The Wahyudiharto's Blog

Just receiving the latest gadget last month from Sony, a Windows 8 based tablet PC called as Sony's VAIO Duo 11. It’s my first Win based tablet PC review anyway before having hands-in-hands next with Samsung ATIV family. Actually, this also becomes my experiment with VirtualBox since my last attempt about 6 years ago. However, there’s only co-incident why I wrote about both different things (the VAIO and VirtualBox). So, here’s below the tales, the why and how…

Sony Tablet PC
Why was that Sony engineers had created this touchy things with “huge” 11.6in LCD with so high-res screen? Even with Windows 8, everything wasn’t too awesome – except the Metro icons in the first interface. I thought that it wouldn’t be suitable for hi-mobility person however, since this thing is too heavy to carry.


The backside frame architecture similar to Nokia E7 – slide the screen to use physical keyboard. That’s why this tablet looks heavy - it has built-in keyboard inside it screen. Feel so futuristic for anyone who ever sees it for the first time, but not for me :)


With 11.6in screen, the keyboard very comfort to use. Even it had a black spot touch-pad similar to Blackberry handheld that also fun enough. This might be the answer, why the engineers made “bulky” tablet just to provide a smooth keyboard inside the LCD screen.

Windows 8
This was my first experience with Windows 8 and it just great at all. From System properties window, we’ll know that this machine has i5 core and 4GB RAM with x64 architecture.


All that major enhanced from this OS I liked was the boot time and GUI – including the window status when copying files while in progress. Like that live graphical up and down very much! Described the transfer file speed and it seems more than intuitive and so futuristic!


However, a problem raised when we need to run 16bit DOS application, since this machine and OS didn’t support it as well. Meanwhile 16bit DOS application is a rarely to have in recent days, but if you still use it for your daily works, so you’ll need 3rd party DOS virtualization tools.

DosBox
I don’t recommend this tool for sure, because garbled things will show up after invoking a large data. Let say, a clipper or pascal application that querying text file records (or an old-fashion DBF files). After all, DosBox have a configuration files that annoying common users to use or modify. Besides, there’s no way you want to full-screened the DOS window filled to your LCD. It can make your eyes creepy because seeing mini fonts on a small DOS window.

VirtualBox
This is another alternative virtualization tool to run 16bit application from guest OS that support it natively. I still recommend using Windows XP as guest OS to run it over Windows 8. However, with i5 core processor and 4GB RAM, running a virtual Windows XP is not a problem at all. If you’d like to try, go download for the latest VirtualBox version from Oracle website.


All you need is the VirtualBox setup files and the extension pack. Also, you must provide Windows XP installation CD. Let assume you had already installed both VirtualBox package above and continued to create a guest OS environment, so I can skipped to the installation screen.


Installing Windows XP guest OS takes about 15 – 20 minutes on this machine. When it finished, the screen may show the first boot screen.


If you need to run guest OS not from VirtualBox main window, there’s a quick shortcut maker that create an icons to your desktop.


Just right click from OS selector, and choose Create Shortcut on Desktop menu. From this shortcut, you can modify the behavior of the launcher parameter. For example, if you need to start Windows XP guest OS in full screen mode, you can add –fullscreen to the last Target parameter.


Or, add –seamless if you intend to use it in seamless mode. Try the shortcut icon and here we go. Also try to run cmd DOS window, continued to ALT+ENTER to display in full screen mode and what you need is what you get.


A full screen DOS window helps people eyes being relaxed. And also, it runs natively in Windows XP.

VirtualBox File Sharing Sessions
There’s no major enhancement in VirtualBox for file sharing features. Working with files in both OS can be done with native feature of Shared Folders or pure networking link.


As it simply by click and select, you can access files where you defined as shared before. The steps are described below:

• Right click from selected OS on main VirtualBox window
• From Settings window, create Shared Folders
• Add a folder path from toolbar on the right of the window
• Browse  for a folder from Add Share window, also defined it as read only or not or re-mount on boot or not

Anyway I found buggy things here after I shared a folder contains 16bit application that need to run from guest OS. Couple times it successfully loaded, but at last it permanently shows a failed message that says “Can not execute [application exe name]”.  There’s no clue about this, so I picked a pure networking link for the same purpose.

To create this, you must specify IP for both OS’es. First, give IP for guest OS (Windows XP) with 192.168.10.2. To generate host IP, below are step-by-step:

• First, set VirtualBox network setting to VirtualBox Host Only Ethernet Adapter
• From Windows 8 Network and Internet Setting Control Panel, open properties for VirtualBox Ethernet adapter
• Set the IP with 192.168.10.1 (Windows 8 become server)

Try to give it a test by pinging from guest to host. Beware with firewall since it may give you troubled. If your ping succeeded, then your both OS are ready to use. Create a sharing folders from Windows 8 and try to access it from Windows XP.

PS: If you found your networking failed, run diagnose wizard from VirtualBox Ethernet Adapter in Windows 8. This might occurs after you resume Windows 8 from hibernate. I don’t have a clue about this, so I noted it as a VirtualBox bugs for my self. Have a good try...

Labels: Review, VirtualBox, VirtualPC

On this series article of Aspire One (A110) – at least at current month continuously, I’d like to share you about my experience installing Fedora 7 guest on Windows XP Home host with VirtualBox. This might be a different one since I hadn’t tried before, moreover on netbook class. By the chance, I need to test about the virtualization performance on Atom processor running Linux system simultaneously. If you’d like to take a try your self, you must prepare VirtualBox software (I used 1.4.0 or download latest here), Fedora 7 ISO DVD (or others Linux image) and Nero ImageDrive (or your any virtual CD favorite application).

First, load the ISO image with virtual CD drive tools (I used Nero to load the ISO image).



Run VirtualBox & prepare the virtual hardware environments. In my test, I setting up with 384MB of RAM & 3GB fixed size of virtual hard disk.



Boot the machine & it will shows default welcome splash. Select the first menu; Install or upgrade an existing system.



Follow the on-screen wizard until you meet with hard drive partitioning window. Select Create custom layout & continue to Next button.



Divide the 3GB virtual hard disk with each configuration; root system (ext3) with 2753MB & swap file with 314MB or depends on your custom size.



As it default, leave the GRUB boot loader to be installed on this virtual hard disk. Click Next to continue.



Obviously, the network interface has been detected as Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] 79c970 [PCnet32 LANCE]. Give the interface with manual configuration IP address & similar with the host network class (I used 192.168.1.1 to host & 192.168.1.12 to guest).



Select your appropriate software with Customize now radio button or simply leave with it’s default selection value.



Installing files then established…



During this, the load of CPU usage was high. Every single task on host OS may decrease the speed of installing process.



Approximately, it took about 1:20 hours until the installation completed with office packages installed. Next, click Reboot button. Note that, the ISO image will ejected automatically during this screen.



System will now restarted, the live GRUB boot also appears.



Loading progress established with (very) low speed.



The great was, 2nd device – which was sound card – had recognized as 82801AA AC97 Audio Controller & currently using snd-intel8x0 module. A sound test clearly hear out from the speaker.



I tried to test the network connection (host with 192.168.1.1 and guest IP 192.168.1.12) & both of it was successfully responding. I pinging out guest from host, while I made an attempt to load the host share drives from guest OS.



Conclusion
Somehow, running Fedora 7 with VirtualBox on this netbook feels the same with running exactly Fedora 7 on Pentium III physically machine with 256MB of RAM. Everything has working but with slow-moving around. However, with all weaknesses, still I need this virtualization to test my web based application project on different OS (for example: Linux act as client) & browser capability environments.

Labels: Acer Aspire One, Fedora, Linux, VirtualBox

Recently, I got a loan from my friend a Macbook laptop with Windows XP installed already. Just a day chance to investigate what is beneath under a pure of Macintosh PowerPC architecture machine inside & no doubt… I was impressed. The shiny-white Macbook case has elegance looks, even with it’s 13” wide screen display. It has an Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 512MB of RAM & 60GB storage – it’s a standard tech spec of value notebook of the day. Anyway, I’d like to test the behaviors of the VirtualBox environment under Windows XP since it’s interesting me too much. The VirtualBox under Mac OSX article you can also find here.



By the way, the dual boot Mac OS & Windows XP on her machine didn’t handled by other 3rd party software such as Parallel Desktop or Apple Bootcamp but natively an Option key pressed in a boot sequence which showing up the menu what OS will run - CMIIW. By then, It seems pretty difficult to understand why Apple machine doesn’t have an interactive BIOS module but a static one called EMI. For more, there is no differences when Windows XP loaded in Macbook machine rather than common PC. I though that the Apple designer had great succeeded to bunch the Intel processor & other things inside.



The minimal installation of Fedora Core 5 Linux guest OS set up with 3.5GB storage space in VirtualBox (2.3GB of Ext3 main partition & the rest is swap partition). Nothing weird things happened during installation until it’s finished for about less than an hour.



The hardware detection are smooth since it’s treat the same way as Intel machine & so on including the sound board also detected properly.



A weird fact explains that Apple built-in keyboard using USB link connected through the notebook. The question is, is that true? Didn’t have any idea why it so.



I didn’t have much time to test both OS interconnection with networking but I guess it will work 100%. Read here for the reverse side (Windows XP Guest with Fedora 7 Host). Anyway, thank’s to Mira Ferulia for her tested Macbook & the photograph she had taken also.

Labels: VirtualBox

Until the latest version of VirtualBox (1.4.1) released for Mac, there are still no support for the Host Interface networking option enabled yet. Moreover, you even could not see the NIC card got working on Mac OSX running in some Intel Machine (Jas 10.4.8) since it didn’t recognized properly with the built-in driver. So, is there anyway to get a simple networking between both OS? Sure it does.

FYI, file transfer in a Shared Folders option allow you to access files of your Mac OSX system from within the Windows XP guest system, much like ordinary shares on Windows networks would – except that shared folders do not need a networking setup. Sharing is accomplished using a special service on the host and a file system driver for the guest, both of which are – fortunately - provided by VirtualBox. In order to use this feature, the VirtualBox Guest Additions have to be installed in guest OS. Currently, Shared Folders are limited to Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Linux 2.4 and 2.6 guests. To share a folder with a virtual machine in VirtualBox, you must specify the path of the folder to be shared on the host and chose a “share name” that the guest can use to access it.



Then, you can mount the shared folder from inside a VM the same way as you would mount an ordinary network share.
In Windows XP guest, use the following formula command:

net use x: \\vboxsvr\sharename

While vboxsvr is a fixed name, replace “x:“ with the drive letter that you want to use for the share, and sharename with the share name specified before.

To simplify this, I used to create a batch file which can executed manually to mount all of the 4 shared folder name (1 NTFS partition for Windows XP, 2 FAT32 partition for data & 1 HFS Mac OSX partition) specified before after the guest OS shows up. For example, named it with vboxsvr.bat and the picture below is the values:



You can also create a link for the batch file & move it to on a someplace you like for example in a quick launch panel.



To test the script, simply click the shortcut file until it processed completely. If it succeeded, the script will create new networking drives available assigned next to the drive letter defined before on the batch file.



However, I still don’t understand why it marked with Disconnected Network Drive label although files & folders on both OS is accessible as you may seen on ordinary full permission shared drives.

Labels: VirtualBox

As my previous plan to review the using of Windows XP guest in Linux host over VirtualBox, I decided to choose my existing Fedora 7 as the 2nd OS boot from my laptop as the host OS. Actually, my priority subjected to this than the previous. The main purpose is to make simply my coding time when I have a web based project & also the debugging sessions. It’s important for me to keep a maximum compatibility cross browser looks & functionality between Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera compared to the native Linux internet browser such as Konqueror. Now, I don’t have to wasting time to test & re-code the source between browser on separated systems. Switching the OS are more faster than have a dual boot systems. It’s also more easy when you need to carry 2 systems on a single PC or laptop. Again, think about it!

To did this, I used the older VirtualBox 1.3.8 downloaded from the website. Even that the latest 1.4.0 version are equipped with pre built-in networking bridging tools, but I was too curious about what happened inside the bridging process over Linux using User Model Linux (UML) utilities. That’s the reason why I choose the older version. Okay, let assumed that you have already a Windows XP system fresh installed as the guest OS or simply using the VDI image file created from the VirtualBox Windows based likes I described before. FYI, my laptop is dual booted with Windows XP & Fedora 7. Each of it are installed with VirtualBox (1.4.0 in Windows XP & 1.3.8 in Fedora 7) which using the same Windows XP VDI image file. It’s saving the space enough! So, logically now I have 4 systems in a single laptop.



The critical point to create a network emulated adapter device in Linux is that you have to provide the bridging tools. The good news is that the brctl tool to makes it are already provided with Fedora 7. The bad is, the tunctl utility doesn’t seems exist since it’s not available as the Fedora repositories. Not to worry, because I have already found an universal architecture UML (tunctl) RPM packaged by crosewarne from a trusted source over the internet. You can downloaded it from here (40 Kb) & install it manually. First of all, make sure that the Linux host OS IP address are 192.168.1.1 & default subnet mask to 255.255.255.0. It’s important way to keep the VDI plug & play if you decided to using my scenario (4 systems in a single laptop).

[root@tuxbook ~]# ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1B:24:37:AA:DC
inet addr:192.168.1.1 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Interrupt:17

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:560 (560.0 b) TX bytes:560 (560.0 b)

[root@tuxbook ~]# service network status
Configured devices:
lo eth0 wlan0
Currently active devices:
lo eth0

Next, to simplify the TUN/TAP process, create an executable bash script & stored it in /bin folder. Named it with tuntap. Below is the value of the file.

#!/bin/bash
tunctl -t tap1 -u root
brctl addbr br0
ifconfig eth0 0.0.0.0 promisc
brctl addif br0 eth0
ifconfig br0 192.168.1.10
brctl addif br0 tap1
ifconfig tap1 up
exit

Note:
Replace the line “ifconfig br0 192.168.1.10” with “dhclient br0” (w/o apostrophe) if you are in a DHCP environment or you can read here for more detail.

Run the script by typing tuntap on terminal. If everything is good, now you already have a networking bridged from the primary network adapter.

[root@tuxbook ~]# ifconfig
br0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1B:24:37:AA:DC
inet addr:192.168.1.10 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::21b:24ff:fe37:aadc/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:40 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:9391 (9.1 KiB)

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1B:24:37:AA:DC
inet addr:192.168.1.1 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST PROMISC MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Interrupt:17

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:560 (560.0 b) TX bytes:560 (560.0 b)

tap1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 1E:A4:7A:4C:E8:49
inet6 addr: fe80::1ca4:7aff:fe4c:e849/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1 errors:0 dropped:3 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:500
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:70 (70.0 b)

[root@tuxbook ~]# service network status
Configured devices:
lo eth0 wlan0
Currently active devices:
lo eth0 tap1 br0

Next, open the VirtualBox VM settings, click on a Network session. On the Host Interface Settings group box, fill the Interface Name with tap1. Press OK to confirm.



Then, let’s start the guest OS.



Skip below configuration if you are using the VDI file from Windows host like I described earlier. Set the guest OS IP address with 192.168.1.11 & default subnet mask to 255.255.255.0. Note that this configuration becomes the guest OS IP address. Now, back to host OS, from Linux terminal, ping to the guest OS. It should now responding.



Make sure that the guest OS also brings the same reply with pinging to the host OS.



That’s the sign that your both host & guest systems are being operating well. Now, it’s up to you, whether you like to create a map network drive or something else to support your own jobs.



It’s done. Now you have both Windows XP & Linux system runs simultaneously with active networking right on a single computer.

Labels: VirtualBox

What if you in a travel & hardly needs to get work in a networking situation? A virtual machine (VM) installed in your system can do that. This situation also affected when you only have 1 PC but you must have at least 2 PC to get work, just like me as I have a laptop but need 2nd PC in order to support my jobs. Rather than spending money to buying extra PC/laptop, I considered to using a VM over my laptop. It’s more valuable, practice & easy to carry as you will have 2 working PC in a single system. Think about it!

The needs of 2 PC’s using Windows XP – for example – can help a programmer to debug their windows client/server based application which using a networking utilization. Why I choose VirtualBox? It’s as simply as that it’s free, lightweight & robust. This article is my continued part of my first experience about VirtualBox behavior in DHCP server & comparison between VirtualBox & QEMU. As seen on the title, I used both of Windows XP as the host & guest OS in an interoperability of networking (a static address LAN, indeed). I’m planning in the next session using Linux as the host OS. May this document brings more benefit.

First of all, download the latest VirtualBox application from the website. I used VirtualBox 1.4.0 to did this experience. Okay, let assumed that you have already a Windows XP system fresh installed as the guest OS. A good start on how to installing it you may find on my previous article. Now is the time to configure the networking in both systems. Open the VM settings, click on a Network session. On the Host Interface group box, click the green plus folder to create the virtual host interface network.



As automatically, the VM will create the default network adapter named by VirtualBox Host Interface 1 on the host OS.



Assigned the IP address with a static one. For example, you may configured it with 192.168.1.1 & default subnet mask to 255.255.255.0. Note that this configuration becomes the host OS IP address. Next, press OK button to activating the changes.



Then, start the guest OS. For more resources, install the VBoxAddition library comes within VirtualBox setup. It would bring additional device driver e.g: configurable display adapter resolution & mouse integrating between hosts & guest OS.



Set the guest OS IP address with 192.168.1.11 & default subnet mask to 255.255.255.0. Note that this configuration becomes the guest OS IP address. Now, back to host OS, run DOS command from Start Menu :: Run & ping to the guest OS. It should now responding.



Make sure that the guest OS also brings the same reply with pinging to the host OS.



That’s the sign that your both host & guest systems are being operating well. Now, it’s up to you, whether you like to create a map network drive or something else to support your own jobs.



It’s done. Now you have fully 2 Windows systems runs with active networking right on a single computer.

Labels: VirtualBox