InnoTek VirtualBox is a family of powerful x86 virtualization products. And it is an european product (they are based in Germany, Bayern Stuttgart/Baden-Wuerttemberg)!

I was looking for an easy solution to always have a windows build environment at hand without having to reboot, I finally decided to install this tool on my laptop. After some little troubles, I’m a very happy virtualbox user, I installed my build tools, cmake, visual C compiler and other debugging apps, everything works like a charm and is not that slow (it is more than acceptable to debug and test on windows).

As I’m a lazy guy, I tend to work on windows once a week or so and only when I have to test a given bug or to improve win32 support in my various projects. It will certainly increase the quality of my extensions and projects on windows as well as the other platforms supported by virtualbox (maybe the right time to install a solaris and a BSD system).

Thanks to the Innotek team!

Some screenshots:

• Windows install boot

 <a href="/public/images/vbox/windows_setup_1.png"><img src="http://blog.thepimp.net/public/images/vbox/.windows_setup_1_m.jpg" alt="install #1" /></a>

• Windows install

 <a href="/public/images/vbox/windows_setup_2.png"><img src="http://blog.thepimp.net/public/images/vbox/.windows_setup_2_m.jpg" alt="install #2" /></a>

• Building PHP

 <a href="/public/images/vbox/windows_buildphp.png"><img src="http://blog.thepimp.net/public/images/vbox/.windows_buildphp_m.jpg" alt="nmake running" /></a>

• Firefox

 <a href="/public/images/vbox/windows_firefox.png"><img src="http://blog.thepimp.net/public/images/vbox/.windows_firefox_m.jpg" alt="firefox" /></a>

I use the Ubuntu package to install it on my Edgy setup. The package works like a charm but do not forget to install the linux header before trying to install it. The linux-header dependency is missing and an install will end in a broken package. You will then have to add "exit 0" on all pre and post install scripts and then run:

<br />
$ sudo dpkg &#8212;force-remove-reinstreq virtualbox $ dpkg &#8212;purge virtualbox </pre> <p>and finally reinstall it:</p> <br />
 

<br />
$ sudo dpkg -i  VirtualBox_1.3.2_Ubuntu_Edgy_x86.deb<br />
 

The next binaries release will have it (Thanks to Sander for the notice .

Update 2007/02/05

The virtual box FAQ has an entry about the removal issue.

• VirtualBox
• Announce
• More screenshosts (vista, a preview screenshot from the OS X! version, etc.