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Virtual box help

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colintrax

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 31, 2011
10
0
I'm just going to start this off by saying I'm not computer literate.
I'm trying to install solidworks (a CAD program) on virtual box, unfortunately when I first installed virtual box I only dedicated 916 mb to it. Solidworks says I need atleast 1 gb of ram, it's working currently but very slow. So how do I dedicate more ram to virtual box the easily?
I'm also wondering when I dedicate ram to virtual box does that mean it's not available to the mac part even when virtual box isn't running?
BTW, I have a unibody macbook with 4gb of ram.
I also was thinking of adding more ram, I currently have 2, 2gb (cards?) so I thought about adding a 4 gb card (to make 6gb total). But I've heard that you shouldn't run 2 different sized ram cards, should I just pay extra and get 2, 4gb?
Thank you, Colin
 
snorkelman

snorkelman

Cancelled
Oct 25, 2010
666
155
stick a matching pair of 4gig sticks in there

ram allocated to virtual machines is only off limits to OSX whilst the virtual machine is running

ie you could have four five or more individual virtual machines configured each with 2 gig of RAM allocated, but only the active ones will consume 2 gig each, and only while they're running

to increase the RAM allocation for a virtual machine in virtual box:

run virtual box

select the virtual machine in the list and make sure its listed as powered off (dont actually start the VM while trying to make changes) in this example its XPMini

double click the machines system details entry

OracleVMVirtualBoxManager.jpg


in the dialog that appears use the slider to increase the amount of allocated ram

xpmini-System.jpg


hit OK to save your change and you're done
 
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C

colintrax

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 31, 2011
10
0
Awesome! I found where to make changes, but it won't allow me to make changes. I'm trying to move the arrow but it just stays there, how do I turn off the vm without removing the thing at the top of the screen to modify it?
Also, found out its running on 1 proccesor, but I have 2. Should I tell it to use both? Or would that keep me from being able to run both at the same time?
Thank you
 
snorkelman

snorkelman

Cancelled
Oct 25, 2010
666
155
sounds like your virtual machine is running (or possibly paused) rather than powered off

bring up the virtual machine and do a standard Windows shutdown on it (windows start menu shutdown)

Once its completely shutdown its entry in that first dialog should read as 'Powered Off' and you should then double click that system setting and slide the Ram allocated slider to 1gig (maybe even 1.25 or 1.5 gig on a 4 gig of RAM equipped mac)

processors I'd leave pegged at 1
 
C

colintrax

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 31, 2011
10
0
That's what I thought, yet no matter what I try the only time I can look at the settings is when it's running.
Also I think I'll do 3. 1gb should be plenty for running 1 app, itunes, and safari at the most while I'm running Virtual box right?
When I get the new ram, will I lose any settings?

I should also probably tell you that it used to start up with a white screen and windows was about half screen in the center. Well I didn't use it for awhile, started it up yesterday to install solidworks and it gave me an error message and said I needed the new updated version. Did the update and now it shows windows in full screen without the white border.
 
snorkelman

snorkelman

Cancelled
Oct 25, 2010
666
155
weird Powered Off is usually when you can make changes, on here I can:

alter the settings when the virtual machine is listed as 'Powered off'

view but not change them when its listed as 'running' or 'paused'

and cant view them at all when its in 'Saved'

if and when you do get it to accept changes I'd steer clear of assigning 3 gig of RAM to it whilst the machine only has 4 in total - the OSX side of things will likely disc thrash like crazy with that little RAM available to it (which wont do the virtual machine any favours either).

Dont worry adding RAM to your machine wont affect the current configuration settings for your virtual machines (though that's the stage I'd be going in and increasing allocated RAM to more than a gig and a half, take it up to the 3 gig or so then)


Edit - just seen you're running the latest version, Ive currently been skipping the upgrade will run it just now and see if that's got any impact on getting to those settings the way I described.

re the white border sounds like you were set to run Vbox in windowed mode (at a resolution lower than your display size) and are now running it in full screen mode since the upgrade.
 
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C

colintrax

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 31, 2011
10
0
Got it back to white screen, but still can't "turn it off" and adjust anything. I'll keep trying, if I can't figure it out, I'll have the computer repair place at my school fix it for me. Just means my homework will be late :(

If it makes a difference, I'm using windows vista ultimate
 
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snorkelman

snorkelman

Cancelled
Oct 25, 2010
666
155
hmm just wondering, Im probably wrong but worth asking just in case...

when i fire up virtual box from icon on dock or from applications folder I get the Oracle VM Virtual Box manager window

OracleVMVirtualBoxManager-1.jpg


from there I can pick any of my virtual machines from list on the left by highlighting one an hitting the start button just above them, or make changes to one of them while the actual virtual machine (eg XPmini) is powered off..

so just to confirm you do get this window when you start virtual box?


the icon i use to launch Virtual Box that way is this one from my dock (its also in my applications folder)

Desktop.jpg


however Ive just remembered there's another way of launching a Virtual Box virtual machine, and that's by using an alias icon for that particular virtual machine, e.g.

this is the alias icon for my windows 'XPmini' virtual machine, sat on my desktop:

SystemUIServer.jpg


if i click that icon it'll auto start the xpmini virtual machine directly, wont bother showing me the Oracle VM Virtual Box manager window first, and when I shut down the XPMini virtual machine, it'll promptly dump me back out of virtual box completely.. again without showing the Oracle VM Virtual Box manager then either...

so if I run 'xpmini' virtual machine that way from the direct alias icon, then I'll never have an opportunity to actually change any of it's settings. Sure, I'll be able to view the settings (by using the menu command 'Machine/Settings' to bring up the settings window while 'xpmini' is running) but as the VM will always be running when I do so, no changes would be possible.

so... if you arent launching your virtual machine from the 'Oracle VM Virtual Box Manager' (god what a mouthful lol) I'd have a hunt for its icon in your applications folder and give it a go
 
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C

colintrax

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 31, 2011
10
0
That's exactly what it's doing, it doesn't start off with that window. BUT I'm starting virtual box through finder, I click finder on my dock, one of the folders is labled "virtual box vms" I click that, then it has another folder with my name, click that and it'll bring up random pages that I can open or click on the box icon. Click the box icon and it brings up the box on my dock jumping up and down. Click that and it starts windows automatically.
 
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colintrax

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 31, 2011
10
0
Fixed it! I clicked on the mac symbol deal in the top right and found virtual box through there. That allowed me to modify it!!!
Thank you for the help!
 
C

colintrax

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 31, 2011
10
0
Well virtual box has been working alright other than being extremely slow and lagging. So I got my new ram today, dedicated 3.5 gigs to the virtual box.... and now virtual box won't start. It'll start but then say "a critical error has occured" and ask me to turn it off. :confused: the mac portion is working great on the new ram, so did I get a virus or something?
 
C

colintrax

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 31, 2011
10
0
Set it to 2.83 gigs for the virtual machine and 2 cpus and got it working. Can anyone tell me what the best settings would be if I'm just trying to run solidworks on virtual box? 2 ghz core 2 processor, 8 gb ram, and osx 10.6.8
 
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