Configuring VirtualBox to run Moblin 2.0 Beta
Moblin is a Linux distro developed by Intel and Novell that is tweaked for netbooks. I decided to test it out in a virtual machine first to see if I liked it or not. If you use the free (for personal use) VirtualBox 2.2.2 like I did, you need to make two simple configuration changes to the VM before starting to install Moblin. If you look at the screenshot above of the VirtualBox General-Advanced settings, you can see red arrows pointing at the two configuration options that need to be selected: APIC & PAE/NX.
The screenshot above shows Moblin 2.0 Beta running in VirtualBox. I'm not very impressed with Moblin 2.0 Beta so far and probably won't try it on a physical netbook. I think Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix (UNR) is better suited for my netbook Linux needs.
May 23rd, 2009 - 17:07
Thanks for posting the tip, I was planning on doing the same thing this afternoon but installed Win 7 RC instead. BTW, have you run Virtual Box on your netbook? If so, what have you hosted on it.
May 24th, 2009 - 00:55
Frank: I have not installed VirtualBox or any other virtualization app on any netbook yet. There are two reasons: 1. I only have 1GB on my netbook and figure 1.5 or 2GB would make things more comfortable. That said, Ubuntu Server would probably run nicely in 256 or 384KB on a 1GB netbook. The Atom N270 processors on all my netbooks do not provide Intel’s VT-x hardware virtualization assist which provides a bit of oomph for Guest OSes in virtual machines. I’m hoping to buy an Intel Atom Z530 based netbook (perhaps a Dell Mini 10) soon to test Windows 7 RC with Windows XP Mode as well as VirtualBox.
May 28th, 2009 - 13:10
Todd: thanks for the Tip, I’m trying to get Moblin v2 running in VirtualBox 2.2.2 on Ubuntu 8.04.
Frank: I have an MSI Wind u100-279US 2GB RAM 160GB HD. I’m Running OSX Leopard 10.5.7 and VirtualBox 2.2.2.
I run TinyXP as thats the only thing thats usable. Running normal XP comes to a grinding hault.
I’ve programmed in VB.NET 08 on my windbook running VirtualBox, so it works.
TinyVista won’t run at all after install.
Havn’t Tried Tiny2003 yet, but since it uses less resources than TinyXP I think it’ll work.
May 29th, 2009 - 03:36
It looks like crap since the res is wrong. Try this:
- Boot from the live CD image
- Choose the option to boot and install
- Go to Applications and Terminal, become root (“su -”) and use yum to install gcc and make. (I also installed kernel-netbook-devel.i586 but I don’t know whether that was necessary.)
- Reboot to be on the safe side
- Go to Terminal and become root again
- Make a directory to mount your CD-ROM drive: “mkdir /media/cdrom”
- In the VirtualBox menu do “Install guest additions”
- In the Terminal do “mount -t auto /dev/scd0 /media/cdrom”
- Then do “cd /media/cdrom”
- Do “./VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run”. The guest additions should install.
- Type “poweroff” to shut down the VM.
If you boot up now you’ll get the blank white screen like others have experienced. So:
- Disable 3D Acceleration in the VM’s settings.
The machine now boots and will arrive at the desktop, and the desktop is big enough for the menu bar to fit (unlike before the Guest Additions were installed). Mouse Integration also works but it’s a real pain trying to get the menu bar thingy at the top of the Moblin screen to appear with this turned on. So:
- In VBox’s Machine menu (at the top of the VM window), disable Mouse Integration.
Now you can open all the menus and applications and everything in Moblin works (save for the odd segfault), but it’s dog slow.
May 31st, 2009 - 11:21
kolsyra: Thanks for the tip. However, Moblin’s resolution issue under VirtualBox is the least of its problem from my point of view. I’m sticking with Ubuntu Netbook Remix.
September 30th, 2009 - 09:35
i’ve tried Moblin 2.1 developer in virtual box 3.06 but it doesn’t work
October 14th, 2009 - 06:02
Yea, I tried Moblin 2.0 on VirtualBox 3.0.6 on a opensuse host, did work out.
November 5th, 2009 - 13:04
I tried to make it work with VirtualBox 3.0.10 on a windows host : no luck.
November 10th, 2009 - 13:11
I am trying out Moblin 2.1 with Virtualbox 3.0.10 under windows host. The Moblin download is not a ISO but IMG image. How do we make it boot under virtualbox ?
November 21st, 2009 - 07:21
I have vbox 3.0.10. The configuration screens are different from above, but I check all same. I get
FATAL: Not bootable medium found! System halted
Hetal: just select the img file. it is an iso
March 11th, 2010 - 06:11
I had a problem for your help, I had installed the moblin on virtualbox ,but when restart, it stop on “moblin” logo;
thanks
April 3rd, 2010 - 04:11
Just rename the “.img” file on the site to a iso and mount it as a iso in virtualbox