Filed under: OS, Software, Switchers, Open Source
Sun xVM VirtualBox 2 enhances the free virtualization experience
Sun xVM VirtualBox 2.0 has arrived! We did a detailed review of VirtualBox 1.6 back in July, and now a shiny new version is available. If you want to set up a virtualization environment on your Intel Mac, but don't want to spend money on Parallels or VMWare Fusion, xVM VirtualBox 2.0 is a free and full-featured package that may fit your needs very well.What's new in version 2.0? Mac users will see the following changes:
- 64-bit OS guest support (only on 64-bit hosts, as one might expect)
- New native Leopard user interface on Mac OS X hosts
- New-version notifier
- Guest property information interface
- Host Interface Networking on Mac OS X hosts
- Framework for collecting performance and resource usage data (metrics)
- Added SATA asynchronous IO (NCQ: Native Command Queuing) when accessing raw disks/partitions (major performance gain)
Some bugs in earlier versions were squashed as well:
- VMM: VT-x fixes
- AHCI/SATA: improved performance
- GUI: keyboard fixes
- Network: added support for jumbo frames (> 1536 bytes)
- Shared Folders: fixed guest crash with Windows Media Player 11
- Mac OS X: Ctrl+Left mouse click doesn't simulate a right mouse click in the guest anymore. Use Hostkey+Left for a right mouse click emulation.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Jash Sayani said 11:41AM on 9-04-2008
Cool ! Now I can install Vista on my Intel Mac mini and run it simultaneously with SnowLeopard.
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Brian E said 11:48AM on 9-04-2008
One correction: there doesn't appear to be any support for 64-bit guests on OS X right now. Too bad!
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JasonL said 11:55AM on 9-04-2008
I've found 1.6 to be incredibly slow on my iMac. Both Parallels and Fusion were faster.
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K said 12:07PM on 9-04-2008
How is the middle button emulated?
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mungler said 12:21PM on 9-04-2008
can it boot Boot Camp installs yet?
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Joshua Ochs said 12:30PM on 9-04-2008
Don't believe the bits about a "native" interface - it's anything but, and shows. Looking inside the application bundle, QT is still sitting there. Even besides that, a lot of the little details are not up to Mac interface standards for fit and finish (menu structure is spartan at best, main settings window lacks polish).
Oh, and it doesn't help that moving the application anywhere but "/Applications" results in it failing to launch completely. The console just gets messages like:
"9/4/08 11:26:23 AM [0x0-0x6f46f4].org.virtualbox.app.VirtualBoxVM[12841] com.apple.console VirtualBox: supR3HardenedVerifyDir: Failed to open "/Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS": No such file or directory (2) "
Whatever "supR3HardenedVerifyDir" is, it needs to loosen up. Like many others I suspect, I have far too many applications to just dump them all in one big folder.
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jonico said 12:50PM on 9-04-2008
Not at home to test it out, can somebody share some screenshots of the the new interface. I would really appreciate it.
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Fourex said 1:13PM on 9-04-2008
It runs really well. But, I can't get any sound out of any of my virtual machines. I have both WinXP and Ubuntu running. I wish I had sound; but I can't find help anywhere for it.
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Syaman said 10:23PM on 9-06-2008
To get sound to work, you have to go into the virtual machine's setting and tick Enable Audio. Host Audio Driver = CoreAudio and Audio Controller=ICH AC97 gives me sound in linux
JoshK said 1:14PM on 9-04-2008
I had trouble getting it set up, it needs to be easy as VMWare Fusion. I gave up on this free piece of crap and just went VMWare and haven't had one single regret.
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Michael said 1:49PM on 9-04-2008
Note that the "64-bit OS guest support (only on 64-bit hosts, as one might expect)" commentary is somewhat misguided.
VMWare server supports 64-bit guest operating systems with VMWare running on 32-bit hardware. Not sure about VMWare fusion since I haven't tried a 64-bit on any of the few 32-bit only intel Macs.
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Zimmie said 3:49PM on 9-04-2008
No, it most certainly does *not* support 64-bit guests on 32-bit hardware. What it supports is 64-bit guests on 32-bit host operating systems running on 64-bit hardware. For example, the Core 2 Duo is a 64-bit processor, but it can run 32-bit code natively, so you can install the 32-bit version of Windows on it. You can then install VMware and run Windows xp x64 in a VM. The original Core Duo is a 32-bit processor. VMware will not allow you to run a 64-bit guest on one.
The way it does this involves using Intel's VT or AMD's AMD-V to give the guest slightly more direct access to the hardware than it would otherwise get.
Ryan Trevisol said 1:51PM on 9-04-2008
Seems pretty solid, I'm giving it a try. Free is always nice. If it runs more smoothly than VMWare, they might have a convert in me.
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Alex Q. said 2:27PM on 9-04-2008
I just saw this post RIGHT AFTER the post about a system monitor app that the author is charging $30 for.
This might be a chance that those who don't understand the concept of free software (as in beer, even) might get enlightened here.
Let's see. A software that allows you to run another OS simultaniously and flawlessly on your Mac that is free, vs. a system monitor or various other gimmicks (not implying that system monitor is a gimmick but a lot of these softwares that charge money just do one small function for $30-$50.).
Just had to say that. Nice to see that someone is providing free virtualization, no slash that, free software period, for the Mac :)
I commend Sun for this, but Sun is no stranger to providing free stuff (ahem Java)
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tdskate said 3:27PM on 9-04-2008
This may be a dumb question, but aren't all intel-macs 64bit processors?
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Zimmie said 3:43PM on 9-04-2008
Nope. The original Core Duo and Core Solo machines are 32-bit with Physical Address Extension.
lakiolen said 6:26PM on 9-04-2008
The processors might be 64bit (which not all are) but the OS isn't completely 64 bit. Snow Leopard will be though.
marc cardwell said 4:44PM on 9-04-2008
if i just wanted to play around w/ this VM, and not spend anything on another OS, AND wanted the install to be super easy, what OS options do i have?
i'd just be dicking around w/ this...
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lakiolen said 6:27PM on 9-04-2008
You've got Linux distros, at the least.
ajk said 12:44AM on 9-05-2008
Try open solaris if you are tired of linux and bsd.