Puppy / Portable Virtual Box

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jasray
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon 02 Apr 2007, 17:51

Puppy / Portable Virtual Box

#1 Post by jasray »

Wonderful epiphany this morning/afternoon while doing the typical chores--laundry, lawn care, groceries, etc. Why make everyone suffer through the GRUB install, etc. Make it easy for them. So . . . here's a second way of running the Puppy .iso of your choosing on Portable VirutalBox w/o doing anything really.

Place the VirtualBox folder on a USB flash--1GB is what I am currently using. Inside the PVB folder place the .iso and don't forget to install the Guest Additions later down the road.

Start VirtualBox w/ a click on supinstall followed by a click on VB start. The machine will start. Set up the machine, but this time make the hard drive 2GB AND add the .iso for Puppy and Guest Additons in the CD/DVD section. The boot sequence goes to the hard drive last, so no worries. Adjust memory, etc. as wanted.

Make sure audio is on Windows, USB, but don't add anything, just the check box, and be sure the Puppy .iso shows in the CD/DVD image file section.

Click Start. The machine will boot Puppy. With PizzaPup one will hear a bark. All is fine. Make a couple of changes--easy, short, simple.

Now the rather tricky part. Go to GParted and scan devices. The virtual hard drive should appear. Add a Disk Label. Format as ext3. Commit. This would be a great time to add the Guest Additions up in Devices. The right CTRL key does all the switching.

Log off. Poweroff command line. One should be asked about saving. Say yes. Automatically, the virtual drive should appear. Hit the space bar. Give the program about five minutes to make the image file--I think it's puppy. sfs or some such thing.

Go ahead and reboot from the ISO--the virtual hard drive will be where Puppy is saving all of your changes. The ISO will be the program--no install necessary.

Yes, you can now mount a CD/DVD in the Devices section of VirtualBox.

Install the Guest Addition at some time during the initial set up. Yes.

Hmmm . . . one thing I did run in to: I had to use the ALSA sound wizard the second time through, but it picked up the native Intel Sound card and configured it in a matter of seconds. Currently, listening to Au Revoir Simone on XMMS. Nice sound.

I know this is rather choppy and, perhaps, vague, but after a few tries anyone can figure it out. WARNING: If one plans on using this USB setup on various computers, when hitting Connect for the Network Wizard, DO NOT load any drivers--just hit etho-test--DO NOT save the configuration. Simply exit.

One problem I am having is getting songs onto the machine. The best way I've figured out is to download all my music from MediaFire--it's all there anyway. You MAY be able to rip a CD or copy from a CD, but I did have problems attempting to copy from a second USB.

Good luck,

Hey Oh!

jas.

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d4p
Posts: 439
Joined: Tue 13 Mar 2007, 02:30

#2 Post by d4p »

Hi jasray,
I have Portable VirtualBox on usb.
Do you know how to make Portable VB work on cd/dvd?

tlchost
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Joined: Sun 05 Aug 2007, 23:26
Location: Baltimore, Maryland USA
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Re: Puppy / Portable Virtual Box

#3 Post by tlchost »

jasray wrote:
Start VirtualBox w/ a click on supinstall followed by a click on VB start.
Complains that virtual box driver not installed.

You were using the portable version of virtual box?

tlchost
Posts: 2057
Joined: Sun 05 Aug 2007, 23:26
Location: Baltimore, Maryland USA
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Re: Puppy / Portable Virtual Box

#4 Post by tlchost »

jasray wrote:
Place the VirtualBox folder on a USB flash--1GB is what I am currently using. Inside the PVB folder place the .iso and don't forget to install the Guest Additions later down the road.
Finally got the portable VirtualBox to play....there is one "file not found: error when it boots...but the real problem is that when I start Puppy 2.17.1 it hangs up at the point the screen says:

creating unionfs on

Interesting enough, it does the same thing using install to hard drive version of VirtualBox.

Any Hints?

Thom

tlchost
Posts: 2057
Joined: Sun 05 Aug 2007, 23:26
Location: Baltimore, Maryland USA
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Re: Puppy / Portable Virtual Box

#5 Post by tlchost »

jasray wrote: Now the rather tricky part. Go to GParted and scan devices. The virtual hard drive should appear. Add a Disk Label. Format as ext3. Commit. This would be a great time to add the Guest Additions up in Devices. The right CTRL key does all the switching.
Virtual Drive doesn't show up at all

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