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Running VirtualBox VM host on ReadyNAS Pro
What is VirtualBox?
So, I got bored while laundry was going... and decided to see how well a virtual OS would run on the Pro. My first choice of VM was VirtualBox, just cause I'm familiar with it after using it for ages, plus its open and free :) Eventually, I may look into VMWare as well.
After a bit of messing around, got it installed. Since the system is based off of Debian, was easy to get VirtualBox itself there (deb package). The trickiest part was getting the kernel modules required installed (see end of post).
In the end, I've got Windows 2003 R2 running on my Pro, interacting with it via RDP, and I am happy with the performance. I've added an extra 1GB memory (for a total of 2GB). I assigned 1GB of ram to my virtual OS, which still leaves the default configuration of 1GB for the NAS itself (which is more than enough still, 800MB+ is always cached).
I made a 10GB virtual disk to install the OS on. If I need more space later for extra applications, I can just add another virtual drive to that installation. And since I always like a bit extra security, I went a bit beyond the usual, and also have TrueCrypt running full disk encryption in the virtual OS. So no one can even boot and read the data in that OS without my bootup password.
I don't really have any screenshots to show, just a standard Windows installation. Here is a few of the steps I used while creating the VM on the console:
VirtualBox 3.1 has changed the CLI configuration. Until I update this how-to, please reference this: http://www.uhleeka.com/blog/2009/12/vir ... 9-04-host/
With the OS booted up and just sitting at the desktop, top reports:
Ad-hoc installation of VirtualBox. Should work for RAIDiator 4.2.4. Download links for the kernel modules, for those who don't want to go through the mess of compiling them.
So, I got bored while laundry was going... and decided to see how well a virtual OS would run on the Pro. My first choice of VM was VirtualBox, just cause I'm familiar with it after using it for ages, plus its open and free :) Eventually, I may look into VMWare as well.
After a bit of messing around, got it installed. Since the system is based off of Debian, was easy to get VirtualBox itself there (deb package). The trickiest part was getting the kernel modules required installed (see end of post).
In the end, I've got Windows 2003 R2 running on my Pro, interacting with it via RDP, and I am happy with the performance. I've added an extra 1GB memory (for a total of 2GB). I assigned 1GB of ram to my virtual OS, which still leaves the default configuration of 1GB for the NAS itself (which is more than enough still, 800MB+ is always cached).
I made a 10GB virtual disk to install the OS on. If I need more space later for extra applications, I can just add another virtual drive to that installation. And since I always like a bit extra security, I went a bit beyond the usual, and also have TrueCrypt running full disk encryption in the virtual OS. So no one can even boot and read the data in that OS without my bootup password.
I don't really have any screenshots to show, just a standard Windows installation. Here is a few of the steps I used while creating the VM on the console:
VirtualBox 3.1 has changed the CLI configuration. Until I update this how-to, please reference this: http://www.uhleeka.com/blog/2009/12/vir ... 9-04-host/
# Creating the Virtual Machine.
$ VBoxManage createvm -name "Windows2003" -register
$ VBoxManage modifyvm "Windows2003" -memory "1024MB" -acpi on -boot1 dvd -nic1 nat
$ VBoxManage createvdi -filename "/c/backup/VirtualBox/Windows2003.vdi" -size 10000 -register
$ VBoxManage modifyvm "Windows2003" -hda "/c/backup/VirtualBox/Windows2003.vdi"
$ VBoxManage registerimage dvd /c/backup/VirtualBox/Windows2003Ent.iso
$ VBoxManage modifyvm "Windows2003" -dvd /c/backup/VirtualBox/Windows2003Ent.iso
$ VBoxHeadless -startvm "Windows2003" &
# Connected via Remote Desktop at this point.
# After the installation, first page requires Ctrl-Alt-Del, so I sent the keycodes.
$ VBoxManage controlvm "Windows2003" keyboardputscancode 1d 38 53
# System is up and running, time to install GuestAdditions for better video, etc.
$ wget http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/2.2.2/VBoxGuestAdditions_2.2.2.iso
$ VBoxManage registerimage dvd /c/backup/VirtualBox/VBoxGuestAdditions_2.2.2.iso
$ VBoxManage controlvm "Windows2003" dvdattach /c/backup/VirtualBox/VBoxGuestAdditions_2.2.2.iso
With the OS booted up and just sitting at the desktop, top reports:
top - 16:17:10 up 1 day, 17:58, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.00
Tasks: 93 total, 1 running, 92 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 0.7%us, 0.2%sy, 0.0%ni, 99.2%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 2072432k total, 2020100k used, 52332k free, 6120k buffers
Swap: 1048536k total, 144k used, 1048392k free, 784620k cached
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
10297 root 20 0 1104m 1.0g 4720 S 4 52.5 57:31.53 VBoxHeadless
12792 root 20 0 46092 9520 1720 S 1 0.5 59:54.51 motion
12196 root 20 0 9196 7688 980 S 0 0.4 0:57.72 wastesrv
1 root 20 0 1948 600 508 S 0 0.0 0:01.30 init
Ad-hoc installation of VirtualBox. Should work for RAIDiator 4.2.4. Download links for the kernel modules, for those who don't want to go through the mess of compiling them.
$ mkdir /lib/modules/`uname -r`/miscOr, if you want to compile the kernel modules yourself:
$ cd /lib/modules/`uname -r`/misc
$ wget http://www.readynas.com/contributed/chirpa/modules/virtualbox/pro/vboxdrv.ko
$ wget http://www.readynas.com/contributed/chirpa/modules/virtualbox/pro/vboxnetflt.ko
$ echo "deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian etch non-free" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
$ wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/sun_vbox.asc -O- | apt-key add -
$ apt-get update
$ apt-get install virtualbox-2.1
$ /etc/init.d/vboxdrv start
envyious:/c/backup# echo "deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian etch non-free" >> /etc/apt/sources.listInstall of VirtualBox 2.2.2, before Sun updates the Debian Repository...
envyious:/c/backup# wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/sun_vbox.asc -O- | apt-key add -
envyious:/c/backup# apt-get update && apt-get install build-essential
...
Setting up build-essential (11.3) ...
envyious:/c/backup# wget -q http://www.readynas.com/download/GPL/RNDP6xxx_4.2.4_WW_src.zip
envyious:/c/backup# unzip -q RNDP6xxx_4.2.4_WW_src.zip -d ./GPL
envyious:/c/backup# cd GPL/linux-x86-2.6/
envyious:/c/backup/GPL/linux-x86-2.6# make && make prepare
...
envyious:/c/backup/GPL/linux-x86-2.6# ln -s /c/backup/GPL/linux-x86-2.6/ /usr/src/linux
envyious:/c/backup/GPL/linux-x86-2.6# KERN_DIR=/usr/src/linux
envyious:/c/backup/GPL/linux-x86-2.6# apt-get install virtualbox-2.1
...
Setting up virtualbox-2.1 (2.1.4-42893_Debian_etch) ...
Adding group `vboxusers' (GID 101) ...
Done.
Messages emitted during module compilation will be logged to /var/log/vbox-install.log.
Success!
Starting VirtualBox kernel module: done.
envyious:/c/backup/GPL/linux-x86-2.6# cd
envyious:/c/backup/GPL/linux-x86-2.6# VBoxManage list vms
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 2.1.4
(C) 2005-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.
# wget -q http://www.readynas.com/download/GPL/RNDP6xxx_4.2.4_WW_src.zip
# unzip -q RNDP6xxx_4.2.4_WW_src.zip -d ./GPL
# cd GPL/linux-x86-2.6/
# make && make prepare
# ln -s /c/backup/GPL/linux-x86-2.6/ /usr/src/linux
# export KERN_DIR=/usr/src/linux
# apt-get install libfontconfig1 libglib2.0-0 libice6 libsdl1.2debian libsm6 libx11-6 libxcursor1 libxext6 libxi6 libxmu6 libxrandr2 libxrender1 libxslt1.1 libxt6 python2.4
# wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/2.2.2/virtualbox-2.2_2.2.2-46594_Debian_etch_i386.deb
# dpkg -i virtualbox-2.2_2.2.2-46594_Debian_etch_i386.deb
Setting up virtualbox-2.2 (2.2.2-46594_Debian_etch) ...
Recompiling VirtualBox kernel module: done.
Starting VirtualBox kernel module: done.
441 Replies
Replies have been turned off for this discussion
BigBearf wrote: Makefile:158: *** Error: /usr/src/linux (version 2.6.27.6.RNx86.2.1) does not match the current kernel (version 2.6.30.9.RNx86_64.2.1). Stop.
You have to use matching GPL. You are using the beta firmware, but GPL kernel tree from 4.2.5. Use this kernel tree: viewtopic.php?p=188401#p188401- @chirpa
You have to use matching GPL. You are using the beta firmware, but GPL kernel tree from 4.2.5. Use this kernel tree: viewtopic.php?p=188401#p188401
OK. I will download the .gz file. Where is the best place to PUT, chmod and install it? Sorry to be dense but trying.
Let me know how I can proceed. I will do a firmware install if necessary but really like 4.2.7 better.
Thanks,
BigBearf - Untar/gzip it whereever you like. I usually keep it on /c somewhere, to avoid filling up the OS partition. Then do the symlink to /usr/src/linux as I mentioned previously.
The VirtualBox*.run file can be anywhere, it is just the installer for it. Once installed, you can delete the .run file. - @chirpa
Thanks for your response.
1. downloaded the .gz file and chmod to 777
2. #tar xvf RAIDiator-x86-4.2.7-T51-Kernel.tar
3. #make && make prepare and got error to run make oldconfig and got "configuration written to .config"
4. Ran #make oldconfig and got "configuration written to .config"
5. Ran #make prepare (OK no errors)
6. Ran # ln -s /c/backup/GPL/linux-x86-2.6/ /usr/src/linux (OK I think.)
7. Ran #./VirtualBox-3.0.8-53138-Linux_amd64.run.shnas-EA-33-DF:/backup# ./VirtualBox-3.0.8-53138-Linux_amd64.run.sh
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing VirtualBox for Linux installation.........
VirtualBox Version 3.0.8 r53138 (2009-10-02T09:38:05Z) installer
Removing previous installation of VirtualBox 3.0.8 r53138 from /opt/VirtualBox
Installing VirtualBox to /opt/VirtualBox
ln: creating symbolic link `/usr/share/applications/virtualbox.desktop' to `/opt/VirtualBox/virtualbox.desktop': No such file or directory
Python found: python, installing bindings...
/bin/bash: python: command not found
Building the VirtualBox vboxdrv kernel module
Failed to build the vboxdrv kernel module.
Please check the log file /var/log/vbox-install.log for more information.
VirtualBox has been installed successfully, but the kernel module could not
be built. When you have fixed the problems preventing this, execute
/etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup
as administrator to build it.
You will find useful information about using VirtualBox in the user manual
/opt/VirtualBox/UserManual.pdf
and in the user FAQ
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/User_FAQ
We hope that you enjoy using VirtualBox.
nas-EA-33-DF:/backup# export KERN_DIR=/usr/src/linux
nas-EA-33-DF:/backup# ./VirtualBox-3.0.8-53138-Linux_amd64.run.sh
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing VirtualBox for Linux installation.........
VirtualBox Version 3.0.8 r53138 (2009-10-02T09:38:05Z) installer
Removing previous installation of VirtualBox 3.0.8 r53138 from /opt/VirtualBox
Installing VirtualBox to /opt/VirtualBox
ln: creating symbolic link `/usr/share/applications/virtualbox.desktop' to `/opt/VirtualBox/virtualbox.desktop': No such file or directory
Python found: python, installing bindings...
/bin/bash: python: command not found
Building the VirtualBox vboxdrv kernel module
Failed to build the vboxdrv kernel module.
Please check the log file /var/log/vbox-install.log for more information.
VirtualBox has been installed successfully, but the kernel module could not
be built. When you have fixed the problems preventing this, execute
/etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup
as administrator to build it.
You will find useful information about using VirtualBox in the user manual
/opt/VirtualBox/UserManual.pdf
and in the user FAQ
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/User_FAQ
We hope that you enjoy using VirtualBox.
nas-EA-33-DF:/backup# nas-EA
Any further suggestions or directions?
BigBearf - Hello
I am very interresting for install VB on my readynas pro. But I read the topic and I don't understand the process.
I use windows 7 on my pc.
For install on pro need linux?
thanks by advance for your help. - You need to enable the root ssh add-on to enable ssh access to your NAS (note NetGear may deny support if you say e.g. delete something you shouldn't and your NAS stops working). Using linux commands can take a while to get used to.
- It s possible install VB with T55?
Thanks by advance for your answer - @chirpa
Basically, just download and install http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualb ... _amd64.run. Upon installation, it will compile the needed modules, if you have the kernel tree ready to go (apt-get install build-essential, and drop the GPL/linux-kernel-2.6 files in /usr/src/linux)
The second part of your statement "if you have the kernel tree ready to go (apt-get install build-essential, and drop the GPL/linux-kernel-2.6 files in /usr/src/linux" is a bit confusing to me. Could you be a little more step by step as far as this is concerned?
So far I have:
1. downloaded the .gz file and chmod +x the file
2. #tar xvf RAIDiator-x86-4.2.7-T51-Kernel.tar
3. #make && make prepare and got error to run make oldconfig and got "configuration written to .config"
4. Ran #make oldconfig and got "configuration written to .config"
5. Ran #make prepare (OK no errors)
6. Ran # ln -s /c/backup/GPL/linux-x86-2.6/ /usr/src/linux (OK I think.)
7. Ran #./VirtualBox-3.0.8-53138-Linux_amd64.run.sh
I see that the .gz file is T51 and I am running T55. Could that be the problem?
Thanks for your help.
BigBearf BigBearf wrote:
I see that the .gz file is T51 and I am running T55. Could that be the problem?
Thanks for your help.
BigBearf
no i have the same. the kernel sources havent changed between t51 and 55- hello
Is it possible to put this kernel version 2.6.30.9.RNx86_64.2.1 file on the forum.
Because the kernel of version T51 is not a good version
Thanks by advance.
If it s have an other method for install virtual box please write a clear tutorial.
Because I try 2 week end to install the virtual box without success.
Thanks by advance for your answer.
I using the version 4.2.7 T78
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