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Installing VM on Bootcamp

J

Jokon

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 26, 2015
3
0
Hi everyone,
I want to test a windows software on virtual box.... now before you get all confused, let me try and explain this as detailed as I can.

I want to modify a few things on my vm(virtualbox) but the software I'm using is designed to work with windows and I'm using a Mac.

I know I can't run a VM on another VM... so instead of going to buy a windows computer, I decided to partition my mac with bootcamp.

I have bootcamp running well with windows installed, now I try to install windows on my virtualbox on my partitioned bootcamp drive but it was not running well.

From what I've seen, I suspect bootcamp is also run as a VM and thats why I'm having this problem.

Please could someone help me out?

I want to know if what I'm trying to do is possible and won't affect my OS X

or should I just buy a windows computer?

thanks for all contributions in advance
 
Boot camp is native and not a vm. I'm not sure what your issues are but running windows in bootcamp is that, running windows natively.

What errors are you getting when you're running VB in windows, is it VB that has the issue or the Windows install?

Are you using an ISO or or disc?
 
Jokon said:
snip

I have bootcamp running well with windows installed, now I try to install windows on my virtualbox on my partitioned bootcamp drive but it was not running well.

snip
Click to expand...

This statement was confusing to me. Are you saying you have booted the Mac to Windows and are running Windows when you install Virtual Box?

If so, then as @maflynn stated we will need more detailed information about any errors or performance issues you're seeing.

Cheers,
 
I got that he's running the Windows version of Virtual Box and trying to install an other virtual version of Windows from within Windows.
All from Bootcamp.

Also helpful would be the versions of Windows you're using and the year and model of your Mac.
 
Sorry about the whole confusion

I basically want to know if I can install a VM on bootcamp without issues

mac air 2012--- 8gb ram
OS X Yosemite 10.10.2

bootcamp-windows 7

VM I intend to install--- windows XP
 
Last edited:
Jokon said:
Sorry about the whole confusion

I basically want to know if I can install a VM on bootcamp without issues

mac air 2012--- 8gb ram
OS X Yosemite 10.10.2

bootcamp-windows 7

VM I intend to install--- windows XP
Click to expand...

If you want full performance, you are not supposed to use the Boot Camp partition from Virtualbox.

You are supposed to restart your Mac, hold down Option when you hear the chime and select the Windows disk.

Boot Camp is not a VM itself. It is a native installation with direct access to the full resources of the computer.

It's universally known that Virtualbox has lousy performance. Use VMware Player. It's free and has far better performance. Just remember to install VMware Tools in the VM.
 
yjchua95 said:
If you want full performance, you are not supposed to use the Boot Camp partition from Virtualbox.

You are supposed to restart your Mac, hold down Option when you hear the chime and select the Windows disk.

Boot Camp is not a VM itself. It is a native installation with direct access to the full resources of the computer.

It's universally known that Virtualbox has lousy performance. Use VMware Player. It's free and has far better performance. Just remember to install VMware Tools in the VM.
Click to expand...

Thanks yjchua95

That was really helpful
 
Jokon said:
I basically want to know if I can install a VM on bootcamp without issues
Click to expand...
Yes as noted, Bootcamp is not a VM, its a full native execution of Windows, so from there you can install Virtual Box and run within VB another copy of an OS, including windows.
 
doynton said:
This isn't true - there is no noticeable difference. http://xmodulo.com/vmware-player-vs-virtualbox-performance-comparison.html

Use which you prefer. The advantage of VBox is it is free on both OSX and Windows but both are pretty good in my experience.
Click to expand...

Agreed, Oracle has done a lot to improve the overall performance and feel of VB. They use it for some of their enterprise application rollouts, which is a good idea. Provide the customers with a VM image that can be booted up in a VM, instead of creating a new database, web server, app server, etc.
 
yjchua95 said:
VMware Player 7 is also free (not the Pro version, but the regular version, and works as well as it uses the same hypervisor engine as Workstation).
Click to expand...
Doesn't that only allow you to use an existing VM and not create one yourself?
 
maflynn said:
Doesn't that only allow you to use an existing VM and not create one yourself?
Click to expand...

Nope. It allows you to create one.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/mi...nguage=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2013483

The only caveat is that Player (non-pro) won't let you create VMs that are encrypted or self-destruct after a set amount of time. Pro versions and Workstation allows you to do that.

http://www.vmware.com/products/player/compare#player7

Other than that, the hypervisor engine is identical to Fusion 7 and Workstation 11, and that's all that matters.

Oh and UEFI actually works in Player 7, after modifying the pertinent .vmx file by adding in an extra line - firmware = "efi"
 
yjchua95 said:
So now here's another free hypervisor to add to your list :D
Click to expand...
VMWare Player is Windows and Linux only. You have to pay for the equivalent VMWare Fusion on OSX. That was my point - VBox is free on both. It's a shame that so often something that is free on Windows you have to pay for on OSX.
 
yjchua95 said:
So now here's another free hypervisor to add to your list :D
Click to expand...

Definitely something to consider, I have an old license of Vmware Workstation for windows, and I was tempted to upgrade but since I use Virtual Box at work I was just going to load that. I'll have keep that in mind as well.
 
Installing VM on Bootcamp

You can even run a vm inside a vm. We do that for testing purposes every time with VMWare vSphere on our laptops.

I'm not sure why OP's isn't working well even for just windows XP... He needs to define what's not "well"
 
illusionx said:
You can even run a vm inside a vm. We do that for testing purposes every time with VMWare vSphere on our laptops.

I'm not sure why OP's isn't working well even for just windows XP... He needs to define what's not "well"
Click to expand...

vSphere ESXi is a bare-metal hypervisor, so it's technically different from a hypervisor within a host per se.

A VM running off a bare-metal hypervisor would usually perform better than a VM running off a hypervisor running within a host OS environment.
 
Installing VM on Bootcamp

yjchua95 said:
vSphere ESXi is a bare-metal hypervisor, so it's technically different from a hypervisor within a host per se.



A VM running off a bare-metal hypervisor would usually perform better than a VM running off a hypervisor running within a host OS environment.
Click to expand...


We put the hyper visor inside a vmware fusion/workstation and run another vm inside the hyper visor. If you see what I mean. It's strictly for testing purposes and also allows us to vmotion or easily move the VM to prod if ever happens. :)

Anyways /off topic. I can't wait for OP to tell us what's wrong with vbox inside OS X that don't work well.
 
illusionx said:
We put the hyper visor inside a vmware fusion/workstation and run another vm inside the hyper visor. If you see what I mean. It's strictly for testing purposes and also allows us to vmotion or easily move the VM to prod if ever happens. :)

Anyways /off topic. I can't wait for OP to tell us what's wrong with vbox inside OS X that don't work well.
Click to expand...

Alright now I understand.

In my workplace we don't usually do it this way though, we put the hypervisor layer just right after the boot process, create and select VMs, then boot off it.
 
maflynn said:
Agreed, Oracle has done a lot to improve the overall performance and feel of VB.
Click to expand...

Oracle have done almost nothing to VB since buying it. Oracle is where opensource goes to die.

They use it for some of their enterprise application rollouts, which is a good idea. Provide the customers with a VM image that can be booted up in a VM, instead of creating a new database, web server, app server, etc.
Click to expand...

The primary technology used by Oracle for enterprise virtualisation in Xen.

----------
doynton said:
This isn't true - there is no noticeable difference. http://xmodulo.com/vmware-player-vs-virtualbox-performance-comparison.html
Click to expand...

Those benchmarks are a load of bollocks and just by linking to them, you are massively over simplifying the issue.
 
SlCKB0Y said:
Oracle have done almost nothing to VB since buying it. Oracle is where opensource goes to die.
Click to expand...
I disagree, I tied VB before Oracle got their mitts on it and I just installed it a while ago. I saw some definite speed improvements. Perhaps they're not adding features like VMWare/Parallels but I have noticed performance improvements. I've not followed VB close enough to know any new features.

I'll be using Virtual Box for upgrading our PeopleSoft environment. As I mentioned they provide a complete environment (database server/web server/ app server) in a single VM and from that you can upgrade your PeopleSoft environment,
 
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