Using Windows XP in VirtualBox on Linux

As
a person who uses Linux regularly, often I am asked about my
opinions about other operating systems, especially those coming
from large companies located in Redmond,
Washington.
Here’s the deal. Operating systems are tools. We use them to do
jobs. It is always a good idea to think critically about what tools
you are using, and verify if other tools can do the same job in a
more efficient or flexible manner.

Having
said that, using Linux as a Host OS for VirtualBox,
I will show you how to create a Windows virtual machine that can
interact with shared network folders in a Windows network as if it
were an actual machine instead of a virtual one. In this article, I
will also show you how to mount local Linux directories as network
drives within your Windows Guest OS.

I’ll
start by assuming that you already have VirtualBox installed
(available here).

Installing
Windows XP as a Guest OS

This tip assumes
that you have legitimate installation media for Windows XP. Start
by selecting “New” to create a new virtual machine.

Indicate the
Virtual Appliance name, and select the type of Operating System. In
this case, it will be Windows XP.

Select the amount
of RAM that you want the virtual machine to use. I chose 1024
megabytes, as my system machine has 4GB of RAM.

Choose an
exisiting virtual hard disk, or create a new one. I will assume
that you wish to create a new virtual disk image (VDI).

Choose either a
dynamically expanding or fixed size virtual disk. I’m a fan of
dynamically expanding storage, as it takes up less room on your
hard drive if the virtual hard disk is not full.

Choose the size
of your hard disk. In VirtualBox, expanding the size of virtual
disk is a relatively time-consuming endeavor, so give yourself some
breathing room here.

Verify your hard
disk choices and choose “Finish”.

Verify the rest
of your choices, and click “Finish” again,

Your Guest OS
should now be in your VirtualBox menu. Before installing, we need
to change some of settings, so highlight your virtual machine and
click on “Settings”.

If you wish to
install XP from an actual disk, the you need to enable the drive
through the host OS. Under “Storage”, select the CD icon
under IDE controller, and select “Host Drive” under
“CD/DVD Device”.

Insert the OS
disk, start the virtual machine, and install Windows XP as if it
were a normal machine.

Installing
Guest Additions to the Windows XP Guest

After
installing the OS, I would recommend installing Guest Additions to
your Windows XP machine. There is an entire chapter of
the VirtualBox
Manual dedicated to Guest Additions,
and I encourage you to read it, but here is the manual’s
description of what Guest Additions can do.

The Guest
Additions offer the following features:

• Mouse
  pointer integration – To overcome the limitations for mouse
  support that were described in the section called “Capturing
  and releasing keyboard and mouse“,
  this provides you with seamless mouse support. You will only have
  one mouse pointer and pressing the Host key is no longer required
  to “free” the mouse from being captured by the guest OS.
  To make this work, a special mouse driver is installed in the
  guest that communicates with the “real” mouse driver on
  your host and moves the guest mouse pointer accordingly.

• Better
  video support – While the virtual graphics card which VirtualBox
  emulates for any guest operating system provides all the basic
  features, the custom video drivers that are installed with the
  Guest Additions provide you with extra high and non-standard video
  modes as well as accelerated video performance.

  In
  addition, with Windows and recent Linux, Solaris and OpenSolaris
  guests, if the Guest Additions are installed, you can resize the
  virtual machine’s window, and the video resolution in the guest
  will be automatically adjusted (as if you had manually entered an
  arbitrary resolution in the guest’s display settings).

  For Linux
  and Solaris guests, the Xorg server version 1.3 or later is
  required for automatic resizing (the feature has been disabled on
  Fedora 9 guests due to a bug in the X server they supply). The
  server version can be checked with Xorg -version.

  Finally,
  if the Guest Additions are installed, 3D graphics for guest
  applications can be accelerated; see the section called “Hardware
  3D acceleration (OpenGL
  and Direct3D 8/9)”.

• Time
  synchronization – With the Guest Additions installed, VirtualBox
  can ensure that the guest’s system time is better synchronized.
  This fixes the problem that an operating system normally expects
  to have 100% of a computer’s time for itself without interference,
  which is no longer the case when your VM runs together with your
  host operating system and possibly other applications on your
  host. As a result, your guest operating system’s timing will soon
  be off significantly. The Guest Additions will re-synchronize the
  time regularly. See the section called “Tuning
  the guest time synchronization parameters”
  for how to configure the parameters of the time synchronization
  mechanism.

• Shared
  folders – These provide an easy way to exchange files between the
  host and the guest. Much like ordinary Windows network shares, you
  can tell VirtualBox to treat a certain host directory as a shared
  folder, and VirtualBox will make it available to the guest
  operating system as a network share. For details, please refer to
  the section called “Folder
  sharing“.

• Seamless
  windows – With this feature, the individual windows that are
  displayed on the desktop of the virtual machine can be mapped on
  the host’s desktop, as if the underlying application was actually
  running on the host. See the section called “Seamless
  windows”
  for details.

• Shared
  clipboard – With the Guest Additions installed, the clipboard of
  the guest operating system can optionally be shared with your host
  operating system; see the section called “General
  settings“.

• Automated
  Windows logons – (Credentials passing; Windows guests only) For
  details, please see the section called “Automated
  Windows guest logons“.

OK, Now you
should be convinced that installing Guest Additions is a good idea.
Luckily, installing Guest Additions is easy! While your virtual
machine is running, click the “Devices” menu and select
“Install Guest Additions.”

A setup wizard
should begin shortly. Choose to continue.

Twice during the
install, Windows will freak out and warn you that the drivers that
are being installed haven’t passed “Windows Logo testing”.
It’s OK. Choose to “Continue Anyway”.

Windows will ask
you to reboot your (virtual) machine. Do it.

Congratulations.
VirtualBox Guest Additions have now been installed.

Mapping a
directory from the Linux Host OS as a Network Drive in your Windows
XP Guest OS

Now that Guest
Additions have been installed, let’s take advantage of the feature
that allows you to mount a Linux directory as a network share.
Select your Virtual Machine from the menu, and select “Settings”

Under “Shared
Folders”, click the

Add Shared Folder
icon on the right side of the window.

Under “Folder
Path”, select “Other”.

Browse to the
directory that you wish to share, and select “Open”.

Verify your
selection, choose the name of the shared folder, choose whether or
not to have “read-only” access, and click “OK”.

Start your
virtual machine, click the start menu, right click “My
Computer” and select “Map Network Drive”.

Choose the drive
letter of your network drive, and click “Browse” to find
your directory.

Your share should
be listed under:

Entire Network

—-VirtualBox Shared Folders

——–\\Vboxsvr

————\\VBOXSVR\YOUR_SHARE_NAME_HERE

Select “OK”,
then select “Finish”

Marvel at your
new “Network Drive” shared folder. This is one way to get
around resizing your virtual machine if you are running out of
virtual hard drive space.

Configuring
Windows file sharing within the Guest OS

If you wish that
your Guest OS can access and share files on your Windows file
sharing network, you will need to change the way that your virtual
machine interacts with the Internet. Under “Settings”/”Network”,
change “NAT” to “Bridged Adapter”.

Please
understand, the choice to use Bridged
Networking does
have security repercussions. The VirtualBox
Manual explains
the benefits and limitations of the different networking modes that
are available, but this statement from the VirtualBox manual sums
it up rather well:

In bridged
networking mode, all traffic goes through a physical interface of
the host system. It is therefore possible to attach a packet
sniffer (such as Wireshark) to the host interface and log all
traffic that goes over it. If, for any reason, you prefer two or
more VMs on the same machine to communicate privately, hiding their
data from both the host system and the user, bridged networking
therefore is not an option.

I
will assume that you are willing to accept the security risks that
go with using this networking mode, as well as the additional risks
of allowing file sharing withinWindows.

Choose the
directory that you wish to share, right-click it, and select
“Sharing and Security”

You may have to
complete the Network setup wizard to enable File and Printer
Sharing.

Check “Share
this folder on the network”, the click “OK”. It may
ask you to reboot your (virtual) machine again.

When you restart
the computer, you will notice that your directory is listed as a
shared directory, and it will be accessible as a Samba share on
your Linux host machine, as well as all other machines on your
network. Enjoy!