Author Topic: Vbox5.06 beta  (Read 30914 times)

Doug Bissett

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Re: Vbox5.06 beta
« Reply #30 on: November 21, 2016, 08:02:27 pm »
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I doubt that yum/rpm "magically" knows what support packages are required for every application software package it installs which means that a list of some sort exists somewhere that yum/rpm refers to in order to download and install the correct support packages.

Currently, you can cut and paste, into ANPM or the YUM command line, from the READMEs that are with the programs. Those that have caught up will simply give a list that can be pasted into ANPM. Older READMEs give multiple lines that can be used with ANPM, or YUM. The READMEs only give you the top level packages, not the requirements for those packages. YUM sorts that out, and installs all of the requirements.

Someday, Firefox will be packaged as a RPM package, and when you install that using ANPM (RPM/YUM), it will automatically pick up the required packages. When/if other programs get packaged with RPM, they should also do the required packages automatically.

We are still in a transition state, and not enough people are working on it, so some of the good things haven't happened yet.

ivan

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Re: Vbox5.06 beta
« Reply #31 on: January 02, 2017, 04:26:18 pm »
Having had time to test this release all I can say is that it works but is almost 100% slower than the old version.

The one thing it does do that the old version doesn't, is to have reasonably smooth mouse pointer movement in a win7 guest.

Is there likely to be ant improvement in the speed of starting and running VMs?  This slowness extends to opening programs in the VM with some taking over 3 times as long to start.

Doug Bissett

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Re: Vbox5.06 beta
« Reply #32 on: January 02, 2017, 06:57:23 pm »
I think the main performance problem is that VT-x/AMD-v is either on (which doesn't work), or off. It looks, to me, like the old VBox 1.6.1 uses the parts of that that work, and somehow doesn't use the parts that don't.

I haven't tried win 7 in either version of VBox, yet, but winXP works much better in the older version.

I am also having problems with the extensions. If I try to mount the Guest Additions ISO, it can't find it (and it appears that it isn't there). If I try to install the Extensions (downloaded from the VBox web site), it says it is already installed, then proceeds to hang. I haven't had the time to try to sort that out, yet.

ivan

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Re: Vbox5.06 beta
« Reply #33 on: January 02, 2017, 08:16:40 pm »
I agree with your observations that XP works faster in the old version (program start time about 3 seconds, with this new version I sometimes wonder if it is going to start).

The mounting of the Additions ISO was something one of my techs worked out because we couldn't find where the program expected to find it.  In the end she attached it to one of the virtual CD drives and both XP and 7 found it and we were able to install them (did the same for the Linux VM).

At the moment I'm not pushing this out to our clients - they wouldn't be happy with it.

Doug Bissett

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Re: Vbox5.06 beta
« Reply #34 on: January 02, 2017, 09:56:21 pm »
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At the moment I'm not pushing this out to our clients - they wouldn't be happy with it.

Well, it is  a BETA, although I think that is a bit optimistic.

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The mounting of the Additions ISO was something one of my techs worked out because we couldn't find where the program expected to find it.

Well, the old one is in the VirtualBox  program root directory, and it is called VBoxGuestAdditions.iso (the same is true in windows). Mounting it as a virtual CD should be fine, but I haven't figured out where to get the file to mount. I suppose I could steal the one from a VBox in windows,  but it would be a newer version.

Interesting toy, but certainly not ready for prime time, yet.

ivan

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Re: Vbox5.06 beta
« Reply #35 on: January 02, 2017, 11:20:35 pm »
We tried putting the ISO in all the usual places but the 'Install Guest Additions' never found it.  That is why we did it by mounting it in a virtual CD.

Have you tried http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/5.0.6/ for the Guest Additions?  The ISO is near the top of the list.

Doug Bissett

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Re: Vbox5.06 beta
« Reply #36 on: January 03, 2017, 12:51:33 am »
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Have you tried http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/5.0.6/ for the Guest Additions?  The ISO is near the top of the list.

I just lifted the ISO from my win 10 host. It is version 5.1.12r, but it works. I just put it into the VirtualBox root directory, and the menu picked it up. WinXP seems to run a lot better with that installed, but still not quite as fast as in the old VBox. If I really cared, I would look where you suggest, but for now my solution seems to be okay.

I find it interesting that the new VBox has settings for USB 3.0,  but I haven't even managed to get USB 1.x or 2.0 to work, yet. It just complains that the Guest Additions aren't installed (possibly because I used the newer version, so I guess I will try the proper version).

Dave Yeo

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Re: Vbox5.06 beta
« Reply #37 on: January 03, 2017, 08:42:18 am »
Be interesting to try the same version on another OS without VT-x/AMD-v to compare speed. Wouldn't be surprised if upstream is mostly concentrating on using VT-x/AMD-v.

Doug Bissett

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Re: Vbox5.06 beta
« Reply #38 on: January 03, 2017, 06:11:49 pm »
I put the proper version of the Guest Additions into XP. It works about the same as with the newer version.

VBox enables an OHCD device, but there doesn't seem to be any way to attach a USB stick to it. The configuration complains that USB 2.0 is enabled, but the extensions are not installed. So, I set it for USB 1 only, and it was happy. Booted XP, but i still can't attach any USB device (even my antique USB 1.0 stick). At least network (NAT) access to the internet, and shared folders,  seem to work. My network "sees" the VBox system, but it refuses to communicate with it (probably a setup problem somewhere).

Obviously extensions is not completely working, and if I don't install the Guest Additions, the mouse cursor is duplicated (one for OS/2, and one for the guest), and they don't align.

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Be interesting to try the same version on another OS without VT-x/AMD-v to compare speed. Wouldn't be surprised if upstream is mostly concentrating on using VT-x/AMD-v.

I turned off VT-x/AMD-v in a win 10 host (VBox, not the BIOS). WinXP stopped, shortly after starting, with a VBox "Critical error".

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We tried putting the ISO in all the usual places but the 'Install Guest Additions' never found it.  That is why we did it by mounting it in a virtual CD.

Did you change the file name, to remove the "-506"? Works for me.

ivan

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Re: Vbox5.06 beta
« Reply #39 on: January 03, 2017, 07:04:23 pm »
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Did you change the file name, to remove the "-506"? Works for me.

No we didn't.  It can't be that simple can it?  I'll give it a try later this evening.

Doug Bissett

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Re: Vbox5.06 beta
« Reply #40 on: January 03, 2017, 09:55:53 pm »
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No we didn't.  It can't be that simple can it?

Well, it seems to be looking for VBoxGuestAdditions.iso, so it won't find VBoxGuestAdditions-506.iso.   :D

I tried turning off VT-x/AMD-v in the old VBox. It just turned it back on.

Then, I realized that Sound is enabled in the new one (doesn't work), so I disabled that, and now the performance seems to be very close to the old VBox.

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My network "sees" the VBox system, but it refuses to communicate with it (probably a setup problem somewhere).

Well, the MAIN problem is that I put XP Home edition in the new VBox, while I have XP PRO in my older VBox in eCS. PRO seems to be a whole lot smarter about finding, and responding to, other machines on the network. I probably won't bother trying to get it to work.

So, the new VBox works just about the same as the old one, once you get the "broken" parts turned off (apparently done automatically in the old VBox). Unfortunately, the "broken" parts are what we are wanting to work.  :-\

I may try installing win 7 PRO, if I can find the time.

R.M. Klippstein

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Re: Vbox5.06 beta
« Reply #41 on: January 03, 2017, 11:43:33 pm »
Hi Doug & ivan -- fwiw, this is an early, EARLY beta. The beta is at release 150 and release 151 is the current build. This current build looks like it address's VT-x/AMD-v  O.K. USB is partially built but not functional. Win 7 works very well, and it (r-151)also works well running AMD processors and OS/4 kernel. SuSE linux 13.2 also works well.
Happy New Year to both of you.

klipp

Valery Sedletski

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Re: Vbox5.06 beta
« Reply #42 on: January 10, 2017, 03:25:10 am »
2 ivan and Doug: Regarding the VBox speed, I see winxp guest is reasonably fast (I even thought, it flies for me). Also, as rklipp notes, we're working on VT-x/AMD-V support, and with it, it is even quicker. Regarding the Additions ISO, you just need to choose Devices->Attach the guest OS Additions ISO image, then agree to download it. It take some time to download it. Also, you can download it manually from http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/5.0.6/VBoxGuestAdditions_5.0.6.iso (the link to Addition ISO is also on the VBox Netlabs page at http://trac.netlabs.org/vbox/, near the last release link).  And then you can put it in the VBox main directory. It should be called VBoxGuestAdditions.iso to be found. (Upd: It downloads it somewhere, but not to the program dir, and in the end the VM crashes. Need to fix that.)

PS: USB 2.0 and 3.0 is available only in commercial version (they require a commercial extpack to be installed, which is not available for OS/2, yet (maybe, in future)). USB 1.0 (OHCI) should work, but raw USB device passthrough is not ready, yet. But you can attach USB mouse or USB harddisk to a VM (you only need to add an USB controller to Storage section, and attach a .vdi to it).

PPS: Also, no need to disable sound, as it uses Null audio driver. So, guests will see the audio card, but the sound will be not output. It should not affect the performance.
« Last Edit: January 10, 2017, 04:04:01 am by Valery Sedletski »

Doug Bissett

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Re: Vbox5.06 beta
« Reply #43 on: January 10, 2017, 04:14:31 am »
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Upd: It downloads it somewhere, but not to the program dir, and in the end the VM crashes. Need to fix that.

I expect that that is what I saw, except I just had a hang, not a crash.

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But you can attach USB mouse or USB harddisk to a VM (you only need to add an USB controller to Storage section, and attach a .vdi to it).

??? Why would anybody want to do that? I  can see that USB 3.1 will end up replacing SATA, in the near future, simply because it is cheaper, but it is also FASTER. But doing that In a VM doesn't make sense, at this time.

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PPS: Also, no need to disable sound, as it uses Null audio drier. So, guests will see the audio card, but the sound will be not output. It should not affect the performance.

Well, that is clearly WRONG. When I enable sound, the performance is definitely much slower than without it. Perhaps that is because I use the SoundBlaster option, which works a LOT better under win 10. Perhaps that has something to do with the lack of VT-x/AMD-V support.

Valery Sedletski

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Re: Vbox5.06 beta
« Reply #44 on: January 10, 2017, 05:02:22 am »
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But you can attach USB mouse or USB harddisk to a VM (you only need to add an USB controller to Storage section, and attach a .vdi to it).

??? Why would anybody want to do that? I  can see that USB 3.1 will end up replacing SATA, in the near future, simply because it is cheaper, but it is also FASTER. But doing that In a VM doesn't make sense, at this time.

Just to give an USB controller to a guest OS? VBox is needed not only for you to see your physical USB flash formatted with an exotic filesystem. It is used by developers for testing different configurations in VM's. At least, I sometimes need to test booting OS/2 from USB controller. It is different from a SATA controller from OS' point of view.

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PPS: Also, no need to disable sound, as it uses Null audio drier. So, guests will see the audio card, but the sound will be not output. It should not affect the performance.

Well, that is clearly WRONG. When I enable sound, the performance is definitely much slower than without it. 

You seem to be wrong here. I doubt that enabling sound could eat up significant resources.

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Perhaps that is because I use the SoundBlaster option, which works a LOT better under win 10.

You can try HDA or AC97 too, but not sure if it will help.