With the latest release of VirtualBox, Windows and Linux can be run together
simultaneously, and you don't even need to switch between the two. Using the
seamless Windows feature of VirtualBox, you can run two different operating
systems simultaneously on a single PC and you can use the applications of both
operating systems from the same desktop simultaneously.
This has been made possible by the combined efforts of VirtualBox and
SeamlessRDP that is meant for seamless Windows support for rdesktop. The
rdesktop, ie, the remote desktop feature helps in creating X11 Window for each
Windows application that you will run from the host machine, further the
application that is running can be moved and resized.
In this article, we will show you how you can seamlessly work with Windows
and Linux together without switching Windows of virtual machine.
Prerequisites
Before we proceed, you should have the latest VirtualBox 1.5.2 installed on
your system. For this download VirtualBox 1.5.2 rpm for openSUSE 10.3 from the
link provided in the direct hit box. For installation first navigate to the
folder where you have downloaded the rpm file and then run the following
commands in the terminal.
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# rpm -ivh VirtualBox-1.5.2_25433 _openSUSE103-1.i586.rpm
# /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup
For running VirtualBox, navigate to Computer > more application and on the
new application section click on the 'Innotek VirtualBox' icon.
Integration
Now create a new virtual machine for Windows XP. You could also do it for
otther Windows versions also. Once the virtual machine for Windows has been
created, a few changes need to be done to the guest OS. Open the registry editor
from start > run >'regedit' and press enter. In the editor Window navigate to
the 'HKEY_CURRENT_ USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > Current Version >
Policies > Explorer' on the right panel create a new DWORD and call it
'NoDesktop' and set its value to 1. This is done so that the desktop of the
guest OS is not visible, only the guest taskbar and the guest application is
visible on the Linux desktop (ie host desktop).
You are now required to install VirtualBox's Guest additions for seamless
mouse movement between guest OS and host OS. For this click on the 'Install
Guest Addition,' under 'Device' menu item within the virtual machine running the
guest OS. Once this option is selected a virtual CDROM drive will appear on the
guest OS. Explore the virtual drive and click on the 'Install Guest Additions'
to initiate the installation, follow the in stallation instruction to finish the
installation process.
Once the installation is complete properly shutdown the guest operating
system ie click on Start > Shutdown.
Reboot the guest operating system, and when it's fully ready, click on the
'Seamless Mode,' under 'Machine' menu. Finally you will see the Windows task bar
on the Linux desktop and you can now work seamlessly with both OSs.
Click on 'New' icon in the virtual box Window to create a new virtual machine and further choose 'OS Type' as 'Windows XP' |
Specify the amount of RAM you want to allocate to the virtual machine, for good results use 512 MB or above |
You have two options: the first option will be good to go for as you never know how much space would be required in future but if you want to strict space management then go for second |
After you have selected the type of HDD image specify the size of the virtual HDD that would be used by the Windows, making 10 GB HDD for Windows is recommended |
After you have selected the type of HDD image specify the size of the virtual HDD that would be used by the Windows, making 10 GB HDD for Windows is recommended |
With the seamless integrity of Windows and Linux one can explore or even run applications simultaneously from a single desktop environment. |