Just upgraded the RAM in my Alienware Mx15, was 4GB now has 8GB of Kingston HyperX (PriceSpyNZ). This is because, a few times I had two VM's open and without thinking opened a third one....my system would then stop. All available RAM was used, so all processes were being swapped with the HDD.
Needless to say, but will anyway, if you are swapping all operations with the HDD even keyboard inputs are very very slow. In this situation I would just power down the laptop and restart, usually losing a little bit of work in the process.
More RAM doesn't make the computer faster....but it does stop it slowing down. I tested it yesterday with 6 VM's open, worked a treat. No noticeable slow down.
I was also testing Ubuntu 12.04 to see if it will be fit my usage. Installed Gnome Shell, Gnome classic looks pretty much like Gnome 2.x. Though in my brief testing I didn't find the setting to change the panels.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Using snapshots
Snapshots are a really useful feature of VM's, for me they are like a super restore point. They take your VM back to the exact way it was at the time of the snapshot. Recently I found this useful for downloading an update for a product that I use, it required me to install a stupid update manager to download the .exe file to update some software on my bosses Win7 host machine.
So rather then clutter the host machine I simply installed the update manager on a VM after taking a snapshot, downloaded the .exe file from the vendor and then restored the snapshot and un-ticking the option to take a snapshot of the current state. Since I had the .exe file that I wanted I installed it and went on with life without the update manager trying to clutter up the background processes of either the host or the VM.
There are some slightly more dodgy uses for the snapshot feature, I'm sure you can figure them out for yourselves.
So rather then clutter the host machine I simply installed the update manager on a VM after taking a snapshot, downloaded the .exe file from the vendor and then restored the snapshot and un-ticking the option to take a snapshot of the current state. Since I had the .exe file that I wanted I installed it and went on with life without the update manager trying to clutter up the background processes of either the host or the VM.
There are some slightly more dodgy uses for the snapshot feature, I'm sure you can figure them out for yourselves.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Useful Networking Techniques
This is a really useful technique that I use all the time.
I have only tried this on my personal machine that runs Ubuntu 10.04 as the host system, I will give it a go on Win 7 when I get a chance.
I often connect my VM using a bridged connection through eth0 (wired connection), and connect my host machine to the internet through a separate wireless connection. This is super useful when I need to be connected to one network but also need to look up documentation on the net.
Or of course I want to access two networks on two different VM's but don't necessarily want those VM's to be aware of the other network.
To do this simply connect the host to the wired network, I usually set the network adapter on the VM to bridged so it gets its own IP address, once the VM can ping something in the wired network simply disconnect the host machine by opening the network settings and selecting disconnect. I always go and re-ping the thing I just pinged, must be out of some slight OCD but it always works. So at this point the only thing aware of the wired network is the VM connected to it.
I will then re-enable the wireless, access the internet as usual.
I find this really useful, YMMV, but it maybe useful to you also.
I have only tried this on my personal machine that runs Ubuntu 10.04 as the host system, I will give it a go on Win 7 when I get a chance.
I often connect my VM using a bridged connection through eth0 (wired connection), and connect my host machine to the internet through a separate wireless connection. This is super useful when I need to be connected to one network but also need to look up documentation on the net.
Or of course I want to access two networks on two different VM's but don't necessarily want those VM's to be aware of the other network.
To do this simply connect the host to the wired network, I usually set the network adapter on the VM to bridged so it gets its own IP address, once the VM can ping something in the wired network simply disconnect the host machine by opening the network settings and selecting disconnect. I always go and re-ping the thing I just pinged, must be out of some slight OCD but it always works. So at this point the only thing aware of the wired network is the VM connected to it.
I will then re-enable the wireless, access the internet as usual.
I find this really useful, YMMV, but it maybe useful to you also.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
USB Passthrough Virtual Box OSE
Short version: USB3 passthrough not yet supported fully on VBox OSE use USB2 port until this is fixed.
My laptop an Alienware MX15 runs Ubuntu 10.04 and I have had USB passthrough working well for since I first started using VBox. This has been a real boon to my work, since most of the programs that I use for work run under windows exclusively, the MX15 came with Win 7 which didn't support most of the programs that I used on a daily basis. Therefore I was using VM's for almost all my work anyway. So I decided to go to linux as I have been using it for years at home and I am very happy with it.
Today I was setting up the bosses new laptop with the VM images that we use at work. He has a new Dell XPS17 with the 1920x1080 screen upgrade (very nice BTW). I got the latest version of VBox 4.1.14, I was having real trouble getting the HASP dongle (security key) to pass through to the guest machine, I have had this function available on my laptop for around 18mths since I installed Ubuntu. After much f-ing about, it turns out that USB3 does not get passed through to VM's, something the internet at large was silent on. This is a feature that is yet to be added, but I am sure it will not be long.
This is in no way a complaint, I love VM's and the great work the VBox team does. This is just a feature that is yet to be added, something I'm sure wont take long. VM's give me the freedom to use linux as my main OS for work, my boss uses windows and we run exactly the same software. This is super useful.
Was going to file a bug report, virtualbox.org seems to be down at the moment.
My laptop an Alienware MX15 runs Ubuntu 10.04 and I have had USB passthrough working well for since I first started using VBox. This has been a real boon to my work, since most of the programs that I use for work run under windows exclusively, the MX15 came with Win 7 which didn't support most of the programs that I used on a daily basis. Therefore I was using VM's for almost all my work anyway. So I decided to go to linux as I have been using it for years at home and I am very happy with it.
Today I was setting up the bosses new laptop with the VM images that we use at work. He has a new Dell XPS17 with the 1920x1080 screen upgrade (very nice BTW). I got the latest version of VBox 4.1.14, I was having real trouble getting the HASP dongle (security key) to pass through to the guest machine, I have had this function available on my laptop for around 18mths since I installed Ubuntu. After much f-ing about, it turns out that USB3 does not get passed through to VM's, something the internet at large was silent on. This is a feature that is yet to be added, but I am sure it will not be long.
This is in no way a complaint, I love VM's and the great work the VBox team does. This is just a feature that is yet to be added, something I'm sure wont take long. VM's give me the freedom to use linux as my main OS for work, my boss uses windows and we run exactly the same software. This is super useful.
Was going to file a bug report, virtualbox.org seems to be down at the moment.
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