This is a request for VirtualBox, a virtualizer for x86 hardware. So if it was made portable, you could run your favourite operating system anywhere.
Now, seeing as John is so amazing at writing launchers, and he says he can't release the portable QEMU package or whatever he says he's created. What about the open-source version of VirtualBox, i haven't tried it, mind you, but it's all the same, just doesn't support the additions.
I don't think making it portable would be too hard, well probally still pretty hard, you would just have to adjust the VirtualBox settings to have the .VirtualBox folder somewhere else, then it may be possible for John to write a launcher that xml files to direct to the drive letter VirtualBox is being run from, so it would correcly find all of your virtual hard disks, vdi, etc.
There's more to it, but have you ever been considered? I know it's been 'kinda' suggested, but I've seen John do so much with drive letters, i don't think it would be too hard, I don't know how NSIS handles xml files though.
So...possible? Or some major downsides, catches, etc?
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Look for moka5. Maybe it better...
Use it to launch, create, and share LivePCs™ on Windows XP machines.
It seems it's not really portable
"Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." Asimov
You need admin privileges to use it (it installs, then removes, vmware), but it is designed to run off a USB drive (there's an option of local or portable install during installation), and your LivePCs and other info is all stored on the drive, not the local machine. I can't tell you that it leaves *nothing* behind (I don't know enough about the registry to even try), but it should be relatively clean, and it certainly won't leave behind private data.
The only reason they specified "on Windows XP machines" is that it won't run on Mac or Linux, and only became Vista-compatible recently.
Do you know something about it's backward compatibility?
Will it work under win 9x or NT4?
"Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." Asimov
VirtualBox is trying to get it to work for Limited, and maybe Guest accounts, so that's an up.
_______________________________________________
It's kinda scary when my desktop is messier than my room...
I forgot moka5 added non-Admin capability into the latest beta release (Beta 17). "You asked for it, you got it! In certain situations you can now run moka5 Engine from a limited-access guest account."
and i am using it on 2000 and xp. i was playing around with it and this would be sweet!!
(TM)sergentsilerlogo:<(TM(sergentsiler) http://www.sergentsiler.freespaces.com/
Zoop
Currently, the beta software is free of charge. The LivePC hosting service is also free for registered users. We want you to try it out and give us feedback. However, it may not always be free software. moka5 LivePC is not open source software.
What operating systems are supported?
* Host operating system: Windows XP (Home, Pro, or Media Center) with service pack 2 only
* LivePC operating system: Microsoft Windows, Linux, Novell Netware, Sun Solaris, Apple Darwin
Link to info page: http://www.moka5.com/docs/faq.html
_____________________________
I don't believe in signatures
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
The info on the latest Beta version says it has "better support for Windows Vista". Plus I've actually tested it, and Vista works as a host OS.
Moka 5 doesn't let us download the Creator without accepting the license, which says:
You shall not permit or assist others to: [...] (v) modify or create derivative works based on MokaFive Player, MokaFive Creator and VMware Player. (2 (b), EULA)
So, it isn't opensource. I think Qemu is a very good alternative besides Virtualbox, because it is portable without any modification and the community is very big. To use it without command line and yet portable, I suggest Qemu Manager(Opensource, too!): Currently Qemu Manager 5.0 available at davereyn.co.uk
It works great! The only downside of the GPL version is that there is no USB support.
--
As all of ya should know Microsoft is the Evil Empire, and Windows (a.k.a. Winblows or Windoze) is their greatest general, so please make a difference and install Linux or FreeBSD on yer Windows comp.
Well when Innotek released 1.4.0 I thought about making it portable. I had some problems and gave up. I now have got it fully working with USB support. ... Now it’s flawless. So without further adieu: Download Now - 8.3Mb zip
As in the last version, make sure you edit VBStart.bat and change the 4 variables, then run VBStart.bat when you are ready. Everything is stored in \Documents\.VirtualBox of the drive you ran it from. So if you run it from your desktop, it’s probably going to be in C:\Documents\.VirtualBox, atleast by default.
Do note that this is for Windows only, and is made to run from a USB drive (although it doesn’t throttle the number of writes). As always: Enjoy.
http://z0rz.com/blog/archives/84
can any one verify that his works this would be great if i could load an os off my external hdd while still using my normal os
Did you get permission from Innotek? If not, it's illegal.
VirtualBox makes some sources available under an open source license. But not for the complete product. And their released binaries are licensed under a commercial freeware license.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I'm checking now. I've had the CEO of the company test it and I've worked with him on creating this. He gave me binaries for the driver installations and I've also gave him that link. I've sent him a personal email and I'll post when I get a response. If I don't get a response today though, I may forget.
Wanna work on it with the site here? We can do an NSIS launcher instead that handles everything automatically.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
That would be so COOL!!!
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"Truth is a river that is always splitting up into arms that reunite. Islanded between the arms, the inhabitants argue for a lifetime as to which is the main river." -- Cyril Connolly
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on." -- Robert Frost
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: baby ain't mine." -- Adam Holguin
I agree. It would be awesome to have VBox Portable.
_________________________
I don't believe in signatures
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
So do I. I prefer batches to NSIS (smaller+faster when not too much to do), but this solution is not just copy+run...
"Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." Asimov
Me too - would love to see a NSIS-version...
I would also like to see an NSIS version.
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"Pray as if everything depended upon God and work as if everything depended upon man."
Francis Cardinal Spell
-Please search before posting.
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook
Any news on this, VirtualBox is an amazing app. I'd love to see it officially portable.
_________________________
I don't believe in signatures
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
Hi, thanks for developing this great Portable VirtualBox-System. On Xp System it works quiet fine. Saddly on Windows 2000 based Hosts this Version doesnt work...
Is there an possibility to get it working on Windows 2000 Systems?
Would be verry interesting for meget this working on W2K.
I would like to see an NSIS version of this application too!
You may have already caught my drift from the post, but...
I would like to see an NSIS version of this as well.
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Signature...What Signature?
My god, I love this program.
Portable: even better.
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Ryan McCue.
Blog.
So all that Airbus-delay trouble over here in Europe is because of YOU!
Simeon.
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
how 'bout it? Is there anybody out there who can make it portable (Ryan)? Anybody at all (Ryan)? Or at least make an nsi script that we can compile ourselves (that way we are not making an app that has the VirtualBox name on it).
---------------
"Truth is a river that is always splitting up into arms that reunite. Islanded between the arms, the inhabitants argue for a lifetime as to which is the main river." -- Cyril Connolly
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on." -- Robert Frost
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: baby ain't mine." -- Adam Holguin
----
Ryan McCue.
Blog.
So all that Airbus-delay trouble over here in Europe is because of YOU!
Simeon.
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
I have it running off my 8GB USB flash drive currently. The only real issue (besides speed) is that I cannot format it NTFS so I am limited to 4GB file sizes. A virtual XP machine gets to 4GB fairly fast, after you start installing programs etc. This is not a problem on my 1.8" external HDD. It would still be worth having an NSIS version for sure!
I would also love to see this portable.
Will it be possible to exchange data with the host system or this function will get lost due portable?
I have been unable to get the virtual NIC card driver to install on the host machine using the portable version, yet. I am still working on this one. So far the only way to install apps on the virtual machine is to mount an ISO as the CD drive. I have a portable app called Folder2ISO that works great for this! It makes any folder an ISO and is easy to mount on the virtual PC.
For some reason, when I tried to format my USB flash drive as NTFS through Windows, it would not let me, it was not an available option. I used the command prompt and it converted it with no problems.
convert f: /fs:ntfs
Now I can run my virtual PC from my flash drive without worrying about the 4gb limit for the image file.
Portable VBox 1.5.0 is out!!!
http://z0rz.com/blog/archives/87
To format a removable drive as NTFS, you must change the "Policies" of the drive's hardware properties from "Optimize for Quick Removal" to "Optimize for Performance." Once this is done, you can format NTFS, and even NTFS-compressed. Be aware that this turns on write-behind caching. You will not be able to just yank out the drive when you're done, but will need to wait a minute for the filesystem to "settle." I strongly recommend using the "Eject" function for NTFS-formatted portable media to close all open filehandles before removing the drive. You can severely corrupt the data if you yank the drive out too fast.
Windows 2000, XP, etc. all have a command-line utility called "convert" that converts FAT/FAT32 volumes to NTFS, whether or not the "Optimize for Performance" option is set.
Simply insert the drive, and run
convert x: /FS:NTFS /NoSecurityfrom a command prompt.Now, the
NoSecurityswitch may seem kinda suspicious, it allows the files to be accessed by everyone. But, the reason for this is so that it can be used on any PC, under any user name. I've had code I created on one computer, with an admin user account, inaccessible to me on another computer, since it was a "limited" account.The /nosecurity flag to convert only controls the default security that the drive is created with - it is still possible that data added later will have security set, and will be inaccessible on other machines.
The only way to clear this is to periodically 'freshen' the security settings on the properties page for the root of the drive, and force a copy down to all subdirectories, preferably both of owner and ACLs.
I've not had it happen since I "converted" with the /nosecurity option, but, if it DOES happen, we'll all know what to do
Some of you are saying that your FAT32 drives are having problems... doesnt VBox have an option to have spanable files for its VDisks? I know VMWare does this automatically... i've not had VBox with an install over this size yet anyway.
I don't know how to vote, but this is DEFINITELY one of my favorite FOSS apps that is not yet on Portable Apps......
Thanks for all the work you've already done! Consider Virtualbox for the future! It is awesome and very useful!
rhY
Put all violators of the Constitution in jail.
I have been using VirtualBox 1.5 and it works well. I see 1.6 is out now but is the Sun version. Sure wish VirtualBox was in PAF format!
You mean Virtualbox OSE, which I have been working on compiling.
The open source edition of V.box is distributed in a source code package, and it lacks USB support.
However, I am going to try to make a portable (PAF) version of it when I get it up and running. So technically, I guess you could say it's a work in progress.
Don't expect it to be released anytime soon though.
A new, updated and much improved portable version (1.6 - 32 or 64 or 32/64-bit!) can be found here:
http://www.german-nlite.de/index.php?showtopic=14306&st=0
Thanks zikarus for the link, it is a nice package that works without too many flaws.
The only issue I found was that the launcher wanted some dll files in the root folder to start, which were already in another folder, but it started anyway, and only gave a few error messages after becoming convinced :D.
The only other issue I have is the admin privileges that VirtualBox requires to start. Is there a solution to this? I've tried to Thinstall it but it gives me a VBox Kernel Driver error when I run the Virtual Machine. Everything else works, including the settings. Thinstall even gets rid of the admin privileges. So there are two options.
- Get rid of the admin privilages using the AutoIt scripts
- Find a way to thinstall the driver
- Ask Sun to get rid of it in VirtualBox
I know there's QEMU, which is great, but VirtualBox has more options, works better, and it's faster than vmware workstation 6...
I tried to make a blank virtual machine and boot Ubuntu 8.04 Live CD:
QEMU with accelerator - 5:30 min
VirtualBox 1.6.2 - 1:30 min
I hope we can find a solution to this, because it will enable us to run portable applications and programs anywhere on our portable media devices at near native speeds.
Thanks.
There's no way. Drivers can't be thinstalled and require admin rights to install.
If Sun made it work w/out drivers, it would become about as slow as QEMU is now.
You can only run it w/out admin rights only it it's installed on the host machine.
"Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." Asimov
Hello Gentlemen,
I noticed earlier in the forum someone mentioned that they had spoken with the Virtual Box owners and had gotten permission to develop the portable version, and John had offered to help out...are we getting closer to a release of Virtual Box on PortableApps.com?
Not until John is finished with all the legal issues for distributing freeware apps using his launcher. Hopefully that will happen soon, as there are quite a few other programs that I've "heard" will be released as well.
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on." -- Robert Frost
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: baby ain't mine." -- Adam Holguin
According to this, Virtual Box appears to be free and open source.
From the VirtualBox.org website:
"VirtualBox is a family of powerful x86 virtualization products for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). See "About VirtualBox" for an introduction.
It is open source. However, there's a EULA version (the PUEL one) that has some propiatary code currently. They do offer the source, it just needs to be compiled. I talked to some of the developers (I think they were), and they say there's no issues with logos and names.
I didn't like the existing launchers, I made my own. It's core logic based on the AutoIt one, but 100% rewritten and modified a bit. No splash screens, no tray icon, no global hotkeys, C++.
You can find more info in this thread.
The latest version can be downloaded from here.
I will post updates in the thread linked above.
"Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." Asimov
Awesome!
Any chance you can keep this thread updated as well, at least with a bump when you release a new version on PFC?
Sorry, no. I want to maintain only one topic.
"Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." Asimov
I just write to add that the thread was split and posts regarding my launcher version can be found here.
"Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." Asimov
Thanks!
I've just found a newer portable version(v 1.6.0) of Virtual Box at the German forum of nLite(a free personalized Windows installer CD builder), however I didn't try it yet: VirtualBox v.1.6.0 - Open Source PC-Virtualisierung - German-nLite.de
At the forum of PortableFreeware, I found a translation of the readme file and other (good) experiences: The Portable Freeware Collection :: View topic - Portable VirtualBox
This would be awesome. I could use this at school.
One 128MB, Two 256MB, One 1G, Three 2G, One 4G, One 8G, One 500G Maxtor HDD, Two PC's with XP PRO, One MacBook with OS X. All with Portable Apps.
That's the problem, I can't use it at school because i'm on a limited account...
Is this still being worked on? I searched the VirtualBox forums exhaustively and saw a lot of people having issues building for windows.
I'm working on the windows build here. Taking sometime about it but it's almost complete.
your friendly neighbourhood moderator Zach Thibeau
I've got a working launcher sort of. At least, it handles the settings.
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world
I got a working launcher too
just not the OSE Compiled Binary of VBox though 
it's harder to compile on windows.
your friendly neighbourhood moderator Zach Thibeau
Build Instructions for Windows
I'm not saying it's easy, I have been to the Virtual Box forums and there's lots of people grumbling about OSE not building correctly or at all..
Maybe if everyone trying to get this thing built correctly for Windows collaborated they could get a working build of an OSE for everyone to use.
thats what I've been following mate
still isn't easy 
your friendly neighbourhood moderator Zach Thibeau
is anybody still working on this? i would really like to see a NSIS version as well....
Yeah, I'm the quiet one....
if you simply looked at the post above you, you would find that Zach Thibeau is working on it (^^)
Zoop
i know, lol, i was just asking to see if any progress had been made, too. thanks
Yeah, I'm the quiet one....
I was browsing through some forums to try to resolve an issue I had with Windows7 inside vbox and happened to run across this.
Portable VirtualBox
Description
Changelog
I havent yet had a chance to test it out so I cant vouch that it works, or doesn't require admin privs or anything. It has the latest release (released a couple of days ago) but the website seems to be all messed up. I'll be offline during the weekend so if the website seems to fix itself and someone can finally download it we can see what's going on.
Any idea about vbox.me? This site (http://www.vbox.me/) is supposed to have portable virtualbox. But it mainly (/only) has links to the exe files, and one readme.txt file. Not much info is given on the site. So I'm not sure whether to trust it or not. Has anyone tried it?
It is supported by www.win-lite.de
Most of their home page is in German, but here they have an English supported forum as-well
Formerly Gringoloco
Windows XP Pro sp3 x32
Time to bump this up!
A portable version of VirtualBox on the PortableApps platform would be ideal for me here as well. My school uses limited accounts on their PCs, so running VirtualBox Portable from vbox.me isn't an option for me. I'd love to be able to boot Puppy Linux or perhaps Dreamlinux right on the desktop without the need for reboot.
I believe the main portion of the closed source is just the USB support. Which I'm sure is available open source somewhere else to patch in.
I don't think it matters how "portable" any version of VirtualBox is, it's still going to need admin rights to install drivers. So if you don't have admin rights, you're out of luck.
You're right. I totally forgot about the network and virtual HDD drivers that install along with it. Sandboxing those to be "preconfigured" in the directories instead would be quite a task to get around. Thanks Microsoft! lol.
Now I'm wondering the chances of just getting Puppy Linux to be able to just boot into its own window in Windows. I'll try their forums. for that.
If you're lucky you might be able to boot Puppy (or some similar distro) off of your USB drive. That is one way. However, as always be aware that you might be violating school policy and as such could have certain network/computer privileges revoked or terminated. Just something to keep in mind.
Good luck
Any changes about virtualbox? The lastest version still use admin rights?
the rest you can imagine yourselves.
nothing to do with version.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
So?
VirtualBox as a portableapps?
Yes, no, maybe?
because it loads drivers, it's a no go. There is http://www.vbox.me/, but as I understand it, that is not truly portable as it still leaves traces on the host computer. Sorry...
Bill G.
Frozen St. Paul, MN
land of the frozen mosquito