Virtualization software
Hosted hypervisors (full virtualization)
- VirtualBox by Sun, see images here.
- VM escape: 101 – методы побега из VMware WorkStation и VirtualBox
Bare-metal hypervisors (paravirtualization)
- coLinux is a port of the Linux kernel that allows it to run cooperatively alongside another operating system on a single machine without using a commercial PC virtualization software such as VMware.
From Cooperative Linux article: coLinux only runs Linux under Windows: a real Linux kernel will run on your system alongside Windows. CoLinux is a system that consists of a Windows kernel driver, a Linux kernel and some userspace daemon programs. When thecoLinux-daemon.exeis started, it will load the Windows kernel driverlinux.sys, load the Linux kernel into memory and start it. The Linux kernel is a slightly modified version of the standard x86 kernel: it has been stripped of all parts that directly access the hardware. Instead the kernel uses (with the help oflinux.sys) either defined API in the Windows kernel or user space programs to access needed resources like drive or network. From this perspective coLinux is an implementation of a Linux-specific lightweight VM with I/O virtualization.
Containers virtualization (operating-system-level virtualization)
- QEMU is a fast processor emulator.
- KVM (for Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a full virtualization solution for Linux on x86 hardware containing virtualization extensions (Intel VT or AMD-V).
- OpenVZ is a container-based virtualization for Linux
- LXD – Linux container hypervisor
Emulators
- Foreign Linux is a dynamic binary translator and a Linux system call interface emulator (LLE)1) for the Windows platform
Other
- OpenNebula is the standard-based open-source toolkit to build private, public and hybrid clouds on the top of Xen/KVM hypervisors.
Comparison of different virtualization techniques
VirtualBox
Setup
- Install VirtualBox for Windows and VirtualBox Extension Pack (via File → Preferences → Extensions).
- Installing guest additions (after installation check Machine → Session Information Dialog):
- Manual: Inject
VBoxGuestAdditions.iso2) and runsh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.runas described in Guest Additions for Linux and in Install Linux Guest Additions. The installation will create/usr/lib/VBoxGuestAdditions, add system startup scripts (/etc/init.d/vboxadd*) and put modules to/lib/modules/…/updates/dkms. Installation requires gcc and kernel headers be present. - Automatic: Install Debian package
virtualbox-guest-dkmswith version that is compatible with your VirtualBox version (
search Debain snapshot). Package installation will compile DKMS modules from sources and install them.
Questions answered
How to disable notification popup messages?
From VirtualBox PopUp Dialogs:
Run this command before creating a new VM:
VBoxManage setextradata global GUI/SuppressMessages remindAboutAutoCapture,remindAboutMouseIntegrationOff
or add this to your existing VM configuration:
<ExtraDataItem name="GUI/SuppressMessages" value="remindAboutAutoCapture,remindAboutMouseIntegrationOff" />
How to access guest from host?
Either use port forwarding on NAT interface or create second interface with type Host-only Adapter.
How to access external USB drive?
Normally selecting USB device in Devices → USB Devices should deattach it from host and attach to guest machine. The first time you do this, new driver will be installed (confirm that installation).
Check that you have additions installed and USB 2.0 controller (EHCI) is enabled in settings.
Otherwise check here. If USB devices still do not work, try this thread.
How to boot from bootable USB drive?
To boot from drive/USB use the advise given in How to boot from a flash drive?
- Provided the drive is partitioned and you want to check the list of partitions use (identifier of the drive corresponds to the one displayed by Computer Management → Disk Management):
VBoxManage internalcommands listpartitions -rawdisk \\.\PhysicalDrive1 - Then create a drive descriptor using:
VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename C:\usb.vmdk -rawdisk \\.\PhysicalDrive1
(replace file name and drive number with one you need) - Now you can create dummy virtual machine (start VirtualBox as administrator), add hard drive using
C:\usb.vmdkas location and boot from it.
Boot from USB fails with error I/O cache encountered an error
The I/O cache encountered an error while updating data in medium “ahci-0-0” (rc=VERR_ACCESS_DENIED). Make sure there is enough free space on the disk and that the disk is working properly. Operation can be resumed afterwards.
Solution is to enable Virtual Box settings → Storage → Controller: SATA → Use Host I/O Cache
Installation from USB fails with message “CD/DVD drive device driver is missing”
Same problems:
Solution is to use original ISO for installation.