Now - Puppy 4.3.1 VirtualBox - Much Simpler than Before

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playdayz
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Now - Puppy 4.3.1 VirtualBox - Much Simpler than Before

#1 Post by playdayz »

Many things are greatly simplified from the previous version 4.2.1vm.
This is Puppy 4.3.1 running in a virtual machine for the program Sun xVM VirtualBox. I find this the easiest and most reliable way to run Puppy when I have to be working in Windows. This is a full implementation and it enables sharing files between Puppy and Windows as well as copying and pasting text between Puppy and Windows. It runs in a window on the Windows desktop or it can run full-screen. VirtualBox was originally based on Qemu, as I understand it, and now has an Open Source Edition as well as a proprietary edition. Both editions are free of charge; I use the proprietary edition which has USB and SATA support. VirtualBox runs for me when Qemu and the qemu-based puplets won't, and I believe it also offers more features than the qemu-based puplets.

It is mainly useful for those running Windows, so they might have a Puppy on their desktop, but it should also run in the Linux version of VirtualBox (though I have not tested that). Puppy 4.3.1 has 512MB ram (adjustable) and needs a physical machine with 1GB ram for VirtualBox and Puppy to run in Windows safely (or at least 768MB, I would say). Performance is extremely good IMO; my tests show 80% of running natively on the same processor. The Puppy in the box can add pets and other programs just as it is designed to do. It can also be used as a "browser appliance," to surf safely in Linux even while running Windows. Another fun thing to do is to get Windows & XP Virtual Desktops and use that to copy the Linux feature of multiple desktops--you can put Windows on one and Puppy on another http://vdm.codeplex.com/Release/Project ... seId=15275

Easy Install:
1) download and install VirtualBox;
2) download and unpack this zip archive of Puppy431rc2.zip; the archive is 254MB and the unzipped folder is 274MB (the increase over Puppy 4.3.1 is to install the VirtualBox services in order that all features will work).
3) open VirtualBox and "File -> Import Appliance" and select the ovf file inside the folder Puppy431rc2. When it has been imported, select that virtual machine in VirtualBox and click Start. (Testing in XP, I had to manually enable some of the options such as USB and Network--just look at the list of options when you select Puppy 4.3.1 and click each option and then click the Enable box.)

Download VirtualBox -->http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
Download Puppy431rc2 zip archive --> http://www.diddywahdiddy.net/Puppy400/Puppy431rc2.zip
md5sum = ee06f7ac6959b31e012aa8b352e9b849

Image

To Copy & Paste text between host and guest:
Just copy & paste!

To share files between host and guest:
1. You can either create a new folder on the host to share or you can use an existing folder.
2. Right-Click the folder icon in the tray at the bottom right corner of VirtualBox, Click the Add New Shared Folder icon and navigate to a folder to share on the host machine; VirtualBox will provide a "sharename" to refer to that folder (or you can make your own sharename, for instance, Puppy).
2. Then create a folder in puppy (for instance, /mnt/Puppy) to mount the host file on.
3. Use this command in a terminal to mount the host folder in Puppy: "mount -t vboxsf sharename mountingpoint" (for instance, mount -t vboxsf Puppy /mnt/Puppy)
Refer to Sharing Folders in Help if problem

Adjust Video Memory: The process of cloning somehow changes the video memory to 4MB; that works but I adjust it to 8MB by clicking Display.

Autoresize desktop. What works is this: 1) drag the corner of the window to whatever size you want; 2) Right-Click on the Puppy desktop and choose Menu -> Shut down -> Restart X server. By using this kludge one can use the Autoresize feature.

The small print. For anyone who is interested, here's what I did
1. Install Puppy in VirtualBox
2. Download and install kernel sources sfs and devx sfs in order to run the "Guest Additions" install program to compile and install the VirtualBox Guest Additions. The Guest Additions are the modules and processes that enable the feature set.
3. Mount the Guest Additions program by Machine -> Install Guest Additions, and then click the CD icon to open Guest Additions (which are mounted on the CD). Then Right-Click in the white space of the CD window and choose Window -> Terminal Here--you can enter ls in the terminal to make sure you are in the proper directory. In the terminal enter "./VBoxAdditionsLinux-x86.run." (Don't forget the begin the command with "./" period forward-slash) to indicate that the file is in the current directory. It will end by telling you that the X Windows services were not installed.
4. Add user vboxadd to Puppy
5. Add these three lines to .xinitrc to start the start the X window services.
VBoxClient --clipboard
VBoxClient --seamless
VBoxClient --autoresize
6. The hardware probe for xorgwizard was not working right with VirtualBox and the screen went black (and that was before I did anything); this made it difficult to get any X-server running. This process seems to work reliably: 1) choose Xorg in xorgwizard; 2) when the screen goes blank, hit the down arrow 15 times, press Enter, hit the down-arrow twice, press Enter twice. This gives a 1024x768 desktop.
7. Before I made the version here, I removed the kernel sources and the devx sfs's, and then "File -> Export Appliance."
Last edited by playdayz on Thu 15 Oct 2009, 21:59, edited 13 times in total.

raffy
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thanks

#2 Post by raffy »

Good work, and thanks for linking to vPuppy (214Rx5) too.

Now we have 2 virtual pups for Windows refugees. Of course there was always qemupuppy by eric veenstra.
Puppy user since Oct 2004. Want FreeOffice? [url=http://puppylinux.info/topic/freeoffice-2012-sfs]Get the sfs (English only)[/url].

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prit1
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#3 Post by prit1 »

Thanks playdayz. Virtual box is really amazing. I have used Qemu and Vmware and had concluded that virtual machines are always slow and unresponsive. I tried Virtualbox and I can work at the same speed and performance as that of the host machine itself.
[url=http://macpup.org][b]Macpup - The beauty of linux[/b][/url] [b] | [/b] [url=http://pritlog.com/][b]Pritlog - Simple blog app[/b][/url]

Fozz
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Sorting out VB for Puppy

#4 Post by Fozz »

playdayz

This is great.. but... as a complete noob I don't know how to do all the things you did.

Is there any chance you can put together a step by step (VERY precise) guide for someone like me? I'm running Puppy 4.2.1 in VB on a Fujitsu laptop and I like to add the guest additions

At some point I will likely try to install it on a couple of old slot ones out in the garage (directly to the HD's) but I'm not any kind of programmer so if its not spelled out step by step I don't have much of a chance

Thanks
Fozz

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playdayz
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#5 Post by playdayz »

hey fozz, i'll try. the small print in the first post is what i did--are you saying that is too dense and needs to be explained more fully? and for a newbie with explanations of any puppy specific items i might have glossed over? Yeah, that makes sense ;-)

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Vyse
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#6 Post by Vyse »

Great work playdayz.

Although I have been using *nix for a long time now, so I dont need it for myself. But its good for people and noobs who are scared that a live CD may mess up their system!!

Keep up the good work.

Regards.

soccerfan
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#7 Post by soccerfan »

playdayz,
I just registered (this is my first post) to give you my thanks and kudos for your efforts.
I have always wanted to try linux and, thanks to you, I did and everything worked like a charm on my XP box. This is a keeper!

Since you set up this vm primarily for windows users, I have a request:
It would be really great if you could package your vm with wine already installed.
This would allow users like me to play with some of their favorite windows programs. I would like to try proxomitron and k-meleon
(btw, do you also post at the k-meleon forum using the same nick?)

Many thanks in anticipation.

PS: I did make try to install wine from a .pet distribution but got some dependency errors.

EDIT: Also, I'm running short of hard disk space.
Is there a way to reduce the maximum hd size from 8GB to 4GB? Thanks.

soccerfan

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playdayz
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#8 Post by playdayz »

hey soccerfan, k-melonians do seem to gravitate to linux ;-) running k-meleon in wine in Puppy was the first thing I did with wine--i have the best luck with Fred's remixes for Linux.

That is a good idea to put wine in--i use crossover myself but that is commercial so i could not include it--it should not be hard to prepare a version with wine though--i'll put some energy that way--maybe even include a few of my favorite programs. i have prepared a "wine bottle" with some programs like k-meleon and foobar2000 in it--it is on the forum somewhere--i'll see if i can still find it. also, there is at least one pet of wine that i have used successfully. i will look for that too.
This wine might work for you:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 58&t=37783
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 61&t=32489

concerning the disk size--the
disk space expands as you need it, up to a max of 8GB, but once it has expanded it never contracts. you might not actually be using 8GB unless you have added a *whole* lot of stuff. the actual size of the disk file in the distribution is only 300MB or so.

soccerfan
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#9 Post by soccerfan »

playdayz wrote:That is a good idea to put wine in--i use crossover myself but that is commercial so i could not include it--it should not be hard to prepare a version with wine though--i'll put some energy that way--maybe even include a few of my favorite programs.
Thanks playdayz, much appreciated.
In the meantime, I'll try to play around with the wine pet you linked to
(I had tried 1.1.23 but your link is for a newer 1.1.28 ) and I'll also
check out your "wine bottle" with some other goodies included.

Btw, I was able to run proxomitron without problems with wine 1.1.23.

Thanks again for your help.
soccerfan

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playdayz
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Running Wine in the Puppy Virtual Machine

#10 Post by playdayz »

@ soccerfan

I have found that technosaurus's wine pet is so good that nothing else is needed. Just download the pet and click to install. (You can delete the pet after install to save space.) Then download the installer for whatever windows program you want to try and click the installer. Technosaurus has set it up so that ".exe" files automatically start wine. The installer will run and when it finishes there will be a desktop file in /root/.wine/drive_c/users/root/Desktop. (To see /root/.wine...you will need to click the eyeball in the Rox toolbar to see hidden files.) You can click that file to run the program or drag the file from there onto your Puppy desktop to have an easy icon to start the program.

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 58&t=37783

I have installed K-Meleon 1.5.3 and Foobar2000 this way without problems. Previously I found that VLC and EAC (Exact Audio Copy) also worked. I am using K-Meleon now; I had to change the font to DejaVuSans to make it more readable. Running in wine in puppy in virtualbox in windows it is not perhaps as fast as you are used to ;-) but on the other hand it runs as fast as seamonkey 1.1.15 according to the Peacekeeper browser benchmark. Fred's 352 would run faster because it has gecko 1.9. but it is a bit more of a hassle to install. Firefox 3.5.2 and Swiftfox and Seamonkey 2.0b1 run nicely in the vm in my experience http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=45030

soccerfan
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#11 Post by soccerfan »

Thanks playdayz, I'll give winepet 1.1.28 a try.
I too had the problem with fonts in kmeleon and, for me, dingbats seemed to work ok.
As for ff352, I'll pass. I prefer the 1.1.x versions of seamonkey.
soccerfan

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Aitch
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#12 Post by Aitch »

Hi playdayz

.....continuing from the VMtools version thread
Aitch wrote:I've just deleted virtualbox after 2 days of difficulties...I'll post in that thread - nearly borked my windoze XP....
Just not having any virtual luck....

This version didn't work for me

I got stuck with the wrong video resolution, so couldn't get to the menu button, as it was off screen down the bottom somewhere, and when I tried to run xorg wizard, I just got a black screen - NADA - tried control-alt-backspace - nothing

When I used control-alt-delete to kill the running process it borked the files so wouldn't run next time

When I rebooted windoze to see what had happened I got a filesystem check start & finish, then ....it borked my windoze XP.....

Fortunately I had a recent RegistryPro backup I was able to restore....lost a few browser links & a recent few downloads, but I can get them again

System now running again, & have uninstalled virtualbox puppy 421, as well as old vmware files except latest vmware player

Going to give this a berth for a while....not your fault, don't give up....

Aitch :)

Marek
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Location: Berlin, Germany

worked for me, thx

#13 Post by Marek »

Puppy as guest with Vista SP1 as host. Took some fiddling to get 1280x800 sreen res running. btw: can I upgrade this version to puppy 4.30 without losing vbox additions?

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playdayz
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#14 Post by playdayz »

hey marek, i do not think you can upgrade without recompiling the vbox additions--because they are kernel modules which must be compiled for a certain kernel (that's the way i understand it anyway). i have already done them for 4.3.1 but i am not sure i could isolate and post them. you could update and then compile them yourself--i could provide some instructions for that, and the two files you would need are available, the kernel sources for 2.6.30 and the devx sfs for 4.3.1. That's what I did and everything went well. or if you preferred i could post the new one. let me know...

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playdayz
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Puppy 4.3.1rc2 Available In VirtualBox

#15 Post by playdayz »

Puppy 4.3.1rc2 is available as a VirtualBox virtual machine. (I am hoping rc2 will become 4.3.1 Final. )

Please view the first message in this thread for the details.

soccerfan
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Joined: Tue 25 Aug 2009, 14:40

Re: Puppy 4.3.1rc2 Available In VirtualBox

#16 Post by soccerfan »

playdayz wrote:Puppy 4.3.1rc2 is available as a VirtualBox virtual machine. (I am hoping rc2 will become 4.3.1 Final. )
Thanks, I'll try it out tomorrow in the new version of portable virtualbox 3.0.8 that came out a week or so ago :D

soccerfan

Marek
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Installed succesfully

#17 Post by Marek »

Puppy 4.3.1 RC2 on VBOX 3.0.8/VistaSP1. Works well except for copy&paste. Some things I did:

Installed two true type pets:

http://www.gposil.com/pets/Liberation.pet
http://www.gposil.com/pets/ttcorefonts.pet

I had to move /usr/share/fonts to /root/.fonts, else it wouldn't work. Restart x-Server or reboot.

Installed Firefox (looks crappy w/o MS fonts):
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=46390

> I'd like to copy/install the installation to the VBOX hdd now - the
> PET manager asks me for the .iso file, however. Any ideas?
Update: please forget the question above, your .vmdk is a hdd install already, what was I thinking?

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playdayz
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#18 Post by playdayz »

Hey marek

the copy and paste should work. you could check in Pprocess and make sure "VBoxClient --clipboard" is running, which it should be. the way i test is to copy something in a browser or wherever in Puppy and then open Word in Windows and paste. that has been working.

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LesF
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Im missing the networking instructions someplace

#19 Post by LesF »

Hi all, thanks for the excellent instructions and for sharing your time.
Have installed virtual box and imported the puppy image. Cant get the browser to see out tho. What I dont seem to be able to google up is...

Do I need to mess with the networking settings on VirtualBox or use defaults.
When I have used AutoDHCP and it has told me that eth0 has been configured, what do I have to do next?
I can ping my host but the browser is not seeing the network, do I have to config the browser connection settings?

Would appreciate some simplistic pointers here, I expect it to be all autoconfigured and dont want to start messing with network setup etc if I am only going to break things that were already correct.

Network is an external ADSL router with DHCP, do I have to config puppy to use that, or does puppy only deal with the VirtualBox network manager?

Thanx

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playdayz
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#20 Post by playdayz »

LesF. By default, Puppy will address the virtualbox eth0 device, just as if you had an ethernet cable plugged in (to Puppy). The physical connection is managed by the host. However, you can also set virtualbox to use a usb wireless adaptor directly to the guest but that would steal it from the host. The default is much simpler and more straightforward--the other one scares me ;-)

By auto dhcp do you mean the Internet Connection Wizard (the connect icon). From your message it was not clear to me if that is what you are using or if you are doing things from the command line. 0h. OK. Auto DHCP, I just checked and I see that is what you were using. dang, if that works I would think the browser should work. I don't know.

<Add>I just went through it to be sure, but it sounds like this is what you did

connect (Internet Connection Wizard)
Internet by network or wireless lan
eth0
Test eth0
Auto DHCP
Successful
Save
Done
Seamonkey works.
My testing can be compromised however since I prepared the virtual machine on this computer--I will try to test on a different box as I can but my daughter is using it right now for important teen-ager things

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