Virtualbox question

[sammyc]

Title edited to reflect change of tack, please scroll to last post for update.


[Anyone had any truck with Andy the android emulator? In the throes of unsuccessfully installing the little ahem, and headache is not the word so far.

All I'm getting is an apparently successful install, & the usual 'go ahead & open from desktop or tray icon', which it doesn't. Have had 2 (and now on no. 3) attempts, one without installing oracle virtualbox, which iirc stalled at a certain point & gave up. Help pls. ]

[sammyc]

As I thought - installing without oracle throws up this message, after which if ok'd, install sticks at Andy has been installed, Handy Andy is importing Default Andy, please wait.. and a superimposed box, Setting 'andy' Network.

[Disturbedguy]

I had some issues when first trying to run Andy after it was installed, it stopped a message that if I remember is similar to yours.

I had to install an earlier version of the Oracle VM software it uses, once I did this, it worked fine and has done since.

They do have a Facebook help group, not the best group but not too bad.

Edit!: I'm not at home at the moment but if you drop me a PM to remind me, ill check what version I am running and let you know.

[sammyc]

Ta much for that am currently messing with it (and a couple of alternatives) ,will return when I've ruled a few issues in or out.

[sammyc]

..Your inbox would appear to be full, DG.

general update: have concluded andy is probably not going to be the emulator for me (resource-wise etc) & have sideways-moved into trying an android/virtualbox alternative (slightly less than satisfactory) & a test of genymotion specific device emulators (even less satisfactory, so far). Bluestacks doesn't cut the mustard unfortunately, so that's not an option.

[Disturbedguy]

Hi Sammy,

Cleared some space just in case there was anything you wanted to ask / say off public forum

Yeah Bluestacks was good to start with but then the constant pestering to download new apps drew the line for me.

Hope you find something that works

[sammyc]

Thanks pm on way.

I now have a hitch with android+virtualbox - on initial tryout, I went for 'run android without installation'. If (having found it adequate to be going on) with I do decide to go for installation to hard disk, I find that I can't actually mouseclick within the screen to hand over input control, therefore I can't select the necessary option. :/ Ideally I'd still rather have a simpler way of doing this anyway, but not getting far with genymotion all told.

[sammyc]

Update, am using virtualbox in 'run without installation' mode for now - did find it possible to actually run the install process, but hit errors that others seem to have had with getting it to install successfully. Temporarily given up & may return to it.

Quick question for anyone versed in Virtualbox's ways - if I am running it in trial mode at the moment, are saved states retained on turning off the host machine? Logic tells me they should (as even after an uninstall of virtualbox it remembers your previous VMs etc) but a confirmation would be great if anyone could. Have seen a few threads here & there relating to this, ie people having problems after closing the virtualbox GUI and/or powering off the host, but they related to having saved data somewhere other than the standard location.

Really don't want to find my VM reverting back to powered off & having to go through the whole palaver again hence the nervousness.

Also is there any benefit to taking snapshots if I essentially want to return to the same point each time?

[Splash]

It's been a while since I last touches it (version 3.something if I recall), so I may be missing a point, but... what exactly do you mean about "running it in trial mode"?

Saved states are roughly equivalent to a suspend to disk operation. This is written to disk, and persists (even through reboots of the host) until the saved state is discarded. more at https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch01.html

[sammyc]

Poor phraseology sorry, I mean my operating system is not installed; not virtualbox itself. Therefore the os is running in 'run without installation' mode. I have had reason to uninstall virtualbox itself and reinstall & it remembered whatever VMs I was playing with, but as they would have been powered off, I don't know about saved states.

I had a look at that section of the manual but was a bit unsure about:

Save the machine state: With this option, VirtualBox "freezes" the virtual machine by completely saving its state to your local disk.

When you start the VM again later, you will find that the VM continues exactly where it was left off. All your programs will still be open, and your computer resumes operation. Saving the state of a virtual machine is thus in some ways similar to suspending a laptop computer (e.g. by closing its lid).

..so by replicating standby, I presume they mean of your VM, but which persist regardless of shutting down the host. But would that only apply if the virtual os is actually installed?

Am learning this on the fly and not really giving it thorough reading-up time I realise, just a bit pushed for time. Thanks for your reply.

[uBronan]

I am not sure if it does matter if you have it installed but i kinda wonder where the data get saved.
On my system it is installed and places some info about the state/info of the freeze.
It simply saves the complete state the virtual machine is in, thats why kinda every program acts like nothing has happened when you put it into the freeze mode. So yes its kinda similar indeed like closing the lid of a laptop.
However some programs do not really seem to work well with the freeze mode, i had several programs crash when i unfreezed them.
I had some program which saved info from my phone into a database which lost the database connection every time i freezed the vbox.
Tried to remember which other programs had this issue but its simply too long ago and unimportant which programs caused the issue.
Often am asked to beta tests on programs and some hardware, and like many others like to see how new products evolve or make out lives easier

[Splash]

Ah, I see what you mean. So you're effectively running a livecd type environment, without installing the guest OS to the virtual disk?

So yes: if you save state then it's more or less the same as a Windows suspend-to-disk, and when you reboot your guest OS that saved state should persist. Obviously if you do this and have anything outside of the virtual machine that has a connection into the VM then suspending this will break that connection, and not everything takes kindly to being suspended to disk.

[sammyc]

Thanks for your reply, yes it's livecd without install. I hibernated my laptop overnight in order to pick up with things today, & restored my VM fine, but owing to a stupid error on my part I have lost my VM and not only that but am having absolutely no success re-setting up. It wasn't exactly skipping along yesterday, but today it's awful, hanging, almost no virtual mouse control, and then just gives up the ghost part way.

No idea why this should be - the worst of it being that I'd thought up to this point, if I lose my VM, worst comes to the worst it's not a huge deal to re-set up. Argh.

edit: I am back in, after much fiddling, so I will repeat the 'hibernate & keep an eye on' process until I'm confident that running in this mode doesn't affect my ability to exit virtualbox & power off the host machine, while keeping my saved state. Gives me time to research better, anyway.