user_BasicConcepts.xml@ 42506

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doc/manual: document that remote guest users have potentially the same level of access to shared resources like local guest users; also document that the shared clipboard is disabled by default for that reason
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1	<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
2	<!DOCTYPE chapter PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.4//EN"
3	"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/docbookx.dtd">
4	<chapter id="BasicConcepts">
5	<title>Configuring virtual machines</title>
6
7	<para>Whereas <xref linkend="Introduction" /> gave you a quick introduction
8	to VirtualBox and how to get your first virtual machine running, the
9	following chapter describes in detail how to configure virtual
10	machines.</para>
11
12	<para>You have considerable latitude in deciding what virtual hardware will
13	be provided to the guest. The virtual hardware can be used for communicating
14	with the host system or with other guests. For instance, if you provide
15	VirtualBox with the image of a CD-ROM in an ISO file, VirtualBox can present
16	this image to a guest system as if it were a physical CD-ROM. Similarly, you
17	can give a guest system access to the real network via its virtual network
18	card, and, if you so choose, give the host system, other guests, or
19	computers on the Internet access to the guest system.</para>
20
21	<sect1>
22	<title id="guestossupport">Supported guest operating systems</title>
23
24	<para>Since VirtualBox is designed to provide a generic virtualization
25	environment for x86 systems, it may run operating systems of any kind,
26	even those not listed here. However, the focus is to optimize VirtualBox
27	for the following guest systems:</para>
28
29	<para><glosslist>
30	<glossentry>
31	<glossterm>Windows NT 4.0</glossterm>
32
33	<glossdef>
34	<para>All versions, editions and service packs are fully
35	supported; however, there are some issues with older service
36	packs. We recommend to install service pack 6a. Guest Additions
37	are available with a limited feature set.</para>
38	</glossdef>
39	</glossentry>
40
41	<glossentry>
42	<glossterm>Windows 2000 / XP / Server 2003 / Vista / Server 2008 /
43	Windows 7</glossterm>
44
45	<glossdef>
46	<para>All versions, editions and service packs are fully supported
47	(including 64-bit versions, under the preconditions listed below).
48	Guest Additions are available.</para>
49	</glossdef>
50	</glossentry>
51
52	<glossentry>
53	<glossterm>DOS / Windows 3.x / 95 / 98 / ME</glossterm>
54
55	<glossdef>
56	<para>Limited testing has been performed. Use beyond legacy
57	installation mechanisms not recommended. No Guest Additions
58	available.</para>
59	</glossdef>
60	</glossentry>
61
62	<glossentry>
63	<glossterm>Linux 2.4</glossterm>
64
65	<glossdef>
66	<para>Limited support.</para>
67	</glossdef>
68	</glossentry>
69
70	<glossentry>
71	<glossterm>Linux 2.6</glossterm>
72
73	<glossdef>
74	<para>All versions/editions are fully supported (32 bits and 64
75	bits). Guest Additions are available.</para>
76
77	<para>We strongly recommend using a Linux kernel version 2.6.13 or
78	higher for better performance.<note>
79	<para>Certain Linux kernel releases have bugs that prevent
80	them from executing in a virtual environment; please see <xref
81	linkend="ts_linux-buggy" /> for details.</para>
82	</note></para>
83	</glossdef>
84	</glossentry>
85
86	<glossentry>
87	<glossterm>Solaris 10 (u6 and higher), Solaris 11 (including Solaris
88	11 Express)</glossterm>
89
90	<glossdef>
91	<para>Fully supported (32 bits and 64 bits). Guest Additions are
92	available.</para>
93	</glossdef>
94	</glossentry>
95
96	<glossentry>
97	<glossterm>FreeBSD</glossterm>
98
99	<glossdef>
100	<para>Requires hardware virtualization to be enabled. Limited
101	support. Guest Additions are not available yet.</para>
102	</glossdef>
103	</glossentry>
104
105	<glossentry>
106	<glossterm>OpenBSD</glossterm>
107
108	<glossdef>
109	<para>Requires hardware virtualization to be enabled. Versions 3.7
110	and later are supported. Guest Additions are not available
111	yet.</para>
112	</glossdef>
113	</glossentry>
114
115	<glossentry>
116	<glossterm>OS/2 Warp 4.5</glossterm>
117
118	<glossdef>
119	<para>Requires hardware virtualization to be enabled. We
120	officially support MCP2 only; other OS/2 versions may or may not
121	work. Guest Additions are available with a limited feature
122	set.<footnote>
123	<para>See <xref linkend="KnownIssues" />.</para>
124	</footnote></para>
125	</glossdef>
126	</glossentry>
127
128	<glossentry>
129	<glossterm>Mac OS X</glossterm>
130
131	<glossdef>
132	<para>VirtualBox 3.2 added experimental support for Mac OS X
133	guests, but this comes with restrictions. Please see the following
134	section as well as <xref linkend="KnownIssues" />.</para>
135	</glossdef>
136	</glossentry>
137	</glosslist></para>
138
139	<sect2 id="intro-macosxguests">
140	<title>Mac OS X guests</title>
141
142	<para>Starting with version 3.2, VirtualBox has experimental support for
143	Mac OS X guests. This allows you to install and execute unmodified
144	versions of Mac OS X on supported host hardware.</para>
145
146	<para>Whereas competing solutions perform modifications to the Mac OS X
147	install DVDs (e.g. different boot loader and replaced files), VirtualBox
148	is the first product to provide the modern PC architecture expected by
149	OS X without requiring any "hacks".</para>
150
151	<para>You should be aware of a number of <emphasis role="bold">important
152	issues</emphasis> before attempting to install a Mac OS X guest:<orderedlist>
153	<listitem>
154	<para>Mac OS X is commercial, licensed software and contains
155	<emphasis role="bold">both license and technical restrictions</emphasis>
156	that limit its use to certain hardware and usage scenarios. It is
157	important that you understand and obey these restrictions.</para>
158
159	<para>In particular, for most versions of Mac OS X, Apple prohibits
160	installing them on non-Apple hardware.</para>
161
162	<para>These license restrictions are also enforced on a technical
163	level. Mac OS X verifies whether it is running on Apple hardware,
164	and most DVDs that that come with Apple hardware even check for an
165	exact model. These restrictions are <emphasis>not</emphasis>
166	circumvented by VirtualBox and continue to apply.</para>
167	</listitem>
168
169	<listitem>
170	<para>Only <emphasis role="bold">CPUs</emphasis> known and tested
171	by Apple are supported. As a result, if your Intel CPU is newer
172	than the build of Mac OS X, or if you have a non-Intel CPU, it will
173	most likely panic during bootup with an "Unsupported CPU"
174	exception. It is generally best to use the Mac OS X DVD that came
175	with your Apple hardware.</para>
176	</listitem>
177
178	<listitem>
179	<para>The Mac OS X installer expects the harddisk to be
180	<emphasis role="bold">partitioned</emphasis> so when it does not
181	offer a selection, you have to launch the Disk Utility from the
182	"Tools" menu and partition the hard disk. Then close the Disk
183	Utility and proceed with the installation.</para>
184	</listitem>
185
186	<listitem>
187	<para>In addition, as Mac OS X support in VirtualBox is currently
188	still experimental, please refer also to <xref linkend="KnownIssues" />.</para>
189	</listitem>
190	</orderedlist></para>
191	</sect2>
192
193	<sect2 id="intro-64bitguests">
194	<title>64-bit guests</title>
195
196	<para>VirtualBox supports 64-bit guest operating systems, even on 32-bit
197	host operating systems,<footnote>
198	<para>64-bit guest support was added with VirtualBox 2.0; support
199	for 64-bit guests on 32-bit hosts was added with VirtualBox
200	2.1.</para>
201	</footnote> provided that the following conditions are
202	met:<orderedlist>
203	<listitem>
204	<para>You need a 64-bit processor with hardware virtualization
205	support (see <xref linkend="hwvirt" />).</para>
206	</listitem>
207
208	<listitem>
209	<para>You must enable hardware virtualization for the particular
210	VM for which you want 64-bit support; software virtualization is
211	not supported for 64-bit VMs.</para>
212	</listitem>
213
214	<listitem>
215	<para>If you want to use 64-bit guest support on a 32-bit host
216	operating system, you must also select a 64-bit operating system
217	for the particular VM. Since supporting 64 bits on 32-bit hosts
218	incurs additional overhead, VirtualBox only enables this support
219	upon explicit request.</para>
220
221	<para>On 64-bit hosts (which typically come with hardware
222	virtualization support), 64-bit guest operating systems are always
223	supported regardless of settings, so you can simply install a
224	64-bit operating system in the guest.</para>
225	</listitem>
226	</orderedlist></para>
227
228	<para><warning>
229	<para>On any host, you should enable the <emphasis role="bold">I/O
230	APIC</emphasis> for virtual machines that you intend to use in
231	64-bit mode. This is especially true for 64-bit Windows VMs. See
232	<xref linkend="settings-general-advanced" />. In addition, for
233	64-bit Windows guests, you should make sure that the VM uses the
234	<emphasis role="bold">Intel networking device</emphasis>, since
235	there is no 64-bit driver support for the AMD PCNet card; see <xref
236	linkend="nichardware" />.</para>
237	</warning></para>
238
239	<para>If you use the "Create VM" wizard of the VirtualBox graphical user
240	interface (see <xref linkend="gui-createvm" />), VirtualBox will
241	automatically use the correct settings for each selected 64-bit
242	operating system type.</para>
243	</sect2>
244	</sect1>
245
246	<sect1>
247	<title>Emulated hardware</title>
248
249	<para>VirtualBox virtualizes nearly all hardware of the host. Depending on
250	a VM's configuration, the guest will see the following virtual
251	hardware:<itemizedlist>
252	<listitem>
253	<para><emphasis role="bold">Input devices.</emphasis> By default,
254	VirtualBox emulates a standard PS/2 keyboard and mouse. These
255	devices are supported by almost all past and present operating
256	systems.</para>
257
258	<para>In addition, VirtualBox can provide virtual USB input devices
259	to avoid having to capture mouse and keyboard, as described in <xref
260	linkend="keyb_mouse_normal" />.</para>
261	</listitem>
262
263	<listitem>
264	<para><emphasis role="bold">Graphics.</emphasis> The VirtualBox
265	graphics device (sometimes referred to as VGA device) is, unlike
266	nearly all other emulated devices, not based on any physical
267	counterpart. It is a simple, synthetic device which provides
268	compatibility with standard VGA and several extended registers used
269	by the VESA BIOS Extensions (VBE).</para>
270	</listitem>
271
272	<listitem>
273	<para><emphasis role="bold">Storage.</emphasis> VirtualBox currently
274	emulates the standard ATA interface found on Intel PIIX3/PIIX4
275	chips, the SATA (AHCI) interface, and two SCSI adapters (LSI Logic
276	and BusLogic); see <xref linkend="harddiskcontrollers" /> for
277	details. Whereas providing one of these would be enough for
278	VirtualBox by itself, this multitude of storage adapters is required
279	for compatibility with other hypervisors. Windows is particularly
280	picky about its boot devices, and migrating VMs between hypervisors
281	is very difficult or impossible if the storage controllers are
282	different.</para>
283	</listitem>
284
285	<listitem>
286	<para><emphasis role="bold">Networking.</emphasis> See <xref
287	linkend="nichardware" />.</para>
288	</listitem>
289
290	<listitem>
291	<para><emphasis role="bold">USB.</emphasis> VirtualBox emulates two
292	USB host controllers, EHCI and OHCI. There is a need for two host
293	controllers because OHCI only handles USB low- and full-speed
294	devices (both USB 1.x and 2.0), while EHCI only handles high-speed
295	devices (USB 2.0 only). The emulated USB controllers do not
296	communicate directly with devices on the host but rather with a
297	virtual USB layer which abstracts the USB protocol and allows the
298	use of remote USB devices.</para>
299	</listitem>
300
301	<listitem>
302	<para><emphasis role="bold">Audio.</emphasis> See <xref
303	linkend="settings-audio" />.</para>
304	</listitem>
305	</itemizedlist></para>
306	</sect1>
307
308	<sect1 id="generalsettings">
309	<title>General settings</title>
310
311	<para>In the Settings window, under "General", you can configure the most
312	fundamental aspects of the virtual machine such as memory and essential
313	hardware. There are three tabs, "Basic", "Advanced" and
314	"Description".</para>
315
316	<sect2>
317	<title>"Basic" tab</title>
318
319	<para>Under the "Basic" tab of the "General" settings category, you can
320	find these settings:</para>
321
322	<glosslist>
323	<glossentry>
324	<glossterm>Name</glossterm>
325
326	<glossdef>
327	<para>The name under which the VM is shown in the list of VMs in
328	the main window. Under this name, VirtualBox also saves the VM's
329	configuration files. By changing the name, VirtualBox renames
330	these files as well. As a result, you can only use characters
331	which are allowed in your host operating system's file
332	names.</para>
333
334	<para>Note that internally, VirtualBox uses unique identifiers
335	(UUIDs) to identify virtual machines. You can display these with
336	<computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput>.</para>
337	</glossdef>
338	</glossentry>
339
340	<glossentry>
341	<glossterm>Operating system / version</glossterm>
342
343	<glossdef>
344	<para>The type of the guest operating system that is (or will be)
345	installed in the VM. This is the same setting that was specified
346	in the "New Virtual Machine" wizard, as described in <xref
347	linkend="gui-createvm" />.</para>
348
349	<para>Whereas the default settings of a newly created VM depend on
350	the selected operating system type, changing the type later has no
351	effect on VM settings; this value is then purely informational and
352	decorative.</para>
353	</glossdef>
354	</glossentry>
355	</glosslist>
356	</sect2>
357
358	<sect2 id="settings-general-advanced">
359	<title>"Advanced" tab</title>
360
361	<para><glosslist>
362	<glossentry>
363	<glossterm>Snapshot folder</glossterm>
364
365	<glossdef>
366	<para>By default, VirtualBox saves snapshot data together with
367	your other VirtualBox configuration data; see <xref
368	linkend="vboxconfigdata" />. With this setting, you can specify
369	any other folder for each VM.</para>
370	</glossdef>
371	</glossentry>
372
373	<glossentry>
374	<glossterm>Shared clipboard</glossterm>
375
376	<glossdef>
377	<para>You can select here whether the clipboard of the guest
378	operating system should be shared with that of your host. If you
379	select "Bidirectional", then VirtualBox will always make sure
380	that both clipboards contain the same data. If you select "Host
381	to guest" or "Guest to host", then VirtualBox will only ever
382	copy clipboard data in one direction.</para>
383
384	<para>Clipboard sharing requires that the VirtualBox Guest
385	Additions be installed. As a result, this setting has no effect
386	otherwise; see <xref linkend="guestadditions" /> for
387	details.</para>
388
389	<para>The shared clipboard is disabled by default. See
390	<xref linkend="security_clipboard"/> for an explanation.</para>
391	</glossdef>
392	</glossentry>
393
394	<glossentry>
395	<glossterm>Removable media: remember runtime changes</glossterm>
396
397	<glossdef>
398	<para>If this is checked, VirtualBox will save the state of what
399	media has been mounted between several runs of a virtual
400	machine.</para>
401	</glossdef>
402	</glossentry>
403
404	<glossentry>
405	<glossterm>Mini toolbar</glossterm>
406
407	<glossdef>
408	<para>In full screen or seamless mode, VirtualBox can display a
409	small toolbar that contains some of the items that are normally
410	available from the virtual machine's menu bar. This toolbar
411	reduces itself to a small gray line unless you move the mouse
412	over it. With the toolbar, you can return from full screen or
413	seamless mode, control machine execution or enable certain
414	devices. If you don't want to see the toolbar, disable this
415	setting.</para>
416	</glossdef>
417	</glossentry>
418	</glosslist></para>
419	</sect2>
420
421	<sect2>
422	<title>"Description" tab</title>
423
424	<para>Here you can enter any description for your virtual machine, if
425	you want. This has no effect on the functionality of the machine, but
426	you may find this space useful to note down things like the
427	configuration of a virtual machine and the software that has been
428	installed into it.</para>
429	</sect2>
430	</sect1>
431
432	<sect1 id="settings-system">
433	<title>System settings</title>
434
435	<para>The "System" category groups various settings that are related to
436	the basic hardware that is presented to the virtual machine.<note>
437	<para>As the activation mechanism of Microsoft Windows is sensitive to
438	hardware changes, if you are changing hardware settings for a Windows
439	guest, some of these changes may trigger a request for another
440	activation with Microsoft.</para>
441	</note></para>
442
443	<sect2 id="settings-motherboard">
444	<title>"Motherboard" tab</title>
445
446	<para>On the "Motherboard" tab, you can influence virtual hardware that
447	would normally be on the motherboard of a real computer.<glosslist>
448	<glossentry>
449	<glossterm>Base memory</glossterm>
450
451	<glossdef>
452	<para>This sets the amount of RAM that is allocated and given to
453	the VM when it is running. The specified amount of memory will
454	be requested from the host operating system, so it must be
455	available or made available as free memory on the host when
456	attempting to start the VM and will not be available to the host
457	while the VM is running. This is the same setting that was
458	specified in the "New Virtual Machine" wizard, as described with
459	guidelines under <xref linkend="gui-createvm" /> above.</para>
460
461	<para>Generally, it is possible to change the memory size after
462	installing the guest operating system (provided you do not
463	reduce the memory to an amount where the operating system would
464	no longer boot).</para>
465	</glossdef>
466	</glossentry>
467
468	<glossentry>
469	<glossterm>Boot order</glossterm>
470
471	<glossdef>
472	<para>This setting determines the order in which the guest
473	operating system will attempt to boot from the various virtual
474	boot devices. Analogous to a real PC's BIOS setting, VirtualBox
475	can tell a guest OS to start from the virtual floppy, the
476	virtual CD/DVD drive, the virtual hard drive (each of these as
477	defined by the other VM settings), the network, or none of
478	these.</para>
479
480	<para>If you select "Network", the VM will attempt to boot from
481	a network via the PXE mechanism. This needs to be configured in
482	detail on the command line; please see <xref
483	linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm" />.</para>
484	</glossdef>
485	</glossentry>
486
487	<glossentry>
488	<glossterm>Chipset</glossterm>
489
490	<glossdef>
491	<para>Here you can select which chipset will be presented to the
492	virtual machine. Before VirtualBox 4.0, PIIX3 was the only
493	available option here. For modern guest operating systems such
494	as Mac OS X, that old chipset is no longer well supported. As a
495	result, VirtualBox 4.0 introduced an emulation of the more
496	modern ICH9 chipset, which supports PCI express, three PCI
497	buses, PCI-to-PCI bridges and Message Signalled Interrupts
498	(MSI). This allows modern operating systems to address more PCI
499	devices and no longer requires IRQ sharing. Note that the ICH9
500	support is experimental and not recommended for guest operating
501	systems which do not require it.</para>
502	</glossdef>
503	</glossentry>
504
505	<glossentry>
506	<glossterm>Enable I/O APIC</glossterm>
507
508	<glossdef>
509	<para>Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controllers (APICs) are a
510	newer x86 hardware feature that have replaced old-style
511	Programmable Interrupt Controllers (PICs) in recent years. With
512	an I/O APIC, operating systems can use more than 16 interrupt
513	requests (IRQs) and therefore avoid IRQ sharing for improved
514	reliability.<note>
515	<para>Enabling the I/O APIC is <emphasis>required</emphasis>
516	for 64-bit guest operating systems, especially Windows
517	Vista; it is also required if you want to use more than one
518	virtual CPU in a virtual machine.</para>
519	</note></para>
520
521	<para>However, software support for I/O APICs has been
522	unreliable with some operating systems other than Windows. Also,
523	the use of an I/O APIC slightly increases the overhead of
524	virtualization and therefore slows down the guest OS a
525	little.<warning>
526	<para>All Windows operating systems starting with Windows
527	2000 install different kernels depending on whether an I/O
528	APIC is available. As with ACPI, the I/O APIC therefore
529	<emphasis>must not be turned off after
530	installation</emphasis> of a Windows guest OS. Turning it on
531	after installation will have no effect however.</para>
532	</warning></para>
533	</glossdef>
534	</glossentry>
535
536	<glossentry>
537	<glossterm>Enable EFI</glossterm>
538
539	<glossdef>
540	<para>This enables Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI), which
541	replaces the legacy BIOS and may be useful for certain
542	advanced use cases. Please refer to <xref linkend="efi" /> for
543	details.</para>
544	</glossdef>
545	</glossentry>
546
547	<glossentry>
548	<glossterm>Hardware clock in UTC time</glossterm>
549
550	<glossdef>
551	<para>If checked, VirtualBox will report the system time in UTC
552	format to the guest instead of local (host) time. This affects
553	how the virtual real-time clock (RTC) operates and may be useful
554	for Unix-like guest operating systems, which typically expect
555	the hardware clock to be set to UTC.</para>
556	</glossdef>
557	</glossentry>
558
559	<glossentry>
560	<glossterm>Enable absolute pointing device</glossterm>
561
562	<glossdef>
563	<para>If enabled, VirtualBox reports to the virtual machine that
564	a USB tablet device is present and communicates mouse events to
565	the virtual machine through this device. If disabled, mouse
566	events are communicated through a traditional PS/2 virtual mouse
567	device.</para>
568
569	<para>Using the virtual USB tablet has the advantage that
570	movements are reported in absolute coordinates (instead of as
571	relative position changes), which allows VirtualBox to translate
572	mouse events over the VM window into tablet events without
573	having to "capture" the mouse in the guest as described in <xref
574	linkend="keyb_mouse_normal" />. This makes using the VM less
575	tedious even if Guest Additions are not installed.<footnote>
576	<para>The virtual USB tablet was added with VirtualBox 3.2.
577	Depending on the guest operating system selected, this is
578	now enabled by default for new virtual machines.</para>
579	</footnote></para>
580	</glossdef>
581	</glossentry>
582	</glosslist></para>
583
584	<para>In addition, you can turn off the <emphasis role="bold">Advanced
585	Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI)</emphasis> which VirtualBox
586	presents to the guest operating system by default. ACPI is the current
587	industry standard to allow operating systems to recognize hardware,
588	configure motherboards and other devices and manage power. As all modern
589	PCs contain this feature and Windows and Linux have been supporting it
590	for years, it is also enabled by default in VirtualBox. It can only be
591	turned off on the command line; see <xref
592	linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm" />.<warning>
593	<para>All Windows operating systems starting with Windows 2000
594	install different kernels depending on whether ACPI is available, so
595	ACPI <emphasis>must not be turned off</emphasis> after installation
596	of a Windows guest OS. Turning it on after installation will have no
597	effect however.</para>
598	</warning></para>
599	</sect2>
600
601	<sect2 id="settings-processor">
602	<title>"Processor" tab</title>
603
604	<para>On the "Processor" tab, you can set how many virtual <emphasis
605	role="bold">CPU cores</emphasis> the guest operating systems should see.
606	Starting with version 3.0, VirtualBox supports symmetrical
607	multiprocessing (SMP) and can present up to 32 virtual CPU cores to each
608	virtual machine.</para>
609
610	<para>You should not, however, configure virtual machines to use more
611	CPU cores than you have available physically.</para>
612
613	<para>On this tab you can also set the CPU execution cap. This setting
614	limits the amount of time a host CPU spents to emulate a virtual CPU.
615	The default setting is 100% meaning that there is no limitation. A setting
616	of 50% implies a single virtual CPU can use up to 50% of a single host
617	CPU. Notet that limiting the execution time of the virtual CPUs may induce
618	guest timing problems.</para>
619
620	<para>In addition, the <emphasis role="bold">"Enable PAE/NX"</emphasis>
621	setting determines whether the PAE and NX capabilities of the host CPU
622	will be exposed to the virtual machine. PAE stands for "Physical Address
623	Extension". Normally, if enabled and supported by the operating system,
624	then even a 32-bit x86 CPU can access more than 4 GB of RAM. This is
625	made possible by adding another 4 bits to memory addresses, so that with
626	36 bits, up to 64 GB can be addressed. Some operating systems (such as
627	Ubuntu Server) require PAE support from the CPU and cannot be run in a
628	virtual machine without it.</para>
629
630	<para>With virtual machines running modern server operating systems,
631	VirtualBox also supports CPU hot-plugging. For details about this,
632	please refer to <xref linkend="cpuhotplug" />.</para>
633	</sect2>
634
635	<sect2>
636	<title>"Acceleration" tab</title>
637
638	<para>On this page, you can determine whether and how VirtualBox should
639	use hardware virtualization extensions that your host CPU may support.
640	This is the case with most CPUs built after 2006.</para>
641
642	<para>You can select for each virtual machine individually whether
643	VirtualBox should use software or hardware virtualization.<footnote>
644	<para>Prior to VirtualBox version 2.2, software virtualization was
645	the default; starting with version 2.2, VirtualBox will enable
646	hardware virtualization by default for new virtual machines that you
647	create. (Existing virtual machines are not automatically changed for
648	compatibility reasons, and the default can of course be changed for
649	each virtual machine.)</para>
650	</footnote></para>
651
652	<para>In most cases, the default settings will be fine; VirtualBox will
653	have picked sensible defaults depending on the operating system that you
654	selected when you created the virtual machine. In certain situations,
655	however, you may want to change these preconfigured defaults.</para>
656
657	<para>Advanced users may be interested in technical details about
658	software vs. hardware virtualization; please see <xref
659	linkend="hwvirt" />.</para>
660
661	<para>If your host's CPU supports the <emphasis role="bold">nested
662	paging</emphasis> (AMD-V) or <emphasis role="bold">EPT</emphasis> (Intel
663	VT-x) features, then you can expect a significant performance increase
664	by enabling nested paging in addition to hardware virtualization. For
665	technical details, see <xref linkend="nestedpaging" />.</para>
666	</sect2>
667	</sect1>
668
669	<sect1 id="settings-display">
670	<title>Display settings</title>
671
672	<glosslist>
673	<glossentry>
674	<glossterm>Video memory size</glossterm>
675
676	<glossdef>
677	<para>This sets the size of the memory provided by the virtual
678	graphics card available to the guest, in MB. As with the main
679	memory, the specified amount will be allocated from the host's
680	resident memory. Based on the amount of video memory, higher
681	resolutions and color depths may be available.</para>
682	<para>The GUI will show a warning if the amount of video memory
683	is too small to be able to switch the VM into full screen mode.
684	The minimum value depends on the number of virtual monitors, the
685	screen resolution and the color depth of the host display as well
686	as of the activation of <emphasis>3D acceleration</emphasis> and
687	<emphasis>2D video acceleration</emphasis>. A rough estimate
688	is (<emphasis>color depth</emphasis> / 8) x
689	<emphasis>vertical pixels</emphasis> x
690	<emphasis>horizontal pixels</emphasis> x
691	<emphasis>number of screens</emphasis> = <emphasis>number of bytes</emphasis>.
692	Like said above, there might be extra memory required for any
693	activated display acceleration setting.</para>
694	</glossdef>
695	</glossentry>
696
697	<glossentry>
698	<glossterm>Monitor count</glossterm>
699
700	<glossdef>
701	<para>With this setting VirtualBox can provide more than one virtual
702	monitor to a virtual machine. If a guest operating system (such as
703	Windows) supports multiple attached monitors, VirtualBox can pretend
704	that multiple virtual monitors are present.<footnote>
705	<para>Multiple monitor support was added with VirtualBox
706	3.2.</para>
707	</footnote> Up to 8 such virtual monitors are supported.</para>
708
709	<para>The output of the multiple monitors will be displayed on the
710	host in multiple VM windows which are running side by side.</para>
711
712	<para>However, in full screen and seamless mode, they will use the
713	available physical monitors attached to the host. As a result, for
714	full screen and seamless modes to work with multiple monitors, you
715	will need at least as many physical monitors as you have virtual
716	monitors configured, or VirtualBox will report an error. You can
717	configure the relationship between guest and host monitors using the
718	view menu by pressing Host key + Home when you are in full screen or
719	seamless mode.</para>
720
721	<para>Please see <xref linkend="KnownIssues" /> also.</para>
722	</glossdef>
723	</glossentry>
724
725	<glossentry>
726	<glossterm>Enable 3D acceleration</glossterm>
727
728	<glossdef>
729	<para>If a virtual machine has Guest Additions installed, you can
730	select here whether the guest should support accelerated 3D
731	graphics. Please refer to <xref linkend="guestadd-3d" /> for
732	details.</para>
733	</glossdef>
734	</glossentry>
735
736	<glossentry>
737	<glossterm>Enable 2D video acceleration</glossterm>
738
739	<glossdef>
740	<para>If a virtual machine with Microsoft Windows has Guest
741	Additions installed, you can select here whether the guest should
742	support accelerated 2D video graphics. Please refer to <xref
743	linkend="guestadd-2d" /> for details.</para>
744	</glossdef>
745	</glossentry>
746
747	<glossentry>
748	<glossterm>Remote display</glossterm>
749
750	<glossdef>
751	<para>Under the "Remote display" tab, if the VirtualBox Remote
752	Display Extension (VRDE) is installed, you can enable the VRDP server
753	that is built into VirtualBox. This allows you to connect to the
754	console of the virtual machine remotely with any standard RDP viewer,
755	such as <computeroutput>mstsc.exe</computeroutput> that comes with
756	Microsoft Windows. On Linux and Solaris systems you can use the
757	standard open-source <computeroutput>rdesktop</computeroutput>
758	program. These features are described in detail in
759	<xref linkend="vrde" />.</para>
760	</glossdef>
761	</glossentry>
762	</glosslist>
763	</sect1>
764
765	<sect1 id="settings-storage">
766	<title>Storage settings</title>
767
768	<para>The "Storage" category in the VM settings allows you to connect
769	virtual hard disk, CD/DVD and floppy images and drives to your virtual
770	machine.</para>
771
772	<para>In a real PC, so-called "storage controllers" connect physical disk
773	drives to the rest of the computer. Similarly, VirtualBox presents virtual
774	storage controllers to a virtual machine. Under each controller, the
775	virtual devices (hard disks, CD/DVD or floppy drives) attached to the
776	controller are shown.<note>
777	<para>This section can only give you a quick introduction to the
778	VirtualBox storage settings. Since VirtualBox gives you an enormous
779	wealth of options in this area, we have dedicated an entire chapter of
780	this User Manual to explaining all the details: please see <xref
781	linkend="storage" />.</para>
782	</note></para>
783
784	<para>If you have used the "Create VM" wizard to create a machine, you
785	will normally see something like the following:</para>
786
787	<para><mediaobject>
788	<imageobject>
789	<imagedata align="center" fileref="images/vm-settings-harddisk.png"
790	width="10cm" />
791	</imageobject>
792	</mediaobject></para>
793
794	<para>Depending on the guest operating system type that you selected when
795	you created the VM, the typical layout of storage devices in a new VM is
796	as follows:<itemizedlist>
797	<listitem>
798	<para>You will see an <emphasis role="bold">IDE
799	controller,</emphasis> to which a virtual CD/DVD drive has been
800	attached (to the "secondary master" port of the IDE
801	controller).</para>
802	</listitem>
803
804	<listitem>
805	<para>You will also see a <emphasis role="bold">SATA
806	controller,</emphasis> which is a more modern type of storage
807	controller for higher hard disk data throughput, to which the
808	virtual hard disks are attached. Initially you will normally have
809	one such virtual disk, but as you can see in the above screenshot,
810	you can have more than one, each represented by a disk image file
811	(VDI files, in this case).</para>
812	</listitem>
813	</itemizedlist></para>
814
815	<para>If you created your VM with an older version of VirtualBox, the
816	default storage layout may differ. You might then only have an IDE
817	controller to which both the CD/DVD drive and the hard disks have been
818	attached. This might also apply if you selected an older operating system
819	type when you created the VM. Since older operating systems do not support
820	SATA without additional drivers, VirtualBox will make sure that no such
821	devices are present initially. Please see <xref
822	linkend="harddiskcontrollers" /> for additional information.</para>
823
824	<para>VirtualBox also provides a <emphasis role="bold">floppy
825	controller</emphasis>, which is special: you cannot add devices other than
826	floppy drives to it. Virtual floppy drives, like virtual CD/DVD drives,
827	can be connected to either a host floppy drive (if you have one) or a disk
828	image, which in this case must be in RAW format.</para>
829
830	<para>You can modify these media attachments freely. For example, if you
831	wish to copy some files from another virtual disk that you created, you
832	can connect that disk as a second hard disk, as in the above screenshot.
833	You could also add a second virtual CD/DVD drive, or change where these
834	items are attached. The following options are available:<itemizedlist>
835	<listitem>
836	<para>To <emphasis role="bold">add another virtual hard disk, or a
837	CD/DVD or floppy drive,</emphasis> select the storage controller to
838	which it should be added (IDE, SATA, SCSI, SAS, floppy controller)
839	and then click on the "add disk" button below the tree. You can then
840	either select "Add CD/DVD device" or "Add Hard Disk". (If you
841	clicked on a floppy controller, you can add a floppy drive instead.)
842	Alternatively, right-click on the storage controller and select a
843	menu item there.</para>
844
845	<para>On the right part of the window, you can then set the
846	following:<orderedlist>
847	<listitem>
848	<para>You can then select to which <emphasis
849	role="bold">device slot</emphasis> of the controller the
850	virtual disk should be connected to. IDE controllers have four
851	slots which have traditionally been called "primary master",
852	"primary slave", "secondary master" and "secondary slave". By
853	contrast, SATA and SCSI controllers offer you up to 30 slots
854	to which virtual devices can be attached.</para>
855	</listitem>
856
857	<listitem>
858	<para>You can select which <emphasis role="bold">image
859	file</emphasis> to use.<itemizedlist>
860	<listitem>
861	<para>For virtual hard disks, a button with a drop-down
862	list appears on the right, offering you to either select
863	a <emphasis role="bold">virtual hard disk
864	file</emphasis> using a standard file dialog or to
865	<emphasis role="bold">create a new hard disk</emphasis>
866	(image file), which will bring up the "Create new disk"
867	wizard, which was described in <xref
868	linkend="gui-createvm" />.</para>
869
870	<para>For details on the image file types that are
871	supported, please see <xref
872	linkend="vdidetails" />.</para>
873	</listitem>
874
875	<listitem>
876	<para>For virtual CD/DVD drives, the image files will
877	typically be in the standard ISO format instead. Most
878	commonly, you will select this option when installing an
879	operating system from an ISO file that you have obtained
880	from the Internet. For example, most Linux distributions
881	are available in this way.</para>
882
883	<para>For virtual CD/DVD drives, the following
884	additional options are available:</para>
885
886	<para><itemizedlist>
887	<listitem>
888	<para>If you select <emphasis role="bold">"Host
889	drive"</emphasis> from the list, then the physical
890	device of the host computer is connected to the VM,
891	so that the guest operating system can read from and
892	write to your physical device. This is, for
893	instance, useful if you want to install Windows from
894	a real installation CD. In this case, select your
895	host drive from the drop-down list presented.</para>
896
897	<para>If you want to write (burn) CDs or DVDs using
898	the host drive, you need to also enable the
899	<emphasis role="bold">"Passthrough"</emphasis>
900	option; see <xref linkend="storage-cds" />.</para>
901	</listitem>
902
903	<listitem>
904	<para>If you select <emphasis role="bold">"Remove
905	disk from virtual drive",</emphasis> VirtualBox will
906	present an empty CD/DVD drive to the guest into
907	which no media has been inserted.</para>
908	</listitem>
909	</itemizedlist></para>
910	</listitem>
911	</itemizedlist></para>
912	</listitem>
913	</orderedlist></para>
914	</listitem>
915
916	<listitem>
917	<para>To <emphasis role="bold">remove an attachment,</emphasis>
918	select it and click on the "remove" icon at the bottom (or
919	right-click on it and select the menu item).</para>
920	</listitem>
921	</itemizedlist></para>
922
923	<para>Removable media (CD/DVDs and floppies) can be changed while the
924	guest is running. Since the "Settings" dialog is not available at that
925	time, you can also access these settings from the "Devices" menu of your
926	virtual machine window.</para>
927	</sect1>
928
929	<sect1 id="settings-audio">
930	<title>Audio settings</title>
931
932	<para>The "Audio" section in a virtual machine's Settings window
933	determines whether the VM will see a sound card connected, and whether the
934	audio output should be heard on the host system.</para>
935
936	<para>If audio is enabled for a guest, you can choose between the
937	emulation of an Intel AC'97 controller, an Intel HD Audio
938	controller<footnote>
939	<para>Intel HD Audio support was added with VirtualBox 4.0 because
940	Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit versions) as well as 64-bit Windows Vista
941	do not support the Intel AC'97 controller.</para>
942	</footnote> or a SoundBlaster 16 card. In any case, you can select what
943	audio driver VirtualBox will use on the host.</para>
944
945	<para>On a Linux host, depending on your host configuration, you can also
946	select between the OSS, ALSA or the PulseAudio subsystem. On newer Linux
947	distributions (Fedora 8 and above, Ubuntu 8.04 and above) the PulseAudio
948	subsystem should be preferred.</para>
949	</sect1>
950
951	<sect1 id="settings-network">
952	<title>Network settings</title>
953
954	<para>The "Network" section in a virtual machine's Settings window allows
955	you to configure how VirtualBox presents virtual network cards to your VM,
956	and how they operate.</para>
957
958	<para>When you first create a virtual machine, VirtualBox by default
959	enables one virtual network card and selects the "Network Address
960	Translation" (NAT) mode for it. This way the guest can connect to the
961	outside world using the host's networking and the outside world can
962	connect to services on the guest which you choose to make visible outside
963	of the virtual machine.</para>
964
965	<para>This default setup is good for probably 95% of VirtualBox users.
966	However, VirtualBox is extremely flexible in how it can virtualize
967	networking. It supports many virtual network cards per virtual machine,
968	the first four of which can be configured in detail in the Manager window.
969	Additional network cards can be configured on the command line with
970	VBoxManage. </para>
971
972	<para>Because of the vast array of options available, we have dedicated an
973	entire chapter of this manual to discussing networking configuration;
974	please see <xref linkend="networkingdetails" />.</para>
975	</sect1>
976
977	<sect1 id="serialports">
978	<title>Serial ports</title>
979
980	<para>VirtualBox fully supports virtual serial ports in a virtual machine
981	in an easy-to-use manner.<footnote>
982	<para>Serial port support was added with VirtualBox 1.5.</para>
983	</footnote></para>
984
985	<para>Ever since the original IBM PC, personal computers have been
986	equipped with one or two serial ports (also called COM ports by DOS and
987	Windows). Serial ports were commonly used with modems, and some
988	computer mice used to be connected to serial ports before USB became
989	commonplace.
990	</para>
991
992	<para>While serial ports are no longer as ubiquitous as they used to be,
993	there are still some important uses left for them. For example, serial
994	ports can be used to set up a primitive network over a null-modem cable,
995	in case Ethernet is not available. Also, serial ports are indispensable
996	for system programmers needing to do kernel debugging, since kernel
997	debugging software usually interacts with developers over a serial port.
998	With virtual serial ports, system programmers can do kernel debugging on a
999	virtual machine instead of needing a real computer to connect to.</para>
1000
1001	<para>If a virtual serial port is enabled, the guest operating system sees
1002	a standard 16550A compatible UART device. Both receiving and transmitting
1003	data is supported. How this virtual serial port is then connected to the
1004	host is configurable, and the details depend on your host operating system.
1005	</para>
1006
1007	<para>You can use either the graphical user interface or the command-line
1008	<computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> tool to set up virtual serial
1009	ports. For the latter, please refer to <xref
1010	linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm" />; in that section, look for the
1011	<computeroutput>--uart</computeroutput> and
1012	<computeroutput>--uartmode</computeroutput> options.</para>
1013
1014	<para>In either case, you can configure up to two virtual serial ports per
1015	virtual machine. For each such device, you will need to
1016	determine<orderedlist>
1017	<listitem>
1018	<para>what kind of serial port the virtual machine should see by
1019	selecting an I/O base address and interrupt (IRQ). For these, we
1020	recommend to use the traditional values<footnote>
1021	<para>See, for example, <ulink
1022	url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COM_(hardware_interface)">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COM_(hardware_interface)</ulink>.</para>
1023	</footnote>, which are:</para>
1024
1025	<para><orderedlist>
1026	<listitem>
1027	<para>COM1: I/O base 0x3F8, IRQ 4</para>
1028	</listitem>
1029
1030	<listitem>
1031	<para>COM2: I/O base 0x2F8, IRQ 3</para>
1032	</listitem>
1033
1034	<listitem>
1035	<para>COM3: I/O base 0x3E8, IRQ 4</para>
1036	</listitem>
1037
1038	<listitem>
1039	<para>COM4: I/O base 0x2E8, IRQ 3</para>
1040	</listitem>
1041	</orderedlist></para>
1042	</listitem>
1043
1044	<listitem>
1045	<para>Then, you will need to determine what this virtual port should
1046	be connected to. For each virtual serial port, you have the
1047	following options:</para>
1048
1049	<para><itemizedlist>
1050	<listitem>
1051	<para>You can elect to have the virtual serial port
1052	"disconnected", which means that the guest will see the
1053	device, but it will behave as if no cable had been connected
1054	to it.</para>
1055	</listitem>
1056
1057	<listitem>
1058	<para>You can connect the virtual serial port to a physical
1059	serial port on your host. (On a Windows host, this will be a
1060	name like <computeroutput>COM1</computeroutput>; on Linux or
1061	Solaris hosts, it will be a device node like
1062	<computeroutput>/dev/ttyS0</computeroutput>). VirtualBox will
1063	then simply redirect all data received from and sent to the
1064	virtual serial port to the physical device.</para>
1065	</listitem>
1066
1067	<listitem>
1068	<para>You can tell VirtualBox to connect the virtual serial
1069	port to a software pipe on the host. This depends on your host
1070	operating system:<itemizedlist>
1071	<listitem>
1072	<para>On a Windows host, data will be sent and received
1073	through a named pipe. The pipe name must be in the format
1074	<computeroutput>\\.\pipe\<name></computeroutput>
1075	where <computeroutput><name></computeroutput> should
1076	identify the virtual machine but may be freely
1077	chosen.</para>
1078	<para>For forwarding serial traffic, you can use a helper
1079	program called VMware Serial Line Gateway, available for
1080	download at
1081	<literal> <ulink
1082	url="http://www.l4ka.org/91.php">http://www.l4ka.org/91.php</ulink>
1083	</literal>. This tool provides a fixed server mode named
1084	pipe at
1085	<computeroutput>\\.\pipe\vmwaredebug</computeroutput>
1086	and connects incoming TCP connections on port 567 with
1087	the named pipe.</para>
1088	</listitem>
1089
1090	<listitem>
1091	<para>On a Mac, Linux or Solaris host, a local
1092	domain socket is used instead. The socket filename must be
1093	chosen such that the user running VirtualBox has
1094	sufficient privileges to create and write to it. The
1095	<computeroutput>/tmp</computeroutput> directory is often a
1096	good candidate.</para>
1097	<para>On Linux there are various tools which can connect
1098	to a local domain socket or create one in server mode. The
1099	most flexible tool is
1100	<computeroutput>socat</computeroutput> and is available
1101	as part of many distributions.</para>
1102	</listitem>
1103	</itemizedlist></para>
1104
1105	<para>In this case, you can configure whether VirtualBox
1106	should create the named pipe (or, on non-Windows hosts, the
1107	local domain socket) itself or whether VirtualBox should
1108	assume that the pipe (or socket) exists already. With the
1109	<computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> command-line
1110	options, this is referred to as "server" or "client" mode,
1111	respectively.</para>
1112
1113	<para>For a direct connection between two virtual machines
1114	(corresponding to a null-modem cable), simply configure one VM
1115	to create a pipe/socket and another to attach to it.
1116	</para>
1117	</listitem>
1118
1119	<listitem>
1120	<para>You can send the virtual serial port output to a file.
1121	This option is very useful for capturing diagnostic output from
1122	a guest. Any file may be used for this purpose, as long as the
1123	user running VirtualBox has sufficient privileges to create and
1124	write to the file.
1125	</para>
1126	</listitem>
1127	</itemizedlist></para>
1128	</listitem>
1129	</orderedlist>Up to two serial ports can be configured per virtual
1130	machine, but you can pick any port numbers out of the above. However,
1131	serial ports cannot reliably share interrupts; if both ports are to be
1132	used at the same time, they must use different interrupt levels, for
1133	example COM1 and COM2, but not COM1 and COM3.
1134	</para>
1135	</sect1>
1136
1137	<sect1>
1138	<title>USB support</title>
1139
1140	<sect2 id="settings-usb">
1141	<title>USB settings</title>
1142
1143	<para>The "USB" section in a virtual machine's Settings window allows
1144	you to configure VirtualBox's sophisticated USB support.</para>
1145
1146	<para>VirtualBox can allow virtual machines to access the USB devices on
1147	your host directly. To achieve this, VirtualBox presents the guest
1148	operating system with a virtual USB controller. As soon as the guest
1149	system starts using a USB device, it will appear as unavailable on the
1150	host.<note>
1151	<orderedlist>
1152	<listitem>
1153	<para>Be careful with USB devices that are currently in use on
1154	the host! For example, if you allow your guest to connect to
1155	your USB hard disk that is currently mounted on the host, when
1156	the guest is activated, it will be disconnected from the host
1157	without a proper shutdown. This may cause data loss.</para>
1158	</listitem>
1159
1160	<listitem>
1161	<para>Solaris hosts have a few known limitations regarding USB
1162	support; please see <xref linkend="KnownIssues" />.</para>
1163	</listitem>
1164	</orderedlist>
1165	</note></para>
1166
1167	<para>In addition to allowing a guest access to your local USB devices,
1168	VirtualBox even allows your guests to connect to remote USB devices by
1169	use of the VirtualBox Remote Desktop Extension (VRDE). For details about
1170	this, see <xref linkend="usb-over-rdp" />.</para>
1171
1172	<para>In the Settings dialog, you can first configure whether USB is
1173	available in the guest at all, and in addition also optionally enable
1174	the USB 2.0 (EHCI) controller for the guest. If so, you can determine in
1175	detail which devices are available. For this, you must create so-called
1176	"filters" by specifying certain properties of the USB device.<note>
1177	<para>The EHCI controller is shipped as a VirtualBox extension
1178	package, which must be installed separately. See <xref
1179	linkend="intro-installing" /> for more information.</para>
1180	</note></para>
1181
1182	<para>Clicking on the "+" button to the right of the "USB Device
1183	Filters" window creates a <emphasis role="bold">new filter.</emphasis>
1184	You can give the filter a name (for referencing it later) and specify
1185	the filter criteria. The more criteria you specify, the more precisely
1186	devices will be selected. For instance, if you specify only a vendor ID
1187	of 046d, all devices produced by Logitech will be available to the
1188	guest. If you fill in all fields, on the other hand, the filter will
1189	only apply to a particular device model from a particular vendor, and
1190	not even to other devices of the same type with a different revision and
1191	serial number.</para>
1192
1193	<para>In detail, the following criteria are available:</para>
1194
1195	<orderedlist>
1196	<listitem>
1197	<para><emphasis role="bold">Vendor and product ID.</emphasis> With
1198	USB, each vendor of USB products carries an identification number
1199	that is unique world-wide, the "vendor ID". Similarly, each line of
1200	products is assigned a "product ID" number. Both numbers are
1201	commonly written in hexadecimal (that is, they are composed of the
1202	numbers 0-9 and the letters A-F), and a colon separates the vendor
1203	from the product ID. For example,
1204	<computeroutput>046d:c016</computeroutput> stands for Logitech as a
1205	vendor, and the "M-UV69a Optical Wheel Mouse" product.</para>
1206
1207	<para>Alternatively, you can also specify <emphasis
1208	role="bold">"Manufacturer"</emphasis> and <emphasis
1209	role="bold">"Product"</emphasis> by name.</para>
1210
1211	<para>To list all the USB devices that are connected to your host
1212	machine with their respective vendor and product IDs, you can use
1213	the following command (see <xref linkend="vboxmanage" />): <screen>VBoxManage list usbhost</screen></para>
1214
1215	<para>On Windows, you can also see all USB devices that are attached
1216	to your system in the Device Manager. On Linux, you can use the
1217	<computeroutput>lsusb</computeroutput> command.</para>
1218	</listitem>
1219
1220	<listitem>
1221	<para><emphasis role="bold">Serial number.</emphasis> While vendor
1222	and product ID are already quite specific to identify USB devices,
1223	if you have two identical devices of the same brand and product
1224	line, you will also need their serial numbers to filter them out
1225	correctly.</para>
1226	</listitem>
1227
1228	<listitem>
1229	<para><emphasis role="bold">Remote.</emphasis> This setting
1230	specifies whether the device will be local only, or remote only
1231	(over VRDP), or either.</para>
1232	</listitem>
1233	</orderedlist>
1234
1235	<para>On a Windows host, you will need to unplug and reconnect a USB
1236	device to use it after creating a filter for it.</para>
1237
1238	<para>As an example, you could create a new USB filter and specify a
1239	vendor ID of 046d (Logitech, Inc), a manufacturer index of 1, and "not
1240	remote". Then any USB devices on the host system produced by Logitech,
1241	Inc with a manufacturer index of 1 will be visible to the guest
1242	system.</para>
1243
1244	<para>Several filters can select a single device -- for example, a
1245	filter which selects all Logitech devices, and one which selects a
1246	particular webcam.</para>
1247
1248	<para>You can <emphasis role="bold">deactivate</emphasis> filters
1249	without deleting them by clicking in the checkbox next to the filter
1250	name.</para>
1251	</sect2>
1252
1253	<sect2>
1254	<title>Implementation notes for Windows and Linux hosts</title>
1255
1256	<para>On Windows hosts, a kernel mode device driver provides USB proxy
1257	support. It implements both a USB monitor, which allows VirtualBox to
1258	capture devices when they are plugged in, and a USB device driver to
1259	claim USB devices for a particular virtual machine. As opposed to
1260	VirtualBox versions before 1.4.0, system reboots are no longer necessary
1261	after installing the driver. Also, you no longer need to replug devices
1262	for VirtualBox to claim them.</para>
1263
1264	<para>On newer Linux hosts, VirtualBox accesses USB devices through
1265	special files in the file system. When VirtualBox is installed, these
1266	are made available to all users in the
1267	<computeroutput>vboxusers</computeroutput> system group. In order to be
1268	able to access USB from guest systems, make sure that you are a member
1269	of this group.</para>
1270
1271	<para>On older Linux hosts, USB devices are accessed using the
1272	<computeroutput>usbfs</computeroutput> file system. Therefore, the user
1273	executing VirtualBox needs read and write permission to the USB file
1274	system. Most distributions provide a group (e.g.
1275	<computeroutput>usbusers</computeroutput>) which the VirtualBox user
1276	needs to be added to. Also, VirtualBox can only proxy to virtual
1277	machines USB devices which are not claimed by a Linux host USB driver.
1278	The <computeroutput>Driver=</computeroutput> entry in
1279	<computeroutput>/proc/bus/usb/devices</computeroutput> will show you
1280	which devices are currently claimed. Please refer to <xref
1281	linkend="ts_usb-linux" /> also for details about
1282	<computeroutput>usbfs</computeroutput>.</para>
1283	</sect2>
1284	</sect1>
1285
1286	<sect1>
1287	<title>Shared folders</title>
1288
1289	<para>Shared folders allow you to easily exchange data between a virtual
1290	machine and your host. This feature requires that the VirtualBox Guest
1291	Additions be installed in a virtual machine and is described in detail in
1292	<xref linkend="sharedfolders" />.</para>
1293	</sect1>
1294
1295	<sect1 id="efi">
1296	<title>Alternative firmware (EFI)</title>
1297
1298	<para>Starting with release 3.1, VirtualBox includes experimental support
1299	for the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI), which is a new industry
1300	standard intended to eventually replace the legacy BIOS as the primary
1301	interface for bootstrapping computers and certain system services
1302	later.</para>
1303
1304	<para>By default, VirtualBox uses the BIOS firmware for virtual machines.
1305	To use EFI for a given virtual machine, you can enable EFI in the
1306	machine's "Settings" dialog (see <xref linkend="settings-motherboard" />).
1307	Alternatively, use the <computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> command
1308	line interface like this: <screen>VBoxManage modifyvm "VM name" --firmware efi</screen>
1309	To switch back to using the BIOS, use: <screen>VBoxManage modifyvm "VM name" --firmware bios</screen>One
1310	notable user of EFI is Apple's Mac OS X, but recent Linuxes (such as Fedora
1311	11) and Windows (starting with Vista) offer special versions that can be
1312	booted using EFI as well.</para>
1313
1314	<para>Another possible use of EFI in VirtualBox is development and testing
1315	of EFI applications, without booting any OS.</para>
1316
1317	<para>Note that the VirtualBox EFI support is experimental and will be
1318	enhanced as EFI matures and becomes more widespread. While Mac OS X and
1319	Linux guests are known to work fine, Windows guests are currently unable
1320	to boot with the VirtualBox EFI implementation.</para>
1321
1322	<sect2 id="efividmode">
1323	<title>Video modes in EFI</title>
1324
1325	<para>EFI provides two distinct video interfaces: GOP (Graphics Output
1326	Protocol) and UGA (Universal Graphics Adapter). Mac OS X uses GOP, while
1327	Linux tends to use UGA. VirtualBox provides a configuration option to
1328	control the framebuffer size for both interfaces.</para>
1329
1330	<para>To control GOP, use the following
1331	<computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> command: <screen>VBoxManage setextradata "VM name" VBoxInternal2/EfiGopMode N</screen>
1332	Where N can be one of 0,1,2,3,4 referring to the 640x480, 800x600,
1333	1024x768, 1280x1024, 1440x900 screen resolution respectively.</para>
1334
1335	<para>To change the UGA resolution: <screen>VBoxManage setextradata "VM name" VBoxInternal2/UgaHorizontalResolution 1440
1336	VBoxManage setextradata "VM name" VBoxInternal2/UgaVerticalResolution 900</screen></para>
1337
1338	<para>The video mode for both GOP and UGA can only be changed when the
1339	VM is powered off and remains persistent until changed.</para>
1340	</sect2>
1341	</sect1>
1342	</chapter>

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