Posts tagged guest os
VirtualBox Bridge and Tap no Longer Needed – Built in
Nov 3rd
With recent version of VirtualBox you no longer need to create a bridge and tap to enable host networking. In the settings panel of the virtual machine, select the network tab, and make sure that its set on bridged adapter. VirtualBox automatically creates a virtual ethernet adapter, and bridges it to the network of the host machine.
Bridging to the host network is necessary for the virtual machine to get an ip address from the router. Such a configuration is needed to communicate with the machine from the outside world. Because of this feature virtual machines can server website, and other services. I use my virtual machine to host this website, a visual ftp server, a wiki, and an EyesOS server.
There are other ways to forward individual ports from the host system to the guest, but then the ports on the host machine will not be accessible on the host; they will virtually represent the guest OS thus hindering connectivity with the host machine. There may be instances where this is what is wanted and more information, including instruction, can be found on this previous post.
The following is a screenshot of the network tab in VirtualBox. It had a bridge adapter option that will autobridge the connection to an existing ethernet adapter. Bare in mind that this is the screen from a Linux install of VirtualBox and it might be different in Windows. I remember in Windows you might have the option to create a virtual ethernet adapter, and then you can bridge the connection all in VirtualBox. Nothing needs to be done manually anymore, and everything can be done from within the VirtualBox configuration panels.
Here is a screen from Windows Vista. Go to the network tab of the virtual machine settings:
Then select the attach to drop down menu:
Then change the attach to, drop down menu, to bridged adapter:
PXE Network Boot VirtualBox
Jan 12th
You need host networking enabled to boot via the network. Check here for prerequisite configuration.
VirtualBox is capable of network boot, and is practically indistinguishable in configuration as compared to a real machine. To PXE boot a VirtualBox guest OS open the settings of a guest OS:
Click the system tab:
To enable PXE boot you have to configure the following section:
Then use the up and down arrows to set the priority of the network boot feature, as shown above.
You can create a guest OS that has no hard drive; there is no need for one. In such a configuration make network boot the first on the list. 
Since you intend to use PXE boot, you may consider setting up a LTSP server.
VirtualBox Windows Vista – Host Network Bridge and Tap
Jan 12th
This entire post is no longer applicable to the most recent version of VirtualBox. Here is a more recent post.
VirtualBox is well equipped for a Windows environment. Most of its features have a mechanism for automatic installation and setup. To get your guest OS, in Windows Vista, to have a real IP address from your router you first need a network bridge and tap. Open the VirtualBox manager:
Then select a guest OS and open its settings. Then click the network tab:
Then click the add network tap button:
It doesn’t matter what the name is Then adjust your guest OS networking adapter accordingly.
Now open your Windows Vista network configurations manager:
This screenshot is what your network configurations should be after everything is done. To achieve this simply select both the VirtualBox tap, that was previously created, and bridge it to your LAN connection. Select both by click on each adapter while pressing the shift key. Then right click on either of the two highlighted icons and select “bridge”. This will automatically create a bridge between the tap and your real host networking adapter. Wham bam, now you can select a real static IP in your VirtualBox guest OS on a Windows Vista system
Update (12/4/2009); At the top of this post I say that the information here is outdated. You can view the post listed above if you want, but here are the pertinent screenshots also:
Here is a screen from Windows Vista. Go to the network tab of the virtual machine settings:
Then select the attach to drop down menu:
Then change the attach to, drop down menu, to bridged adapter:
VirtualBox – Seamless Mode With Windows and Linux Sharing Same Desktop
Dec 25th
VirtualBox seamless mode places the Windows taskbar above your Gnome or KDE taskbar. The Windows desktop is not displayed. When you open a Firefox or Internet Explorer web browser, from the Windows taskbar and save a file from a website, it will save to the Windows desktop. To compensate you can allow Windows to share the exact same desktop as your host Linux OS. You can save files from Windows web browsers directly to the shared Linux desktop. Essential this is taking seamless a step further!! First enable VirtualBox shared folder support for your desired guest OS. Make the shared folder either your Linux desktop directly, or simply your home directory. Then mount the shared folder in the guest OS:
net use x: vboxsvrDesktop
Then open regedit. Locate the key:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerUser Shell Folders]
Change the desktop key to:
1) x: ; if you set the shared folder to be your Linux desktop folder
2) x:Desktop ; if you set the shared folder to be your Linux home folder
Now just reboot your Windows guest OS and observe the seamless consolidation of your Windows and Linux desktops!! This is one of my favorite Linux tweaks
I now run the virtual server in headless mode. If your interested in my new desktop configuration you can see it in this post!! Its frikkin cool. On my system notice that a virtual server environment is running in the top right window. That is the actual server environment that is hosting this website.
VirtualBox Guest IP Address
Aug 22nd
UPDATE: VirtualBox host networking is much easier now, and is completely automated on both Windows and Linux.
There are two ways to interact with your guest operating system. You can either forward a port on the host machine, or you can have the guest operating system utilize dhcp to retrieve an IP address from your router. The following are three terminal commands, utilizing the VBoxManage command with a variety of options. To forward a port to your guest OS do the following; replace guestOS with your VirtualBox OS, port 2222 with the port on your host machine that you want to forward, and port 22 for the desired port on the guest OS:
VBoxManage setextradata guestOSname VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/Config/ssh/HostPort 2222
VBoxManage setextradata guestOSname VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/Config/ssh/GuestPort 22
VBoxManage setextradata guestOSname VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/Config/ssh/Protocol TCP
Now this method I find really really really cool !!! We are going to configure your VirtualBox guest OS to get a regular IP address from your routers DHCP server. By doing this you will be able to access your VirtualBox guest OS as you would any regular computer. Doing this really establishes a Virtual Operating System that truly and completely functions as a real computer. First install a couple of files via apt; the packages were in my Debian Etch repositories, therefore I have no doubt that they are in Ubuntu’s: sudo apt-get install bridge-utils uml-utilities The best part it its only a couple of command that can be thrown in a script that is automatically run on boot. Add the following lines to a script, you can name the file something like “virtualbridge.sh”:
#replace user with the main username that you use to login
sudo tunctl -t tap0 -u user
sudo chmod 666 /dev/net/tun
sudo /usr/sbin/brctl addbr br0 sudo /sbin/ifconfig eth0 0.0.0.0 promisc
sudo /usr/sbin/brctl addif br0 eth0 sudo /sbin/dhclient br0
sudo /usr/sbin/brctl addif br0 tap0 #replace tap0ipaddress with an unused local ipaddress
sudo ifconfig tap0 tap0ipaddress up
sudo bash -c 'echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/tap0/proxy_arp' #replace hostipaddress
sudo route add -host hostipaddress dev tap0 #also replace hostipaddress with the host ip address
sudo arp -Ds hostipaddress eth0 pub
#END of SCRIPT
Now configure your VirtualBox Guest OS to use the tap0 network interface. This can all be done graphically. Add these lines to a empty new text file and name it what you wish. Set it to be executable with a quick chmod 777 command. Add it to your sessions to be automatically run on user login. Also add your VirtualBox OS to boot on login; you can do this with:
#replace GuestOS with the desired GuestOS
VBoxManage startvm GuestOS
Now your script will run automatically on login, and the GuestOS will automatically boot. Viola, you now have a GuestOS that automatically boots, and is practically indistinguishable from a real computer complete with a real local ipaddress
