How to get XP up & running in VirtualBox?

Virtual machines, emulation, etc.
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Mike Walsh
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How to get XP up & running in VirtualBox?

#1 Post by Mike Walsh »

Afternoon, all.

So help me, I must be losing it..!

15 months ago, when XP went EOL, I wiped it off my Compaq Presario desktop and went all-Linux literally overnight. Couldn't wait to get rid of it; after 12 years I'd had enough.

Now, here I am, wanting to install it again, for the sake of a few graphics apps which won't run under WINE. My machine is my sister's old one; she bought it new, but it had XP installed as OEM, so of course she didn't have an installation disk for it.....only the Compaq 'recovery partition' (which went the way of everything else on that night, 15 months ago!) And of course, the re-install disk off my old Dell laptop won't work, due to M$'s practice of tying an install to a specific motherboard.

I also took great care to remove every trace of M$ labels and stickers from the tower, so I've got absolutely NO proof that XP was ever installed on the old girl. So I can't use that as 'proof' of having had a licence in the past, and being able to re-download it...

Accordingly, I've installed shinobar's most recent VirtualBox .sfs from here:-

http://shinobar.server-on.net/puppy/opt/

Version 4.3.12.....which I've installed in ETP's 'ChromeBook' Pup (based on Precise 5.7.1). It works fine. Getting hold of an XP .iso image, though, is next to impossible. They're rarer than hen's teeth; I suspect M$ have gone out of their way to make sure there's no copies of it floating around the web.....though why, when it's long since EOL, and they just want to wash their hands of it, beats me. I wouldn't have thought they'd care what people did with it any more!

This being the UK, and the govt being the awkward so-and-so's that they are, the Pirate Bay & similar sites have been long since blocked by all British ISPs. I tried getting a copy late last year, but no soap. So; I've downoladed one of these:-

http://dev.modern.ie/tools/vms/linux/

I've gone for the XP with IE8 version. It 'untars' to a .ova file, which contains a VirtualBox .vm image (which I understand is what VirtualBox works with?) Can't get VBox to load the 'virtual' image, though. It more or less insists it has to be loaded in the traditional way, via an .iso image on a disc.

Is this right? I'm absolutely green as grass, when it comes to virtualization; I haven't got a clue if I'm even doing things in the right order. I've read the .pdf manual that comes with the .sfs package, but it's heavy going.


Any advice would be, as always, much appreciated.

Mike. :?

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Semme
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#2 Post by Semme »

Mike, name those graphic apps.
>>> Living with the immediacy of death helps you sort out your priorities. It helps you live a life less trivial <<<

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Mike Walsh
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#3 Post by Mike Walsh »

Hi, Semme.

Well; believe it or not, one of them is the very same PhotoScape that I run successfully under Wine. Anyway, this is something I want to have a play with. I came across this article:-

http://pclosmag.com/html/issues/201309/page15.html

Which told me how to do it; I was going about things the wrong way. No need to set up a virtual machine manually; simply load the file with 'Import Appliance', and click on the download. Up & running in about 5 mins!

See, I've still got all my old XP apps; I've tried running a lot of them under Wine, but many of them don't work. On top of all that, I just wanted to remind myself of why I couldn't wait to see the back of XP. I must be loopy..!


Mike. :wink:

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Semme
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#4 Post by Semme »

Hey, no doubt.. PCLOS is a top level distro. Whilst not virtually versed myself, that article, @ a quick look appears spot on.
>>> Living with the immediacy of death helps you sort out your priorities. It helps you live a life less trivial <<<

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Mike Walsh
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#5 Post by Mike Walsh »

Hah! I'm just as much of a beginner in the 'virtual world' as you are. I shan't have any problems with XP (aside from all the usual!)

Just gotta figure out how to 'share' a folder between guest and host now. I can see a whole lotta fun'n'games about to head my way...!! :lol:

(*Sheesh*)


Mike. :wink:
Last edited by Mike Walsh on Thu 30 Jul 2015, 23:53, edited 2 times in total.

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#6 Post by Mike Walsh »

Well, I'm quite happy with that. XP installed; shared folder in place; Comodo Firewall & Malwarebytes in place and functioning. Next thing is to get Firefox installed, given that Chrome has now ceased to support XP. Mozilla have given NO indication of stopping support...and there isn't an ice-cube's chance in hell that I'm going to use IE8. No way.

Hopefully I can start playing around with it shortly. I'm even more amazed that VBox seems to work at an almost 'normal' speed, given that the Athlon X2 doesn't support vitualization. I'm really rather impressed.

Hmmm...


Mike.
Last edited by Mike Walsh on Thu 30 Jul 2015, 23:55, edited 1 time in total.

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Mike Walsh
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#7 Post by Mike Walsh »

D'oh!

Me, being the chump that I am, goes ahead with trying to install SP3.....not realizing that the VBox image has already got SP3 built-in! And there's me, wondering why the VM spontaneously aborted...

Hah!

Only thing with these M$ developer images is that they're 'time-limited'. 90 days, to be precise. But that's alright; 'cos on the desktop, the installed 'wallpaper' has got instructions from M$, reminding you to take a 'snapshot' of the system, as soon as it's set-up.....so you can 're-set' it, as soon as the trial-period expires!

So I have. Did I mention that I'm seriously impressed with the way VBox runs.....considering my CPU doesn't have V/T support? Un-believable. That X2 is definitely earning its keep.....in spades. I'm well chuffed.

Might try some other Linux stuff next.


Mike. :D

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James C
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#8 Post by James C »

Mike Walsh wrote: Next thing is to get Firefox installed, given that Chrome has now ceased to support XP.
For what it's worth, I just happen to be running XP and I just updated Chrome to the latest 44.0.2403.125 version ........ looks like they'll still support XP for a while longer.
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Mike Walsh
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#9 Post by Mike Walsh »

@ James C:-

Thanks for that, Jim. I understood Google were knocking Chrome support for XP on the head by mid-2015. If that's the case, I'll install Chrome; I much prefer it, as it's normally my day-to-day browser.

Cheers!


Mike. :wink:

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mikeslr
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Peppermint OS ate my Windows

#10 Post by mikeslr »

Hi Mike Walsh or any one else,

I'm interested in what you had to do to enable microsoft's application for Virtualbox to access the internet. Anything special? Or if “just the standard routine

p310don
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#11 Post by p310don »

mikeslr

I have found that installing XP in virtualbox works on the internet straight away. If need be, you may have to click on the Settings, Network and tick the box that says "Enable Network Adaptor". Beyond that, you should have a perfectly running XP.

YMMV, but I seem to recall that Dell's recovery CDs have specific drivers for Dell PCs, so might install the wrong drivers for Vbox. Not sure, you'd have to install and see what happens there. Either way, that can't be too hard to rectify.

The notes you found about the downloadable virtualbox appliances is about doing a test install to test Internet Explorer. (sounds horrible right!) If you're installing from CD, you don't have to worry about any of the snapshot stuff. That said, I have used those before, and they continue to work fine for me much longer than their use by dates imply.

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#12 Post by Burn_IT »

You do NOT need, nor should you use machine specific drivers within VirtualBox.
VB uses virtual devices and has all the drivers built in. When you install VB it links all its virtual devices to the physical devices in the host OS and uses the devices VIA the host OS.

There is a set of add ons that you need to install called Guest Additions that install in the guest OS that optimise the Virtual Machine.
"Just think of it as leaving early to avoid the rush" - T Pratchett

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Thanks

#13 Post by mikeslr »

Thanks Mike Walsh and Burn_IT. :D

mikesLr

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#14 Post by perdido »

After setting up XP its easy to make a backup of the .vdi container file. Insurance to keep from having to do a reinstall.

I compress mine with tar and keep it in the same directory as the original

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Mike Walsh
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#15 Post by Mike Walsh »

Well, I'm experimenting with VirtualBox again. Not XP, this time.....now its Windows 7.

I'm still using the same M$ IE evaluation trials as I did before. The advantage of using Win 7 is that you get 90 days for the trial, as opposed to a mere 30 days for XP.

The one thing I can never understand with these things is that although I have a dual-core processor, it will only use one of those cores.....and for some crazy reason, only at the lowest frequency setting, too! Add to that fact that this old Athlon64 X2 of mine lacks V/T in the instructions, and the whole experience is a wee bit 'stately', to put it mildly.

But it's still good fun (albeit somewhat frustrating, too!) to get it up-and-running. Well, I think so, anyway..!


Mike. :wink:

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