Hi.

My machine is a desktop HP paviliion with a 1.8 dual core proc. 2 GB of RAM.

The original CDs will not boot with any kind of emaulator and that's the only license I have.

Some weeks ago I saw a tutorial for ubuntu where someone has done this and also seemless virtualizing, but the problem here are the CDs.

I need this machine with XP 'cause I use it for autocad (until there is an arcad version in spanish and I have the money ), so back to the maiin topic, is this posible with Mandriva 2008.0?

Any link, suggestions, are very wellcome

Thanks in advance

Luis

It can be done only in VMWare, not VirtualBox, it's completely unsupported, and may well blast your windows installation.
IMHO your best chance is making an Acronis (or whatever program you have handy) image of the XP partition, and then make a virtual XP harddisk and restore the image there. This will likely work under Virtualbox as well. However, I believe (not sure) that this consists a Windows EULA violation, if you happen to have an OEM licence.

I use Vmware for this at work, and it works perfectly, and have done so for almost a year with heavy usage. I followed this guide:

http://oopsilon.com/Running-a-Windows-Partition-in-VMware

I actually use seamless remote dektop to my virtual windows machine and then run the Windows applications in windows on my Linux Desktop. A great way to access those must have special windows programs at work :-)

This is possible with virtualbox since version 1.5.4, check http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=333
and http://mesbalivernes.blogspot.com/2008/01/...m-existing.html

Thanks a lot scarecow.
The howto I saw was for VB not VMW but it was made under ubuntu. You are right about blasting not only the windows partition but also the whole HD.
Regarding your suggestion about making an image, I already tried to do it with VMWare, but it fails all the time :(. I think this has something to do with the way XP is installed under my HP box 'cause it worked perfectly on one of my neighbor's machine... Strange, ins't it?
Kind Regards


ppcrulez.. thanks a lot for this info...I will check it and post back any comments or questions if I have (hope you are here to give me some advices in case I need them)
Kind Regards



OniLin... Thanks for this info... it is very important to mo to try to do it on virtualbox as I've found it much faster than VMWare..
I'll come back to see what happens
Kind Regards

Luis

I seriously doubt you will be able to reliably run autocad in a virtualized environment. The virtualized hardware in VirtualBox and VMWare is pretty low spec and anything graphically demanding will not run properly. Your best bet would be VMWare as it has some basic 3d acceleration; VirtualBox does not. Take a look at this VirtualBox service ticket to see what I'm getting at:

http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/6

and more specifically:

Hey....

Thanks a lot for this info...

Trying to make a XP image i faillingall the time with vmware, that was the reason I wanted to use VB. However, I'm not having any luck, the procedure to do this on VB is a lot beyond my actual linux skils. so I guess I must wait till it is possible some day, who knows :(

Kind Regards

Luis

I followed the very-well-written how-to for booting C: inside VMWare. All seems rather safe and seems to work out well.

However, once Windows is booted, I login and Windows tells me I have to:
- register this windows copy to MS on internet,
- or register this windows copy to MS on the phone,
- or decline (logout).

The windows XP pro I use is genuine and was delivered pre-installed on the laptop I'm using for work. But work is the only reason I use Windows, and I'm not familiar with Windows' licences.

I suppose this register-thing came from the fact that I boot using a different hardware profile (as explained in the how-to). Is it safe and legal for me to accept to register (again?) this windows copy via the net?

Yves.

I dont think there is something wrong if you accept the license 2, 3 or n times as long as u use it in the same machine, but I don't know what legal issues involves installing M$W in a VM.

Cheers

Luis