MEPIS Community Forum

I am running vanilla Mepis 11_64 with VirtualBox 4.1.10 r76795 with a guest XP installation. While the Mepis wiki is a great resource for VirtualBox installations, I thought to expand on some issues that aren't covered there.

If you installed XP as a guest OS from the original disk ( mine only had Service Pack 1 included ), you will find out that you can't do a Microsoft Update as MU won't update SP1.
SP2 is available at http://www.softwarepatch.com/windows/xpsp2.html.

As this may possibly bork the guest OS, I decided to backup everything first and having never tried to create a restore disk in XP, I chose to try that.

Again - Do remember to do a backup before you install SP2 ( though doing so through Windows Backup/Restore shows that it will take 26 hours for my 20 GB virtual image ).

Will update as I continue through this process.

Edit: When the backup ( Windows Backup/Restore ) failed, it was because I did not select only the drive I meant to backup, not all networked drives - ended up taking ~ 8 minutes

Have XP as guest OS on Mepis 11-64 have updated to the SP3 via CD with no problems also if you want to backup your guest XP OS all you have to do is use VirtualBox manager to export the appliance which really takes no time at all if anything goes wrong with the SP2, SP3 update all you have to do is re-import the appliance.

Bring up VirtualBox Manager under File>export appliance which will bring up a window to select which guest OS you want to export follow the instructions now you have a copy of your original install.

I use this method all the time and also use it to import the guest OS into other machines running VirtualBox.

I just use Dolphin to make a copy of the .VDI file.

yes that works also. But not sure if you can import that I do export mainly because I import to other machines.

Thanks for the backup idea - I appreciate you sharing your knowledge of VirtualBox - I am still learning all the tips and tricks



Thanks, typically I miss the easy way ...

Truthfully, I've never tried export/import.

My VDI is a small, minimal 4GB with Win2K on it. I've been using the same one at least since Mepis 8 was released. On a new OS install, I just copy my copy to /home/dale/.VirtualBox/VDI/Win2K.vdi, and then use the VirtualBox GUI to set up the details.

I got off the upgrade train at version 3.2.12. I use VB so seldom that upgrading seems pointless. Perhaps if I had a newer/faster machine with more HDD space, it would be nice to be able to test a new OS there.

Go to http://www.nliteos.com and learn how to "slipstream" XP. This will allow you to have updates and patches pre-applied to your CD rather than having to do it the conventional way. Much faster, safer and highly convenient. You can also pre-apply drivers and other goodies to your CD before installation.

Attempted this method - process of creating the .vmdk file was painless until it hung up at 53%. There is still 24GB of space on the external drive that I am copying the export to, so I am at this point.

I use this SP3 XP disk quite often:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/co ... x?id=25129

(This should make an install disk of SP3 for XP).

Also:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/co ... aspx?id=43

This is an executable for Internet Exploder 8.

http://www.blackviper.com/2008/06/16/wi ... try-files/

"Safe" registry files are found here to tweak sevices in XP to save on resources when sharing them w/ an older host. Use the "Default" ones to set it back if you don't like the experience.

I think if you are afraid of borking your XP install, you could make a snapshot (I think that is what it is called). I have saved the VDI file as well.

The Tramp

Not sure what to tell you on this, I have not had this problem.