Virtual Machines

[anonymoususer]

Hey all, I am new to these forums. I hope you don't mind me bargeing on in and asking a question but I need some help.

I am novice to linux I have been using it on and off for a couple of years now. Slackware has always been my distro of choice. My next computer that I will be building (Febuary or so ((tax time )) I want to run slackware as it's sole OS. But I do also enjoy windows XP and would like to have that as well. rather than run a dual boot I want to explore the possibilites of virtual machines.

I have used VMware player a couple of times and that is it. My question is what software out there (if any) can I run a seemless install on slackware 12.1 to achieve my goal of having a fully functional virtual machine with windows XP operating smoothley.

I know there is good software out there like sun VirtualBox. But from what I read it is a major headach getting it to run on slack. Also I have been here Slackware Package Browser: Search results
and see that there may be some packages already configured to do this. But as I mentioned I am a novice and am not sure so that is why I am here. If anyone can answere my question I would appreciate it very much

Thanks,

[Freston]

Welcome to the forums!

Installing VirtualBox may seem like a major pain if I where to describe the process to you. But if you didn't know it was gonna be pain, then you wouldn't notice it

You can get slackpacks at linuxpackages. It's got two dependencies, both are available. And you have to run a couple of commands after installing all three packages.

From memory, you need to start the service in /etc/rc.d/, add yourself to the vboxuser group and something else. I don't remember but you get an error pointing you in the right direction if you missed it. It's not all to difficult, just different.

[anonymoususer]

Thanks for the response Freston. So what you're telling me is VirtualBox is the way to go regardless of the hassle of setting it up on slack?

I checked out that ling and found a virtualbox package. It only got a 2 out of 5 rating. but are you telling me that I can run the pkgtool on that and wam, it's installed?

[Freston]

Well, sort off. It's not exactly one command. But it's pfff, maybe four or five. I've done it a couple of times, and it's not difficult.

Oh, about the link I posted. Slacky.eu has a more recent version and doesn't list dependencies anymore. I've not tried it yet. But it seems worth a shot.

[anonymoususer]

Ok great, well like I said I won't be building the PC until next Feb./Mar. so I have plent of time to read up on the manner. In the mean time I do have one other question. Is VirtualBox similar to VMware Player in the sence that I need an iso of an OS and can only launch the VM from there. Or can I (using a WindowsXP Pro cd) install the VM directly on to my comp

[dxqcanada]

VirtualBox can boot from an ISO or from a CD.

[anonymoususer]

Excelent, that answeres all the questions I have for now, thanks a bunch guys