Anyone here have experience in installing VirtualBox on a Win7
machine?

I went through a successful Python pip install (for some
required dependencies), but a subsequent install of virtualbox
itself fails.

Grabbed the latest VB offering at the Oracle site: version
7.1.4 and 64bit.

My pc is 64bit, and 8GB ram.

Is there an installation log that documents the issues
encountered during install? ..there doesn't seem to be
anything in program directory.


--- OpenXP 5.0.58
* Origin: (} Pointy McPointFace (21:4/106.21)

Re: virtual box install on win7
By: Ogg to All on Sun Dec 29 2024 10:50 pm

Anyone here have experience in installing VirtualBox on a Win7
machine?

Yes. The last version which officially supports Windows 7 as a host OS is 6.0.24 and that is what I would recommend you stay with (see below). 6.1 does mostly work but some oddball problems pop up from time to time.

My pc is 64bit, and 8GB ram.

The only reason you would really need to go to a later VirtualBox version is for guest OS additions for more recent operating systems. And those newer OSes are not likely to work well enough to be usable on older hardware like you're describing here.

You are also not going to like what 6.1 and later does to guest VM CPU performance on older Intel CPUs (if that's what you have).
--- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
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Anyone here have experience in installing VirtualBox on a Win7

Why not use VMPLAYER?

... Warnings are for people without imagination.

--- Renegade v1.35/DOS
* Origin: The Titantic BBS Telnet - ttb.rgbbs.info (21:1/144)

Hello Fzf!

Anyone here have experience in installing VirtualBox on a Win7
machine?

Yes. The last version which officially supports Windows 7 as a host OS is 6.0.24 and that is what I would recommend you stay with (see below). 6.1 does mostly work but some oddball problems pop up from time to time.

BTW, the fist search results for virtualbox come with:

VirtualBox.org

https://www.virtualbox.org ..but it seems defunct and unreachable.

Found the file offerings at oracle.com. BUT.. the link for
"older 6.1 versions" is:

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Download_Old_Builds_6_1

..and fails.


Meanwhile.. I did find this with a fluke google search:

https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/6.1.0

..and the next directory up lists everything.

Thanks for the heads up on 6.0.24. But where is the last
official Win7 supported version for it documented?

My pc is 64bit, and 8GB ram.

The only reason you would really need to go to a later
VirtualBox version is for guest OS additions for more
recent operating systems. And those newer OSes are not
likely to work well enough to be usable on older hardware
like you're describing here.

I don't think my pc is that old/bad.
T540p, Intel Core i5 4300M, 2 Cores, 2.6GHz

I just want to give a simple Linux distro a home for
occassional access to things like yt-dlp (support for which has
been ceased for Win7)

BTW.. my CPU analysis reports:

Virtualization: Supported, Disabled.

Does this have to be enabled before I can expect VirtualBox to
work? There doesn't seem to be any docs on that matter either.
It just looks and sounds related.

You are also not going to like what 6.1 and later does to
guest VM CPU performance on older Intel CPUs (if that's
what you have).

Noted. Not planning to have the latest/greatest linux on my
machine. I just want basic access to some linux tools.



--- OpenXP 5.0.58
* Origin: (} Pointy McPointFace (21:4/106.21)

Hello Exodus!

** On Monday 30.12.24 - 00:50, Exodus wrote to Ogg:

Anyone here have experience in installing VirtualBox on a Win7

Why not use VMPLAYER?

Dunno. VirtualBox seemed to come up on radar first. Never
compared the two before.

Sofar.. VB sounds better according some blogs comparing the
two.

--
../|ug

--- OpenXP 5.0.58
* Origin: (} Pointy McPointFace (21:4/106.21)

Sofar.. VB sounds better according some blogs comparing the
Dunno. VirtualBox seemed to come up on radar first. Never
compared the two before.

Sofar.. VB sounds better according some blogs comparing the

Back from 2000-2012 I ran the BBS in VMPLAYER and never had an issue. Now the BBS has it's on PC, so ... ;)

... Don't steal...the government hates competition.

--- Renegade v1.35/DOS
* Origin: The Titantic BBS Telnet - ttb.rgbbs.info (21:1/144)

Hello Exodus!

Back from 2000-2012 I ran the BBS in VMPLAYER and never had
an issue. Now the BBS has it's on PC, so ... ;)

Nice. But I don't have another piece of hardware to dedicate
with a linux install. I really liked the sound of operating a
VM and be able to use linux concurrently with my existing win7.

Meanwhile.. I was able to install VB 6.0.24 as per a
suggestion here. But it had the side effect of killing my
internet connectivity. After repeated attempts to refresh the
internet settings (tailscale included) and several reboots with
no success, I decided to roll back my system to a restore point
just before I started with all this - including the python
intall. That restored the internet functions. Not sure if I
want to even consider vmplayer after this experience. :(


--- OpenXP 5.0.58
* Origin: (} Pointy McPointFace (21:4/106.21)

Hello Ogg!

30 Dec 24 09:29, you wrote to Fzf:

BTW, the fist search results for virtualbox come with:

VirtualBox.org

https://www.virtualbox.org ..but it seems defunct and unreachable.

The site seams to be down right now....

Virtualization: Supported, Disabled.

Does this have to be enabled before I can expect VirtualBox to
work? There doesn't seem to be any docs on that matter either.
It just looks and sounds related.

You will need to enable Virtualization in the systems bios.



Vorlon


--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20240302
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Re: virtual box install on win7
By: Ogg to Fzf on Mon Dec 30 2024 09:29 am

Thanks for the heads up on 6.0.24. But where is the last
official Win7 supported version for it documented?

Look at the "Supported Host Operating Systems" section of both the 6.0 and 6.1 manuals. You'll not see Windows 7 past the 6.0 series.

I don't think my pc is that old/bad.
T540p, Intel Core i5 4300M, 2 Cores, 2.6GHz

You'll be fine using 6.0.24 and most modern Linux distributions. Your more significant limit is going to be RAM. So many distributions come with every single thing imaginable already installed and configured so even 4GB might be a little constraining.

Also, just a warning, go ahead and assign both CPU cores to any Linux or Windows 10 virtual machines you create. VirtualBox won't do this automatically and a single core creates many headaches (100% CPU utilization for no reason).

BTW.. my CPU analysis reports:
Virtualization: Supported, Disabled.
Does this have to be enabled before I can expect VirtualBox to
work? There doesn't seem to be any docs on that matter either.

VirtualBox will actually work without the CPU virtualization features enabled. But it will do so slowly. With those features enabled, virtual machines will normally run at close to the speed they would natively.

The minimum required CPU features are listed in the first section of the manuals and are quite modest. The uses of the virtualization features are scattered throughout the manual in the virtual machine installation sections. Just enable the feature(s) in your BIOS configuration and let VirtualBox take care of the relevant configurations during the automatic settings of virtual machine creation.

Noted. Not planning to have the latest/greatest linux on my
machine. I just want basic access to some linux tools.

This is both easy and so difficult to do. Linux distributions are going to 'see' a virtualized VMWARE environment which VirtualBox will mostly be providing. But some **REALLY** odd configuration issues (both in VirtualBox and Linux) are going to come up when you are trying to fine tune things as a result of this. For just getting X and ylp going, and not doing anything out of the ordinary, you shouldn't encounter any issues.
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Re: virtual box install on win7
By: Ogg to Exodus on Mon Dec 30 2024 02:55 pm

Meanwhile.. I was able to install VB 6.0.24 as per a
suggestion here. But it had the side effect of killing my
internet connectivity.

VPN 'client' software generally takes over a significant portion of Windows' network stack. So does the VirtualBox bridged adapter driver and it would have destroyed the VPN functionality in the process. The only way you're going to be able to get internet access for the virtual machine is if the VPN client allows connection sharing to a LAN. Most do.

Try installing VirtualBox again. But this time, under networking, do NOT install the bridged adapter driver. Do install the host-only adapter. And while you're configuring the installation disable the Python support. This will negate the need to install Python on your machine. If you don't already know you need the Python extensions and why you need them, you don't need them.

VirtualBox will create an artificial network card that is used exclusively for network communications between the host OS and virtual machines. This is the adapter you need to have the VPN client share internet connectivity with. Set the sharing up before you create any virtual machines. When you create a virtual machine, select the Host-only Adapter as the Attached To setting. The virtual machine can only directly communicate to the host OS, but through the VPN client's sharing the virtual machine can access the internet.

VirtualBox can serve as a DHCP server for the virtual machine but I don't remember if it's enabled by default or not. Before you create a virtual machine, open up the VirtualBox manager and select File->Host Network Manager. You will see the DHCP checkbox there, just make sure it is enabled.
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