On 7/16/24 6:31 AM, Tom Browder wrote:

I haven't looked at VB in a long time, but I have a real need for a
Windows host
to port some Linux libraries to Windows in order to support the Raku language.

I now have lots of memory and disk space which was always a
significant issue when I used it before, and my use case is much
different. Then I was trying to show Windows users how they could run
Linux, now I want to help Windows folks to use a new
programming language that was developed on *nix systems.

Thus my question is: Has anyone use a recent version of VB to run
Windows with satisfactory results? (Note I still have a legal copy of
Win 10 on a CD as well as a portable DVD player with a USB connector.)

Thank you my fellow Debian users!

Best regards,

-Tom

I use "Virtual Machine Manager" now, instead of VirtualBox (mostly
because of the more-libre licensing; last I used VB, you had to use
their proprietary pay-for add-on for USB3 support, if I recall
correctly), but I used to use VB.

They both work fine to host Windows, with about 95% functionality (I've
mostly used Win10 Enterprise and Win11 Enterprise), with the 5% being
things like booting from a UEFI instead of Legacy Boot setup (which I
think may no longer be an issue), etc. This assumes, of course, that you
have plenty of RAM (32 GB seems good, with 16GB of that going to the
Windows host, assuming you're only running one VM at a time) and drive
space.

I've never done gaming or video-intensive stuff, so can't speak to that.

Since these apps (VB and Virt-Man) are both free (mostly, at least), try
it; the worst that'll happen (probably) is a waste of time.


--

Kent

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On Tue Jul 16 11:11:54 2024 jeremy ardley <jeremy.ardley@gmail.com>
wrote:

On 16/7/24 19:31, Tom Browder wrote:

I haven't looked at VB in a long time, but I have a real need for
a Windows host to port some Linux libraries to Windows in order to
support the Raku language.

Thus my question is: Has anyone use a recent version of VB to run
Windows with satisfactory results?

<waves hand> I use it every day. Mind you, I'm running XP,
but I do Windows program development on it and it runs just
fine. I give it 512MB of memory, and programs run on it at
least as fast as on a native Windows box.

VirtualBox is not supported on Debian 12.

Huh? Nobody told that to the two machines on which I'm
running VirtualBox version 7.0.14 under Debian 12.4.
Maybe it's a grandfathering thing, where I slipped the
Bookworm upgrade into an existing box - but I've seen
no problems whatsoever.

--
/~\ Charlie Gibbs | We'll go down in history as
\ / <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> | the first society that wouldn't
X I'm really at ac.dekanfrus | save itself because it wasn't
/ \ if you read it the right way. | cost-effective. -- Kurt
Vonnegut

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Le 16/07/2024 à 16:31, jeremy ardley a écrit :

VirtualBox is not supported on Debian 12.

why ?

I use it daily and it works well on my debian 12...

There are alternatives that include:

- KVM/QEMU

- VMWare Workstation Pro (which is now free for private use)

cool ! will try it too :)

In my experience KVM/QEMU is fairly stable. The VMWare product not so much.

Given everything is virtual you can easily try all options in an hour or
two.

Regards,
Jeff

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On Wednesday, 17-07-2024 at 07:47 DdB wrote:

Am 16.07.2024 um 16:31 schrieb jeremy ardley:

VirtualBox is not supported on Debian 12.

OMG, that came as a shock to me!
... because i am relying on vbox since more than a decade now. (It began
on Windows Vista, next Ubuntu was my OS, and Windows kept running in a
VM. Next i switched to debian (OS) and Windows 7 in a VM, and still i am using many of them, while i still did not yet finish my upgrade to stable.

But searching, i found this: https://itslinuxguide.com/install-virtualbox-debian/
which explained some errors and how to work around them. Great relief,
as there is no need to change my ways. :-)

But, when it comes to Windows: i was closely watching the development of Win10 and checking the prereleases, but found too many things, i did not like.

+1
I agree with you.

All the vbox-problems were solvable (even then), but i got in
touch with sysadmins, who decided to never recommend Win10 to their
bosses due to the spying on their companies, that could not be turned
off.

+1
I agree but I have not find anyone other than myself who cares. (so glad to learn that some other people also recognise the issue and do care too, thank you !)

That is why i am on Win7 still (i know, its unsupported), but it
does work nicely still (in a VM ofc.)

Since you do not object to the use of current Windows, i would be
surprised, if it would be impossible to run it in vbox. One thing
though: Back in the days, i was using commodity hardware, limiting the things, i could do. My current box has plenty of RAM, processing power
and disk space, so even running several VMs simultaneously doesnt cause
any headache.

Just my "worthless" experience... ;-)
DdB

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On Wednesday, 17 July 2024 01:48:33 BST jeremy ardley wrote:

On 17/7/24 05:47, DdB wrote:

[snip

Out of interest I have installed Windows XP under VirtualBox. It runs
really fast compared to the later bloatware versions of Windows.

I installed XP (SP3) under KVM/QEMU (IDE disk). I wanted to install Win7 but discovered my Win7 was an upgrade disk. I'd lost the XP key. Fortunately copious amount of beer was involved else I'd never have thought of actually phoning the registration helpline. It worked. This was in the UK, Jan 2nd
2023!

I just fired it up. It does run fast. I never progressed with it as the reason to have Win7 went away.

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On Wednesday, 17 July 2024 21:31:00 BST Jeffrey Walton wrote:

On Tue, Jul 16, 2024 at 1:35 PM jeremy ardley <jeremy.ardley@gmail.com>

wrote:

On 16/7/24 19:31, Tom Browder wrote:

I haven't looked at VB in a long time, but I have a real need for a Windows host
to port some Linux libraries to Windows in order to support the Raku language.

I now have lots of memory and disk space which was always a significant issue when I used it before, and my use case is much different. Then I was trying to show Windows users how they could run Linux, now I want to help Windows folks to use a new programming language that was developed on *nix systems.

Thus my question is: Has anyone use a recent version of VB to run
Windows with satisfactory results? (Note I still have a legal copy of
Win 10 on a CD as well as a portable DVD player with a USB connector.)

Thank you my fellow Debian users!

VirtualBox is not supported on Debian 12.

There are alternatives that include:

- KVM/QEMU

- VMWare Workstation Pro (which is now free for private use)

In my experience KVM/QEMU is fairly stable. The VMWare product not so
much.

Given everything is virtual you can easily try all options in an hour or two.

Add a "mee too" for KVM/QEMU/libvirt. The components are managed by
the kernel, so there are usually no technical problems, like unsigned modules. Virt Manager takes a little getting used to, but everything
you need is there.

The only downside to KVM/QEMU/libvirt is networking in some cases. Configuring a VM to use your local DHCP server is a pain because you
have to setup and configure the bridging yourself. And the
documentation to do it does not exist.

Out of interest, how is one supposed to do it now? I set mine up ages ago via /etc/network/interfaces - eg..

auto br0
iface br0 inet dhcp
bridge_ports enp4s0
bridge_stp off
bridge_fd 0
bridge_maxwait 0

..but I have no idea how to do it now. Manpage says 'brctl' is obsolete and points to 'bridge' which I've never used.

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On Friday, 19-07-2024 at 10:15 sd@swampdog.co.uk wrote:

On Wednesday, 17 July 2024 21:31:00 BST Jeffrey Walton wrote:

On Tue, Jul 16, 2024 at 1:35 PM jeremy ardley <jeremy.ardley@gmail.com>

wrote:

On 16/7/24 19:31, Tom Browder wrote:

I haven't looked at VB in a long time, but I have a real need for a Windows host
to port some Linux libraries to Windows in order to support the Raku language.

I now have lots of memory and disk space which was always a significant issue when I used it before, and my use case is much different. Then I was trying to show Windows users how they could run Linux, now I want to
help Windows folks to use a new programming language that was developed on *nix systems.

Thus my question is: Has anyone use a recent version of VB to run Windows with satisfactory results? (Note I still have a legal copy of Win 10 on a CD as well as a portable DVD player with a USB connector.)

Thank you my fellow Debian users!

VirtualBox is not supported on Debian 12.

There are alternatives that include:

- KVM/QEMU

- VMWare Workstation Pro (which is now free for private use)

In my experience KVM/QEMU is fairly stable. The VMWare product not so much.

Given everything is virtual you can easily try all options in an hour or two.

Add a "mee too" for KVM/QEMU/libvirt. The components are managed by
the kernel, so there are usually no technical problems, like unsigned modules. Virt Manager takes a little getting used to, but everything
you need is there.

The only downside to KVM/QEMU/libvirt is networking in some cases. Configuring a VM to use your local DHCP server is a pain because you
have to setup and configure the bridging yourself. And the
documentation to do it does not exist.

Out of interest, how is one supposed to do it now? I set mine up ages ago via /etc/network/interfaces - eg..

auto br0
iface br0 inet dhcp
bridge_ports enp4s0
bridge_stp off
bridge_fd 0
bridge_maxwait 0

..but I have no idea how to do it now. Manpage says 'brctl' is obsolete and points to 'bridge' which I've never used.

After I uninstalled Network Manager, I found this page very useful for setting up a bridge:

https://wiki.debian.org/BridgeNetworkConnections#Manual_bridge_setup

Configuring bridging in /etc/network/interfaces

If you like static IP’s, then you can just add the static IP options under the br0 interface setup. For example:

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo br0
iface lo inet loopback

# Set up interfaces manually, avoiding conflicts with, e.g., network manager
iface eth0 inet manual

iface eth1 inet manual

# Bridge setup
iface br0 inet static
bridge_ports eth0 eth1
address 192.168.1.2
broadcast 192.168.1.255
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.1


One day I would like to learn all that this page explains, but I think the above is easier:

https://wiki.debian.org/NetworkConfiguration#Bridging
Bridging

I keep trying to convince myself that I should learn and then use systemd-networkd :

https://wiki.debian.org/SystemdNetworkd
bridging over a bond

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/systemd-networkd

https://major.io/p/creating-a-bridge-for-virtual-machines-using-systemd-networkd/
Creating a bridge for virtual machines using systemd-networkd
3.1 Network bridge with DHCP

Yet another way (just how many network configuration systems does Linux have?)

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Network_bridge

I guess you had found these web pages or ones like them yourself, but in case you had not, hope they are a help?

I use the first example that uses "/etc/network/interfaces" which appears to work for servers when Network Manager is not installed but on systems that have Network Manager I have experience some delay issues with networking when starting up the computer.
And I gave up on setting up Bridges on Wireless network interfaces as I think each wireless connection is treated as a new network interface.

George.






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