Table of Contents
- 3.1. Supported guest operating systems
- 3.2. Unattended guest installation
- 3.3. Emulated hardware
- 3.4. General settings
- 3.5. System settings
- 3.6. Display settings
- 3.7. Storage settings
- 3.8. Audio settings
- 3.9. Network settings
- 3.10. Serial ports
- 3.11. USB support
- 3.12. Shared folders
- 3.13. User Interface
- 3.14. Alternative firmware (EFI)
Whereas Chapter 1, First steps gave you a quick introduction to VirtualBox and how to get your first virtual machine running, the following chapter describes in detail how to configure virtual machines.
You have considerable latitude in deciding what virtual hardware will be provided to the guest. The virtual hardware can be used for communicating with the host system or with other guests. For instance, if you provide VirtualBox with the image of a CD-ROM in an ISO file, VirtualBox can present this image to a guest system as if it were a physical CD-ROM. Similarly, you can give a guest system access to the real network via its virtual network card, and, if you so choose, give the host system, other guests, or computers on the Internet access to the guest system.
Since VirtualBox is designed to provide a generic virtualization environment for x86 systems, it may run operating systems of any kind, even those not listed here. However, the focus is to optimize VirtualBox for the following guest systems:
- Windows NT 4.0
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All versions, editions and service packs are fully supported; however, there are some issues with older service packs. We recommend to install service pack 6a. Guest Additions are available with a limited feature set.
- Windows 2000 / XP / Server 2003 / Vista / Server 2008 / 7 / 8 / 8.1 / 10 RTM 10240 / Server 2012
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All versions, editions and service packs are fully supported (including 64-bit versions, under the preconditions listed below). Guest Additions are available. Windows 8 and later requires hardware virtualization to be enabled.
- DOS / Windows 3.x / 95 / 98 / ME
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Limited testing has been performed. Use beyond legacy installation mechanisms not recommended. No Guest Additions available.
- Linux 2.4
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Limited support.
- Linux 2.6
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All versions/editions are fully supported (32 bits and 64 bits). Guest Additions are available.
We strongly recommend using a Linux kernel version 2.6.13 or higher for better performance.
Note
Certain Linux kernel releases have bugs that prevent them from executing in a virtual environment; please see Section 12.4.3, “Buggy Linux 2.6 kernel versions” for details.
- Linux 3.x and later
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All versions/editions are fully supported (32 bits and 64 bits). Guest Additions are available.
- Solaris 10 (u6 and higher), Solaris 11 (including Solaris 11 Express)
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Fully supported (64 bits, prior to Solaris 11 11/11 also 32 bits). Guest Additions are available.
- FreeBSD
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Requires hardware virtualization to be enabled. Limited support. Guest Additions are not available yet.
- OpenBSD
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Requires hardware virtualization to be enabled. Versions 3.7 and later are supported. Guest Additions are not available yet.
- OS/2 Warp 4.5
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Requires hardware virtualization to be enabled. We officially support MCP2 only; other OS/2 versions may or may not work. Guest Additions are available with a limited feature set.[9]
- Mac OS X
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VirtualBox 3.2 added experimental support for Mac OS X guests, but this comes with restrictions. Please see the following section as well as Chapter 14, Known limitations.
Starting with version 3.2, VirtualBox has experimental support for Mac OS X guests. This allows you to install and execute unmodified versions of Mac OS X on supported host hardware.
Whereas competing solutions perform modifications to the Mac OS X install DVDs (e.g. different boot loader and replaced files), VirtualBox is the first product to provide the modern PC architecture expected by OS X without requiring any "hacks".
You should be aware of a number of important issues before attempting to install a Mac OS X guest:
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Mac OS X is commercial, licensed software and contains both license and technical restrictions that limit its use to certain hardware and usage scenarios. It is important that you understand and obey these restrictions.
In particular, for most versions of Mac OS X, Apple prohibits installing them on non-Apple hardware.
These license restrictions are also enforced on a technical level. Mac OS X verifies whether it is running on Apple hardware, and most DVDs that come with Apple hardware even check for an exact model. These restrictions are not circumvented by VirtualBox and continue to apply.
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Only CPUs known and tested by Apple are supported. As a result, if your Intel CPU is newer than the build of Mac OS X, or if you have a non-Intel CPU, it will most likely panic during bootup with an "Unsupported CPU" exception. It is generally best to use the Mac OS X DVD that came with your Apple hardware.
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The Mac OS X installer expects the harddisk to be partitioned so when it does not offer a selection, you have to launch the Disk Utility from the "Tools" menu and partition the hard disk. Then close the Disk Utility and proceed with the installation.
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In addition, as Mac OS X support in VirtualBox is currently still experimental, please refer also to Chapter 14, Known limitations.
VirtualBox supports 64-bit guest operating systems, even on 32-bit host operating systems,[10] provided that the following conditions are met:
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You need a 64-bit processor with hardware virtualization support (see Section 10.3, “Hardware vs. software virtualization”).
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You must enable hardware virtualization for the particular VM for which you want 64-bit support; software virtualization is not supported for 64-bit VMs.
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If you want to use 64-bit guest support on a 32-bit host operating system, you must also select a 64-bit operating system for the particular VM. Since supporting 64 bits on 32-bit hosts incurs additional overhead, VirtualBox only enables this support upon explicit request.
On 64-bit hosts (which typically come with hardware virtualization support), 64-bit guest operating systems are always supported regardless of settings, so you can simply install a 64-bit operating system in the guest.
Warning
On any host, you should enable the I/O APIC for virtual machines that you intend to use in 64-bit mode. This is especially true for 64-bit Windows VMs. See Section 3.4.2, “"Advanced" tab”. In addition, for 64-bit Windows guests, you should make sure that the VM uses the Intel networking device, since there is no 64-bit driver support for the AMD PCNet card; see Section 6.1, “Virtual networking hardware”.
If you use the "Create VM" wizard of the VirtualBox graphical user interface (see Section 1.7, “Creating your first virtual machine”), VirtualBox will automatically use the correct settings for each selected 64-bit operating system type.
[9] See Chapter 14, Known limitations.
[10] 64-bit guest support was added with VirtualBox 2.0; support for 64-bit guests on 32-bit hosts was added with VirtualBox 2.1.