VirtualBox

Changeset 34116 in vbox for trunk/doc


Ignore:
Timestamp:
Nov 16, 2010 3:22:53 PM (14 years ago)
Author:
vboxsync
Message:

Manual: more introduction fixes

File:
1 edited

Legend:

Unmodified
Added
Removed

  • trunk/doc/manual/en_US/user_Introduction.xml

    r34114 r34116  
    510510    <para>VirtualBox comes in many different packages, and <emphasis
    511511    role="bold">installation</emphasis> depends on your host platform. If you
    512     have installed software before, installation should be straightforward as
    513     on each host platform, VirtualBox uses the installation method that is
    514     most common and easy to use. If you run into trouble or have special
     512    have installed software before, installation should be straightforward: on
     513    each host platform, VirtualBox uses the installation method that is most
     514    common and easy to use. If you run into trouble or have special
    515515    requirements, please refer to <xref linkend="installation" /> for details
    516516    about the various installation methods.</para>
    … …  
    547547                     width="10cm" />
    548548        </imageobject>
    549       </mediaobject>On the left, you can see a pane that will later list all
    550     your virtual machines. Since you have not created any, the list is empty.
    551     A row of buttons above it allows you to create new VMs and work on
    552     existing VMs, once you have some. The pane on the right displays the
    553     properties of the virtual machine currently selected, if any. Again, since
    554     you don't have any machines yet, the pane displays a welcome
    555     message.</para>
     549      </mediaobject>This is the VirtualBox Manager window. On the left, you
     550    can see a pane that will later list all your virtual machines. Since you
     551    have not created any, the list is empty. A row of buttons above it allows
     552    you to create new VMs and work on existing VMs, once you have some. The
     553    pane on the right displays the properties of the virtual machine currently
     554    selected, if any. Again, since you don't have any machines yet, the pane
     555    displays a welcome message.</para>
    556556
    557557    <para>To give you an idea what VirtualBox might look like later, after you
    … …  
    569569    <title>Creating your first virtual machine</title>
    570570
    571     <para>Click on the "New" button at the top of the VirtualBox window. A
    572     wizard will pop up to guide you through setting up a new virtual machine
    573     (VM):</para>
     571    <para>Click on the "New" button at the top of the VirtualBox Manager
     572    window. A wizard will pop up to guide you through setting up a new virtual
     573    machine (VM):</para>
    574574
    575575    <para><mediaobject>
    … …  
    582582    particular:<orderedlist>
    583583        <listitem>
    584           <para>A <emphasis role="bold">name</emphasis> for your VM, and the
    585           <emphasis role="bold">type of operating system</emphasis> (OS) you
    586           want to install.</para>
    587 
    588           <para>The name is what you will later see in the VirtualBox main
    589           window, and what your settings will be stored under. It is purely
    590           informational, but once you have created a few VMs, you will
    591           appreciate if you have given your VMs informative names. "My VM"
    592           probably is therefore not as useful as "Windows XP SP2".</para>
    593 
    594           <para>For "Operating System Type", select the operating system that
    595           you want to install later. Depending on your selection, VirtualBox
    596           will enable or disable certain VM settings that your guest operating
    597           system may require. This is particularly important for 64-bit guests
    598           (see <xref linkend="intro-64bitguests" />). It is therefore
    599           recommended to always set it to the correct value.</para>
    600         </listitem>
    601 
    602         <listitem>
    603           <para>The <emphasis role="bold">amount of memory (RAM)</emphasis>
    604           that the virtual machine should have for itself. Every time a
    605           virtual machine is started, VirtualBox will allocate this much
    606           memory from your host machine and present it to the guest operating
    607           system, which will report this size as the (virtual) computer's
    608           installed RAM.</para>
     584          <para>The <emphasis role="bold">VM name</emphasis> will later be
     585          shown in the VM list of the VirtualBox Manager window, and it will
     586          be used for the VM's files on disk. Even though any name could be
     587          used, keep in mind that once you have created a few VMs, you will
     588          appreciate if you have given your VMs rather informative names; "My
     589          VM" would thus be less useful than "Windows XP SP2 with
     590          OpenOffice".</para>
     591        </listitem>
     592
     593        <listitem>
     594          <para>For <emphasis role="bold">"Operating System Type",</emphasis>
     595          select the operating system that you want to install later. The
     596          supported operating systems are grouped; if you want to install
     597          something very unusual that is not listed, select "Other". Depending
     598          on your selection, VirtualBox will enable or disable certain VM
     599          settings that your guest operating system may require. This is
     600          particularly important for 64-bit guests (see <xref
     601          linkend="intro-64bitguests" />). It is therefore recommended to
     602          always set it to the correct value.</para>
     603        </listitem>
     604
     605        <listitem>
     606          <para>On the next page, select the <emphasis role="bold">memory
     607          (RAM)</emphasis> that VirtualBox should allocate every time the
     608          virtual machine is started. The amount of memory given here will be
     609          taken away from your host machine and presented to the guest
     610          operating system, which will report this size as the (virtual)
     611          computer's installed RAM.</para>
    609612
    610613          <para><note>
    … …  
    634637          effectively bringing your host system to a standstill.</para>
    635638
    636           <para><note>
    637               <para>VirtualBox restricts the amount of guest RAM to 1500 MB on
    638               32-bit Windows hosts and to 2560 MB on 32-bit Linux and Solaris
    639               hosts due to address-space limitations. These restrictions do
    640               not apply to 64-bit hosts.</para>
    641             </note></para>
    642 
    643639          <para>As with the other settings, you can change this setting later,
    644640          after you have created the VM.</para>
    … …  
    653649          linkend="storage" /> for details), but the most common way is to use
    654650          a large image file on your "real" hard disk, whose contents
    655           VirtualBox presents to your VM as if it were a complete hard
    656           disk.</para>
     651          VirtualBox presents to your VM as if it were a complete hard disk.
     652          This file represents an entire hard disk then, so you can even copy
     653          it to another host and use it with another VirtualBox
     654          installation.</para>
    657655
    658656          <para>The wizard shows you the following window:</para>
    … …  
    665663            </mediaobject></para>
    666664
    667           <para>The wizard allows you to create an image file or use an
    668           existing one. Note also that the disk images can be separated from a
    669           particular VM, so even if you delete a VM, you can keep the image,
    670           or copy it to another host and create a new VM for it there.</para>
    671 
    672665          <para>In the wizard, you have the following options:</para>
    673666
    674667          <para><itemizedlist>
    675668              <listitem>
    676                 <para>If you have previously created any virtual hard disks
    677                 which have not been attached to other virtual machines, you
    678                 can select those from the drop-down list in the wizard
    679                 window.</para>
    680               </listitem>
    681 
    682               <listitem>
    683                 <para>Otherwise, to create a new virtual hard disk, press the
     669                <para>To create a new, empty virtual hard disk, press the
    684670                <emphasis role="bold">"New"</emphasis> button.</para>
    685671              </listitem>
    686672
    687673              <listitem>
    688                 <para>Finally, for more complicated operations with virtual
    689                 disks, the <emphasis role="bold">"Existing..."</emphasis>
    690                 button will bring up the Virtual Media Manager, which is
    691                 described in more detail in <xref linkend="vdis" />.</para>
     674                <para>You can pick an <emphasis
     675                role="bold">existing</emphasis> disk image file. </para>
     676
     677                <para>The <emphasis role="bold">drop-down list</emphasis>
     678                presented in the window contains all disk images which are
     679                currently remembered by VirtualBox, probably because they are
     680                currently attached to a virtual machine (or have been in the
     681                past). </para>
     682
     683                <para>Alternatively, you can click on the small <emphasis
     684                role="bold">folder button</emphasis> next to the drop-down
     685                list to bring up a standard file dialog, which allows you to
     686                pick any disk image file on your host disk.</para>
    692687              </listitem>
    693688            </itemizedlist>Most probably, if you are using VirtualBox for the
    694689          first time, you will want to create a new disk image. Hence, press
    695           the "New" button.</para>
     690          the "New" button. </para>
    696691
    697692          <para>This brings up another window, the <emphasis
    698           role="bold">"Create New Virtual Disk Wizard".</emphasis></para>
     693          role="bold">"Create New Virtual Disk Wizard",</emphasis> which helps
     694          you create a new disk image file in the new virtual machine's
     695          folder.</para>
    699696
    700697          <para>VirtualBox supports two types of image files:<itemizedlist>
    … …  
    742739          <para>After clicking on <emphasis role="bold">"Finish"</emphasis>,
    743740          your new virtual machine will be created. You will then see it in
    744           the list on the left side of the main window, with the name you have
    745           entered.</para>
     741          the list on the left side of the Manager window, with the name you
     742          entered initially.</para>
    746743        </listitem>
    747744      </orderedlist></para>
    … …  
    751748    <title>Running your virtual machine</title>
    752749
    753     <para>You will now see your new virtual machine in the list of virtual
    754     machines, at the left of the VirtualBox main window. To start the virtual
    755     machine, simply double-click on it, or select it and press the "Start"
    756     button at the top.</para>
     750    <para>To start a virtual machine, simply double-click on its entry in the
     751    list within the Manger window, or select it and press the "Start" button
     752    at the top.</para>
    757753
    758754    <para>This opens up a new window, and the virtual machine which you
    … …  
    761757    image in <xref linkend="virtintro" />.</para>
    762758
    763     <para>Since this is the first time you are running this VM, another wizard
    764     will show up to help you select an installation medium. Since the VM is
    765     created empty, it would otherwise behave just like a real computer with no
    766     operating system installed: it will do nothing and display an error
    767     message that it cannot boot an operating system.</para>
    768 
    769     <para>For this reason, the "First Start Wizard" helps you select an
    770     operating system medium to install an operating system from. In most
    771     cases, this will either be a real CD or DVD (VirtualBox can then configure
    772     the virtual machine to use your host's drive), or you might have an ISO
    773     image of a CD or DVD handy, which VirtualBox can then present to the
    774     virtual machine.</para>
    775 
    776     <para>In both cases, after making the choices in the wizard, you will be
    777     able to install your operating system.</para>
    778 
    779759    <para>In general, you can use the virtual machine much like you would use
    780760    a real computer. There are couple of points worth mentioning
    … …  
    782762
    783763    <sect2>
    784       <title>Keyboard and mouse support in virtual machines</title>
    785 
    786       <sect3>
    787         <title id="keyb_mouse_normal">Capturing and releasing keyboard and
    788         mouse</title>
    789 
    790         <para>As of version 3.2, VirtualBox provides a virtual USB tablet
    791         device to new virtual machines through which mouse events are
    792         communicated to the guest operating system. As a result, if you are
    793         running a fairly recent guest operating system that can handle such
    794         devices, mouse support may work out of the box without the mouse being
    795         "captured" as described below; see <xref
    796         linkend="settings-motherboard" /> for more information.</para>
    797 
    798         <para>Otherwise, if the virtual machine only sees standard PS/2 mouse
    799         and keyboard devices, since the operating system in the virtual
    800         machine does not "know" that it is not running on a real computer, it
    801         expects to have exclusive control over your keyboard and mouse. This
    802         is, however, not the case since, unless you are running the VM in
    803         full-screen mode, your VM needs to share keyboard and mouse with other
    804         applications and possibly other VMs on your host.</para>
    805 
    806         <para>As a result, initially after installing a guest operating system
    807         and before you install the Guest Additions (we will explain this in a
    808         minute), only one of the two -- your VM or the rest of your computer
    809         -- can "own" the keyboard and the mouse. You will see a
    810         <emphasis>second</emphasis> mouse pointer which will always be
    811         confined to the limits of the VM window. Basically, you activate the
    812         VM by clicking inside it.</para>
    813 
    814         <para>To return ownership of keyboard and mouse to your host operating
    815         system, VirtualBox reserves a special key on your keyboard for itself:
    816         the <emphasis role="bold">"host key".</emphasis> By default, this is
    817         the <emphasis>right Control key</emphasis> on your keyboard; on a Mac
    818         host, the default host key is the left Command key. You can change
    819         this default in the VirtualBox Global Settings. In any case, the
    820         current setting for the host key is always displayed <emphasis>at the
    821         bottom right of your VM window,</emphasis> should you have forgotten
    822         about it:</para>
    823 
    824         <para><mediaobject>
    825             <imageobject>
    826               <imagedata align="center" fileref="images/vm-hostkey.png"
    827                          width="7cm" />
    828             </imageobject>
    829           </mediaobject>In detail, all this translates into the
    830         following:</para>
    831 
    832         <para><itemizedlist>
    833             <listitem>
    834               <para>Your <emphasis role="bold">keyboard</emphasis> is owned by
    835               the VM if the VM window on your host desktop has the keyboard
    836               focus (and then, if you have many windows open in your guest
    837               operating system as well, the window that has the focus in your
    838               VM). This means that if you want to type within your VM, click
    839               on the title bar of your VM window first.</para>
    840 
    841               <para>To release keyboard ownership, press the Host key (as
    842               explained above, typically the right Control key).</para>
    843 
    844               <para>Note that while the VM owns the keyboard, some key
    845               sequences (like Alt-Tab for example) will no longer be seen by
    846               the host, but will go to the guest instead. After you press the
    847               host key to re-enable the host keyboard, all key presses will go
    848               through the host again, so that sequences like Alt-Tab will no
    849               longer reach the guest.</para>
    850             </listitem>
    851 
    852             <listitem>
    853               <para>Your <emphasis role="bold">mouse</emphasis> is owned by
    854               the VM only after you have clicked in the VM window. The host
    855               mouse pointer will disappear, and your mouse will drive the
    856               guest's pointer instead of your normal mouse pointer.</para>
    857 
    858               <para>Note that mouse ownership is independent of that of the
    859               keyboard: even after you have clicked on a titlebar to be able
    860               to type into the VM window, your mouse is not necessarily owned
    861               by the VM yet.</para>
    862 
    863               <para>To release ownership of your mouse by the VM, also press
    864               the Host key.</para>
    865             </listitem>
    866           </itemizedlist></para>
    867 
    868         <para>As this behavior can be inconvenient, VirtualBox provides a set
    869         of tools and device drivers for guest systems called the "VirtualBox
    870         Guest Additions" which make VM keyboard and mouse operation a lot more
    871         seamless. Most importantly, the Additions will get rid of the second
    872         "guest" mouse pointer and make your host mouse pointer work directly
    873         in the guest.</para>
    874 
    875         <para>This will be described later in <xref
    876         linkend="guestadditions" />.</para>
    877       </sect3>
    878 
    879       <sect3>
    880         <title>Typing special characters</title>
    881 
    882         <para>Operating systems expect certain key combinations to initiate
    883         certain procedures. Some of these key combinations may be difficult to
    884         enter into a virtual machine, as there are three candidates as to who
    885         receives keyboard input: the host operating system, VirtualBox, or the
    886         guest operating system. Who of these three receives keypresses depends
    887         on a number of factors, including the key itself.</para>
    888 
    889         <itemizedlist>
    890           <listitem>
    891             <para>Host operating systems reserve certain key combinations for
    892             themselves. For example, it is impossible to enter the <emphasis
    893             role="bold">Ctrl+Alt+Delete</emphasis> combination if you want to
    894             reboot the guest operating system in your virtual machine, because
    895             this key combination is usually hard-wired into the host OS (both
    896             Windows and Linux intercept this), and pressing this key
    897             combination will therefore reboot your
    898             <emphasis>host</emphasis>.</para>
    899 
    900             <para>Also, on Linux and Solairs hosts, which use the X Window
    901             System, the key combination <emphasis
    902             role="bold">Ctrl+Alt+Backspace</emphasis> normally resets the X
    903             server (to restart the entire graphical user interface in case it
    904             got stuck). As the X server intercepts this combination, pressing
    905             it will usually restart your <emphasis>host</emphasis> graphical
    906             user interface (and kill all running programs, including
    907             VirtualBox, in the process).</para>
    908 
    909             <para>Third, on Linux hosts supporting virtual terminals, the key
    910             combination <emphasis role="bold">Ctrl+Alt+Fx</emphasis> (where Fx
    911             is one of the function keys from F1 to F12) normally allows to
    912             switch between virtual terminals. As with Ctrl+Alt+Delete, these
    913             combinations are intercepted by the host operating system and
    914             therefore always switch terminals on the
    915             <emphasis>host</emphasis>.</para>
    916 
    917             <para>If, instead, you want to send these key combinations to the
    918             <emphasis>guest</emphasis> operating system in the virtual
    919             machine, you will need to use one of the following methods:</para>
    920 
    921             <itemizedlist>
    922               <listitem>
    923                 <para>Use the items in the "Machine" menu of the virtual
    924                 machine window. There you will find "Insert Ctrl+Alt+Delete"
    925                 and "Ctrl+Alt+Backspace"; the latter will only have an effect
    926                 with Linux or Solaris guests, however.</para>
    927               </listitem>
    928 
    929               <listitem>
    930                 <para>Press special key combinations with the Host key
    931                 (normally the right Control key), which VirtualBox will then
    932                 translate for the virtual machine:<itemizedlist>
    933                     <listitem>
    934                       <para><emphasis role="bold">Host key + Del</emphasis> to
    935                       send Ctrl+Alt+Del (to reboot the guest);</para>
    936                     </listitem>
    937 
    938                     <listitem>
    939                       <para><emphasis role="bold">Host key +
    940                       Backspace</emphasis> to send Ctrl+Alt+Backspace (to
    941                       restart the graphical user interface of a Linux or
    942                       Solaris guest);</para>
    943                     </listitem>
    944 
    945                     <listitem>
    946                       <para><emphasis role="bold">Host key + F1</emphasis> (or
    947                       other function keys) to simulate Ctrl+Alt+F1 (or other
    948                       function keys, i.e. to switch between virtual terminals
    949                       in a Linux guest).</para>
    950                     </listitem>
    951                   </itemizedlist></para>
    952               </listitem>
    953             </itemizedlist>
    954           </listitem>
    955 
    956           <listitem>
    957             <para>For some other keyboard combinations such as <emphasis
    958             role="bold">Alt-Tab</emphasis> (to switch between open windows),
    959             VirtualBox allows you to configure whether these combinations will
    960             affect the host or the guest, if a virtual machine currently has
    961             the focus. This is a global setting for all virtual machines and
    962             can be found under "File" -&gt; "Preferences" -&gt; "Input" -&gt;
    963             "Auto-capture keyboard".</para>
    964           </listitem>
    965         </itemizedlist>
    966       </sect3>
     764      <title>Starting a VM for the first time</title>
     765
     766      <para>When a VM gets started for the first time, another wizard -- the
     767      <emphasis role="bold">"First Start Wizard"</emphasis> -- will pop up to
     768      help you select an <emphasis role="bold">installation medium</emphasis>.
     769      Since the VM is created empty, it would otherwise behave just like a
     770      real computer with no operating system installed: it will do nothing and
     771      display an error message that no bootable operating system was
     772      found.</para>
     773
     774      <para>For this reason, the wizard helps you select a medium to install
     775      an operating system from.</para>
     776
     777      <itemizedlist>
     778        <listitem>
     779          <para>If you have physical CD or DVD media from which you want to
     780          install your guest operating system (e.g. in the case of a Windows
     781          installation CD or DVD), put the media into your host's CD or DVD
     782          drive.</para>
     783
     784          <para>Then, in the wizard's drop-down list of installation media,
     785          select <emphasis role="bold">"Host drive"</emphasis> with the
     786          correct drive letter (or, in the case of a Linux host, device file).
     787          This will allow your VM to access the media in your host drive, and
     788          you can proceed to install from there.</para>
     789        </listitem>
     790
     791        <listitem>
     792          <para>If you have downloaded installation media from the Internet in
     793          the form of an ISO image file (most probably in the case of a Linux
     794          distribution), you would normally burn this file to an empty CD or
     795          DVD and proceed as just described. With VirtualBox however, you can
     796          skip this step and mount the ISO file directly. VirtualBox will then
     797          present this file as a CD or DVD-ROM drive to the virtual machine,
     798          much like it does with virtual hard disk images.</para>
     799
     800          <para>For this case, the wizard's drop-down list contains a list of
     801          installation media that were previously used with VirtualBox.</para>
     802
     803          <para>If your medium is not in the list (especially if you are using
     804          VirtualBox for the first time), select the small folder icon next to
     805          the the drop-down list to bring up a standard file dialog, with with
     806          you can pick the image file on your host disks.</para>
     807        </listitem>
     808      </itemizedlist>
     809
     810      <para>In both cases, after making the choices in the wizard, you will be
     811      able to install your operating system.</para>
     812    </sect2>
     813
     814    <sect2>
     815      <title id="keyb_mouse_normal">Capturing and releasing keyboard and
     816      mouse</title>
     817
     818      <para>As of version 3.2, VirtualBox provides a virtual USB tablet device
     819      to new virtual machines through which mouse events are communicated to
     820      the guest operating system. As a result, if you are running a modern
     821      guest operating system that can handle such devices, mouse support may
     822      work out of the box without the mouse being "captured" as described
     823      below; see <xref linkend="settings-motherboard" /> for more
     824      information.</para>
     825
     826      <para>Otherwise, if the virtual machine only sees standard PS/2 mouse
     827      and keyboard devices, since the operating system in the virtual machine
     828      does not "know" that it is not running on a real computer, it expects to
     829      have exclusive control over your keyboard and mouse. This is, however,
     830      not the case since, unless you are running the VM in full-screen mode,
     831      your VM needs to share keyboard and mouse with other applications and
     832      possibly other VMs on your host.</para>
     833
     834      <para>As a result, initially after installing a guest operating system
     835      and before you install the Guest Additions (we will explain this in a
     836      minute), only one of the two -- your VM or the rest of your computer --
     837      can "own" the keyboard and the mouse. You will see a
     838      <emphasis>second</emphasis> mouse pointer which will always be confined
     839      to the limits of the VM window. Basically, you activate the VM by
     840      clicking inside it.</para>
     841
     842      <para>To return ownership of keyboard and mouse to your host operating
     843      system, VirtualBox reserves a special key on your keyboard for itself:
     844      the <emphasis role="bold">"host key".</emphasis> By default, this is the
     845      <emphasis>right Control key</emphasis> on your keyboard; on a Mac host,
     846      the default host key is the left Command key. You can change this
     847      default in the VirtualBox Global Settings. In any case, the current
     848      setting for the host key is always displayed <emphasis>at the bottom
     849      right of your VM window,</emphasis> should you have forgotten about
     850      it:</para>
     851
     852      <para><mediaobject>
     853          <imageobject>
     854            <imagedata align="center" fileref="images/vm-hostkey.png"
     855                       width="7cm" />
     856          </imageobject>
     857        </mediaobject>In detail, all this translates into the
     858      following:</para>
     859
     860      <para><itemizedlist>
     861          <listitem>
     862            <para>Your <emphasis role="bold">keyboard</emphasis> is owned by
     863            the VM if the VM window on your host desktop has the keyboard
     864            focus (and then, if you have many windows open in your guest
     865            operating system as well, the window that has the focus in your
     866            VM). This means that if you want to type within your VM, click on
     867            the title bar of your VM window first.</para>
     868
     869            <para>To release keyboard ownership, press the Host key (as
     870            explained above, typically the right Control key).</para>
     871
     872            <para>Note that while the VM owns the keyboard, some key sequences
     873            (like Alt-Tab for example) will no longer be seen by the host, but
     874            will go to the guest instead. After you press the host key to
     875            re-enable the host keyboard, all key presses will go through the
     876            host again, so that sequences like Alt-Tab will no longer reach
     877            the guest.</para>
     878          </listitem>
     879
     880          <listitem>
     881            <para>Your <emphasis role="bold">mouse</emphasis> is owned by the
     882            VM only after you have clicked in the VM window. The host mouse
     883            pointer will disappear, and your mouse will drive the guest's
     884            pointer instead of your normal mouse pointer.</para>
     885
     886            <para>Note that mouse ownership is independent of that of the
     887            keyboard: even after you have clicked on a titlebar to be able to
     888            type into the VM window, your mouse is not necessarily owned by
     889            the VM yet.</para>
     890
     891            <para>To release ownership of your mouse by the VM, also press the
     892            Host key.</para>
     893          </listitem>
     894        </itemizedlist></para>
     895
     896      <para>As this behavior can be inconvenient, VirtualBox provides a set of
     897      tools and device drivers for guest systems called the "VirtualBox Guest
     898      Additions" which make VM keyboard and mouse operation a lot more
     899      seamless. Most importantly, the Additions will get rid of the second
     900      "guest" mouse pointer and make your host mouse pointer work directly in
     901      the guest.</para>
     902
     903      <para>This will be described later in <xref
     904      linkend="guestadditions" />.</para>
     905    </sect2>
     906
     907    <sect2>
     908      <title>Typing special characters</title>
     909
     910      <para>Operating systems expect certain key combinations to initiate
     911      certain procedures. Some of these key combinations may be difficult to
     912      enter into a virtual machine, as there are three candidates as to who
     913      receives keyboard input: the host operating system, VirtualBox, or the
     914      guest operating system. Who of these three receives keypresses depends
     915      on a number of factors, including the key itself.</para>
     916
     917      <itemizedlist>
     918        <listitem>
     919          <para>Host operating systems reserve certain key combinations for
     920          themselves. For example, it is impossible to enter the <emphasis
     921          role="bold">Ctrl+Alt+Delete</emphasis> combination if you want to
     922          reboot the guest operating system in your virtual machine, because
     923          this key combination is usually hard-wired into the host OS (both
     924          Windows and Linux intercept this), and pressing this key combination
     925          will therefore reboot your <emphasis>host</emphasis>.</para>
     926
     927          <para>Also, on Linux and Solairs hosts, which use the X Window
     928          System, the key combination <emphasis
     929          role="bold">Ctrl+Alt+Backspace</emphasis> normally resets the X
     930          server (to restart the entire graphical user interface in case it
     931          got stuck). As the X server intercepts this combination, pressing it
     932          will usually restart your <emphasis>host</emphasis> graphical user
     933          interface (and kill all running programs, including VirtualBox, in
     934          the process).</para>
     935
     936          <para>Third, on Linux hosts supporting virtual terminals, the key
     937          combination <emphasis role="bold">Ctrl+Alt+Fx</emphasis> (where Fx
     938          is one of the function keys from F1 to F12) normally allows to
     939          switch between virtual terminals. As with Ctrl+Alt+Delete, these
     940          combinations are intercepted by the host operating system and
     941          therefore always switch terminals on the
     942          <emphasis>host</emphasis>.</para>
     943
     944          <para>If, instead, you want to send these key combinations to the
     945          <emphasis>guest</emphasis> operating system in the virtual machine,
     946          you will need to use one of the following methods:</para>
     947
     948          <itemizedlist>
     949            <listitem>
     950              <para>Use the items in the "Machine" menu of the virtual machine
     951              window. There you will find "Insert Ctrl+Alt+Delete" and
     952              "Ctrl+Alt+Backspace"; the latter will only have an effect with
     953              Linux or Solaris guests, however.</para>
     954            </listitem>
     955
     956            <listitem>
     957              <para>Press special key combinations with the Host key (normally
     958              the right Control key), which VirtualBox will then translate for
     959              the virtual machine:<itemizedlist>
     960                  <listitem>
     961                    <para><emphasis role="bold">Host key + Del</emphasis> to
     962                    send Ctrl+Alt+Del (to reboot the guest);</para>
     963                  </listitem>
     964
     965                  <listitem>
     966                    <para><emphasis role="bold">Host key +
     967                    Backspace</emphasis> to send Ctrl+Alt+Backspace (to
     968                    restart the graphical user interface of a Linux or Solaris
     969                    guest);</para>
     970                  </listitem>
     971
     972                  <listitem>
     973                    <para><emphasis role="bold">Host key + F1</emphasis> (or
     974                    other function keys) to simulate Ctrl+Alt+F1 (or other
     975                    function keys, i.e. to switch between virtual terminals in
     976                    a Linux guest).</para>
     977                  </listitem>
     978                </itemizedlist></para>
     979            </listitem>
     980          </itemizedlist>
     981        </listitem>
     982
     983        <listitem>
     984          <para>For some other keyboard combinations such as <emphasis
     985          role="bold">Alt-Tab</emphasis> (to switch between open windows),
     986          VirtualBox allows you to configure whether these combinations will
     987          affect the host or the guest, if a virtual machine currently has the
     988          focus. This is a global setting for all virtual machines and can be
     989          found under "File" -&gt; "Preferences" -&gt; "Input" -&gt;
     990          "Auto-capture keyboard".</para>
     991        </listitem>
     992      </itemizedlist>
    967993    </sect2>
    968994
    … …  
    9911017      <para>When you click on the "Close" button of your virtual machine
    9921018      window (at the top right of the window, just like you would close any
    993       other window on your system) (or press the Host key together with "Q"),
    994       VirtualBox asks you whether you want to "save" or "power off" the
    995       VM.</para>
     1019      other window on your system), VirtualBox asks you whether you want to
     1020      "save" or "power off" the VM. (As a shortcut, you can also press the
     1021      Host key together with "Q".)</para>
    9961022
    9971023      <para><mediaobject>
    … …  
    10071033          <para><emphasis role="bold">Save the machine state:</emphasis> With
    10081034          this option, VirtualBox "freezes" the virtual machine by completely
    1009           saving its state to your local disk. When you later resume the VM
    1010           (by again clicking the "Start" button in the VirtualBox main
    1011           window), you will find that the VM continues exactly where it was
    1012           left off. All your programs will still be open, and your computer
    1013           resumes operation.</para>
    1014 
    1015           <para>Saving the state of a virtual machine is thus in some ways
    1016           similar to suspending a laptop computer (e.g. by closing its
    1017           lid).</para>
     1035          saving its state to your local disk. </para>
     1036
     1037          <para>When you start the VM again later, you will find that the VM
     1038          continues exactly where it was left off. All your programs will
     1039          still be open, and your computer resumes operation. Saving the state
     1040          of a virtual machine is thus in some ways similar to suspending a
     1041          laptop computer (e.g. by closing its lid).</para>
    10181042        </listitem>
    10191043
    … …  
    10221046          This will send an ACPI shutdown signal to the virtual machine, which
    10231047          has the same effect as if you had pressed the power button on a real
    1024           computer. So long as a fairly modern operating system is installed
    1025           and running in the VM, this should trigger a proper shutdown
    1026           mechanism in the VM.</para>
     1048          computer. So long as the VM is running a fairly modern operating
     1049          system, this should trigger a proper shutdown mechanism from within
     1050          the VM.</para>
    10271051        </listitem>
    10281052
    … …  
    10301054          <para><emphasis role="bold">Power off the machine:</emphasis> With
    10311055          this option, VirtualBox also stops running the virtual machine, but
    1032           <emphasis>without</emphasis> saving its state.</para>
    1033 
    1034           <para>This is equivalent to pulling the power plug on a real
    1035           computer without shutting it down properly. If you start the machine
    1036           again after powering it off, your operating system will have to
    1037           reboot completely and may begin a lengthy check of its (virtual)
    1038           system disks.</para>
    1039 
    1040           <para>As a result, this should not normally be done, since it can
    1041           potentially cause data loss or an inconsistent state of the guest
    1042           system on disk.</para>
     1056          <emphasis>without</emphasis> saving its state.<warning>
     1057              <para>This is equivalent to pulling the power plug on a real
     1058              computer without shutting it down properly. If you start the
     1059              machine again after powering it off, your operating system will
     1060              have to reboot completely and may begin a lengthy check of its
     1061              (virtual) system disks. As a result, this should not normally be
     1062              done, since it can potentially cause data loss or an
     1063              inconsistent state of the guest system on disk.</para>
     1064            </warning></para>
    10431065
    10441066          <para>As an exception, if your virtual machine has any snapshots
    10451067          (see the next chapter), you can use this option to quickly <emphasis
    10461068          role="bold">restore the current snapshot</emphasis> of the virtual
    1047           machine. Only in that case, powering off the machine is not
    1048           harmful.</para>
     1069          machine. In that case, powering off the machine will not disrupt its
     1070          state, but any changes made since that snapshot was taken will be
     1071          lost.</para>
    10491072        </listitem>
    10501073      </itemizedlist>
    10511074
    1052       <para>The <emphasis role="bold">"Discard"</emphasis> button in the main
    1053       VirtualBox window discards a virtual machine's saved state. This has the
    1054       same effect as powering it off, and the same warnings apply.</para>
     1075      <para>The <emphasis role="bold">"Discard"</emphasis> button in the
     1076      VirtualBox Manager window discards a virtual machine's saved state. This
     1077      has the same effect as powering it off, and the same warnings
     1078      apply.</para>
    10551079    </sect2>
    10561080  </sect1>
    … …  
    10611085    <para>With snapshots, you can save a particular state of a virtual machine
    10621086    for later use. At any later time, you can revert to that state, even
    1063     though you may have changed the VM considerably since then.</para>
     1087    though you may have changed the VM considerably since then. A snapshot of
     1088    a virtual machine is thus similar to a machine in "saved" state, as
     1089    described above, but there can be many of them, and these saved states are
     1090    preserved.</para>
    10641091
    10651092    <para>You can see the snapshots of a virtual machine by first selecting a
    1066     machine from the list on the left of the VirtualBox main window and then
    1067     selecting the "Snapshots" tab on the right. Initially, until you take a
    1068     snapshot of the machine, that list is empty except for the "Current state"
    1069     item, which represents the "Now" point in the lifetime of the virtual
    1070     machine.</para>
    1071 
    1072     <para>There are three operations related to snapshots:<orderedlist>
    1073         <listitem>
    1074           <para>You can <emphasis role="bold">take a
    1075           snapshot</emphasis>.<itemizedlist>
    1076               <listitem>
    1077                 <para>If your VM is currently running, select "Take snapshot"
    1078                 from the "Machine" pull-down menu of the VM window.</para>
    1079               </listitem>
    1080 
    1081               <listitem>
    1082                 <para>If your VM is currently in either the "saved" or the
    1083                 "powered off" state (as displayed next to the VM in the
    1084                 VirtualBox main window), click on the "Snapshots" tab on the
    1085                 top right of the main window, and then<itemizedlist>
    1086                     <listitem>
    1087                       <para>either on the small camera icon (for "Take
    1088                       snapshot") or</para>
    1089                     </listitem>
    1090 
    1091                     <listitem>
    1092                       <para>right-click on the "Current State" item in the
    1093                       list and select "Take snapshot" from the menu.</para>
    1094                     </listitem>
    1095                   </itemizedlist></para>
    1096               </listitem>
    1097             </itemizedlist></para>
    1098 
    1099           <para>In any case, a window will pop up and ask you for a snapshot
    1100           name. This name is purely for reference purposes to help you
    1101           remember the state of the snapshot. For example, a useful name would
    1102           be "Fresh installation from scratch, no external drivers". You can
    1103           also add a longer text in the "Description" field if you
    1104           want.</para>
    1105 
    1106           <para>Your new snapshot will then appear in the list of snapshots
    1107           under the "Snapshots" tab. Underneath, you will see an item called
    1108           "Current state", signifying that the current state of your VM is a
    1109           variation based on the snapshot you took earlier. If you later take
    1110           another snapshot, you will see that they will be displayed in
    1111           sequence, and each subsequent snapshot is a derivation of the
    1112           earlier one:<mediaobject>
    1113               <imageobject>
    1114                 <imagedata align="center" fileref="images/snapshots-1.png"
    1115                            width="10cm" />
    1116               </imageobject>
    1117             </mediaobject></para>
    1118 
    1119           <para>VirtualBox allows you to take an unlimited number of snapshots
    1120           -- the only limitation is the size of your disks. Keep in mind that
    1121           each snapshot stores the state of the virtual machine and thus takes
    1122           some disk space.</para>
    1123         </listitem>
    1124 
    1125         <listitem>
    1126           <para>You can <emphasis role="bold">restore a snapshot</emphasis> by
    1127           right-clicking on any snapshot you have taken in the list of
    1128           snapshots. By restoring a snapshot, you go back (or forward) in
    1129           time: the current state of the machine is lost, and the machine is
    1130           restored to exactly the same state as it was when then snapshot was
    1131           taken.<footnote>
    1132               <para>Both the terminology and the functionality of restoring
    1133               snapshots has changed with VirtualBox 3.1. Before that version,
    1134               it was only possible to go back to the very last snapshot taken
    1135               -- not earlier ones, and the operation was called "Discard
    1136               current state" instead of "Restore last snapshot". The
    1137               limitation has been lifted with version 3.1. It is now possible
    1138               to restore <emphasis>any</emphasis> snapshot, going backward and
    1139               forward in time.</para>
    1140             </footnote></para>
    1141 
    1142           <note>
    1143             <para>Restoring a snapshot will affect the virtual hard drives
    1144             that are connected to your VM, as the entire state of the virtual
    1145             hard drive will be reverted as well. This means also that all
    1146             files that have been created since the snapshot and all other file
    1147             changes <emphasis>will be lost. </emphasis>In order to prevent
    1148             such data loss while still making use of the snapshot feature, it
    1149             is possible to add a second hard drive in "write-through" mode
    1150             using the <computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> interface
    1151             and use it to store your data. As write-through hard drives are
    1152             <emphasis>not</emphasis> included in snapshots, they remain
    1153             unaltered when a machine is reverted. See <xref
    1154             linkend="hdimagewrites" os="" /> for details.</para>
    1155           </note>
    1156 
    1157           <para>By restoring an earlier snapshot and taking more snapshots
    1158           from there, it is even possible to create a kind of alternate
    1159           reality and to switch between these different histories of the
    1160           virtual machine. This can result in a whole tree of virtual machine
    1161           snapshots, as shown in the screenshot above.</para>
    1162         </listitem>
    1163 
    1164         <listitem>
    1165           <para>You can also <emphasis role="bold">delete a
    1166           snapshot</emphasis>, which will not affect the state of the virtual
    1167           machine, but only release the files on disk that VirtualBox used to
    1168           store the snapshot data, thus freeing disk space. To delete a
    1169           snapshot, right-click on it in the snapshots tree and select
    1170           "Delete". As of VirtualBox 3.2, snapshots can be deleted even while
    1171           a machine is running.<note>
    1172               <para>Whereas taking and restoring snapshots are fairly quick
    1173               operations, deleting a snapshot can take a considerable amount
    1174               of time since large amounts of data may need to be copied
    1175               between several disk image files. Temporary disk files may also
    1176               need large amounts of disk space while the operation is in
    1177               progress.</para>
    1178             </note></para>
    1179 
    1180           <para>There are some situations which cannot be handled while a VM
    1181           is running, and you will get an appropriate message that you need to
    1182           perform this snapshot deletion when the VM is shut down.</para>
    1183         </listitem>
    1184       </orderedlist></para>
    1185 
    1186     <para>Think of a snapshot as a point in time that you have preserved. More
    1187     formally, a snapshot consists of three things:<itemizedlist>
    1188         <listitem>
    1189           <para>It contains a complete copy of the VM settings, so that when
    1190           you restore a snapshot, the VM settings are restored as well. (For
    1191           example, if you changed the hard disk configuration, that change is
    1192           undone when you restore the snapshot.)</para>
    1193         </listitem>
    1194 
    1195         <listitem>
    1196           <para>The state of all the virtual disks attached to the machine is
    1197           preserved. Going back to a snapshot means that all changes, bit by
    1198           bit, that had been made to the machine's disks will be undone as
    1199           well.</para>
    1200 
    1201           <para>(Strictly speaking, this is only true for virtual hard disks
    1202           in "normal" mode. As mentioned above, you can configure disks to
    1203           behave differently with snapshots; see <xref
    1204           linkend="hdimagewrites" />. Even more formally and technically
    1205           correct, it is not the virtual disk itself that is restored when a
    1206           snapshot is restored. Instead, when a snapshot is taken, VirtualBox
    1207           creates differencing images which contain only the changes since the
    1208           snapshot were taken, and when the snapshot is restored, VirtualBox
    1209           throws away that differencing image, thus going back to the previous
    1210           state. This is both faster and uses less disk space. For the
    1211           details, which can be complex, please see <xref
    1212           linkend="diffimages" />.)</para>
    1213         </listitem>
    1214 
    1215         <listitem>
    1216           <para>Finally, if you took a snapshot while the machine was running,
    1217           the memory state of the machine is also saved in the snapshot (the
    1218           same way the memory can be saved when you close the VM window) so
    1219           that when you restore the snapshot, execution resumes at exactly the
    1220           point when the snapshot was taken.</para>
    1221         </listitem>
    1222       </itemizedlist></para>
     1093    machine in the VirtualBox Manager and then clicking on the "Snapshots"
     1094    button at the top right. Until you take a snapshot of the machine, the
     1095    list of snapshots will be empty except for the "Current state" item, which
     1096    represents the "Now" point in the lifetime of the virtual machine.</para>
     1097
     1098    <sect2>
     1099      <title>Taking, restoring and deleting snapshots</title>
     1100
     1101      <para>There are three operations related to snapshots:<orderedlist>
     1102          <listitem>
     1103            <para>You can <emphasis role="bold">take a snapshot</emphasis>.
     1104            This makes a copy of the machine's current state, to which you can
     1105            go back at any given time later.<itemizedlist>
     1106                <listitem>
     1107                  <para>If your VM is currently running, select "Take
     1108                  snapshot" from the "Machine" pull-down menu of the VM
     1109                  window.</para>
     1110                </listitem>
     1111
     1112                <listitem>
     1113                  <para>If your VM is currently in either the "saved" or the
     1114                  "powered off" state (as displayed next to the VM in the
     1115                  VirtualBox main window), click on the "Snapshots" tab on the
     1116                  top right of the main window, and then<itemizedlist>
     1117                      <listitem>
     1118                        <para>either on the small camera icon (for "Take
     1119                        snapshot") or</para>
     1120                      </listitem>
     1121
     1122                      <listitem>
     1123                        <para>right-click on the "Current State" item in the
     1124                        list and select "Take snapshot" from the menu.</para>
     1125                      </listitem>
     1126                    </itemizedlist></para>
     1127                </listitem>
     1128              </itemizedlist></para>
     1129
     1130            <para>In any case, a window will pop up and ask you for a snapshot
     1131            name. This name is purely for reference purposes to help you
     1132            remember the state of the snapshot. For example, a useful name
     1133            would be "Fresh installation from scratch, no Guest Additions", or
     1134            "Service Pack 3 just installed". You can also add a longer text in
     1135            the "Description" field if you want.</para>
     1136
     1137            <para>Your new snapshot will then appear in the snapshots list.
     1138            Underneath your new snapshot, you will see an item called "Current
     1139            state", signifying that the current state of your VM is a
     1140            variation based on the snapshot you took earlier. If you later
     1141            take another snapshot, you will see that they will be displayed in
     1142            sequence, and each subsequent snapshot is derived from an earlier
     1143            one:<mediaobject>
     1144                <imageobject>
     1145                  <imagedata align="center" fileref="images/snapshots-1.png"
     1146                             width="10cm" />
     1147                </imageobject>
     1148              </mediaobject></para>
     1149
     1150            <para>VirtualBox allows you to take an unlimited number of
     1151            snapshots -- the only limitation is the size of your disks. Keep
     1152            in mind that each snapshot stores the state of the virtual machine
     1153            and thus needs some disk space; see the next section for
     1154            details.</para>
     1155          </listitem>
     1156
     1157          <listitem>
     1158            <para>You can <emphasis role="bold">restore a snapshot</emphasis>
     1159            by right-clicking on any snapshot you have taken in the list of
     1160            snapshots. By restoring a snapshot, you go back (or forward) in
     1161            time: the current state of the machine is lost, and the machine is
     1162            restored to exactly the same state as it was when then snapshot
     1163            was taken.<footnote>
     1164                <para>Both the terminology and the functionality of restoring
     1165                snapshots has changed with VirtualBox 3.1. Before that
     1166                version, it was only possible to go back to the very last
     1167                snapshot taken -- not earlier ones, and the operation was
     1168                called "Discard current state" instead of "Restore last
     1169                snapshot". The limitation has been lifted with version 3.1. It
     1170                is now possible to restore <emphasis>any</emphasis> snapshot,
     1171                going backward and forward in time.</para>
     1172              </footnote></para>
     1173
     1174            <note>
     1175              <para>Restoring a snapshot will affect the virtual hard drives
     1176              that are connected to your VM, as the entire state of the
     1177              virtual hard drive will be reverted as well. This means also
     1178              that all files that have been created since the snapshot and all
     1179              other file changes <emphasis>will be lost. </emphasis>In order
     1180              to prevent such data loss while still making use of the snapshot
     1181              feature, it is possible to add a second hard drive in
     1182              "write-through" mode using the
     1183              <computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> interface and use it
     1184              to store your data. As write-through hard drives are
     1185              <emphasis>not</emphasis> included in snapshots, they remain
     1186              unaltered when a machine is reverted. See <xref
     1187              linkend="hdimagewrites" os="" /> for details.</para>
     1188            </note>
     1189
     1190            <para>By restoring an earlier snapshot and taking more snapshots
     1191            from there, it is even possible to create a kind of alternate
     1192            reality and to switch between these different histories of the
     1193            virtual machine. This can result in a whole tree of virtual
     1194            machine snapshots, as shown in the screenshot above.</para>
     1195          </listitem>
     1196
     1197          <listitem>
     1198            <para>You can also <emphasis role="bold">delete a
     1199            snapshot</emphasis>, which will not affect the state of the
     1200            virtual machine, but only release the files on disk that
     1201            VirtualBox used to store the snapshot data, thus freeing disk
     1202            space. To delete a snapshot, right-click on it in the snapshots
     1203            tree and select "Delete". As of VirtualBox 3.2, snapshots can be
     1204            deleted even while a machine is running.<note>
     1205                <para>Whereas taking and restoring snapshots are fairly quick
     1206                operations, deleting a snapshot can take a considerable amount
     1207                of time since large amounts of data may need to be copied
     1208                between several disk image files. Temporary disk files may
     1209                also need large amounts of disk space while the operation is
     1210                in progress.</para>
     1211              </note></para>
     1212
     1213            <para>There are some situations which cannot be handled while a VM
     1214            is running, and you will get an appropriate message that you need
     1215            to perform this snapshot deletion when the VM is shut down.</para>
     1216          </listitem>
     1217        </orderedlist></para>
     1218    </sect2>
     1219
     1220    <sect2>
     1221      <title>Snapshot contents</title>
     1222
     1223      <para>Think of a snapshot as a point in time that you have preserved.
     1224      More formally, a snapshot consists of three things:<itemizedlist>
     1225          <listitem>
     1226            <para>It contains a complete copy of the VM settings, including
     1227            the hardware configuration, so that when you restore a snapshot,
     1228            the VM settings are restored as well. (For example, if you changed
     1229            the hard disk configuration or the VM's system settings, that
     1230            change is undone when you restore the snapshot.)</para>
     1231          </listitem>
     1232
     1233          <listitem>
     1234            <para>The comlete state of all the virtual disks attached to the
     1235            machine is preserved. Going back to a snapshot means that all
     1236            changes that had been made to the machine's disks -- file by file,
     1237            bit by bit -- will be undone as well. Files that were since
     1238            created will disappear, files that were deleted will be restored,
     1239            changes to files will be reverted.</para>
     1240
     1241            <para>(Strictly speaking, this is only true for virtual hard disks
     1242            in "normal" mode. As mentioned above, you can configure disks to
     1243            behave differently with snapshots; see <xref
     1244            linkend="hdimagewrites" />. Even more formally and technically
     1245            correct, it is not the virtual disk itself that is restored when a
     1246            snapshot is restored. Instead, when a snapshot is taken,
     1247            VirtualBox creates differencing images which contain only the
     1248            changes since the snapshot were taken, and when the snapshot is
     1249            restored, VirtualBox throws away that differencing image, thus
     1250            going back to the previous state. This is both faster and uses
     1251            less disk space. For the details, which can be complex, please see
     1252            <xref linkend="diffimages" />.)</para>
     1253          </listitem>
     1254
     1255          <listitem>
     1256            <para>Finally, if you took a snapshot while the machine was
     1257            running, the memory state of the machine is also saved in the
     1258            snapshot (the same way the memory can be saved when you close the
     1259            VM window). When you restore such a snapshot, execution resumes at
     1260            exactly the point when the snapshot was taken.</para>
     1261          </listitem>
     1262        </itemizedlist></para>
     1263    </sect2>
    12231264  </sect1>
    12241265
    … …  
    12261267    <title id="configbasics">Virtual machine configuration</title>
    12271268
    1228     <para>When you select a virtual machine from the list in the main
    1229     VirtualBox window, you will see a summary of that machine's settings on
    1230     the right of the window, under the "Details" tab.</para>
    1231 
    1232     <para>Clicking on the "Settings" button in the toolbar at the top of
    1233     VirtualBox main window brings up a detailed window where you can configure
    1234     many of the properties of the VM that is currently selected. But be
    1235     careful: even though it is possible to change all VM settings after
    1236     installing a guest operating system, certain changes might prevent a guest
    1237     operating system from functioning correctly if done after
     1269    <para>When you select a virtual machine from the list in the Manager
     1270    window, you will see a summary of that machine's settings on the
     1271    right.</para>
     1272
     1273    <para>Clicking on the "Settings" button in the toolbar at the top brings
     1274    up a detailed window where you can configure many of the properties of the
     1275    selected VM. But be careful: even though it is possible to change all VM
     1276    settings after installing a guest operating system, certain changes might
     1277    prevent a guest operating system from functioning correctly if done after
    12381278    installation.</para>
    12391279
    … …  
    12521292    "Settings" window are described in detail in <xref
    12531293    linkend="BasicConcepts" />. Even more parameters are available with the
    1254     command line interface; see <xref linkend="vboxmanage" />.</para>
    1255 
    1256     <para>For now, if you have just created an empty VM, you will probably be
    1257     most interested in the settings presented by the "CD/DVD-ROM" section if
    1258     you want to make a CD or a DVD available the first time you start it, in
    1259     order to install your guest operating system.</para>
    1260 
    1261     <para>For this, you have two options:</para>
    1262 
    1263     <itemizedlist>
    1264       <listitem>
    1265         <para>If you have actual CD or DVD media from which you want to
    1266         install your guest operating system (e.g. in the case of a Windows
    1267         installation CD or DVD), put the media into your host's CD or DVD
    1268         drive.</para>
    1269 
    1270         <para>Then, in the settings dialog, go to the "CD/DVD-ROM" section and
    1271         select "Host drive" with the correct drive letter (or, in the case of
    1272         a Linux host, device file).</para>
    1273 
    1274         <para>This will allow your VM to access the media in your host drive,
    1275         and you can proceed to install from there.</para>
    1276       </listitem>
    1277 
    1278       <listitem>
    1279         <para>If you have downloaded installation media from the Internet in
    1280         the form of an ISO image file (most probably in the case of a Linux
    1281         distribution), you would normally burn this file to an empty CD or DVD
    1282         and proceed as just described. With VirtualBox however, you can skip
    1283         this step and mount the ISO file directly. VirtualBox will then
    1284         present this file as a CD or DVD-ROM drive to the virtual machine,
    1285         much like it does with virtual hard disk images.</para>
    1286 
    1287         <para>In this case, in the settings dialog, go to the "CD/DVD-ROM"
    1288         section and select "ISO image file". This brings up the Virtual Media
    1289         Manager, where you perform the following steps:</para>
    1290 
    1291         <para><orderedlist>
    1292             <listitem>
    1293               <para>Press the "Add" button to add your ISO file to the list of
    1294               registered images. This will present an ordinary file dialog
    1295               that allows you to find your ISO file on your host
    1296               machine.</para>
    1297             </listitem>
    1298 
    1299             <listitem>
    1300               <para>Back to the manager window, select the ISO file that you
    1301               just added and press the "Select" button. This selects the ISO
    1302               file for your VM.</para>
    1303             </listitem>
    1304           </orderedlist></para>
    1305 
    1306         <para>The Virtual Media Manager is described in detail in <xref
    1307         linkend="vdis" />.</para>
    1308       </listitem>
    1309     </itemizedlist>
     1294    VirtualBox command line interface; see <xref
     1295    linkend="vboxmanage" />.</para>
    13101296  </sect1>
    13111297
    13121298  <sect1>
    1313     <title>Deleting virtual machines</title>
     1299    <title>Removing virtual machines</title>
    13141300
    13151301    <para>To remove a virtual machine which you no longer need, right-click on
    1316     it in the list of virtual machines in the main window and select "Delete"
    1317     from the context menu that comes up. All settings for that machine will be
    1318     lost.</para>
    1319 
    1320     <para>The "Delete" menu item is disabled while a machine is in "Saved"
    1321     state. To delete such a machine, discard the saved state first by pressing
    1322     on the "Discard" button.</para>
    1323 
    1324     <para>However, any hard disk images attached to the machine will be kept;
    1325     you can delete those separately using the Virtual Media Manager; see <xref
    1326     linkend="vdis" />.</para>
    1327 
    1328     <para>You cannot delete a machine which has snapshots or is in a saved
    1329     state, so you must discard these first.</para>
     1302    it in the Manager's VM list select "Remove" from the context menu that
     1303    comes up.</para>
     1304
     1305    <para>A confirmation window will come up that allows you to select whether
     1306    the machine should only be removed from the list of machines or whether
     1307    the files associated with it should also be deleted.</para>
     1308
     1309    <para>The "Remove" menu item is disabled while a machine is
     1310    running.</para>
    13301311  </sect1>
    13311312
    … …  
    13331314    <title>Importing and exporting virtual machines</title>
    13341315
    1335     <para>Starting with version 2.2, VirtualBox can import and export virtual
    1336     machines in the industry-standard Open Virtualization Format (OVF).</para>
     1316    <para>VirtualBox can import and export virtual machines in the
     1317    industry-standard Open Virtualization Format (OVF).<footnote>
     1318        <para>OVF support was originally introduced with VirtualBox 2.2 and
     1319        has seen major improvements with every version since.</para>
     1320      </footnote></para>
    13371321
    13381322    <para>OVF is a cross-platform standard supported by many virtualization
    13391323    products which allows for creating ready-made virtual machines that can
    1340     then be imported into a virtualizer such as VirtualBox. As opposed to
    1341     other virtualization products, VirtualBox now supports OVF with an
    1342     easy-to-use graphical user interface as well as using the command line.
    1343     This allows for packaging so-called <emphasis role="bold">virtual
    1344     appliances</emphasis>: disk images together with configuration settings
    1345     that can be distributed easily. This way one can offer complete
    1346     ready-to-use software packages (operating systems with applications) that
    1347     need no configuration or installation except for importing into
    1348     VirtualBox.<note>
     1324    then be imported into a virtualizer such as VirtualBox. VirtualBox makes
     1325    OVF import and export easy to access and supports it from the Manager
     1326    window as well as its command-line interface. This allows for packaging
     1327    so-called <emphasis role="bold">virtual appliances</emphasis>: disk images
     1328    together with configuration settings that can be distributed easily. This
     1329    way one can offer complete ready-to-use software packages (operating
     1330    systems with applications) that need no configuration or installation
     1331    except for importing into VirtualBox.<note>
    13491332        <para>The OVF standard is complex, and support in VirtualBox is an
    13501333        ongoing process. In particular, no guarantee is made that VirtualBox
    … …  
    13541337      </note></para>
    13551338
    1356     <para>An appliance in OVF format will typically consist of several
    1357     files:<orderedlist>
    1358         <listitem>
    1359           <para>one or several disk images, typically in the widely-used VMDK
    1360           format (see <xref linkend="vdidetails" />) and</para>
    1361         </listitem>
    1362 
    1363         <listitem>
    1364           <para>a textual description file in an XML dialect with an
    1365           <computeroutput>.ovf</computeroutput> extension.</para>
     1339    <para>Appliances in OVF format can appear in two variants:<orderedlist>
     1340        <listitem>
     1341          <para>They can come in several files, as one or several disk images,
     1342          typically in the widely-used VMDK format (see <xref
     1343          linkend="vdidetails" />) and a textual description file in an XML
     1344          dialect with an <computeroutput>.ovf</computeroutput> extension.
     1345          These files must then reside in the same directory for VirtualBox to
     1346          be able to import them.</para>
     1347        </listitem>
     1348
     1349        <listitem>
     1350          <para>Alternatively, the above files can be packed together into one
     1351          archive file, typically with an
     1352          <computeroutput>.ova</computeroutput> extension; such archive files
     1353          use a variant of the TAR archive format.</para>
    13661354        </listitem>
    13671355      </orderedlist></para>
    13681356
    1369     <para>These files must reside in the same directory for VirtualBox to be
    1370     able to import them.</para>
    1371 
    1372     <para>A future version of VirtualBox will also support packages that
    1373     include the OVF XML file and the disk images packed together in a single
    1374     archive.</para>
    1375 
    1376     <para>To <emphasis role="bold">import</emphasis> an appliance in OVF
    1377     format, select "File" -&gt; "Import appliance" from the main window of the
    1378     VirtualBox graphical user interface. Then open the file dialog and
    1379     navigate to the OVF text file with the
    1380     <computeroutput>.ovf</computeroutput> file extension.</para>
     1357    <para>To <emphasis role="bold">import</emphasis> an appliance one of the
     1358    above formats, select "File" -&gt; "Import appliance" from the Manager
     1359    window. In the file dialog that comes up, navigate to the file with either
     1360    the <computeroutput>.ovf</computeroutput> or the
     1361    <computeroutput>.ova</computeroutput> file extension.</para>
    13811362
    13821363    <para>If VirtualBox can handle the file, a dialog similar to the following
    … …  
    13931374    role="bold">"Import"</emphasis>, VirtualBox will copy the disk images and
    13941375    create local virtual machines with the settings described in the dialog.
    1395     These will then show up in the list of virtual machines.</para>
     1376    These will then show up in the Manager's list of virtual machines.</para>
    13961377
    13971378    <para>Note that since disk images tend to be big, and VMDK images that
    … …  
    14051386
    14061387    <para>Conversely, to <emphasis role="bold">export</emphasis> virtual
    1407     machines that you already have in VirtualBox, select the machines and
    1408     "File" -&gt; "Export appliance". A different dialog window shows up that
    1409     allows you to combine several virtual machines into an OVF appliance.
    1410     Then, you select the target location where the OVF and VMDK files should
    1411     be stored, and the conversion process begins. This can again take a
    1412     while.</para>
     1388    machines that you already have in VirtualBox, select "File" -&gt; "Export
     1389    appliance". A different dialog window shows up that allows you to combine
     1390    several virtual machines into an OVF appliance. Then, select the target
     1391    location where the target files should be stored, and the conversion
     1392    process begins. This can again take a while.</para>
    14131393
    14141394    <para>For how to export an image at the command line, please see <xref
    … …  
    14261406
    14271407    <para>As briefly mentioned in <xref linkend="features-overview" />,
    1428     VirtualBox has a very flexible internal design that allows you to use
    1429     different front-ends to control the same virtual machines. To illustrate,
    1430     you can, for example, start a virtual machine with VirtualBox's
    1431     easy-to-use graphical user interface and then stop it from the command
    1432     line. With VirtualBox's support for the Remote Desktop Protocol (VRDP),
    1433     you can even run virtual machines remotely on a headless server and have
    1434     all the graphical output redirected over the network.</para>
     1408    VirtualBox has a very flexible internal design that allows for using
     1409    multiple interfaces to control the same virtual machines. To illustrate,
     1410    you can, for example, start a virtual machine with the VirtualBox Manager
     1411    window and then stop it from the command line. With VirtualBox's support
     1412    for the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), you can even run virtual machines
     1413    remotely on a headless server and have all the graphical output redirected
     1414    over the network.</para>
    14351415
    14361416    <para>In detail, the following front-ends are shipped in the standard
    … …  
    14391419    <para><orderedlist>
    14401420        <listitem>
    1441           <para><computeroutput>VirtualBox</computeroutput> is our graphical
    1442           user interface (GUI), which most of this User Manual is dedicated to
    1443           describing, especially in <xref linkend="BasicConcepts" />. While
    1444           this is the easiest-to-use of our interfaces, it does not (yet)
    1445           cover all the features that VirtualBox provides. Still, this is the
    1446           best way to get to know VirtualBox initially.</para>
     1421          <para><computeroutput>VirtualBox</computeroutput> is the VirtualBox
     1422          Manager. This graphical user interface uses the Qt toolkit; most of
     1423          this User Manual is dedicated to describing it. While this is the
     1424          easiest to use, some of the more advanced VirtualBox features are
     1425          kept away from it to keep it simple.</para>
    14471426        </listitem>
    14481427
    … …  
    14681447          <para>Finally, <computeroutput>VBoxHeadless</computeroutput> is yet
    14691448          another front-end that produces no visible output on the host at
    1470           all, but merely acts as a VRDP server. Now, even though the other
    1471           graphical front-ends (VirtualBox and VBoxSDL) also have VRDP support
    1472           built-in and can act as a VRDP server, this particular front-end
    1473           requires no graphics support. This is useful, for example, if you
    1474           want to host your virtual machines on a headless Linux server that
    1475           has no X Window system installed. For details, see <xref
     1449          all, but merely acts as a RDP server if the VirtualBox Remote
     1450          Desktop Extension (VRDE) is installed. As opposed to the other
     1451          graphical interfaces, the headless front-end requires no graphics
     1452          support. This is useful, for example, if you want to host your
     1453          virtual machines on a headless Linux server that has no X Window
     1454          system installed. For details, see <xref
    14761455          linkend="vboxheadless" />.</para>
    14771456        </listitem>
    14781457      </orderedlist>If the above front-ends still do not satisfy your
    1479     particular needs, it is relatively painless to create yet another
    1480     front-end to the complex virtualization engine that is the core of
    1481     VirtualBox, as the VirtualBox core neatly exposes all of its features in a
    1482     clean API; please refer to <xref linkend="VirtualBoxAPI" />.</para>
     1458    particular needs, it is possible to create yet another front-end to the
     1459    complex virtualization engine that is the core of VirtualBox, as the
     1460    VirtualBox core neatly exposes all of its features in a clean API; please
     1461    refer to <xref linkend="VirtualBoxAPI" />.</para>
    14831462  </sect1>
    14841463</chapter>
Note: See TracChangeset for help on using the changeset viewer.

© 2024 Oracle Support Privacy / Do Not Sell My Info Terms of Use Trademark Policy Automated Access Etiquette