• Windows 7 (32/64-bit)
• Windows Vista (32/64-bit)
• Windows XP (32/64-bit)
• Windows 2000 Professional

Here are some self described key features per the web site:

“Full Windows OS Support - Guaranteed support for any Windows operating system since Win2K (excluding server editions).

P2V Migration - Migrate a physical system to a virtual environment by converting all installed software and data into a virtual disk of the required virtual machine.

Migration without rebooting Windows - Hot processing of locked (in-use) hard disks lets you migrate a computer without rebooting and interrupting Windows.

P2V Adjust OS to recover the startup ability after unsuccessful virtualization with a 3rd party tool and to make Windows Vista/7 backups bootable on virtual hardware.

Smart Driver Injector - Makes the process of adding new drivers smooth and easy.

Performance – Paragon Go Virtual performs approximately 20% faster (your results may vary).

P2V adjust OS – Freeware tools will not adjust the OS to virtual hardware, leaving the user unable to boot their virtual machine. Go Virtual adjusts the OS so the virtual machine will boot successfully.

Selection of virtual hardware – Go Virtual offers the user a selection of virtual hardware types. Freeware tools typically do not.

Migration of offline systems - Freeware tools support the migration of operating systems currently running, but they have problems migrating offline operating systems, especially when there are more than one OS on the disk. Go Virtual performs these operations with ease.”

Also per the Paragon web site:

“Supported Virtual Machines

Paragon Go Virtual provides support for these major virtual machine vendors:

• Microsoft Virtual PC
• VMware Workstation
• VMware Fusion
• VMware Player
• Oracle VirtualBox”

BTW, although I have not tested Paragon Go Virtual yet, I’ve used Paragon’s free Backup & Recovery Free Edition in the past to build a physical recovery image of my desktops. I was impressed with the features of that product (so much so I was searching for it again), so I am confident the P2V tool will be equally impressive. The latest version of the physical backup image product is Backup & Recovery 2010 Free Advanced.

Interestingly enough, Paragon offers a free partition management tool, and the Pro version offers optimization via alignment of partitions according to physical disk sectors. Useful with VMs as well. 

In this episode Rick Vanover joins me again as co-host, and Jason Perlow from ZDNet is our special guest. The following is the podcast summary:

VIRTUMANIA Podcast Episode 18 – Putting The Mustard On Free Virtualization Charcuterie. Rich Brambley (@rbrambley) of VMETC  and Rick Vanover (@rickvanover) of RickVanover.com host popular technology and foodie blogger Jason Perlow (@jperlow) of Tech Broiler and Off The Broiler. In this episode we explore and compare several free virtualization solutions available today. Like selecting cuts of meat from a butcher, there is always plenty of choices. Consider this episode a delicious virtualization Charcuterie. Virtumania is an Infosmack Production.

Listen to the podcast with the embedded player or subscribe to get a weekly copy so you can listen when convenient.

Check out the VM /ETC VIRTUMANIA Page to listen to past episodes as well as episodes of Infosmack.

The following links offer more information on some of the topics mentioned in VIRTUMANIA Episode 18:

Jason Perlow – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jason Perlow is a technology columnist and Linux expert who is considered one of the top 100 technology experts on Twitter. He writes the Tech Broiler blog for ZDNet and the Off The Broiler "foodie" blog, and is an Advisory Architect for IBM. In 2007, Perlow decided to change his foodie lifestyle, a change which was chronicled by the New York Times.

Jason’s podcast: The Frugal Tech Show

http://www.frugaltechshow.com/

Virtualization Smackdown 2: Oracle VM VirtualBox 3.2 vs… VMware Workstation 7.1

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/perlow/virtualization-smackdown-2-oracle-vm-virtualbox-32-vs-vmware-workstation-71/13020?tag=mantle_skin;content

With the latest releases of the two major desktop virtualization apps released at around the same time, which one reigns supreme? We thoroughly tested both on our Linux system and observed them for performance and usability. Here’s how they fared against each other.

Invincea brings you the Windows Browser Deflector Shield, for Real.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/perlow/invincea-brings-you-the-windows-browser-deflector-shield-for-real/13164

Invincea’s Browser Protection uses virtualization technology to provide a secure and isolated Internet Explorer instance for enterprises.

[omitted]

Invincea has done some very interesting things with their product. They’ve licensed the run-time version of Oracle’s VM VirtualBox software (which I reviewed recently) and have created a stripped-down executable Windows XP environment in a Virtual Machine complete with Internet Explorer 7 and Adobe Acrobat Reader

Since it has been over a week, Jason has posted about being on Virtumania too.

Playing Windows Games using Virtualbox

Video Of Working Windows DirectX Games in VirtualBox 3.0.2 on Ubuntu 9.0.4

I am proud to announce a new podcast I will be hosting on a weekly basis – VIRTUMANIA!

VIRTUMANIA is an Infosmack Production that will try to focus on the operational and administrative viewpoints of all things virtualization, so expect a different guest list of bloggers, architects, administrators, and consultants with each recording.

VIRTUMANIA episodes will be announced as new posts here on VM /ETC. Be sure to subscribe to the VM /ETC RSS feed in your favorite RSS reader or download the show each week from the podcast’s RSS feed. Of course, you can subscribe to the VIRTUMANIA podcast on iTunes. Finally, download or listen to each episode from the embedded player on the VM /ETC VIRTUMANIA Page.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the first episode of VIRTUMANIA!

VIRTUMANIA Podcast Episode 1 – Virtualbox, Type 2 Hypervisors, and Security Nipples.

Rich Brambley (@rbrambley) of VMETC and Marc Farley (@3parfarley) of 3Par and StorageRap.com with guests Sean Clark (@vseanclark) of SeanClark.us and Rick Vanover (@rickvanover) of RickVanover.com. This week’s episode includes discussion about Sun Virtulabox, Teleportation, comparing all type 2 hypervisors, and Oracle’s master virtualization plan. Thanks to Greg Knieriemen (@knieriemen) of Chi Corporation for this Infosmack Production.

Listen Now:

Download

I can’t thank Greg Knieriemen and Marc Farley enough for the patience, advice, and support necessary to get this podcast off the ground. For those that don’t already know, Greg and Marc host the already widely popular Infosmack podcast covering servers, storage, and virtualization news. Tapping into their insights and experiences while planning this podcast have been, and will continue to be invaluable to me. Special thanks to Marc for the Virtumania theme music and Greg for recording and post editing each episode.

When I went to uninstall VMware Tools after powering the VM on Ubuntu and in VirtualBox I received a message that “no VMware Products were detected”. Luckily, I quickly figured out I wasn’t the first to attempt this move and experience this hurdle. The post Uninstalling VMware tools when not running on a VMware host tells the same tale and provides the answer.

“I added the VMware Tools ISO to that VM and opened a command prompt. Then I found the “setup.exe” or “setup64.exe” files on the cd. Run those in the cmd window with a /c switch. (example:  ”setup64.exe /c” )  This will remove the Tools.  I installed the VirtualBox additions and then reboot.  On my Windows 2008 server it crashed on first reboot, then then I tried again and it loaded up just fine.  Network works and everything! Yay!”

On my Windows host with VMware Player installed (VMware Workstation has a similar location) the windows.iso file was found at C:\program files(x86)\VMware\VMware Player\windows.iso. Your path needs to be adjusted based on whether you have a 32 bit or 64 bit OS obviously. Mine was a 64 bit host even though the directory was at c:\program files(x86), by the way.

I’ll let you figure out your preferred method on how to copy the windows.iso file to the Ubuntu host, but once you do you can:

1. mount the .iso in the virtual CDrom of the VM in VirtualBox.
2. Use the command prompt to start the appropriate setup.exe file with the /c or /clean switch

The /c or /clean  switch forces the uninstall of VMware Tools on Vmware Player.

I ran it like so:

>setup64.exe /c

and got the following message before clicking OK.

If you are a stickler for a completely clean removal of the tools check out the following VMware KB article for how to manually remove the tools and even clean the registry afterwards. The KB Article also has a script attached to it to help automate the process

Cleaning up after an incomplete uninstallation on a Windows host

I’ve spent too much time the last few weeks figuring out how to enable Direct3D hardware pass through in VirtualBox version 3.0.2, and then testing how well some of my games work in a virtual machine (VM). Check the end of this post for a 3 minute video I put together showing some of my results. The video is a sequence of desktop captures. What you are watching is my entire Ubuntu Jaunty desktop with the VirtualBox console open in the center. The games are being played full screen inside the VirtualBox VM. I did not record the actual game sound because I could not figure out how to do it with gtk-recordmydesktop (kept getting an error when sound capture was enabled). So, I created a my own mix of several popular songs for the video sound track instead.

Long story short, the only acceptable configuration I was able to achieve was on a 32 bit Ubuntu Jaunty host with a 32 bit Windows XP guest. My Ubuntu host does not even have virtualization assist technology in the processor – go figure! I first tried 32 bit Vista and Windows 7 RC VMs on a 64 bit Ubuntu host with Intel VT, but had no luck. [side note: Windows 7 is not advertised as supported for VirtualBox Direct3d yet anyways]

I had read a lot of forum threads and blog posts recently about how disappointed those who have tried already were, but, after the first couple of attempts I am quite pleased with my game(s) performance in a Windows XP VM. Not all of my games worked for various different reasons, but with a little research and some tweaks for everything from video performance to compatibility mode settings I got a handful of them to run. On the games that did not work, I left them installed. I’ll use VirtualBox’s OVF export feature to move this VM between different operating systems and PC hardware in the future hopefully for different results.

My Youtube video is embedded at the end of this post, but first here are some notes on my setup and about my efforts.

My Ubuntu host details

The XP VM details

Key Instructions on enabling DirectX support in VirtualBox

Found in section 4.8 of the Sun VirtualBox User Manual Version 3.0.2

“4.8 Hardware 3D acceleration (OpenGL and DirectX 8/9)

The VirtualBox Guest Additions contain experimental hardware 3D support for Windows, Linux and Solaris guests.

With this feature, if an application inside your virtual machine uses 3D features through the OpenGL or DirectX 8/9 programming interfaces, instead of emulating them in software (which would be slow), VirtualBox will attempt to use your host’s 3D hardware. This works for all supported host platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris), provided that your host operating system can make use of your accelerated 3D hardware in the first place.

The 3D acceleration currently has the following preconditions:

1. It is only available for certain Windows, Linux and Solaris guests. In particular:

• For Windows guests, support is restricted to 32-bit versions of XP and Vista. Both OpenGL and DirectX 8/9 are supported (experimental).
• OpenGL on Linux requires kernel 2.6.27 and higher as well as X.org server version 1.5 and higher. Ubuntu 8.10 and Fedora 10 have been tested and confirmed as working.
• OpenGL on Solaris guests requires X.org server version 1.5 and higher.

2. The Guest Additions must be installed.

• Note: For Direct 3D acceleration to work in a Windows Guest, VirtualBox needs to replace Windows system files in the virtual machine. As a result, the Guest Additions installation program offers Direct 3D acceleration as an option that must be explicitly enabled. Also, you must install the Guest Additions in “Safe Mode”; see chapter 13, Known limitations, page 213 for details.

3. Because 3D support is still experimental at this time, it is disabled by default and must be manually enabled in the VM settings (see chapter 3.7.1, General settings, page 46)

Technically, VirtualBox implements this by installing an additional hardware 3D driver inside your guest when the Guest Additions are installed. This driver acts as a hardware 3D driver and reports to the guest operating system that the (virtual) hardware is capable of 3D hardware acceleration. When an application in the guest then requests hardware acceleration through the OpenGL or Direct3D programming interfaces, these are sent to the host through a special communication tunnel implemented by VirtualBox, and then the host performs the requested 3D operation via the host’s programming interfaces.”

“13 Known limitations

Direct 3D support in Windows guests. For this to work, the Guest Additions must be installed in Windows “safe mode”. Press F8 when the Windows guest is booting and select “Safe mode”, then install the Guest Additions. Otherwise Windows’ file protection mechanism will interfere with the replacement DLLs installed by VirtualBox and keep restoring the original Windows system DLLs.”

While installing the GuestAdditions in Safe Mode be sure to check the Direct3d option in the installation wizard options.

Getting the sound to work in my WinXP VM.

I ended up having to modify the pulseaudio config of 64 bit Ubuntu,  and also install the Realtek audio drivers in the VM (in both 32 bit and 64 bit Ubuntu – the VirtualBox sound drivers did not work in the XP VM) as explained in both Virtualbox and Ubuntu forums. As I mentioned earlier, I did not get the games working in either the Vista or Windows 7 RC VM. I never tried Vista on the 32 bit Ubuntu desktop, however.

Desktop video captures of working games!

As I mentioned before, I did not record sound in any of the game sequences. Rest assured the sound worked in all of the games. There was a small amount of latency introduced by the desktop capture program (gtk-recordmydesktop) and I was only recording at 15 fps. Video resolution has been degraded by the editing and upload process too. Considering those conditions, gameplay is actually much better than shown in these videos. Here’s some general comments on playing each game.

Rise of Nations

I had some trouble using the mouse for item selection during the game. Hitting Rght Ctrl + F and playing in full screen mode is much better.

Hotwheels Velocity X

I was able to use my USB Logitech gamepad during this game (and a few others not mentioned). I did not even check the gamepad config in Ubuntu (problems for me in past versions). I just plugged it in my PC’s front USB port and after a few seconds it was an available device to connect to my VM. Windows XP found it right away

Spiderman The Movie

Since the gameplay relies on the mouse for directional changes, I experienced problems controlling Peter Parker as my mouse moved out of the VirtualBox console window often as I made sweeping guestures. To solve this I disabled the mouse grab feature so that the only way my mouse could leave the console was to hit the host key (rght ctrl)

Quake 3

Like Spiderman I had to disable the guest additions mouse grab feature to keep the mouse inside the VirtualBox console during the game.

Enjoy the video and the music mix. Let me know if you’ve got other game titles working in the comments!

“Sun today released VirtualBox 2.2.0 which marks another major milestone for the world’s most popular free and open source hypervisor. Among the many improvements are support for OVF appliances, 3D acceleration for Linux/Solaris guests and support for up to 16GB of RAM per virtual machine. See the ChangeLog for a list of changes since VirtualBox 2.1.”

New features listed in the Changelog:

VirtualBox 2.2.0 (released 2009-04-08)

This version is a major update. The following major new features were added:

• OVF (Open Virtualization Format) appliance import and export (see chapter 3.8, Importing and exporting virtual machines, User Manual page 55)
• Host-only networking mode (see chapter 6.7, Host-only networking, User Manual page 88)
• Hypervisor optimizations with signi?cant performance gains for high context switching rates
• Raised the memory limit for VMs on 64-bit hosts to 16GB
• VT-x/AMD-V are enabled by default for newly created virtual machines
• USB (OHCI & EHCI) is enabled by default for newly created virtual machines (Qt GUI only)
• Experimental USB support for OpenSolaris hosts
• Shared folders for Solaris and OpenSolaris guests
• OpenGL 3D acceleration for Linux and Solaris guests (see chapter 4.8, Hardware 3D acceleration (OpenGL), User Manual page 70)
• Added C API in addition to C++, Java, Python and Web Services

I have upgraded my installations and plan to test the OVF import and export features soon. I will post again when I do.

March Madness in VirtualBox

Once again I am using a VirtualBox VM to help me watch a streaming sporting event on a Linux host. This past football season I was Watching the Georgia Bulldogs in a Virtualbox VM running on Ubuntu, and this time I am able to watch the NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament from a Windows 7 Beta VM hosted on Kubuntu. Similar to my scenario before, Firefox is an unsupported browser for the streaming game broadcasts available from cbssportsline.com. I needed IE so I started up my Windows VM and started watching the games.

Here’s some quick details about my setup.

• Host OS is Kubuntu 8.10 with KDE 4.1.4 desktop
• I am using VirtualBox version 2.1.4
• VM has 512 MB of RAM with the video memory set to 128 MB
• VM uses a single vCPU
• VM has Intel VT-x, nested paging, and 3D acceleration enabled
• VM is running Windows 7 Beta

The video stream is surprisingly smooth with occasional, but very brief, periods of choppiness. I’ll attribute this partly to the fact that I am wireless and the ads on the web page contain random animation.

I wish I was as happy about my bracket as I am about VirtualBox!

Here is a screen shot of the VM settings.

VM Settings

There’s nothing really too complicated or tricky, but nonetheless use this guide to get an idea how simple the VirtualBox Windows 7 installation process really is.

System Hardware VirtualBox is running on is 32 bit Ubuntu version 8.10