Today I tried out the Solaris version of VirtualBox on my OpenSolaris 2008.05 laptop.

My laptop is a Sony VAIO, a Centrino Pro processor based system. The first decision you need to make is whether you need to download the 32 bit or the 64 bit version. They recommend using the command isainfo -k in a terminal window to see which mode Solaris is running in. Solaris has a single distribution for both 32 bit and 64-bit capable CPUs, and at runtime, it picks the best mode. Since my system supports EM64T (extended memory 64 technology), OpenSolaris is running in 64 bit mode, so I downloaded that one.

After the download and untar, the instructions for installing the package are quite straightforward.

One small criticism is that you need to launch VirtualBox from the command line; it should install something in the Gnome desktop menus.

Once I launched VirtualBox, I was able to define a new Windows guest, give it around 1GB of memory (I am running with 2GB on the laptop), point the CD-ROM at the .iso file of Windows XP, and boot away. The install went flawlessly, and I was able to bring up Windows XP just fine. Also installing the Windows Guest extensions worked fine as well.

Networking and audio came through from Windows into Solaris, and since audio works in OpenSolaris, I was able to hear the Windows sounds just fine. Note that if you turn on seamless mode, you might not want to reboot your guest, as the display will be... um... interesting. Though this seems to happen with Windows as the host as well.

Of the two configurations I have tried (running OpenSolaris as a guest under Windows or running Windows as a guest under OpenSolaris), I actually think I prefer this one.

• I could probably live my whole life in OpenSolaris and just use windows for those few times I just can't get away from it (like running my company expense reporting tool).
• Compiz, the 3D graphical desktop under Gnome is a lot cooler than the effects on Windows.
• I still need to figure out how to get my Windows guest to drill through the company firewall to set up a VPN connection, but I might have a website which explains how to do this.
• My 3945 wireless connection on OpenSolaris doesn't seem to want to stay as stable as the Windows wireless networking. Perhaps need an upgrade to 4965!

I was running VirtualBox 1.5 for some months, and it is a great way for me to run OpenSolaris on my Windows laptop(or run Windows on my OpenSolaris desktop for that matter). Great functionality and performance.

They just recently released VirtualBox 1.6, and they added the "Guest Additions" feature support for Solaris and OpenSolaris. This means I can do things like Windows integration, which allows me to view guest windows in the host OS. (ie, an OpenSolaris window just looks and acts like a Windows window). This is really cool beans, and it installs great and works great!

The only missing feature in the Solaris Guest Additions is the Shared Folders between OpenSolaris and Windows. This is supposed to be fixed in the next release, which I think is in about a quarter.

The one criticism I have about Guest Additions: to install these in the guest required a bunch of searching around on my part before I finally located it. (It turns out that when you install VirtualBox, the guest additions .iso file is present along with the VirtualBox .exe, which in Windows is in Program Files.) Just read the user manual, it has the goods there, but was just hard for me to find with a quick scan, it took some effort to find it.

In some competing proprietary VM software, adding the guest additions is quite simple, I think you just click a button. And if you don't have the guest additions installed, you get a little nag on your screen when you start up guests which have not been so enhanced. This would be a good improvement for VirtualBox.

Good job Innotek!! I like these bits.

If the VMM being used has a time synch option, it should be enabled.

There are just a few steps necessary to have your Windows 2003 system synchronizing with your NTP server, even from within a Virtual Machine.

Specifying your Internet Time Server
Right click on your time display. Then click on the Adjust/Time selection. Then click on the Internet Time tab. Enter the IP address or Name of the NTP server you wish to synchronize with.

Create a batch file
You will need to create a batch file for your scheduled task to execute. The batch file needs only one line:

w32tm /resync

Create the Scheduled task
Go to C:\Windows\Tasks folder. You will see an entry to "Add a scheduled task". Click on it to bring up the wizard. Browse to specify your newly created batch file as the executable for the new task. Specify daily execution. After you have created the task, use the advanced features to execute it every 10 minutes or 5 minutes as necessary.

SLES 9 SP1
There are just a few steps necessary to have your LINUX system synchronizing with your NTP server, even from within a Virtual Machine.

Specifying your Internet Time Server
Edit the file /etc/ntp.conf. Specify your server by adding a line like:

Server 192.168.1.63

Create a shell script
Create a bash shell script with the lines:

#!/bin/bash
/etc/init.d/xntpd restart 2>&1 > /dev/null

Edit crontab
Edit /etc/crontab to add an entry for your newly created shell script. It would look like (to execute every 5 minutes):

0,5,10,15,20,25,30,35,40,45,50,55 * * * root /root/myNewScript

Now 8 years later, Virtualization seems to be the newest "Big Thing". like the old saying goes, "The more things change, the more they stay the same". I am writing this as an introductory blog.

I cannot envision a more exciting time to be working in the technology industry, and especially, at Intel. Tick-tock, multi-core, low power, atom, larrabee, wimax, mids, 45nm are just a few of the potentially game changing strategies and technologies that Intel is driving today. However, none of these breakthroughs will make a big difference in the marketplace unless ISVs can effectively incorporate them into products that deliver real value and excitement to customers. This is the ‘simple’ premise behind ISPP: Make it easy for ISVs to align their products with the Intel roadmap and enjoy increased business success as a result.

In my past life as an engineer, I got a real kick in the pants from creating new SW and hearing feedback from customers about how cool our app was…or sometimes, wasn't! These days my ‘kick’ comes from driving our talented engineering, ISN developer community, and marketing teams to deliver enabling programs that help you and your company to capitalize on Intel's technology leadership. I’m looking forward to sharing my thoughts and ideas about SW enabling in future posts, but am even more eager to hear your feedback about how we can make ISPP work better. Simple enough?

Sun and Intel webcast on Innovation

This talk is MC'd by Julian Lukacs, from Sun's Market Development group which works with software developers to enable them to succeed on Solaris.  Joining us are:

Juan Carlos Soto - Sun Market Development
Andy Roach - Solaris x86 engineering director

Andy's team and mine work together to make sure Solaris on Xeon shines.

On the webcast, I talk about what's available to you the developer today, and work we're doing in OpenSolaris for Intel's upcoming Nehalem architecture.  You can hear about Sun's strategy for their xVM virtualization product, some of their software acquisitions and how they feel about Intel's hardware.  Cool stuff!

And it was fun developing the webcast!  I enjoyed working with the Sun folks.
This webcast is time well spent I hope to understand the work we're doing and hear about it from more than just Dave Stewart, but also our friends at Sun!

I decided to upgrade the version I have running in a VirtualBox guest under Windows XP on my Sony VAIO laptop with a Core2Duo processor. (VirtualBox and OpenSolaris is of course open source software and totally free).

Of course, my job seems like a constant stream of interruptions (just the nature of my job) so I started the upgrade late in the day, and had to go home while the upgrade was still running.

When I came in this morning, I noticed that the laptop appeared to be powered off. Oh yeah, I forgot to change the defaults, so Windows had put me in what they call "Stand By" mode. This is the state referred to as "Suspend to RAM" because the processor is powered down, but the memory remains powered.

Uh oh, did the upgrade finish before the suspend? Well, let's find out.

I hit the power button, and Windows came back up. The OpenSolaris guest was running, and I could see that the Upgrade progress was only at 35%. Since I was doing the Upgrade from a DVD, I figured that it was a totally lost cause.

But hang on, the OpenSolaris guest is trying to access the CD, and to my surprise, the upgrade starts up again and continues to progress normally!

I don't know why I should be surprised by this. The exasperated engineer will say, "Of course! It worked just like it was supposed to!" Yes, but in the area of suspend/resume power management, I am normally accustomed to things either not working or working very slowly.

Anyway, after this experience, I will definitely feel more comfortable using suspend-resume on the host OS.

Well I'm happy to now tell you that this morning when looked for the board on Amazon.com, it is reported as being In Stock and available to ship!!!

May the force, powered by eight cores, be with you ...

If, like me, you are a virtualization junkie then I would definately consider this board for your next Workstation. If you are a serious gamer, then it goes without saying ... you want this board!!!

For those of you still wondering what I'm talking about, I'll let you in on a little secret. We're showing the old design to about half of you, and the new design to the other half. Yes, this is intentional. We're collecting metrics to guage the effectiveness of the new design.

Would you like to do me a favor? Let me know what you think about it.  Does it work better than the old design?  How would you improve it?