Changeset 35065 in vbox

Timestamp:

Dec 14, 2010 11:31:02 AM (14 years ago)

Author:

vboxsync

Message:

Manual: doc updates (vbox settings, chipset)

Location:

trunk/doc/manual

Files:

• en_US/user_BasicConcepts.xml (modified) (6 diffs)
• en_US/user_Glossary.xml (modified) (2 diffs)
• en_US/user_GuestAdditions.xml (modified) (5 diffs)
• en_US/user_Troubleshooting.xml (modified) (4 diffs)
• user_ChangeLogImpl.xml (modified) (1 diff)

trunk/doc/manual/en_US/user_BasicConcepts.xml

@@ -7 +7 @@
   <para>Whereas <xref linkend="Introduction" /> gave you a quick introduction
   to VirtualBox and how to get your first virtual machine running, the
-  following chapter describe in detail how to configure virtual
+  following chapter describes in detail how to configure virtual
   machines.</para>
 
@@ -227 +227 @@
             upon explicit request.</para>
 
-            <para>On 64-bit hosts, 64-bit guest support is always enabled, so
-            you can simply install a 64-bit operating system in the
-            guest.</para>
+            <para>On 64-bit hosts (which typically come with hardware
+            virtualization support), 64-bit guest operating systems are always
+            supported regardless of settings, so you can simply install a
+            64-bit operating system in the guest.</para>
           </listitem>
         </orderedlist></para>
@@ -352 +353 @@
             installed in the VM. This is the same setting that was specified
             in the "New Virtual Machine" wizard, as described in <xref
-            linkend="gui-createvm" />.</para>
+            linkend="gui-createvm" />. </para>
+
+            <para>Whereas the default settings of a newly created VM depend on
+            the selected operating system type, changing the type later has no
+            effect on VM settings; this value is then purely informational and
+            decorative.</para>
           </glossdef>
         </glossentry>
@@ -377 +383 @@
 
             <glossdef>
-              <para>If the virtual machine has Guest Additions installed, you
-              can select here whether the clipboard of the guest operating
-              system should be shared with that of your host. If you select
-              "Bidirectional", then VirtualBox will always make sure that both
-              clipboards contain the same data. If you select "Host to guest"
-              or "Guest to host", then VirtualBox will only ever copy
-              clipboard data in one direction.</para>
+              <para>You can select here whether the clipboard of the guest
+              operating system should be shared with that of your host. If you
+              select "Bidirectional", then VirtualBox will always make sure
+              that both clipboards contain the same data. If you select "Host
+              to guest" or "Guest to host", then VirtualBox will only ever
+              copy clipboard data in one direction.</para>
+
+              <para>Clipboard sharing requires that the VirtualBox Guest
+              Additions be installed. As a result, this setting has no effect
+              otherwise; see <xref linkend="guestadditions" /> for
+              details.</para>
             </glossdef>
           </glossentry>
@@ -477 +487 @@
               detail on the command line; please see <xref
               linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm" />.</para>
+            </glossdef>
+          </glossentry>
+
+          <glossentry>
+            <glossterm>Chipset</glossterm>
+
+            <glossdef>
+              <para>Here you can select which chipset will be presented to the
+              virtual machine. Before VirtualBox 4.0, PIIX3 was the only
+              available option here. For modern guest operating systems such
+              as Mac OS X server, that old chipset is no longer well
+              supported. As a result, VirtualBox 4.0 introduced an emulation
+              of the more modern ICH9 chipset, which supports PCI express,
+              three PCI buses, PCI-to-PCI bridges and Message Signalled
+              Interrupts (MSI). This allows modern operating systems to
+              address more PCI devices and no longer requires IRQ
+              sharing.</para>
             </glossdef>
           </glossentry>
@@ -767 +794 @@
     virtual CD/DVD drive, or change where these items are attached.</para>
 
-    <para>In addition to the IDE controller, VirtualBox can also present an
+    <para>In addition to the IDE controller, VirtualBox can also present a
     SATA controller and a SCSI controller to the guest, which gives you 30 or
     16 additional slots to attach devices to, respectively. This, however, may

trunk/doc/manual/en_US/user_Glossary.xml

@@ -1 +1 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!DOCTYPE chapter PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.4//EN"
-  "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/docbookx.dtd">
+"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/docbookx.dtd">
 <glossary id="Glossary">
   <glossdiv>
@@ -222 +222 @@
         separated by colons, such as
         <computeroutput>00:17:3A:5E:CB:08</computeroutput>.</para>
+      </glossdef>
+    </glossentry>
+
+    <glossentry>
+      <glossterm>MSI</glossterm>
+
+      <glossdef>
+        <para>Message Signalled Interrupts, as supported by modern chipsets
+        such as the ICH9; see <xref linkend="settings-motherboard" />. As
+        opposed to traditional pin-based interrupts, with MSI, a small amount
+        of data can accompany the actual interrupt message. This reduces the
+        amount of hardware pins required, allows for more interrupts and
+        better performance.</para>
       </glossdef>
     </glossentry>

trunk/doc/manual/en_US/user_GuestAdditions.xml

@@ -387 +387 @@
         <title>Windows Vista networking</title>
 
-        <para>Earlier versions of VirtualBox provided a virtual AMD PCNet
-        Ethernet card to guests by default. Since Microsoft no longer ships a
-        driver for that card with Windows (starting with Windows Vista), if
-        you select Windows Vista or newer as the guest operating system for a
-        virtual machine, VirtualBox will instead present a virtual Intel
-        network controller to the guest (see <xref
-        linkend="nichardware" />).</para>
-
-        <para>However, if for any reason you have a 32-bit Windows Vista VM
-        that is configured to use an AMD PCNet card, you will have no
-        networking in the guest initially.</para>
+        <para>If, for some reason, you want to use an AMD PCNet card with
+        Microsoft Windows Vista or later instead of the Intel E1000 card that
+        VirtualBox provides by default, you will need to install a driver for
+        that manually (see <xref linkend="nichardware" />).</para>
 
         <para>As a convenience, VirtualBox ships with a 32-bit driver for the
@@ -410 +403 @@
         subdirectory of the default install directory.</para>
 
-        <para>Alternatively, change the Vista guest's VM settings to use an
-        Intel networking card instead of the default AMD PCNet card; see <xref
-        linkend="settings-network" /> for details.</para>
-
         <para>Unfortunately, there is no 64-bit driver available for the AMD
-        PCNet card. So for 64-bit Windows VMs, you should always use the Intel
-        networking devices.</para>
+        PCNet card.</para>
       </sect3>
     </sect2>
@@ -1147 +1135 @@
       on the guest OS type:<itemizedlist>
           <listitem>
-            <para>With Windows guests, any auto-mounted shared folder will
-            receive its own drive letter (e.g.
+            <para>With <emphasis role="bold">Windows guests,</emphasis> any
+            auto-mounted shared folder will receive its own drive letter (e.g.
             <computeroutput>E:</computeroutput>) depending on the free drive
             letters remaining in the guest.</para>
@@ -1158 +1146 @@
 
           <listitem>
-            <para>With Linux and Solaris guests, auto-mounted shared folders
-            are mounted into the <computeroutput>/media</computeroutput>
-            directory, along with the prefix
-            <computeroutput>sf_</computeroutput>. For example, the shared
-            folder <computeroutput>myfiles</computeroutput> would be mounted
-            to <computeroutput>/media/sf_myfiles</computeroutput> on Linux and
-            <computeroutput>/mnt/sf_myfiles</computeroutput> on
+            <para>With <emphasis role="bold">Linux guests,</emphasis>
+            auto-mounted shared folders are mounted into the
+            <computeroutput>/media</computeroutput> directory, along with the
+            prefix <computeroutput>sf_</computeroutput>. For example, the
+            shared folder <computeroutput>myfiles</computeroutput> would be
+            mounted to <computeroutput>/media/sf_myfiles</computeroutput> on
+            Linux and <computeroutput>/mnt/sf_myfiles</computeroutput> on
             Solaris.</para>
 
@@ -1182 +1170 @@
               </note></para>
 
-              <para>The guest property
-              <computeroutput>/VirtualBox/GuestAdd/SharedFolders/MountDir</computeroutput>
-              determines the absolute mount directory that is used for all auto-mounted
-              Shared Folders. When no value is specified the standard media or mount
-              directory is used according to the guest OS.</para>
-          </listitem>
-
-          <listitem>
-            <para>Solaris guests behave like Linux guests except that
-            <computeroutput>/mnt</computeroutput> is used for mounting the
-            shared folders instead of
+            <para>To change the mount directory to something other than
+            <computeroutput>/media</computeroutput>, you can set the guest
+            property
+            <computeroutput>/VirtualBox/GuestAdd/SharedFolders/MountDir</computeroutput>.</para>
+          </listitem>
+
+          <listitem>
+            <para><emphasis role="bold">Solaris guests</emphasis> behave like
+            Linux guests except that <computeroutput>/mnt</computeroutput> is
+            used as the default mount directory instead of
             <computeroutput>/media</computeroutput>.</para>
           </listitem>

trunk/doc/manual/en_US/user_Troubleshooting.xml

@@ -547 +547 @@
 
       <para>On some hardware platforms and operating systems, virtualization
-          peformance is negatively affected by host CPU power management. The 
-          symptoms may be choppy audio in the guest or erratic guest clock 
-          behavior.
-      </para>
-        
-      <para>Some of the problems may be caused by firmware and/or host operating
-          system bugs. Therefore, updating the firmware and applying operating
-          systems fixes is recommended.</para>
-
-      <para>For optimal virtualization performance, the C1E power state 
-          support in the system's BIOS should be disabled, if such a setting is 
-          available (not all systems support the C1E power state). Disabling 
-          other power management settings may also improve performance. However, 
-          a balance between performance and power consumption must always be 
-          considered.
-      </para>
-
+      peformance is negatively affected by host CPU power management. The
+      symptoms may be choppy audio in the guest or erratic guest clock
+      behavior.</para>
+
+      <para>Some of the problems may be caused by firmware and/or host
+      operating system bugs. Therefore, updating the firmware and applying
+      operating systems fixes is recommended.</para>
+
+      <para>For optimal virtualization performance, the C1E power state
+      support in the system's BIOS should be disabled, if such a setting is
+      available (not all systems support the C1E power state). Disabling other
+      power management settings may also improve performance. However, a
+      balance between performance and power consumption must always be
+      considered.</para>
     </sect2>
 
@@ -570 +567 @@
 
       <para>To use 2D Video Acceleration within VirtualBox, your host's video
-          card should support certain OpenGL extensions.
-          On startup, VirtualBox checks for those extensions, and, if the test
-          fails, this option is silently grayed out.
-      </para>
-        
+      card should support certain OpenGL extensions. On startup, VirtualBox
+      checks for those extensions, and, if the test fails, this option is
+      silently grayed out.</para>
+
       <para>To find out why it has failed, you can manually execute the
-          following command:
-      </para>
-
-      <screen>VBoxTestOGL --log "log_file_name" --test 2D</screen>      
+      following command:</para>
+
+      <screen>VBoxTestOGL --log "log_file_name" --test 2D</screen>
 
       <para>It will list the required OpenGL extensions one by one and will
-          show you which one failed the test. This usually means that you 
-          are running an outdated or misconfigured OpenGL driver on your host.
-          It can also mean that your video chip is lacking require functionality.
-      </para>
-
+      show you which one failed the test. This usually means that you are
+      running an outdated or misconfigured OpenGL driver on your host. It can
+      also mean that your video chip is lacking require functionality.</para>
     </sect2>
   </sect1>
@@ -707 +700 @@
       <title>No networking in Windows Vista guests</title>
 
-      <para>Unfortunately, with Vista, Microsoft dropped support for the
-      virtual AMD PCNet card that we are providing to virtual machines. As a
-      result, after installation, Vista guests initially have no networking.
-      VirtualBox therefore ships a driver for that card with the Windows Guest
+      <para>With Windows Vista, Microsoft dropped support for the AMD PCNet
+      card that VirtualBox used to provide as the default virtual network card
+      before version 1.6.0. For Windows Vista guests, VirtualBox now uses an
+      Intel E1000 card by default.</para>
+
+      <para>If, for some reason, you still want to use the AMD card,
+      VirtualBox ships a 32-bit driver for that card with the Windows Guest
       Additions; see <xref linkend="vista_networking" />.</para>
-
-      <para>Starting with version 1.6.0 VirtualBox can emulate an Intel E1000
-      network device which is supported by Vista without any third-party
-      drivers.</para>
     </sect2>
 
@@ -929 +921 @@
       running on the host.</para>
     </sect2>
-    
+
     <sect2>
       <title>Bridged Networking</title>
 
-      <para>In case no Bridge adapters are listed in bridged networking settings UI, 
-      this typically means that Bridged networking driver was not installed properly on your host.
-      This could be due to any of the following reasons:
-        <itemizedlist>
-          <listitem>
-            <para>The maximum allowed filter count is reached on the host.
-            The MSI log would mention the 0x8004a029 error code returned on NetFlt network component install:
-            "VBoxNetCfgWinInstallComponent: Install failed, hr (0x8004a029)".
-            The solution would typically be to increase the maximum filter count under
-            HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Network\MaxNumFilters (the maximum number allowed is 14),
-            reboot and try to re-install the VirtualBox</para>
-          </listitem>
-
-          <listitem>
-            <para>Inf cache is corrupt. 
-            The %windir%\inf\setupapi.log (for XP) or %windir%\inf\setupapi.dev.log (for Vista+) 
-            would typically mention the failure to find a suitable driver package 
-            for either sun_VBoxNetFlt or sun_VBoxNetFltmp components.
-            The solution is to uninstall VirtualBox, remove the inf cache (%windir%\inf\INFCACHE.1,
-            reboot and try to re-install the VirtualBox</para>
-          </listitem>
-        </itemizedlist>
-      </para>
-    </sect2>
-    
+      <para>In case no Bridge adapters are listed in bridged networking
+      settings UI, this typically means that Bridged networking driver was not
+      installed properly on your host. This could be due to any of the
+      following reasons: <itemizedlist>
+          <listitem>
+            <para>The maximum allowed filter count is reached on the host. The
+            MSI log would mention the 0x8004a029 error code returned on NetFlt
+            network component install: "VBoxNetCfgWinInstallComponent: Install
+            failed, hr (0x8004a029)". The solution would typically be to
+            increase the maximum filter count under
+            HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Network\MaxNumFilters
+            (the maximum number allowed is 14), reboot and try to re-install
+            the VirtualBox</para>
+          </listitem>
+
+          <listitem>
+            <para>Inf cache is corrupt. The %windir%\inf\setupapi.log (for XP)
+            or %windir%\inf\setupapi.dev.log (for Vista+) would typically
+            mention the failure to find a suitable driver package for either
+            sun_VBoxNetFlt or sun_VBoxNetFltmp components. The solution is to
+            uninstall VirtualBox, remove the inf cache
+            (%windir%\inf\INFCACHE.1, reboot and try to re-install the
+            VirtualBox</para>
+          </listitem>
+        </itemizedlist></para>
+    </sect2>
+
     <sect2>
       <title>Host-Only Networking</title>
 
-      <para>Host-Only adapter creation (either via GUI or VBoxManage) may fail due to any of the following reasons:
-        <itemizedlist>
-          <listitem>
-            <para>Inf cache is corrupt. 
-            The %windir%\inf\setupapi.log (for XP) or %windir%\inf\setupapi.dev.log (for Vista+) 
-            would typically mention the failure to find a suitable driver package for sun_VBoxNetAdp component.
-            The solution is to uninstall VirtualBox, remove the inf cache (%windir%\inf\INFCACHE.1,
-            reboot and try to re-install the VirtualBox</para>
-          </listitem>
-        </itemizedlist>
-      </para>
+      <para>Host-Only adapter creation (either via GUI or VBoxManage) may fail
+      due to any of the following reasons: <itemizedlist>
+          <listitem>
+            <para>Inf cache is corrupt. The %windir%\inf\setupapi.log (for XP)
+            or %windir%\inf\setupapi.dev.log (for Vista+) would typically
+            mention the failure to find a suitable driver package for
+            sun_VBoxNetAdp component. The solution is to uninstall VirtualBox,
+            remove the inf cache (%windir%\inf\INFCACHE.1, reboot and try to
+            re-install the VirtualBox</para>
+          </listitem>
+        </itemizedlist></para>
     </sect2>
   </sect1>

trunk/doc/manual/user_ChangeLogImpl.xml

@@ -54 +54 @@
           <itemizedlist>
             <listitem>
-              <para>Intel ICH9 chipset with three PCI buses, PCI Express and Message Signaled Interrupts (MSI)</para>
+              <para>Intel ICH9 chipset with three PCI buses, PCI Express and Message Signaled Interrupts (MSI);
+                see <xref linkend="settings-motherboard" /></para>
             </listitem>
             <listitem>