KVM v VB

[Tony Norton]

Hi All,

having, eventually, managed to get both VirtualBox and KVM Virtual Machine up and running, I now have a load of problems: -

Neither of them recognize the presence of my other hard drives, one of which is my work based data storage.

Neither of them recognize any USB connected storage devices.

KVM doesn't recognize the presence of my Radeon HD5750 graphics card but, using what it calls a 'Standard Graphics Adapter', gives me a range of resolutions from 800x600 to 2560x1600, none of them in 13x9 ratio. Unfortunately if I push the vertical pixel count above 960 that makes my XP window larger than the area available within the maximized VM window, so it effectively limits me to 1280x960 in a 4x3 format, equivalent to a meagre 17" monitor. (I was working with a 4x3 19" but now have a 13x9 23").

VB also doesn't etc.... but, again using SGA, it gives a much smaller range of resolutions. Unfortunately I can't be specific at the moment because having shutdown VM and started VB it is now giving me a message: -

"VT-x/AMD-V hardware acceleration has been enabled, but is not operational. Your 64-bit guest will fail to detect a 64-bit CPU and will not be able to boot. Please ensure that you have enabled VT-x/AMD-V properly in the BIOS of your host computer."

and wants me to install 32bit OS. What the hell happened there?

What VB did do, when it was working, was to, because it has a smaller window surround than KVM, allow me a larger working area.

So now to the questions: -

1) How do I get KVM/VB to 'see' my other hard drives?

2) How do I get them to work with USB ports?

3) Can I make them recognize my Radeon card so that I can choose an appropriate resolution? (Linux does).

4) How do I uninstall and clear VB from my system? or

5) How do I uninstall and clear KVM from my system?

6) Just thought of another one. Because these virtual systems are 'inside' Linux can I assume that they will be secure without the installation of any third party security programs?

TIA for any help.

Tony N

[Mark Greaves (PCNetSpec)]

You want to stop saying "VM" .. both of them create "VM's" (Virtual Machines) and it will be confusing .. like when you say "how do I remove VM" .. that could mean how do I remove KVM, or it could mean how do I remove a Virtualbox VM

refer to threm as KVM and VB if you wish.


OK, I can only answer MOST of these questions from the Virtualbox perspective .. as KVM/virt-manager are new to me too .. so these answers are for Virtualbox ONLY -

1) Vbox cannot directly access other hard drives, as they aren't attached to the guest OS .. are they USB hard drives ?

2) Add yourself to the vboxusers group in the same way you added yourself to the libvirtd group

3) Not as you are thinking .. AFAIK Virtualbox cannot install graphics drivers in the guest OS directly, as the guest OS needs to access most hardware by asking the Host OS .. which is why DirectX is an issue.

4) From within the Virtualbox interface .. delete all VM's (and files) .. THEN uninstall virtualbox from within Synaptic

5) N/A

6) NO .. it is most definitely NOT secure as far as the software running on the VM is concerned .. ie. Windows in a VM can get a virus/malware just as easily as it can on physical hardware .. the Linux host is safe though.

[SeZo]

1) How do I get VM/VB to 'see' my other hard drives?

In order to enable you to share files between the host and guest computer you need to aproach it like the guest is effectively another computer,with its own hard drive(s).
So you could achieve access to your other drives by using shared folders, but you cannot directly access the hard drive in a VM from the host or vice versa.
One option would be to Create a network share and access that share from within your VM and your host.

[Mad Penguin]

KVM has a host filesystem adapter which is based on the plan 9 shared filesystem. Its also supported in recent virt-manager's, but you'll need to read the docs for the server side details. It does work, performance is ok, but not really in a par with raw device access.

Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk 2

[Tony Norton]

Hi Mark, Sezo & Mad Penguin,

I have just realized what I think I have been doing wrong. I expected the installation of a VM or VB to run my XP based programs on its own. I now understand, I think, that I need to first install the OS within the 'Machine', or 'Box' and then install the program I wish to run on that OS.

So I have gone back to square one, done a new Mint installation (good job that Linux installs in no time flat, compared to Win installations) and updated it to levels 1, 2 & 3. Then installed XP64 Pro within VirtualBox. I will now install my CAD software and see how it goes from there. First indications are, however, that an OS installed within said 'Machine' or 'Box' cannot see outside the box. I thought 'thinking outside the box' was all the rage nowadays

Tony N 

[Mad Penguin]

Mmm, I think we need a "lightbulb" emoteicon .. 

Yes, however virtual machines have options re; their networking setup. I won't comment on VB as I don't use it, but with KVM you essentially have two (useful) options.

• Private networking, KVM by default runs a limited DHCP setup, so if you choose private networking your VM will be installed behind a firewall and will use a NAT type connections to see the outside world. In this instance you will get outgoing connections only, very useful if you're running a desktop on a VM, but as much use of as a Chocolate fire-guard if you want to run any server-type applications.
• Bridged networking, this is "almost" the only option I use. Essentially the VM is given a direct tap onto the hosts ethernet port, and hence can use an IP range on the same range the host uses .. i.e. will have as much access to the network as the host. Note that there are a couple of gotcha's with this option you need to be aware of.

• Bridge connections are not supported by Ubuntu's network manager (or at least if they are I've not found any docs for it) which means you need to insert the config into the system config file by hand and tell network-manager not to look at that interface. (config below)
• If you mess up the IP address of the VM, in particular if you give someone else access to the VM and they (for example) change the VM address to the IP address of the host, it'll take down the VM and the host ..

/etc/network/interfaces

Code: [Select]

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet manual
metric 0

auto public
iface public inet static
  address <ip address on your LAN>
  netmask 255.255.255.0
  gateway <gateway for your LAN>
  bridge_ports eth0
  bridge_fd 0
  bridge_stp off
  metric 1

In this instance, when creating a VM, you would tell it that the ethernet interface to use is called "public".

[Mark Greaves (PCNetSpec)]

Yup, I'm pretty sure Vbox can do the same (?) .. and IIRC you can also choose a shared folder with the host.

You REALLY want to add (and learn how to use) Guest Additions .. not only do you get the shared folders, but you get a shared clipboard, so you can copy from the host directly into the guest.

See the Guest Additions introduction here:
http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch04.html#additions-windows

I'm not trying to say Vbox is better in any way, shape, or form than KVM .. I've never used KVM, so wouldn't know .. I'm told KVM is faster/better, but better is subjective, I suspect Vbox is may be "easier" for the less technically minded, but as I said I wouldn't know.

[Mad Penguin]

.. and IIRC you can also choose a shared folder with the host.

Sure, with KVM too ..

>I suspect Vbox is may be "easier" for the less technically minded

Sure, but we're back to Oracle again and whether one is sufficiently confident that Oracle won't pull the rug after one has invested one's time in getting to grips with it (!) .. just looking back historically at competing Linux technologies, the ones that are still around are the ones that were adopted by Linus and included within the stock kernel. (like KVM ... (!))

[Mark Greaves (PCNetSpec)]

This is true .. and I wouldn't trust Oracle as far as I could throw an elyphont

I'm not "recommending" Vbox above KVM, just showing options that I'm "aware" of .. not having used KVM I can't really talk for it.

Is there a way to pass the parallel port to the KVM guest ? .. I'm not saying this can be done in Vbox, I don't know.

[Mad Penguin]

>libvirt-manager
>Instance control panel
>Add Hardware (bottom left)
>Parallel
>"Physical" from drop down box
>Enter /dev/lp0 (typically)
>Finish

.... 

[Mark Greaves (PCNetSpec)]

Nice .. I think that was the problem the OP was having..I'll PM him and let him know