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VirtualBox Setup
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virtualbox.setup.md

VirtualBox Setup

Host Requirements

The following are known to work on both Windows 10 and Windows 11 hosts.

Optimize HOST for VirtualBox usage (mandatory)

https://www.wintips.org/fix-virtualbox-running-very-slow-in-windows-10-11/#method-4

Critical Steps:

  • Control Panel > Programs and Features > Turn Windows features on or off
    • disable "Containers"
    • disable "Hyper-V"
    • disable "Virtual Machine Platform"
    • disable Windows Sandbox
    • restart afterwards
  • in admin command line
    • bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off
    • restart again
  • Control Panel > Power Options > Change Plan Settings > Change advanced power settings
    • change preset to "High performance" (it wont be by default no matter what other changes)

Running with out many of those is also possible, but you will experience worse performance (slowdowns, potential crashes) as well as various errors in the system. They're not so severe that you wont be able to work, just annoying at startup.

Warnings

  • Re-run Guest Additions Install on the Guest system after every major system update.
    • not always required by sometimes is due to updates breaking
  • Sometimes VBox just has broken versions and thats the one you get if you hit download
    • make sure to read carefully the BIG RED TEXT in the download pages

Guest Requirements

Known working combination

  • Windows 10 Host, Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS Guest with VirtualBox 7.0.10 r158379 (Qt5.15.2)

    • run as administrator
    • chipset: ICH9
    • Processor: PAE/NX enabled, AMD-V/VT-X enabled
    • Default Paravirtualization with nesting enabled
    • Display: VMSVGA with 3D acceleration enabled
    • Storage: Host I/O Cache disabled on SATA controller

  • Windows 10 Host, Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS Guest with VirtualBox 7.0.10 r158379 (Qt5.15.2)

    • run as administrator
    • chipset: ICH9
    • Processor: PAE/NX enabled, AMD-V/VT-X disabled
    • Default Paravirtualization with nesting enabled
    • Display: VMSVGA with 3D acceleration enabled
    • Storage: Host I/O Cache disabled on SATA controller

  • Windows 10 Host, Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS Guest with VirtualBox 7.0.10 r158379 (Qt5.15.2)

    • run as administrator
    • chipset: ICH9
    • Processor: PAE/NX enabled, AMD-V/VT-X disabled
    • Default Paravirtualization with nesting enabled
    • Display: VMSVGA with 3D acceleration disabled
    • Storage: Host I/O Cache disabled on SATA controller

Expected Behavior

  • startup should take a bit, especially if you close the machine with out using the shutdown from OS
  • startup also takes longer when you fiddle with any vbox settings
  • its expected to have some disk checks
  • login screen should be pretty snappy and instant (no hiteches and animation if 3D acceleration is enabled)
  • login into system should be fairly snappy too (some configurations do have a bit of a blank screen between, its ubuntu thing) but its expected for the system to take a few seconds to "warm up" after which point anything like terminals and other things like vscode should just working instantly no matter if you close them (partly this is just their default rather then vbox/guest-system problem)
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