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Adding upstream version 7.0.20-dfsg. 
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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<!DOCTYPE chapter PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd"[
<!ENTITY % all.entities SYSTEM "all-entities.ent">
%all.entities;
]>
<chapter id="BasicConcepts">
<title>Configuring Virtual Machines</title>
<para>
This chapter provides detailed steps for configuring an
&product-name; virtual machine (VM). For an introduction to
&product-name; and steps to get your first virtual machine running,
see <xref linkend="Introduction" />.
</para>
<para>
You have considerable latitude when deciding what virtual hardware
to provide to the guest. Use virtual hardware to communicate with
the host system or with other guests. For example, you can use
virtual hardware in the following ways:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Have &product-name; present an ISO CD-ROM image to a guest
system as if it were a physical CD-ROM.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Provide a guest system access to the physical network through
its virtual network card.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Provide the host system, other guests, and computers on the
Internet access to the guest system.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<sect1 id="guestossupport">
<title>Supported Guest Operating Systems</title>
<para>
Because &product-name; is designed to provide a generic
virtualization environment for x86 systems, it can run guest
operating systems (OSes) of any kind.
</para>
<para>
The following guest OS platforms are supported:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Platforms With Full Support.</emphasis>
These guest OS platforms qualify for Oracle Premier Support.
See <xref linkend="table-premier-support"/>.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Platforms With Limited
Support.</emphasis> These legacy guest OS platforms can be
used with &product-name;, but only qualify for limited
support because of the vintage of the technology involved.
Therefore, resolution of customer issues for such legacy
guest OS platforms cannot be assured. See
<xref linkend="table-limited-support"/>.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<table id="table-premier-support" tabstyle="oracle-all">
<title>Guest Operating Systems With Full Support</title>
<tgroup cols="2">
<thead>
<row>
<entry><para>
<emphasis role="bold">Operating System</emphasis>
</para></entry>
<entry><para>
<emphasis role="bold">Comments</emphasis>
</para></entry>
</row>
</thead>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><para>
Windows 11 (64-bit)
</para></entry>
<entry><para>
Insider preview builds are not supported
</para></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><para>
Windows 10 (32-bit and 64-bit)
</para></entry>
<entry><para>
Insider preview builds are not supported
</para></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><para>
Windows 8 and 8.1 (32-bit and 64-bit)
</para></entry>
<entry><para></para></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><para>
Windows Server 2019 (64-bit)
</para></entry>
<entry><para></para></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><para>
Windows Server 2016 (64-bit)
</para></entry>
<entry><para></para></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><para>
Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 (64-bit)
</para></entry>
<entry><para></para></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><para>
Solaris 11 (32-bit and 64-bit)
</para></entry>
<entry><para></para></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><para>
Solaris 10 8/11 Update 10 and later (32-bit and 64-bit)
</para></entry>
<entry><para></para></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><para>
Oracle Linux 8 (64-bit)
</para></entry>
<entry><para>
Includes Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, CentOS 8
</para></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><para>
Oracle Linux 7 (64-bit)
</para></entry>
<entry><para>
Includes Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, CentOS 7
</para></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><para>
Oracle Linux 6 (32-bit and 64-bit)
</para></entry>
<entry><para>
Includes Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, CentOS 6
</para></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><para>
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) (32-bit and 64-bit)
</para></entry>
<entry><para></para></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><para>
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) (64-bit)
</para></entry>
<entry><para></para></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><para>
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) (64-bit)
</para></entry>
<entry><para></para></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><para>
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 (64-bit)
</para></entry>
<entry><para></para></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><para>
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 (64-bit)
</para></entry>
<entry><para></para></entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
<table id="table-limited-support" tabstyle="oracle-all">
<title>Legacy Guest Operating Systems With Limited Support</title>
<tgroup cols="2">
<thead>
<row>
<entry><para>
<emphasis role="bold">Operating System</emphasis>
</para></entry>
<entry><para>
<emphasis role="bold">Comments</emphasis>
</para></entry>
</row>
</thead>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><para>
Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit)
</para></entry>
<entry><para></para></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><para>
Windows Vista SP2 and later (32-bit and 64-bit)
</para></entry>
<entry><para></para></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><para>
Windows XP (32-bit)
</para></entry>
<entry><para></para></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><para>
Windows Vista (32-bit)
</para></entry>
<entry><para></para></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><para>
Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 (32-bit and 64-bit)
</para></entry>
<entry><para></para></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><para>
Windows Server 2003 (32-bit and 64-bit)
</para></entry>
<entry><para></para></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><para>
Oracle Linux 5 (32-bit and 64-bit)
</para></entry>
<entry><para>
Includes Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, CentOS 5
</para></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><para>
Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS (Trusty Tahr) (32-bit and 64-bit)
</para></entry>
<entry><para></para></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><para>
OS/2 Warp 4.5
</para></entry>
<entry><para></para></entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
<sect2 id="intro-macosxguests">
<title>Mac OS X Guests</title>
<para>
&product-name; enables you to install and execute unmodified
versions of Mac OS X guests on supported host hardware. Note
that this feature is experimental and thus unsupported.
</para>
<para>
&product-name; is the first product to provide the modern PC
architecture expected by OS X without requiring any of the
modifications used by competing virtualization solutions. For
example, some competing solutions perform modifications to the
Mac OS X install DVDs, such as a different boot loader and
replaced files.
</para>
<para>
Be aware of the following important issues before you attempt to
install a Mac OS X guest:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Mac OS X is commercial, licensed software and contains
<emphasis role="bold">both license and technical
restrictions</emphasis> that limit its use to certain
hardware and usage scenarios. You must understand and comply
with these restrictions.
</para>
<para>
In particular, Apple prohibits the installation of most
versions of Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware.
</para>
<para>
These license restrictions are also enforced on a technical
level. Mac OS X verifies that it is running on Apple
hardware. Most DVDs that accompany Apple hardware check for
the exact model. These restrictions are
<emphasis>not</emphasis> circumvented by &product-name; and
continue to apply.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Only <emphasis role="bold">CPUs</emphasis> that are known
and tested by Apple are supported. As a result, if your
Intel CPU is newer than the Mac OS X build, or if you have a
non-Intel CPU, you will likely encounter a panic during
bootup with an "Unsupported CPU" exception.
</para>
<para>
Ensure that you use the Mac OS X DVD that comes with your
Apple hardware.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
The Mac OS X installer expects the hard disk to be
<emphasis>partitioned</emphasis>. So, the installer will not
offer a partition selection to you. Before you can install
the software successfully, start the Disk Utility from the
Tools menu and partition the hard disk. Close the Disk
Utility and proceed with the installation.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
In addition, Mac OS X support in &product-name; is an
experimental feature. See <xref linkend="KnownIssues" />.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="intro-64bitguests">
<title>64-bit Guests</title>
<warning>
<para>
Be sure to enable <emphasis role="bold">I/O APIC</emphasis>
for virtual machines that you intend to use in 64-bit mode.
This is especially true for 64-bit Windows VMs. See
<xref linkend="settings-motherboard" />. For 64-bit Windows
guests, ensure that the VM uses the
<emphasis role="bold">Intel networking device</emphasis>
because there is no 64-bit driver support for the AMD PCNet
card. See <xref linkend="nichardware" />.
</para>
</warning>
<para>
If you use the <emphasis role="bold">Create VM</emphasis> wizard
of &vbox-mgr;, &product-name; automatically uses the correct
settings for each selected 64-bit OS type. See
<xref linkend="create-vm-wizard" />.
</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="basic-unattended">
<title>Unattended Guest Installation</title>
<para>
&product-name; can install a guest OS automatically. You only need
to provide the installation medium and a few other parameters,
such as the name of the default user.
</para>
<para>
You can perform an unattended guest installation in the following
ways:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Use the Create Virtual Machine
wizard.</emphasis> An optional step in the wizard enables you
to configure unattended installation. You can specify the
default user credentials for the guest OS and also whether to
install the Guest Additions automatically. See
<xref linkend="create-vm-wizard"/>.
</para>
<para>
During this step, &product-name; scans the installation medium
and changes certain parameters to ensure a seamless
installation as a guest running on &product-name;.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Use the <command>VBoxManage</command>
commands.</emphasis>
<xref linkend="unattended-guest-install-example"/> describes
how to perform an unattended guest installation for an Oracle
Linux guest.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
When you first start a VM that has been configured for unattended
installation, the guest OS installation is performed
automatically.
</para>
<para>
The installation operation changes the boot device order to boot
the virtual hard disk first and then the virtual DVD drive. If the
virtual hard disk is empty prior to the automatic installation,
the VM boots from the virtual DVD drive and begins the
installation.
</para>
<para>
If the virtual hard disk contains a bootable OS, the installation
operation exits. In this case, change the boot device order
manually by pressing F12 during the BIOS splash screen.
</para>
<sect2 id="unattended-guest-install-example">
<title>Using VBoxManage Commands for Unattended Guest Installation</title>
<para>
The following example shows how to perform an unattended guest
installation for an Oracle Linux VM. The example uses various
<command>VBoxManage</command> commands to prepare the guest VM.
The <command>VBoxManage unattended install</command> command is
then used to install and configure the guest OS.
</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Create the virtual machine.
</para>
<screen># VM="ol7-autoinstall"
# VBoxManage list ostypes
# VBoxManage createvm --name $VM --ostype "Oracle_64" --register</screen>
<para>
Note the following:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
The $VM variable represents the name of the VM.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
The <command>VBoxManage list ostypes</command> command
lists the guest OSes supported by &product-name;,
including the name used for each OS in the
<command>VBoxManage</command> commands.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
A 64-bit Oracle Linux 7 VM is created and registered
with &product-name;.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
The VM has a unique UUID.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
An XML settings file is generated.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Create a virtual hard disk and storage devices for the VM.
</para>
<screen># VBoxManage createhd --filename /VirtualBox/$VM/$VM.vdi --size 32768
# VBoxManage storagectl $VM --name "SATA Controller" --add sata --controller IntelAHCI
# VBoxManage storageattach $VM --storagectl "SATA Controller" --port 0 --device 0 \
--type hdd --medium /VirtualBox/$VM/$VM.vdi
# VBoxManage storagectl $VM --name "IDE Controller" --add ide
# VBoxManage storageattach $VM --storagectl "IDE Controller" --port 0 --device 0 \
--type dvddrive --medium /u01/Software/OL/OracleLinux-R7-U6-Server-x86_64-dvd.iso</screen>
<para>
The previous commands do the following:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Create a 32768 MB virtual hard disk.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Create a SATA storage controller and attach the virtual
hard disk.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Create an IDE storage controller for a virtual DVD drive
and attach an Oracle Linux installation ISO.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
(Optional) Configure some settings for the VM.
</para>
<screen># VBoxManage modifyvm $VM --ioapic on
# VBoxManage modifyvm $VM --boot1 dvd --boot2 disk --boot3 none --boot4 none
# VBoxManage modifyvm $VM --memory 8192 --vram 128</screen>
<para>
The previous commands do the following:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Enable I/O APIC for the motherboard of the VM.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Configure the boot device order for the VM.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Allocate 8192 MB of RAM and 128 MB of video RAM to the
VM.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Perform an unattended install of the OS.
</para>
<screen># VBoxManage unattended install $VM \
--iso=/u01/Software/OL/OracleLinux-R7-U6-Server-x86_64-dvd.iso \
--user=<replaceable>login</replaceable> --full-user-name=<replaceable>name</replaceable> --password <replaceable>password</replaceable> \
--install-additions --time-zone=CET</screen>
<para>
The previous command does the following:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Specifies an Oracle Linux ISO as the installation ISO.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Specifies a login name, full name, and login password
for a default user on the guest OS.
</para>
<para>
Note that the specified password is also used for the
root user account on the guest.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Installs the Guest Additions on the VM.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Sets the time zone for the guest OS to Central European
Time (CET).
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Start the virtual machine.
</para>
<para>
This step completes the unattended installation process.
</para>
<screen># VBoxManage startvm $VM --type headless</screen>
<para>
The VM starts in headless mode, which means that the
&vbox-mgr; window does not open.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
(Optional) Update the guest OS to use the latest Oracle
Linux packages.
</para>
<para>
On the guest VM, run the following command:
</para>
<screen># yum update</screen>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="emul-hardware">
<title>Emulated Hardware</title>
<para>
&product-name; virtualizes nearly all hardware of the host.
Depending on a VM's configuration, the guest will see the
following virtual hardware:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Input devices.</emphasis> &product-name;
can emulate a standard PS/2 keyboard and mouse. These devices
are supported by most guest OSes.
</para>
<para>
In addition, &product-name; can provide virtual USB input
devices to avoid having to capture mouse and keyboard, as
described in <xref linkend="keyb_mouse_normal" />.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Graphics.</emphasis> The default
&product-name; graphics device for Windows guests is an SVGA
device. For Linux guests, the default graphics device emulates
a VMware SVGA graphics device. See
<xref linkend="settings-screen"/>.
</para>
<para>
For legacy guest OSes, a VGA-compatible graphics device is
available.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Storage.</emphasis> &product-name;
emulates the most common types of hard disk controllers. See
<xref linkend="harddiskcontrollers" />. Whereas supporting
only one of these controllers would be enough for
&product-name; by itself, this multitude of storage adapters
is required for compatibility with other hypervisors. Windows
is very selective about its boot devices, and migrating VMs
between hypervisors is very difficult or impossible if the
storage controllers are different.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Networking.</emphasis> See
<xref linkend="nichardware" />.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">USB.</emphasis> &product-name; emulates
these types of USB host controllers: xHCI, EHCI, and OHCI.
While xHCI handles all USB transfer speeds, some legacy guest
OSes may not support xHCI. Note that for some legacy Windows
guests, third party drivers must be installed for xHCI
support.
</para>
<para>
Legacy guest OSes typically support OHCI and EHCI. These two
controllers are needed because OHCI only handles USB low-speed
and full-speed devices (both USB 1.x and 2.0), while EHCI only
handles high-speed devices (USB 2.0 only).
</para>
<para>
The emulated USB controllers do not communicate directly with
devices on the host. Instead they communicate with a virtual
USB layer which abstracts the USB protocol and enables the use
of remote USB devices.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Audio.</emphasis> See
<xref linkend="settings-audio" />.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="generalsettings">
<title>General Settings</title>
<para>
In the <emphasis role="bold">Settings</emphasis> window, under
<emphasis role="bold">General</emphasis>, you can configure the
most fundamental aspects of the virtual machine such as memory and
essential hardware. The following tabs are available.
</para>
<sect2 id="settings-basic">
<title>Basic Tab</title>
<para>
In the <emphasis role="bold">Basic</emphasis> tab of the
<emphasis role="bold">General</emphasis> settings category, you
can find these settings:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Name:</emphasis> The name of the the
VM, as shown in the list of VMs in the main VirtualBox
Manager window. Using this name, &product-name; also saves
the VM's configuration files. If you change the name,
&product-name; renames these files as well. As a result, you
can only use characters which are allowed for file names on
your host OS.
</para>
<para>
Note that internally, &product-name; uses unique identifiers
(UUIDs) to identify virtual machines. You can display these
using the <command>VBoxManage</command> commands.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Type:</emphasis> The type of the guest
OS for the VM. This is the same setting that is specified in
the <emphasis role="bold">New Virtual Machine</emphasis>
wizard. See <xref linkend="create-vm-wizard" />.
</para>
<para>
Whereas the default settings of a newly created VM depend on
the selected OS type, changing the type later has no effect
on VM settings. This value is purely informational and
decorative.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Version:</emphasis> The version of the
guest OS for the VM. This is the same setting that is
specified in the <emphasis role="bold">New Virtual
Machine</emphasis> wizard. See
<xref linkend="create-vm-wizard" />.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="settings-general-advanced">
<title>Advanced Tab</title>
<para>
The following settings are available in the
<emphasis role="bold">Advanced</emphasis> tab:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Snapshot Folder:</emphasis> By
default, &product-name; saves snapshot data together with
your other &product-name; configuration data. See
<xref linkend="vboxconfigdata" />. With this setting, you
can specify any other folder for each VM.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Shared Clipboard:</emphasis> You can
select here whether the clipboard of the guest OS should be
shared with that of your host. If you select
<emphasis role="bold">Bidirectional</emphasis>, then
&product-name; will always make sure that both clipboards
contain the same data. If you select
<emphasis role="bold">Host to Guest</emphasis> or
<emphasis role="bold">Guest to Host</emphasis>, then
&product-name; will only ever copy clipboard data in one
direction.
</para>
<para>
Clipboard sharing requires that the &product-name; Guest
Additions be installed. In such a case, this setting has no
effect. See <xref linkend="guestadditions" />.
</para>
<para>
For security reasons, the shared clipboard is disabled by
default. This setting can be changed at any time using the
<emphasis role="bold">Shared Clipboard</emphasis> menu item
in the <emphasis role="bold">Devices</emphasis> menu of the
virtual machine.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Drag and Drop:</emphasis> This setting
enables support for drag and drop. Select an object, such as
a file, from the host or guest and directly copy or open it
on the guest or host. Multiple drag and drop modes for a VM
enable restricting of access in either direction.
</para>
<para>
For drag and drop to work the Guest Additions need to be
installed on the guest.
</para>
<note>
<para>
Drag and drop is disabled by default. This setting can be
changed at any time using the <emphasis role="bold">Drag
and Drop</emphasis> menu item in the
<emphasis role="bold">Devices</emphasis> menu of the
virtual machine.
</para>
</note>
<para>
See <xref linkend="guestadd-dnd"/>.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="settings-description">
<title>Description Tab</title>
<para>
On the <emphasis role="bold">Description</emphasis> tab you can
enter a description for your virtual machine. This has no effect
on the functionality of the machine, but you may find this space
useful to note down things such as the configuration of a
virtual machine and the software that has been installed into
it.
</para>
<para>
To insert a line break into the
<emphasis role="bold">Description</emphasis> text field, press
Shift+Enter.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="settings-disk-encryption">
<title>Disk Encryption Tab</title>
<para>
The <emphasis role="bold">Disk Encryption</emphasis> tab enables
you to encrypt disks that are attached to the virtual machine.
</para>
<para>
To enable disk encryption, select the
<emphasis role="bold">Enable Disk Encryption</emphasis> check
box.
</para>
<para>
Settings are available to configure the cipher used for
encryption and the encryption password.
</para>
<note>
<para>
All files related to the virtual machine except disk images
are stored unencrypted. To encrypt these files, use the
<command>VBoxManage encryptvm</command> command as described
in <xref linkend="vmencryption"/>.
</para>
</note>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="settings-system">
<title>System Settings</title>
<para>
The <emphasis role="bold">System</emphasis> category groups
various settings that are related to the basic hardware that is
presented to the virtual machine.
</para>
<note>
<para>
As the activation mechanism of Microsoft Windows is sensitive to
hardware changes, if you are changing hardware settings for a
Windows guest, some of these changes may trigger a request for
another activation with Microsoft.
</para>
</note>
<para>
The following tabs are available.
</para>
<sect2 id="settings-motherboard">
<title>Motherboard Tab</title>
<para>
On the <emphasis role="bold">Motherboard</emphasis> tab, you can
configure virtual hardware that would normally be on the
motherboard of a real computer.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Base Memory:</emphasis> Sets the
amount of RAM that is allocated and given to the VM when it
is running. The specified amount of memory will be requested
from the host OS, so it must be available or made available
as free memory on the host when attempting to start the VM
and will not be available to the host while the VM is
running. This is the same setting that was specified in the
<emphasis role="bold">New Virtual Machine</emphasis> wizard,
as described in <xref linkend="create-vm-wizard" />.
</para>
<para>
Generally, it is possible to change the memory size after
installing the guest OS. But you must not reduce the memory
to an amount where the OS would no longer boot.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Boot Order:</emphasis> Determines the
order in which the guest OS will attempt to boot from the
various virtual boot devices. Analogous to a real PC's BIOS
setting, &product-name; can tell a guest OS to start from
the virtual floppy, the virtual CD/DVD drive, the virtual
hard drive (each of these as defined by the other VM
settings), the network, or none of these.
</para>
<para>
If you select <emphasis role="bold">Network</emphasis>, the
VM will attempt to boot from a network using the PXE
mechanism. This needs to be configured in detail on the
command line. See <xref linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm" />.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Chipset:</emphasis> You can select
which chipset will be presented to the virtual machine.
PIIX3 is the default chipset for most guests. For some guest
OSes such as Mac OS X, the PIIX3 chipset is not well
supported. As a result, &product-name; supports an emulation
of the ICH9 chipset, which supports PCI express, three PCI
buses, PCI-to-PCI bridges and Message Signaled Interrupts
(MSI). This enables modern OSes to address more PCI devices
and no longer requires IRQ sharing. Using the ICH9 chipset
it is also possible to configure up to 36 network cards,
compared to a maximum of eight network adapters with PIIX3.
Note that ICH9 support is experimental and not recommended
for guest OSes which do not require it.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">TPM:</emphasis> Enables support for a
Trusted Platform Module (TPM) security processor. Choose
from the supported TPM versions.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Pointing Device:</emphasis> The
default virtual pointing device for some guest OSes is the
traditional PS/2 mouse. If set to <emphasis role="bold">USB
Tablet</emphasis>, &product-name; reports to the virtual
machine that a USB tablet device is present and communicates
mouse events to the virtual machine through this device.
Another setting is <emphasis role="bold">USB Multi-Touch
Tablet</emphasis>, which is suitable for guests running
Windows 8 or later.
</para>
<para>
Using the virtual USB tablet has the advantage that
movements are reported in absolute coordinates, instead of
as relative position changes. This enables &product-name; to
translate mouse events over the VM window into tablet events
without having to "capture" the mouse in the guest as
described in <xref linkend="keyb_mouse_normal" />. This
makes using the VM less tedious even if Guest Additions are
not installed.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Enable I/O APIC:</emphasis> Advanced
Programmable Interrupt Controllers (APICs) are an x86
hardware feature that have replaced Programmable Interrupt
Controllers (PICs). With an I/O APIC, OSes can use more than
16 interrupt requests (IRQs) and therefore avoid IRQ sharing
for improved reliability.
</para>
<note>
<para>
Enabling the I/O APIC is <emphasis>required</emphasis>,
especially for 64-bit Windows guest OSes. It is also
required if you want to use more than one virtual CPU in a
virtual machine.
</para>
</note>
<para>
However, software support for I/O APICs has been unreliable
with some OSes other than Windows. Also, the use of an I/O
APIC slightly increases the overhead of virtualization and
therefore slows down the guest OS a little.
</para>
<warning>
<para>
All Windows OSes install different kernels, depending on
whether an I/O APIC is available. As with ACPI, the I/O
APIC therefore <emphasis>must not be turned off after
installation</emphasis> of a Windows guest OS. Turning it
on after installation will have no effect however.
</para>
</warning>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Hardware Clock in UTC Time:</emphasis>
If selected, &product-name; will report the system time in
UTC format to the guest instead of the local (host) time.
This affects how the virtual real-time clock (RTC) operates
and may be useful for UNIX-like guest OSes, which typically
expect the hardware clock to be set to UTC.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Enable EFI:</emphasis> Enables
Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI), which replaces the
legacy BIOS and may be useful for certain advanced use
cases. See <xref linkend="efi" />.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Enable Secure Boot:</emphasis> Enables
Secure Boot, to provide a secure environment for starting
the guest OS.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
In addition, you can turn off the <emphasis role="bold">Advanced
Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI)</emphasis> which
&product-name; presents to the guest OS by default.
</para>
<para>
ACPI is the current industry standard to allow OSes to recognize
hardware, configure motherboards and other devices and manage
power. As most computers contain this feature and Windows and
Linux support ACPI, it is also enabled by default in
&product-name;. ACPI can only be turned off using the command
line. See <xref linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm" />.
</para>
<warning>
<para>
All Windows OSes install different kernels, depending on
whether ACPI is available. This means that ACPI <emphasis>must
not be turned off</emphasis> after installation of a Windows
guest OS. However, turning it on after installation will have
no effect.
</para>
</warning>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="settings-processor">
<title>Processor Tab</title>
<para>
On the <emphasis role="bold">Processor</emphasis> tab, you can
configure settings for the CPU used by the virtual machine.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Processor(s):</emphasis> Sets the
number of virtual CPU cores the guest OSes can see.
&product-name; supports symmetrical multiprocessing (SMP)
and can present up to 32 virtual CPU cores to each virtual
machine.
</para>
<para>
You should not configure virtual machines to use more CPU
cores than are available physically. This includes real
cores, with no hyperthreads.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Execution Cap:</emphasis> Configures
the CPU execution cap. This limits the amount of time a host
CPU spends to emulate a virtual CPU. The default setting is
100%, meaning that there is no limitation. A setting of 50%
implies a single virtual CPU can use up to 50% of a single
host CPU. Note that limiting the execution time of the
virtual CPUs may cause guest timing problems.
</para>
<para>
A warning is displayed at the bottom of the Processor tab if
an Execution Cap setting is made that may affect system
performance.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Enable PAE/NX:</emphasis> Determines
whether the PAE and NX capabilities of the host CPU will be
exposed to the virtual machine.
</para>
<para>
PAE stands for Physical Address Extension. Normally, if
enabled and supported by the OS, then even a 32-bit x86 CPU
can access more than 4 GB of RAM. This is made possible by
adding another 4 bits to memory addresses, so that with 36
bits, up to 64 GB can be addressed. Some OSes, such as
Ubuntu Server, require PAE support from the CPU and cannot
be run in a virtual machine without it.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Enable Nested VT-x/AMD-V</emphasis>:
Enables nested virtualization, with passthrough of hardware
virtualization functions to the guest VM.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
With virtual machines running modern server OSes, &product-name;
also supports CPU hot-plugging. For details, see
<xref linkend="cpuhotplug" />.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="settings-acceleration">
<title>Acceleration Tab</title>
<para>
On this tab, you can configure &product-name; to use hardware
virtualization extensions that your host CPU supports.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Paravirtualization
Interface:</emphasis> &product-name; provides
paravirtualization interfaces to improve time-keeping
accuracy and performance of guest OSes. The options
available are documented under the
<option>--paravirt-provider</option> option in
<xref linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm" />. For further details
on the paravirtualization providers, see
<xref linkend="gimproviders" />.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Hardware Virtualization:</emphasis>
You can configure hardware virtualization features for each
virtual machine.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Enable Nested Paging:</emphasis>
If the host CPU supports the nested paging (AMD-V) or
EPT (Intel VT-x) features, then you can expect a
significant performance increase by enabling nested
paging in addition to hardware virtualization. For
technical details, see <xref linkend="nestedpaging" />.
For Intel EPT security recommendations, see
<xref linkend="sec-rec-cve-2018-3646" />.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
Advanced users may be interested in technical details about
hardware virtualization. See <xref linkend="hwvirt" />.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
In most cases, the default settings on the
<emphasis role="bold">Acceleration</emphasis> tab will work
well. &product-name; selects sensible defaults, depending on the
OS that you selected when you created the virtual machine. In
certain situations, however, you may want to change the
preconfigured defaults.
</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="settings-display">
<title>Display Settings</title>
<para>
The following tabs are available for configuring the display for a
virtual machine.
</para>
<sect2 id="settings-screen">
<title>Screen Tab</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Video Memory:</emphasis> Sets the size
of the memory provided by the virtual graphics card
available to the guest, in MB. As with the main memory, the
specified amount will be allocated from the host's resident
memory. Based on the amount of video memory, higher
resolutions and color depths may be available.
</para>
<para>
&vbox-mgr; will show a warning if the amount of video memory
is too small to be able to switch the VM into full screen
mode. The minimum value depends on the number of virtual
monitors, the screen resolution and the color depth of the
host display as well as on the use of <emphasis>3D
acceleration</emphasis> and <emphasis>2D video
acceleration</emphasis>. A rough estimate is
(<emphasis>color depth</emphasis> / 8) x <emphasis>vertical
pixels</emphasis> x <emphasis>horizontal pixels</emphasis> x
<emphasis>number of screens</emphasis> = <emphasis>number of
bytes</emphasis>. Extra memory may be required if display
acceleration is used.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Monitor Count:</emphasis> With this
setting, &product-name; can provide more than one virtual
monitor to a virtual machine. If a guest OS supports
multiple attached monitors, &product-name; can pretend that
multiple virtual monitors are present. Up to eight such
virtual monitors are supported.
</para>
<para>
The output of the multiple monitors are displayed on the
host in multiple VM windows which are running side by side.
However, in full screen and seamless mode, they use the
available physical monitors attached to the host. As a
result, for full screen and seamless modes to work with
multiple monitors, you will need at least as many physical
monitors as you have virtual monitors configured, or
&product-name; will report an error.
</para>
<para>
You can configure the relationship between guest and host
monitors using the <emphasis role="bold">View</emphasis>
menu by pressing Host key + Home when you are in full screen
or seamless mode.
</para>
<para>
See also <xref linkend="KnownIssues" />.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Scale Factor:</emphasis> Enables
scaling of the display size. For multiple monitor displays,
you can set the scale factor for individual monitors, or
globally for all of the monitors. Use the slider to select a
scaling factor up to 200%.
</para>
<para>
You can set a default scale factor for all VMs. Use the
<emphasis role="bold">Display</emphasis> tab in the
Preferences window.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Graphics Controller:</emphasis>
Specifies the graphics adapter type used by the guest VM.
Note that you must install the Guest Additions on the guest
VM to specify the VBoxSVGA or VMSVGA graphics controller.
The following options are available:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">VBoxSVGA:</emphasis> The default
graphics controller for new VMs that use Windows 7 or
later.
</para>
<para>
This graphics controller improves performance and 3D
support when compared to the legacy VBoxVGA option.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">VBoxVGA:</emphasis> Use this
graphics controller for legacy guest OSes. This is the
default graphics controller for Windows versions before
Windows 7 and for Oracle Solaris.
</para>
<para>
3D acceleration is not supported for this graphics
controller.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">VMSVGA:</emphasis> Use this
graphics controller to emulate a VMware SVGA graphics
device. This is the default graphics controller for
Linux guests.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">None:</emphasis> Does not emulate
a graphics adapter type.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Enable 3D Acceleration:</emphasis> If
a virtual machine has Guest Additions installed, you can
select here whether the guest should support accelerated 3D
graphics. See <xref linkend="guestadd-3d" />.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="settings-remote-display">
<title>Remote Display Tab</title>
<para>
On the <emphasis role="bold">Remote Display</emphasis> tab, if
the VirtualBox Remote Display Extension (VRDE) is installed, you
can enable the VRDP server that is built into &product-name;.
This enables you to connect to the console of the virtual
machine remotely with any standard RDP viewer, such as
<command>mstsc.exe</command> that comes with Microsoft Windows.
On Linux and Oracle Solaris systems you can use the standard
open source <command>rdesktop</command> program. These features
are described in <xref linkend="vrde" />.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Enable Server:</emphasis> Select this
check box and configure settings for the remote display
connection.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="settings-capture">
<title>Recording Tab</title>
<para>
On the <emphasis role="bold">Recording</emphasis> tab you can
enable video and audio recording for a virtual machine and
change related settings. Note that these features can be enabled
and disabled while a VM is running.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Enable Recording:</emphasis> Select
this check box and select a <emphasis role="bold">Recording
Mode</emphasis> option.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Recording Mode:</emphasis> You can
choose to record video, audio, or both video and audio.
</para>
<para>
Some settings on the
<emphasis role="bold">Recording</emphasis> tab may be grayed
out, depending on the <emphasis role="bold">Recording
Mode</emphasis> setting.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">File Path:</emphasis> The file where
the recording is saved.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Frame Size:</emphasis> The video
resolution of the recorded video, in pixels. The drop-down
list enables you to select from common frame sizes.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Frame Rate:</emphasis> Use the slider
to set the maximum number of video frames per second (FPS)
to record. Frames that have a higher frequency are skipped.
Increasing this value reduces the number of skipped frames
and increases the file size.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Video Quality:</emphasis> Use the
slider to set the the bit rate of the video in kilobits per
second. Increasing this value improves the appearance of the
video at the cost of an increased file size.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Audio Quality:</emphasis> Use the
slider to set the quality of the audio recording. Increasing
this value improves the audio quality at the cost of an
increased file size.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Screens:</emphasis> For a multiple
monitor display, you can select which screens to record
video from.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
As you adjust the video and audio recording settings, the
approximate output file size for a five minute video is shown.
</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="settings-storage">
<title>Storage Settings</title>
<para>
The <emphasis role="bold">Storage</emphasis> category in the VM
settings enables you to connect virtual hard disk, CD/DVD, and
floppy images and drives to your virtual machine.
</para>
<para>
In a real computer, so-called <emphasis>storage
controllers</emphasis> connect physical disk drives to the rest of
the computer. Similarly, &product-name; presents virtual storage
controllers to a virtual machine. Under each controller, the
virtual devices, such as hard disks, CD/DVD or floppy drives,
attached to the controller are shown.
</para>
<note>
<para>
This section gives a quick introduction to the &product-name;
storage settings. See <xref linkend="storage" /> for a full
description of the available storage settings in &product-name;.
</para>
</note>
<para>
If you have used the <emphasis role="bold">Create Virtual
Machine</emphasis> wizard to create a machine, you will normally
see something like the following:
</para>
<figure id="fig-storage-settings">
<title>Storage Settings for a Virtual Machine</title>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata align="center" fileref="images/vm-settings-harddisk.png"
width="10cm" />
</imageobject>
</mediaobject>
</figure>
<para>
Depending on the guest OS type that you selected when you created
the VM, a new VM includes the following storage devices:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">IDE controller.</emphasis> A virtual
CD/DVD drive is attached to device 0 on the secondary channel
of the IDE controller.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">SATA controller.</emphasis> This is a
modern type of storage controller for higher hard disk data
throughput, to which the virtual hard disks are attached.
Initially you will normally have one such virtual disk, but as
shown in the previous screenshot, you can have more than one.
Each is represented by a disk image file, such as a VDI file
in this example.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
If you created your VM with an older version of &product-name;,
the default storage layout may differ. You might then only have an
IDE controller to which both the CD/DVD drive and the hard disks
have been attached. This might also apply if you selected an older
OS type when you created the VM. Since older OSes do not support
SATA without additional drivers, &product-name; will make sure
that no such devices are present initially. See
<xref linkend="harddiskcontrollers" />.
</para>
<para>
&product-name; also provides a <emphasis>floppy
controller</emphasis>. You cannot add devices other than floppy
drives to this controller. Virtual floppy drives, like virtual
CD/DVD drives, can be connected to either a host floppy drive, if
you have one, or a disk image, which in this case must be in RAW
format.
</para>
<para>
You can modify these media attachments freely. For example, if you
wish to copy some files from another virtual disk that you
created, you can connect that disk as a second hard disk, as in
the above screenshot. You could also add a second virtual CD/DVD
drive, or change where these items are attached. The following
options are available:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
To <emphasis role="bold">add another virtual hard disk, or a
CD/DVD or floppy drive</emphasis>, select the storage
controller to which it should be added (such as IDE, SATA,
SCSI, SAS, floppy controller) and then click the
<emphasis role="bold">Add Disk</emphasis> button below the
tree. You can then either select <emphasis role="bold">Optical
Drive</emphasis> or <emphasis role="bold">Hard
Disk</emphasis>. If you clicked on a floppy controller, you
can add a floppy drive instead. Alternatively, right-click on
the storage controller and select a menu item there.
</para>
<para>
A dialog is displayed, enabling you to select an existing disk
image file or to create a new disk image file. Depending on
the type of disk image, the dialog is called
<emphasis role="bold">Hard Disk Selector</emphasis>,
<emphasis role="bold">Optical Disk Selector</emphasis>, or
<emphasis role="bold">Floppy Disk Selector</emphasis>.
</para>
<para>
See <xref linkend="vdidetails"/> for information on the image
file types that are supported by &product-name;.
</para>
<para>
For virtual CD/DVD drives, the image files will typically be
in the standard ISO format instead. Most commonly, you will
select this option when installing an OS from an ISO file that
you have obtained from the Internet. For example, most Linux
distributions are available in this way.
</para>
<para>
Depending on the type of disk image, you can set the following
<emphasis role="bold">Attributes</emphasis> for the disk image
in the right part of the Storage settings page:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
The <emphasis role="bold">device slot</emphasis> of the
controller that the virtual disk is connected to. IDE
controllers have four slots: primary device 0, primary
device 1, secondary device 0, and secondary device 1. By
contrast, SATA and SCSI controllers offer you up to 30
slots for attaching virtual devices.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Solid-state Drive</emphasis>
presents a virtual disk to the guest as a solid-state
device.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Hot-pluggable</emphasis> presents a
virtual disk to the guest as a hot-pluggable device.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
For virtual CD/DVD drives, you can select
<emphasis role="bold">Live CD/DVD</emphasis>. This means
that the virtual optical disk is not removed from when the
guest system ejects it.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
To <emphasis role="bold">remove an attachment</emphasis>,
either select it and click on the
<emphasis role="bold">Remove</emphasis> icon at the bottom, or
right-click on it and select the menu item.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
Removable media, such as CD/DVDs and floppies, can be changed
while the guest is running. Since the
<emphasis role="bold">Settings</emphasis> window is not available
at that time, you can also access these settings from the
<emphasis role="bold">Devices</emphasis> menu of your virtual
machine window.
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="settings-audio">
<title>Audio Settings</title>
<para>
The <emphasis role="bold">Audio</emphasis> section in a virtual
machine's <emphasis role="bold">Settings</emphasis> window
determines whether the VM will detect a connected sound card, and
if the audio output should be played on the host system.
</para>
<para>
To enable audio for a guest, select the
<emphasis role="bold">Enable Audio</emphasis> check box. The
following settings are available:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Host Audio Driver:</emphasis> The audio
driver that &product-name; uses on the host.
</para>
<para>
The <emphasis role="bold">Default</emphasis> option is enabled
by default for all new VMs. This option selects the best audio
driver for the host platform automatically. This enables you
to move VMs between different platforms without having to
change the audio driver.
</para>
<para>
On a Linux host, depending on your host configuration, you can
select between the OSS, ALSA, or the PulseAudio subsystem. On
newer Linux distributions, the PulseAudio subsystem is
preferred.
</para>
<para>
Only OSS is supported on Oracle Solaris hosts. The Oracle
Solaris Audio audio backend is no longer supported on Oracle
Solaris hosts.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Audio Controller:</emphasis> You can
choose between the emulation of an Intel AC'97 controller, an
Intel HD Audio controller, or a SoundBlaster 16 card.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Enable Audio Output:</emphasis> Enables
audio output only for the VM.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Enable Audio Input:</emphasis> Enables
audio input only for the VM.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="settings-network">
<title>Network Settings</title>
<para>
The <emphasis role="bold">Network</emphasis> section in a virtual
machine's <emphasis role="bold">Settings</emphasis> window enables
you to configure how &product-name; presents virtual network cards
to your VM, and how they operate.
</para>
<para>
When you first create a virtual machine, &product-name; by default
enables one virtual network card and selects the Network Address
Translation (NAT) mode for it. This way the guest can connect to
the outside world using the host's networking and the outside
world can connect to services on the guest which you choose to
make visible outside of the virtual machine.
</para>
<para>
This default setup is good for the majority of &product-name;
users. However, &product-name; is extremely flexible in how it can
virtualize networking. It supports many virtual network cards per
virtual machine. The first four virtual network cards can be
configured in detail in &vbox-mgr;. Additional network cards can
be configured using the <command>VBoxManage</command> command.
</para>
<para>
Many networking options are available. See
<xref linkend="networkingdetails" /> for more information.
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="serialports">
<title>Serial Ports</title>
<para>
&product-name; supports the use of virtual serial ports in a
virtual machine.
</para>
<para>
Ever since the original IBM PC, personal computers have been
equipped with one or two serial ports, also called COM ports by
DOS and Windows. Serial ports were commonly used with modems, and
some computer mice used to be connected to serial ports before USB
became commonplace.
</para>
<para>
While serial ports are no longer as common as they used to be,
there are still some important uses left for them. For example,
serial ports can be used to set up a primitive network over a
null-modem cable, in case Ethernet is not available. Also, serial
ports are indispensable for system programmers needing to do
kernel debugging, since kernel debugging software usually
interacts with developers over a serial port. With virtual serial
ports, system programmers can do kernel debugging on a virtual
machine instead of needing a real computer to connect to.
</para>
<para>
If a virtual serial port is enabled, the guest OS sees a standard
16550A compatible UART device. Other UART types can be configured
using the <command>VBoxManage modifyvm</command> command. Both
receiving and transmitting data is supported. How this virtual
serial port is then connected to the host is configurable, and the
details depend on your host OS.
</para>
<para>
You can use either the Settings tabs or the
<command>VBoxManage</command> command to set up virtual serial
ports. For the latter, see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm" />
for information on the <option>--uart</option>,
<option>--uart-mode</option> and <option>--uart-type</option>
options.
</para>
<para>
You can configure up to four virtual serial ports per virtual
machine. For each device, you must set the following:
</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Port Number:</emphasis> This determines
the serial port that the virtual machine should see. For best
results, use the traditional values as follows:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
COM1: I/O base 0x3F8, IRQ 4
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
COM2: I/O base 0x2F8, IRQ 3
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
COM3: I/O base 0x3E8, IRQ 4
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
COM4: I/O base 0x2E8, IRQ 3
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
You can also configure a user-defined serial port. Enter an
I/O base address and interrupt (IRQ).
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Port Mode:</emphasis> What the virtual
port is connected to. For each virtual serial port, you have
the following options:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Disconnected:</emphasis> The guest
will see the device, but it will behave as if no cable had
been connected to it.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Host Device:</emphasis> Connects the
virtual serial port to a physical serial port on your
host. On a Windows host, this will be a name like
<literal>COM1</literal>. On Linux or Oracle Solaris hosts,
it will be a device node like
<filename>/dev/ttyS0</filename>. &product-name; will then
simply redirect all data received from and sent to the
virtual serial port to the physical device.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Host Pipe:</emphasis> Configure
&product-name; to connect the virtual serial port to a
software pipe on the host. This depends on your host OS,
as follows:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
On a Windows host, data will be sent and received
through a named pipe. The pipe name must be in the
format
<filename>\\.\pipe\<replaceable>name</replaceable></filename>
where <replaceable>name</replaceable> should identify
the virtual machine but may be freely chosen.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
On a Mac OS, Linux, or Oracle Solaris host, a local
domain socket is used instead. The socket filename
must be chosen such that the user running
&product-name; has sufficient privileges to create and
write to it. The <filename>/tmp</filename> directory
is often a good candidate.
</para>
<para>
On Linux there are various tools which can connect to
a local domain socket or create one in server mode.
The most flexible tool is <command>socat</command> and
is available as part of many distributions.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
In this case, you can configure whether &product-name;
should create the named pipe, or the local domain socket
non-Windows hosts, itself or whether &product-name; should
assume that the pipe or socket exists already. With the
<command>VBoxManage</command> command-line options, this
is referred to as server mode or client mode,
respectively.
</para>
<para>
For a direct connection between two virtual machines,
corresponding to a null-modem cable, simply configure one
VM to create a pipe or socket and another to attach to it.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Raw File:</emphasis> Send the
virtual serial port output to a file. This option is very
useful for capturing diagnostic output from a guest. Any
file may be used for this purpose, as long as the user
running &product-name; has sufficient privileges to create
and write to the file.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">TCP:</emphasis> Useful for
forwarding serial traffic over TCP/IP, acting as a server,
or it can act as a TCP client connecting to other servers.
This option enables a remote machine to directly connect
to the guest's serial port using TCP.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">TCP Server:</emphasis> Deselect
the <emphasis role="bold">Connect to Existing
Pipe/Socket</emphasis> check box and specify the port
number in the
<emphasis role="bold">Path/Address</emphasis> field.
This is typically 23 or 2023. Note that on UNIX-like
systems you will have to use a port a number greater
than 1024 for regular users.
</para>
<para>
The client can use software such as
<command>PuTTY</command> or the
<command>telnet</command> command line tool to access
the TCP Server.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">TCP Client:</emphasis> To create
a virtual null-modem cable over the Internet or LAN,
the other side can connect using TCP by specifying
<literal><replaceable>hostname</replaceable>:<replaceable>port</replaceable></literal>
in the <emphasis role="bold">Path/Address</emphasis>
field. The TCP socket will act in client mode if you
select the <emphasis role="bold">Connect to Existing
Pipe/Socket</emphasis> check box.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>
Up to four serial ports can be configured per virtual machine, but
you can pick any port numbers out of the above. However, serial
ports cannot reliably share interrupts. If both ports are to be
used at the same time, they must use different interrupt levels,
for example COM1 and COM2, but not COM1 and COM3.
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="usb-support">
<title>USB Support</title>
<sect2 id="settings-usb">
<title>USB Settings</title>
<para>
The <emphasis role="bold">USB</emphasis> section in a virtual
machine's <emphasis role="bold">Settings</emphasis> window
enables you to configure &product-name;'s sophisticated USB
support.
</para>
<para>
&product-name; can enable virtual machines to access the USB
devices on your host directly. To achieve this, &product-name;
presents the guest OS with a virtual USB controller. As soon as
the guest system starts using a USB device, it will appear as
unavailable on the host.
</para>
<note>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Be careful with USB devices that are currently in use on
the host. For example, if you allow your guest to connect
to your USB hard disk that is currently mounted on the
host, when the guest is activated, it will be disconnected
from the host without a proper shutdown. This may cause
data loss.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Oracle Solaris hosts have a few known limitations
regarding USB support. See <xref linkend="KnownIssues" />.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</note>
<para>
In addition to allowing a guest access to your local USB
devices, &product-name; even enables your guests to connect to
remote USB devices by use of the VirtualBox Remote Desktop
Extension (VRDE). See <xref linkend="usb-over-rdp" />.
</para>
<para>
To enable USB for a VM, select the <emphasis role="bold">Enable
USB Controller</emphasis> check box. The following settings are
available:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">USB Controller:</emphasis> Selects a
controller with the specified level of USB support, as
follows:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
OHCI for USB 1.1
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
EHCI for USB 2.0. This also enables OHCI.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
xHCI for USB 3.0. This supports all USB speeds.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">USB Device Filters:</emphasis> When
USB support is enabled for a VM, you can determine in detail
which devices will be automatically attached to the guest.
For this, you can create filters by specifying certain
properties of the USB device. USB devices with a matching
filter will be automatically passed to the guest once they
are attached to the host. USB devices without a matching
filter can be passed manually to the guest, for example by
using the <emphasis role="bold">Devices</emphasis>,
<emphasis role="bold">USB</emphasis> menu.
</para>
<para>
Clicking on the <emphasis role="bold">+</emphasis> button to
the right of the <emphasis role="bold">USB Device
Filters</emphasis> window creates a new filter. You can give
the filter a name, for later reference, and specify the
filter criteria. The more criteria you specify, the more
precisely devices will be selected. For instance, if you
specify only a vendor ID of 046d, all devices produced by
Logitech will be available to the guest. If you fill in all
fields, on the other hand, the filter will only apply to a
particular device model from a particular vendor, and not
even to other devices of the same type with a different
revision and serial number.
</para>
<para>
In detail, the following criteria are available:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Vendor and Product ID.</emphasis>
With USB, each vendor of USB products carries an
identification number that is unique world-wide, called
the <emphasis>vendor ID</emphasis>. Similarly, each line
of products is assigned a <emphasis>product
ID</emphasis> number. Both numbers are commonly written
in hexadecimal, and a colon separates the vendor from
the product ID. For example,
<literal>046d:c016</literal> stands for Logitech as a
vendor, and the M-UV69a Optical Wheel Mouse product.
</para>
<para>
Alternatively, you can also specify
<emphasis role="bold">Manufacturer</emphasis> and
<emphasis role="bold">Product</emphasis> by name.
</para>
<para>
To list all the USB devices that are connected to your
host machine with their respective vendor IDs and
product IDs, use the following command:
</para>
<screen>VBoxManage list usbhost</screen>
<para>
On Windows, you can also see all USB devices that are
attached to your system in the Device Manager. On Linux,
you can use the <command>lsusb</command> command.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Serial Number.</emphasis> While
vendor ID and product ID are quite specific to identify
USB devices, if you have two identical devices of the
same brand and product line, you will also need their
serial numbers to filter them out correctly.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Remote.</emphasis> This setting
specifies whether the device will be local only, remote
only, such as over VRDP, or either.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
On a Windows host, you will need to unplug and reconnect a
USB device to use it after creating a filter for it.
</para>
<para>
As an example, you could create a new USB filter and specify
a vendor ID of 046d for Logitech, Inc, a manufacturer index
of 1, and "not remote". Then any USB devices on the host
system produced by Logitech, Inc with a manufacturer index
of 1 will be visible to the guest system.
</para>
<para>
Several filters can select a single device. For example, a
filter which selects all Logitech devices, and one which
selects a particular webcam.
</para>
<para>
You can deactivate filters without deleting them by
deselecting the check box next to the filter name.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="usb-implementation-notes">
<title>Implementation Notes for Windows and Linux Hosts</title>
<para>
On Windows hosts, a kernel mode device driver provides USB proxy
support. It implements both a USB monitor, which enables
&product-name; to capture devices when they are plugged in, and
a USB device driver to claim USB devices for a particular
virtual machine. System reboots are not necessary after
installing the driver. Also, you do not need to replug devices
for &product-name; to claim them.
</para>
<para>
On supported Linux hosts, &product-name; accesses USB devices
through special files in the file system. When &product-name; is
installed, these are made available to all users in the
<literal>vboxusers</literal> system group. In order to be able
to access USB from guest systems, make sure that you are a
member of this group.
</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="shared-folders">
<title>Shared Folders</title>
<para>
Shared folders enable you to easily exchange data between a
virtual machine and your host. This feature requires that the
&product-name; Guest Additions be installed in a virtual machine
and is described in detail in <xref linkend="sharedfolders" />.
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="user-interface">
<title>User Interface</title>
<para>
The <emphasis role="bold">User Interface</emphasis> section
enables you to change certain aspects of the user interface of the
selected VM.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Menu Bar:</emphasis> This widget enables
you to disable a complete menu, by clicking on the menu name
to deselect it. Menu entries can be disabled, by deselecting
the check box next to the entry. On Windows and Linux hosts,
the complete menu bar can be disabled by deselecting the check
box on the right.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Mini ToolBar:</emphasis> In full screen
or seamless mode, &product-name; can display a small toolbar
that contains some of the items that are normally available
from the virtual machine's menu bar. This toolbar reduces
itself to a small gray line unless you move the mouse over it.
With the toolbar, you can return from full screen or seamless
mode, control machine execution, or enable certain devices. If
you do not want to see the toolbar, disable the
<emphasis role="bold">Show in Full Screen/Seamless</emphasis>
setting.
</para>
<para>
The <emphasis role="bold">Show at Top of Screen</emphasis>
setting enables you to show the toolbar at the top of the
screen, instead of showing it at the bottom.
</para>
<para>
The Mini Toolbar is not available on macOS hosts.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Status Bar:</emphasis> This widget
enables you to disable and reorder icons on the status bar.
Deselect the check box of an icon to disable it, or rearrange
icons by dragging and dropping the icon. To disable the
complete status bar deselect the check box on the left.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="efi">
<title>Alternative Firmware (EFI)</title>
<para>
&product-name; includes experimental support for the Extensible
Firmware Interface (EFI), which is an industry standard intended
to replace the legacy BIOS as the primary interface for
bootstrapping computers and certain system services later.
</para>
<para>
By default, &product-name; uses the BIOS firmware for virtual
machines. To use EFI for a given virtual machine, you can enable
EFI in the machine's <emphasis role="bold">Settings</emphasis>
window. See <xref linkend="settings-motherboard"/>. Alternatively,
use the <command>VBoxManage</command> command line interface as
follows:
</para>
<screen>VBoxManage modifyvm "VM name" --firmware efi</screen>
<para>
To switch back to using the BIOS:
</para>
<screen>VBoxManage modifyvm "VM name" --firmware bios</screen>
<para>
One notable user of EFI is Apple Mac OS X. More recent Linux
versions and Windows releases, starting with Vista, also offer
special versions that can be booted using EFI.
</para>
<para>
Another possible use of EFI in &product-name; is development and
testing of EFI applications, without booting any OS.
</para>
<para>
Note that the &product-name; EFI support is experimental and will
be enhanced as EFI matures and becomes more widespread. Mac OS X,
Linux, and newer Windows guests are known to work fine. Windows 7
guests are unable to boot with the &product-name; EFI
implementation.
</para>
<sect2 id="efividmode">
<title>Video Modes in EFI</title>
<para>
EFI provides two distinct video interfaces: GOP (Graphics Output
Protocol) and UGA (Universal Graphics Adapter). Modern OSes,
such as Mac OS X, generally use GOP, while some older ones still
use UGA. &product-name; provides a configuration option to
control the graphics resolution for both interfaces, making the
difference mostly irrelevant for users.
</para>
<para>
The default resolution is 1024x768. To select a graphics
resolution for EFI, use the following
<command>VBoxManage</command> command:
</para>
<screen>VBoxManage setextradata "VM name" VBoxInternal2/EfiGraphicsResolution HxV</screen>
<para>
Determine the horizontal resolution H and the vertical
resolution V from the following list of default resolutions:
</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>
VGA
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
640x480, 32bpp, 4:3
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
SVGA
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
800x600, 32bpp, 4:3
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
XGA
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
1024x768, 32bpp, 4:3
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
XGA+
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
1152x864, 32bpp, 4:3
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
HD
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
1280x720, 32bpp, 16:9
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
WXGA
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
1280x800, 32bpp, 16:10
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
SXGA
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
1280x1024, 32bpp, 5:4
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
SXGA+
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
1400x1050, 32bpp, 4:3
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
WXGA+
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
1440x900, 32bpp, 16:10
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
HD+
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
1600x900, 32bpp, 16:9
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
UXGA
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
1600x1200, 32bpp, 4:3
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
WSXGA+
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
1680x1050, 32bpp, 16:10
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
Full HD
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
1920x1080, 32bpp, 16:9
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
WUXGA
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
1920x1200, 32bpp, 16:10
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
DCI 2K
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
2048x1080, 32bpp, 19:10
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
Full HD+
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
2160x1440, 32bpp, 3:2
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
Unnamed
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
2304x1440, 32bpp, 16:10
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
QHD
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
2560x1440, 32bpp, 16:9
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
WQXGA
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
2560x1600, 32bpp, 16:10
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
QWXGA+
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
2880x1800, 32bpp, 16:10
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
QHD+
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
3200x1800, 32bpp, 16:9
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
WQSXGA
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
3200x2048, 32bpp, 16:10
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
4K UHD
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
3840x2160, 32bpp, 16:9
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
WQUXGA
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
3840x2400, 32bpp, 16:10
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
DCI 4K
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
4096x2160, 32bpp, 19:10
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
HXGA
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
4096x3072, 32bpp, 4:3
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
UHD+
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
5120x2880, 32bpp, 16:9
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
WHXGA
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
5120x3200, 32bpp, 16:10
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
WHSXGA
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
6400x4096, 32bpp, 16:10
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
HUXGA
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
6400x4800, 32bpp, 4:3
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
8K UHD2
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
7680x4320, 32bpp, 16:9
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>
If this list of default resolution does not cover your needs,
see <xref linkend="customvesa" />. Note that the color depth
value specified in a custom video mode must be specified. Color
depths of 8, 16, 24, and 32 are accepted. EFI assumes a color
depth of 32 by default.
</para>
<para>
The EFI default video resolution settings can only be changed
when the VM is powered off.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="efibootargs">
<title>Specifying Boot Arguments</title>
<para>
It is currently not possible to manipulate EFI variables from
within a running guest. For example, setting the
<literal>boot-args</literal> variable by running the
<command>nvram</command> tool in a Mac OS X guest will not work.
As an alternative method,
<literal>VBoxInternal2/EfiBootArgs</literal> extradata can be
passed to a VM in order to set the <literal>boot-args</literal>
variable. To change the <literal>boot-args</literal> EFI
variable, use the following command:
</para>
<screen>VBoxManage setextradata "VM name" VBoxInternal2/EfiBootArgs &lt;value&gt;</screen>
</sect2>
</sect1>
</chapter>
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