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I wanted to test out Fedora 10 released just a couple days ago. Instead of dual booting, I tried Virtualbox to run another Linux distribution on my Ubuntu powered desktop.

The installation of Virtualbox requires downloading the OSE modules for the current Linux kernel. The installation of Virtualbox was straightforward. I have done it before. No sweat.

I went ahead and installed Fedora 10 without a hitch. No problems were encountered. I even figured out how to increase the display resolution from 800×600 to 1024×768.

Then, last night I saw a large red arrow pointing down on my menu panel. It means a Linux update is available. I clicked on it to initiate the update. It turned out to be a kernel update.

A reboot is necessary after each kernel update. After the reboot, Virtualbox no longer works. What happened! I realized the OSE module installed was for the previous kernel.

I searched for the new OSE module. It’s not available. I went to the message boards and saw this instead. It looks like the kernel module has to be recompiled each time a new kernel comes out.

The new OSE module is not in the repository. In the meantime, if you run Virtualbox and you just received a kernel update. Your out of luck for a few days. Not until a new Virtualbox OSE module is made available.

I wish Ubuntu fixes this issue. Each time a kernel upgrade is required, the Virtualbox OSE module should also be compiled and updated along with the kernel upgrade.

Installing Virtual Box in Ubuntu should be an easy endeavor. I have come across several how-to documents that were confusing to say the least. This document will try to simplify the steps involved in installing Virtual Box in Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron. Ok, let’s get started.

1. First, determine the current Linux kernel you are using. Click on Applications > Accessories > Terminal. Type the command:

$ uname -a
Linux penelope 2.6.24-19-generic

The result shows I’m running the Linux 2.6.24-19 kernel.

2. Next, install Virtual Box using the apt-get command. Substitute your current Linux kernel for virtualbox-ose-modules-generic.

$ sudo apt-get install virtualbox-ose virtualbox-ose-source
virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.24-19-generic

3. Add yourself to the vboxusers group using one of the 3 commands. Choose only one command. I ran the first one.

sudo gpasswd -a `whoami` vboxusers
sudo usermod -Gvboxusers -a `whoami`
sudo adduser $USER vboxusers

4. Log out of your desktop session by hitting CTRL-ALT-Backspace. When you log in, your group membership will be updated.

5. Congratulations. You have successfully installed Virtual Box.

To install another OS, refer to the documentation Using Virtual Box.

The screenshot below shows the gOS 3 running on my Virtual Box.

VMware Fusion brings another virtualization product running on a Mac. With VMware Fusion, Mac users can run Windows, Linux or any other operating system seamlessly on their systems. Maybe it’s a PC game or an application that you want badly running on your Mac. No sweat. There is no need to switch computers or create a dual boot system, just install VMware Fusion and create a new virtual machine. You can even run multiple virtual machines all running different operating systems as long as your Mac has the available memory and the disk space. On top of that, VMware Fusion has a snapshot feature that gives you the ability to rollback to your last saved state.

Features

• Support for Mac OS X Leopard
• Use even more Windows 3D applications and games with experimental support for DirectX 9.0 accelerated 3D graphics (without “shaders”).
• English, French, German, and Japanese versions all in the same download
• Unity in VMware Fusion 1.1 makes Windows on the Mac even more seamless with:
  • Support for Windows Vista 32-bit and 64-bit editions
  • Support for Windows XP 64-bit edition
  • My Computer, My Documents, My Network Places, Control Panel, Run, and Search now appear in the Applications menu, Dock applications menu and Launch Applications window
  • Option to show/hide the Windows taskbar and Start menu in the VMware Fusion View menu
  • VMware Fusion “Launch Applications” window now only appears when you choose
  • Improved performance when resizing and dragging Unity windows
• Boot Camp integration even better with VMware Fusion 1.1:
  • Use Microsoft Vista Boot Camp partitions in VMware Fusion virtual machines
  • Automatically remount the Boot Camp partition after Boot Camp virtual machine is shut down
  • Improved support for detecting and preparing Boot Camp partitions for use as virtual machines
• Other improvements:
  • Ability to sync iPhone with Outlook in Windows virtual machines
  • Eject key now ejects the optical drive when attached to a virtual machine
  • VMware Shared Folders created with Windows Easy Install now defaults to “Read Only” access of the Mac’s home directory for maximum security
  • Option to hide the VMware Fusion status bar to take advantage of more screen real estate
  • Installation status and “out of date” status for VMware Tools made more obvious on status bar
  • Necessity to power off virtual machine to modify virtual hardware settings made more obvious.

Minimum Requirements

• An Intel-based Mac (to run 64-bit operating systems, an Intel Mac with a Core 2 Duo or Xeon processor is required)
• 512MB of RAM (1 GB or more recommended)
• 275MB free disk space for VMware Fusion
• 1GB free disk space for each virtual machine (10 GB or more recommended)
• Mac OS X version 10.4.9 or later

Guest Operating Systems

VMware supports 32-bit or 64-bit guest operating systems. Here’s a list.

• 32-bit guest operating systems
• 64-bit guest operating systems

Where To Buy

VMware Fusion is available for purchase online directly from VMware or from the Apple store, Apple’s retail stores, Amazon.com, Buy.com, CompUSA, MicroCenter, and from over 3000 VMware partners worldwide. VMware is priced at $79.99USD.

Test Drive

You can also test the latest VMWare 1.1 for 30 days trial period. In addition, VMware Fusion 2 Beta 2 is now available for testing as well. Just remember it’s beta and that it may contain a few bugs. Fusion 2 is scheduled for release in a few weeks. If you are looking for open-source equivalent, check out VirtualBox by Sun Microsystems.