VirtualBox: Painless Windows Apps on Linux | Tek Syndicate

If you want to run windows apps reliably, seamlessly and easily, then this is the video for you. If you have an line-of-business apps, you can run them on Linux without a lot of headache.


The only apps you will have difficulty with are games and any app (such as CAD programs or some programs in the Adobe Creative Suite) that work best with direct access to graphics hardware.



This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://teksyndicate.com/videos/virtualbox-painless-windows-apps-linux
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I like how some one asks what we would like to see on linux and I toss a bunch of this out there and there is already a video up for it.

On visualization on K parts you can look up your cpu if you like http://ark.intel.com/ as well.

Virtualbox is a good easy way to get visualization. And if your a windows user you can run it on windows too and test out Linux, or BSD, or .. more Windows :p

ot: is that a high res background on ubuntu you have? If so.. got a link to it?

hey @wendell can you show us a workaround for programs that require hardware acceleration...i'd really love to get my game dev programs to work on Linux, Adobe, Autodesk, things of those sorts. Would be really cool since that's the only thing holding me back to go to Linux.

Hey @wendell ... accelerating your screen record like that (can that be acheived with simple screen recorder or do I need to edit or use a different recorder like you did when you were booting in safe mode and enabling D3D acceleration)?

Why not passing through the whole GPU and just using the iGPU/GPU Part of your APU for the Linux UI?
Basically most CPUs have an integrated Graphic processor now, use that for Linux and your GPU for Games and stuff that run on Windows.
PS: Would like a video about Wine next.

Can somebody pls help me? I tried to install virtualbox but I get the following error:

installArchives() failed: Selecting previously unselected package virtualbox-qt.
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(Reading database ... 262419 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../virtualbox-qt_4.3.18-dfsg-2ubuntu1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking virtualbox-qt (4.3.18-dfsg-2ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.0.2-2) ...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.13-1) ...
Processing triggers for shared-mime-info (1.2-0ubuntu3) ...
Unknown media type in type 'all/all'
Unknown media type in type 'all/allfiles'
Unknown media type in type 'uri/mms'
Unknown media type in type 'uri/mmst'
Unknown media type in type 'uri/mmsu'
Unknown media type in type 'uri/pnm'
Unknown media type in type 'uri/rtspt'
Unknown media type in type 'uri/rtspu'
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.55ubuntu1.1) ...
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.10.1-0ubuntu2) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.22-1ubuntu2) ...
Error in function:
Setting up virtualbox (4.3.18-dfsg-2ubuntu1) ...
insserv: script virtualbox: service vboxdrv already provided!
insserv: exiting now!
update-rc.d: error: insserv rejected the script header
dpkg: error processing package virtualbox (--configure):
subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of virtualbox-qt:
virtualbox-qt depends on virtualbox (= 4.3.18-dfsg-2ubuntu1); however:
Package virtualbox is not configured yet.
Package virtualbox-4.3 which provides virtualbox is not installed.

dpkg: error processing package virtualbox-qt (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured

After this, virtualbox is marked as installed but I can't start it.
Uninstalling leads to the same error excluding the last 6 lines.
What should I do now? I already uninstalled it with the terminal but this didn't help...

Doesn't this method negate the point you're trying to make by switching to Linux. To run Windows, even in a VM, you need a product key or to run a non-genuine copy. So you're still supporting the corporate OS. It was my understanding that we were making a stand to move the community AWAY from Windows. So that the devs will start making their software Linux compatible. If we have to use Windows as a crutch we're still taking it in the rear from Microsoft and the devs that make the software that only works on corporate Operating Systems.

Yes, you do need a windows license. We're less pedantic/less RMS and more pragmatic about things. Besides, doesn't every person in the US/EU already have at least two windows licenses by now? I mean if you go by Microsoft's sales numbers alone... It stands to reason if you have windows software you want to run that you have a license for windows. Or maybe not?

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apt-get update && apt-get upgrade ?
this may be of help:

do you have vboxdrv in /etc/init.d and if so what is its contents?

I would definitely like to see more videos on virtualizing. Especially about passthrough.

I do have a question. @wendell mentioned it in the video, but if I had a second video card in my system, and I passed it through to the guest OS, would it run the same as native? Could I use the guest OS for full blown gaming and video editing?

Thanks!
apt-get update && apt-get upgrade didn't help.
After

rm -r /etc/init.d/vboxdrv
rm -r /var/lib/update-rc.d/vboxdrv
apt-get install virtualbox virtualbox-dkms virtualbox-guest-utils virtualbox-guest-additions virtualbox-qt

there was the warning

WARNING: The character device /dev/vboxdrv does not exist.
Please install the virtualbox-dkms package and the appropriate
headers, most likely linux-headers-generic.

 You will not be able to start VMs until this problem is fixed.

I installed virtualbox-dkms et voila...
But there is still something strange: the .desktop file in /usr/share/applications normally executes VirtualBox %U but it doesn't open the application. Changing it just to VirtualBox didn't help. However, running these commands in the terminal works fine.

if you needed a new kernel, you may have to reboot it now to make that kernel active?
depending on what your upgrade situation was . /dev/vboxdrv would be created automatically in most cases.

intel VT-x is on most CPUs. VT-d is on very few. AMD most have both sets of extensions

Im also interested if this is possible.
How smoothly can one change between integrated and dedicated GPU in Linux?
Im thinking about this for gaming. Would it be viable to use virtual windows for it (assuming you could pass through your dedicated GPU) or would this be easier with wine for example?

So if I understand this right with a 5820k(for example since I know it has vt-d and vt-x and don't want to look up what else does) and two gpu I could run games almost as well as on a normal windows machine if not as well?

Can't I dedicate one of my 2 GPUs and 4-6 of my 8350's cores to a VM and play games on it? Why does it need direct access?

I totally spaced out and forgot to mention AMD even though the virtualization stuff works better there. D'oh!
8350 master race, reporting in.

2 Likes

Aw yiss #8350FTW

1 Like

I like this answer a lot better than the one I got on YouTube. I don't want you guys thinking that I'm bringing hate to your channel or your forums. I just didn't really agree with the method of using Windows inside of Linux. And I don't hate Windows. I really like it. To each his own though. Your last statement there made a lot of sense to me. If you already have a license, there's no sense in being wasteful, and then you're not adding to the Windows numbers. Again, no hate here! And I totally support the Tek Linux Movement.