OS2 World Community Forum

OS/2, eCS & ArcaOS - Technical => Applications => Topic started by: ivan on November 10, 2016, 06:02:09 pm

Title: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: ivan on November 10, 2016, 06:02:09 pm
A couple of points.

Where do we get the additions iso from?
Has anyone got a zip of the required DLLs that they could send me?

With thos two items I can try this out on several different computers.
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Martin Iturbide on November 10, 2016, 06:32:15 pm
Hi Ivan.

Here you can get the ISO of the "additions" for that version:
http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/5.0.6/

Regards
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Valery Sedletski on November 10, 2016, 06:56:54 pm
2ivan: Additions iso can be downloaded from www.virtualbox.org download section: http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/5.0.6/. All needed DLL' can be downloaded from yum repo (They are listed at Netlabs project page: http://trac.netlabs.org/vbox/ or in the readme file). Not sure why release maintainers didn't put the iso in distribution (I always put it in each build)
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: ivan on November 10, 2016, 08:34:25 pm
Thanks both of you.

It appears that the missing DLLs are all available as zips so it will fun unzipping them all just to get what is needed.  Logic says that since these DLLs are needed they should be available either as a zip in with the program or as a separate zip.  That would make life easier for those of us that don't, and can't, have RPM/YUM on our computers (don't ask it is part of a contractual obligation).
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Valery Sedletski on November 10, 2016, 08:54:18 pm
but I don't see any reason to not use yum/rpm. It were created to make life easier. And yes, all DLL's are available as zips -- every rpm package is doubled by a zip archive. These zips are uploaded in parallel to rpm's to the same http/ftp server where the repository resides. Just look at http://rpm.netlabs.org/, for example, http://rpm.netlabs.org/release/00/zip/. But you'll need to cherry-pick each zip, which is way harder than to just install a list of rpms with deps.
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: ivan on November 11, 2016, 12:02:33 am
Under normal circumstances there would not be a problem but until someone pays to have the OS/2 implementation of RPM/YUM certified to work with all combinations of OS/2 Warp our contract precludes its use.

Any program we install on the production and office machines has to be a) an update of what is already there, and we have to produce full test reports before it is accepted (even any hardware updates have to go through a testing program before they are brought on line) or b) be certified by a government approved certifying agency. 
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Valery Sedletski on November 11, 2016, 12:17:17 am
2ivan: but I doubt that if rpm/yum is not certified to use on your environments then VBox will be certified, So, to install VBox it should be the same problems with VBox being accepted for use. Also, I doubt that the beta version of VBox should be at all installed into production machines for critical use :) So in those places, where Vbox can be used, yum/rpm can be used too.
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: ivan on November 11, 2016, 01:12:03 am
Strange as it may seem when we first quoted for this contract we had the first Vbox port from Paul in the system we proposed.  They put the full disk image through the certification process and it passed.  Thus this port of Vbox will be an update which is acceptable provided we pass and package it according to the terms of the contract.  Not the actual beta version but by using that we get a head start on the testing.

As a matter of interest we managed to get OpenOffice accepted because we could show it was an 'update' of StarOffice even using many of the SO file names.  I also know that at some stage in the future we are going to have some problems with running OS/2 on some future hardware.
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Pete on November 13, 2016, 08:01:16 pm
Hi All

After a bit of faffing around I finally got vbox running and have a win7 vm installed.

Thanks to the developers for all their efforts but could I ask them to Please include a list of the zip packages required for us "non-yum/rpm users" as trying to figure out if the required libraries are already installed and at the correct level can take a while.

I could not find these libraries but vbox runs without them:-

libcurl - I do have the curl mentioned separately as required in the readme but could not find this library
libgcc-fwd - is this part of the libc/gcc libraries and included in the zip/warpin packages?
libqt4 - presumably part of qt4? I have 4.7.3 installed
libstdc++6 - presumably stdcpp6?
libstdc++ - presumably stdcpp?
libsupc++6 - presumably supcpp6?
libsupc++ - presumably supcpp?


The only problem that I have run into when running my Win7 vm is that windows update seems to have screwed up. I was sure that I had installed the SP1 update and it shows in the list of applied updates. However, when I tried to update Internet Explorer to IE11 the update failed because "SP1 is not installed". Looking at the Windows system information I believe it should show SP1 as installed but it does not.

How do I get windows update to re-apply the SP1 update?


Regards

Pete

Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Valery Sedletski on November 13, 2016, 10:21:22 pm
2pete:
curl is curl7.dll
libgcc-fwd is gccXXX.dll and forwarders to it
libqt4 is all Qt libraries (QtCore, QtGui, QtNet etc.).

The list of DLL's requited is: aio, crypt32, crypto10, curl7, expat7, jpeg, libvpx2, libxml2, libcx0, png1616, pthr01, SDL12, ssl10, ssp, stdcpp, stdcpp6, supcpp6, urpo, vncclie0, vncserv0

Not sure if it's complete, but it seems. All required packages in zip archives are at Netlabs rpm repo server, http://rpm.netlabs.org, so you can take them one by one.

PS: I can try repacking all required DLL's if you'll acknowledge that all I listed above is sufficient (it was sufficient before, but I did not tested after that as I have no machine without UNIX ports installed).
Regarding Win7 SP1 -- I don't know. Maybe, someone else will help.
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Dave Yeo on November 13, 2016, 11:27:40 pm
I had some strange errors until I installed libidl and and on first start it failed due to missing libaio
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Valery Sedletski on November 14, 2016, 12:58:45 am
2Dave Yeo: libidl seems to be only needed for VBox/XPCOM IDL compiler (xpidl.exe). It should be not needed to run VBox, only to build it.
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Dave Yeo on November 14, 2016, 03:07:42 am
@Valery, you'd think that libidl is used for idl files but test it by moving idl20.dll out of the way and try to create a new virtual machine.
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Doug Bissett on November 14, 2016, 07:07:23 am
Quote
How do I get windows update to re-apply the SP1 update?

Try: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/15090/windows-7-install-service-pack-1-sp1 (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/15090/windows-7-install-service-pack-1-sp1)
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Valery Sedletski on November 14, 2016, 06:10:49 pm
2Dave Yeo: Just tried to remove idl20.dll from the LIBPATH -- VM creates and starts successfully without it. So, see no problems here.
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Pete on November 14, 2016, 08:41:18 pm
Hi Valery and All

So curl and libcurl are the same package?

I ask because the readme states

   yum install gettext libxml2 libxslt openssl libcurl zlib
   .
   .
   yum install urpo yum install expat curl mmap


The joy of the zip packages at http://rpm.netlabs.org/release/00/zip/ is it is easy to pick the wrong version(s) hence my suggestion of including the full zip name of the package required eg libaio-0_0_1-5_oc00.zip.

I guess I must have just about the right libraries installed as vbox runs and I have a Windows7 vm working. I did not keep a list of the packages that I installed although I can list those downloaded:-

http://rpm.netlabs.org/release/00/zip/curl-7_37_0-2_oc00.zip
http://rpm.netlabs.org/release/00/zip/expat-2_1_0-12_oc00.zip
http://rpm.netlabs.org/release/00/zip/gettext-0_19_8_1-3_oc00.zip
http://rpm.netlabs.org/release/00/zip/glib2-2_33_12-5_oc00.zip
http://rpm.netlabs.org/release/00/zip/libaio-0_0_1-5_oc00.zip
http://rpm.netlabs.org/release/00/zip/libcx-0_3_1-1_oc00.zip
http://rpm.netlabs.org/release/00/zip/libidl-0_8_14-6_oc00.zip
http://rpm.netlabs.org/release/00/zip/libjpeg-8c-1_oc00.zip
http://rpm.netlabs.org/release/00/zip/libpng-1_6_21-3_oc00.zip
http://rpm.netlabs.org/release/00/zip/libvncserver-0_9_10-4_oc00.zip
http://rpm.netlabs.org/release/00/zip/libvpx-1_4_0-1_oc00.zip
http://rpm.netlabs.org/release/00/zip/libxml2-2_7_7-5_oc00.zip
http://rpm.netlabs.org/release/00/zip/libxslt-1_1_26-2_oc00.zip
http://rpm.netlabs.org/release/00/zip/mmap-20111102-8_oc00.zip
http://rpm.netlabs.org/release/00/zip/openssl-1_0_2h-3_oc00.zip
http://rpm.netlabs.org/release/00/zip/pthread-20151229-21_oc00.zip
http://rpm.netlabs.org/release/00/zip/sdl-1_2_15-1_oc00.zip
http://rpm.netlabs.org/release/00/zip/urpo-20160630-12_oc00.zip
http://rpm.netlabs.org/release/00/zip/zlib-1_2_5-5_oc00.


I already had some of the above and other required libraries installed - probably in support of cups, seamonkey and other software.


I have been attempting to get my Windows7 vm running a little faster. My first thought was to increase the memory from 512MB to 1024Mb but that does not help at all. Trying to boot the vm results in vbox displaying a "critical error" message which results in needing to "kill" the vm window as vbox fails to shut it down. Resetting to 512Mb results in the vm booting fine. I retested setting to 1024Mb and got the same error as previously. Is there a trick to using more than 512Mb or is that a limit?

I noticed the option to use vhd disk type in 2Gb chunks when creating my vm. Could the vhd disk(s) be used with VirtualPC?


The windows7 update problem I mentioned earlier sorted itself out - after several reboots windows update popped up the updates available notice and the SP1 update was now available again. I can only guess that windows update worked out that SP1 had not been installed properly the first time.


Regards

Pete
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: ivan on November 14, 2016, 11:18:00 pm
Hi Pete,

An even better idea would be for the developers to include all the necessary external DLLs that they used in a zip file in the release.  That way we know that we have the correct versions for that particular program.  It might also help if the various DLLs had a buildlevel included.
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Valery Sedletski on November 15, 2016, 12:30:37 am
2ivan: curl is the CURL exe (http downloader). You need libcurl, not curl. I suspect, curl is not needed in this case. Please try to use the latest package -- the version is encoded in a zip name. Well, we'll probably correct the packages list to not include curl.

I run win7 with 768 MB of RAM set. You can try disabling different visual effects and disable Aqua and set it to use "Classic" theme only. Anyway, we haven't 3D acceleration support, so that is a waste of resources. So, I did like this. WinXP SP3 is optimal to run on OS/2 host, it almost "flies". I set the VM RAM size to be 512 MB. Didn't seen any critical errors. Maybe, you have VAL too little (I have VALIMIT=3072 on my machine with 3500 MB of RAM available and VALIMIT=2500 on a machine with 3000 MB of physical RAM available). Also, I was not able to set more than 1700 MB of RAM to a single VM. The limit of RAM usage by applications is about 2100 MB. If I try to set more, the VM just panics (Guru meditation). This is a result of lack of available address space (remember that OS/2 is a 32-bit OS and Shared memory occupies some space in virtual memory, so, less private memory available, and vice versa).

Yes, .vhd is VirtualPC disks and can be used with VPC.
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Doug Bissett on November 15, 2016, 03:56:50 am
Quote
An even better idea would be for the developers to include all the necessary external DLLs that they used in a zip file in the release.  That way we know that we have the correct versions for that particular program.  It might also help if the various DLLs had a buildlevel included.

Most (if not all) of the dlls don't have bldlevel information, so that won't work. Creating in a zip file is also asking for trouble. If you install a program that supplies xyz.dll version 2, then install another package that supplies xyz.dll version 1, you have a problem. There is usually no way to tell which version you are installing. Date, time, size, mean nothing, and if there is no bldlevel information, all you can do is guess. The only way to do it is to use RPM/YUM (preferably with ANPM as a front end), and trust that it will do it properly (most of the time it will). In your case, where you cannot use ANPM (RPM/YUM), your best bet is to have a machine installed with ANPM (RPM/YUM), and extract what you need from that, and package your own ZIP file. You would need to do that, with the latest available code, for every package that you distribute, and update it for every one that you do distribute, carefully tracking what you do so you can keep everything up to date, on every machine.

ANPM (RPM/YUM) is the way to do it (even though it is a terrible way to do it). I would think that your best bet would be to get ANPM (RPM/YUM) included in the contract, but I do realize how stupid some customers can be. Sorry, no simple answers.
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Pete on November 18, 2016, 04:06:42 am
Hi All

@Valery

Setting VirtualAddressLimit=3072 resolves the problem with giving my win7 vm 1024Mb which, along with switching to "classic" theme, has improved speed a little.

No, VirtualPC cannot use the VHD disks produced by VirtualBox. The problem is that VirtualPC seems to want to use VHD disks in 2Gb "chunks" but the option to create disks in 2Gb "chunks" is Disabled for VHD disks in Virtualbox .
VirtualBox cannot use the VHD disks produced by VirtualPC - probably for the same reason ie VirtualBox cannot read from VHD disks in 2Gb "chunks". There is also the difference in the virtual hardware to consider.

There is no libcurl package; curl7.dll is supplied in http://rpm.netlabs.org/release/00/zip/curl-7_37_0-2_oc00.zip


@ivan

Totally agree that necessary dll files should be included in the package or, as with recent Seamonkey releases, in a separate support package with documentation specifying the exact support package required.



Regards

Pete

Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Andi B. on November 18, 2016, 12:14:49 pm
Totally agree that necessary dll files should be included in the package or, as with recent Seamonkey releases, in a separate support package with documentation specifying the exact support package required.
In theory this can work if users are skilled enough to distinguish different version by them self and if they invest the time to check versions off all included dlls with every zip. Practical experience has shown that this does not even work for the most experienced users. Let alone 'normal' users. Doug has explained above in his first sentences why this cant work in real life. Read it and try to understand why it can't work with modern applications which rely on 10+ different libraries. It's proven in practical experience since years. But it seem every single guy want it to learn the hard way by themselves. No problem if someone what to learn it the hard way. But what you are proposing does not and can not work for the majority of users.

Btw. - don't think libpathstrict is the solution for keeping different zipped dlls separated. Libpathstrict is handy in some cases but it has a lot limitations. Think of it as like a hack into the kernel with nasty side effects. No usable for more than a very limited number of applications.
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Pete on November 18, 2016, 07:59:42 pm
Hi Andi

The suggestion is that the necessary dll files are either included with the package or the docs state what support package contains the correct files, ideally with a download url.

Of course the problem is different versions of dll files required for different applications.

My earliest and long lasting memory of rpm on linux, circa 1998 - 2002, was rpm updating library files when installing an application and screwing up resulting in lots of applications not working due to the wrong library files being installed. That happened often and always took a while to rectify. As a result I am not a fan of yum/rpm but will give it a try if/when ArcaOS5 arrives. In the meantime I much prefer zips or warpin packages.


Regards

Pete




Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Valery Sedletski on November 19, 2016, 02:21:57 am
2pete: Seems so. There's a single "curl" package, but no "libcurl".

I am not sure, but maybe, M$ changed .vhd format, since that. Also, as far as I know, splitting .vhd's to 2GB chunks is an optional feature. OS/2 version of VPC splits them for HPFS compatibility only. But this is not required. VBox seems to not understand splitted .vhd's. It needs them in one piece. Also, I see a 3 GB .vhd in my VM images directory. I took it from OS/2 version of VPC, and I used it with VBox, it had understood it well, and resized to 3 GB successfully, IIRC.  Or, I used that 3 GB .vhd with qemu, not VBox -- don't remember.
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Doug Bissett on November 19, 2016, 04:20:10 am
Quote
Of course the problem is different versions of dll files required for different applications.

This statement is theoretically incorrect. The required DLL version is the minimum version required for an application. Later versions should always work (although there are some problems with that, sometimes, but not often).

Quote
My earliest and long lasting memory of rpm on linux, circa 1998 - 2002, was rpm updating library files when installing an application and screwing up resulting in lots of applications not working due to the wrong library files being installed. That happened often and always took a while to rectify. As a result I am not a fan of yum/rpm but will give it a try if/when ArcaOS5 arrives. In the meantime I much prefer zips or warpin packages.

That is usually not a problem with ANPM (RPM/YUM) on OS/2 (but it can happen when something is not packaged correctly - a rare occurrence recently). There is a far greater chance that trying to update manually will cause a lot more problems. You may also need to manage forwarder DLLs. The most obvious example is the LIBC0xx series, but there are others.

Quote
As a result I am not a fan of yum/rpm but will give it a try if/when ArcaOS5 arrives. In the meantime I much prefer zips or warpin packages.

I am not a fan either, but it is a LOT better than spending days trying to figure out what you need to run a program. You will save yourself a lot of guess work, by simply installing ANPM (which will install RPM/YUM, if it is not already installed), and use that to install required packages, and keep things up to date. Some cleanup is required to remove the old stuff, so that it doesn't get used somehow. WarpIn, or ZIP, is okay when somebody packages that stuff in that way, but it just isn't being done in a way that is easy to use, and when it is done it may not track what is installed, properly.
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Pete on November 20, 2016, 08:40:54 pm
Hi Doug

Re different versions of dll files required - your comment in brackets is the point I am making.

Glad to read that ANPM with yum/rpm seems to be working well.

The point Ivan and I were both making is that with either a list of required supporting software - full filenames rather than libwhatever and ideally a download url - possibly in a readme file, or, preferably, a package of the required supporting software non-yum/rpm users will not be banging their heads trying to figure out what exactly is required.


Regards

Pete
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Doug Bissett on November 20, 2016, 09:41:25 pm
Quote
Re different versions of dll files required - your comment in brackets is the point I am making.

It is pretty safe if you stay away from the experimental repositories.

Quote
The point Ivan and I were both making is that with either a list of required supporting software - full filenames rather than libwhatever and ideally a download url - possibly in a readme file, or, preferably, a package of the required supporting software non-yum/rpm users will not be banging their heads trying to figure out what exactly is required.

The main problem is, that the developers usually have no more idea about what is needed, than you do, and it takes them just as long to figure it out as it takes you. I would prefer that they are on to the next project, rather than wasting time trying to figure out what got used to port something (along with all of the supporting packages) that works perfectly well when the user updates using ANPM (RPM/YUM). I suppose they could simply post all of the packages that they have installed, rather than just the top level packages that they know about, but users really don't need the developer packages. The location of the ZIP files is well known, by now, but I am not convinced that a user knows what should be extracted from them. It is more than just DLLs, and some things need to have symlinks created (not to mention required support packages). You would need to dig into the package files to determine what really needs to be done. If you use ANPM  (RPM/YUM), it is all managed for you, with a LOT less work (even with the odd screwed up package). Ivan has a different problem, but using ANPM (RPM/YUM) is the answer to his problem too. He needs to package the results, for manual installation, rather than using the program on individual systems, but that isn't all that complicated when you know what got updated.
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Dave Yeo on November 20, 2016, 10:21:35 pm
2Dave Yeo: Just tried to remove idl20.dll from the LIBPATH -- VM creates and starts successfully without it. So, see no problems here.

@Valery, it's pretty consistent here on the first start with a Linux ISO.
Latest test, move idl20.dll out of the way. Start VIRTUALBOX.EXE. Choose new, set appropriate Kernel or Dist, create the virtual machine. Start it up, when it wants a CD or ISO, choose the ISO. Result, see screen capture and log.
Strangely enough trying again works.
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Valery Sedletski on November 21, 2016, 03:01:26 am
2Dave Yeo: It works just fine for me without idl20.dll. The VM is created and started successfully. I don't understood, what is this Guru Meditation about? What you did, exactly? Did you disabled VT-x first?
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Dave Yeo on November 21, 2016, 03:15:19 am
Apologies, it does seem to be caused by VT-x.
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Pete on November 21, 2016, 02:53:10 pm
Hi Doug

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.

Regards

Pete
 

Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Doug Bissett on November 21, 2016, 08:02:27 pm
Quote
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.
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: ivan 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.
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Doug Bissett 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.
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: ivan 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.
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Doug Bissett on January 02, 2017, 09:56:21 pm
Quote
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.

Quote
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.
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: ivan 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/ (http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/5.0.6/) for the Guest Additions?  The ISO is near the top of the list.
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Doug Bissett on January 03, 2017, 12:51:33 am
Quote
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).
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Dave Yeo 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.
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Doug Bissett 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.
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: ivan 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.
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Doug Bissett 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.
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: R.M. Klippstein 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
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Valery Sedletski 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.
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Doug Bissett 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.
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Valery Sedletski 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.
Title: Re: Vbox5.06 beta
Post by: Doug Bissett on January 10, 2017, 07:46:56 pm
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Quote from: Doug Bissett on Today at 04:14:31 am

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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.

   
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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.

All I remember, is that I was (pleasantly) surprised by how much difference it made, when I turned off sound.

I will do more experimenting later. I had to swap out the hard disk in my test machine, and that project is almost finished. I will have to re-install VBox 5.0.6, and get WinXP back into it.