hosts

12.7.1. Cannot start VM, not enough contiguous memory
12.7.2. VM aborts with out of memory errors on Solaris 10 hosts

13. Security guide

13.1. Overview

13.1.1. General Security Principles

13.2. Secure Installation and Configuration

13.3. Security Features

13.3.1. The Security Model
13.3.2. Secure Configuration of Virtual Machines
13.3.3. Configuring and Using Authentication
13.3.4. Potentially insecure operations
13.3.5. Encryption

14. Known limitations

14.1. Experimental Features
14.2. Known Issues

15. Change log

15.1. Version 4.1.20 (2012-08-20)
15.2. Version 4.1.18 (2012-06-06)
15.3. Version 4.1.16 (2012-05-22)
15.4. Version 4.1.14 (2012-04-13)
15.5. Version 4.1.12 (2012-04-03)
15.6. Version 4.1.10 (2012-03-13)
15.7. Version 4.1.8 (2011-12-19)
15.8. Version 4.1.6 (2011-11-04)
15.9. Version 4.1.4 (2011-10-03)
15.10. Version 4.1.2 (2011-08-15)
15.11. Version 4.1.0 (2011-07-19)
15.12. Version 4.0.12 (2011-07-15)
15.13. Version 4.0.10 (2011-06-22)
15.14. Version 4.0.8 (2011-05-16)
15.15. Version 4.0.6 (2011-04-21)
15.16. Version 4.0.4 (2011-02-17)
15.17. Version 4.0.2 (2011-01-18)
15.18. Version 4.0.0 (2010-12-22)
15.19. Version 3.2.12 (2010-11-30)
15.20. Version 3.2.10 (2010-10-08)
15.21. Version 3.2.8 (2010-08-05)
15.22. Version 3.2.6 (2010-06-25)
15.23. Version 3.2.4 (2010-06-07)
15.24. Version 3.2.2 (2010-06-02)
15.25. Version 3.2.0 (2010-05-18)
15.26. Version 3.1.8 (2010-05-10)
15.27. Version 3.1.6 (2010-03-25)
15.28. Version 3.1.4 (2010-02-12)
15.29. Version 3.1.2 (2009-12-17)
15.30. Version 3.1.0 (2009-11-30)
15.31. Version 3.0.12 (2009-11-10)
15.32. Version 3.0.10 (2009-10-29)
15.33. Version 3.0.8 (2009-10-02)
15.34. Version 3.0.6 (2009-09-09)
15.35. Version 3.0.4 (2009-08-04)
15.36. Version 3.0.2 (2009-07-10)
15.37. Version 3.0.0 (2009-06-30)
15.38. Version 2.2.4 (2009-05-29)
15.39. Version 2.2.2 (2009-04-27)
15.40. Version 2.2.0 (2009-04-08)
15.41. Version 2.1.4 (2009-02-16)
15.42. Version 2.1.2 (2009-01-21)
15.43. Version 2.1.0 (2008-12-17)
15.44. Version 2.0.8 (2009-03-10)
15.45. Version 2.0.6 (2008-11-21)
15.46. Version 2.0.4 (2008-10-24)
15.47. Version 2.0.2 (2008-09-12)
15.48. Version 2.0.0 (2008-09-04)

A. Third-party materials and licenses

A.1. Materials

A.2. Licenses

A.2.1. GNU General Public License (GPL)
A.2.2. GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
A.2.3. Mozilla Public License (MPL)
A.2.4. MIT License
A.2.5. X Consortium License (X11)
A.2.6. zlib license
A.2.7. OpenSSL license
A.2.8. Slirp license
A.2.9. liblzf license
A.2.10. libpng license
A.2.11. lwIP license
A.2.12. libxml license
A.2.13. libxslt licenses
A.2.14. gSOAP Public License Version 1.3a
A.2.15. Chromium licenses
A.2.16. curl license
A.2.17. libgd license
A.2.18. BSD license from Intel
A.2.19. libjpeg License
A.2.20. x86 SIMD extension for IJG JPEG library license

B. VirtualBox privacy policy

List of Tables

9.1. ignoreme
9.2. ignored
10.1. ignoreme