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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 / Windows 8 / Server 2012</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. This
391	setting can be changed at any time using the "Shared Clipboard"
392	menu item in the "Devices" menu of the virtual machine.</para>
393	</glossdef>
394	</glossentry>
395
396	<glossentry>
397	<glossterm>Removable media: remember runtime changes</glossterm>
398
399	<glossdef>
400	<para>If this is checked, VirtualBox will save the state of what
401	media has been mounted between several runs of a virtual
402	machine.</para>
403	</glossdef>
404	</glossentry>
405
406	<glossentry>
407	<glossterm>Mini toolbar</glossterm>
408
409	<glossdef>
410	<para>In full screen or seamless mode, VirtualBox can display a
411	small toolbar that contains some of the items that are normally
412	available from the virtual machine's menu bar. This toolbar
413	reduces itself to a small gray line unless you move the mouse
414	over it. With the toolbar, you can return from full screen or
415	seamless mode, control machine execution or enable certain
416	devices. If you don't want to see the toolbar, disable this
417	setting.</para>
418	</glossdef>
419	</glossentry>
420	</glosslist></para>
421	</sect2>
422
423	<sect2>
424	<title>"Description" tab</title>
425
426	<para>Here you can enter any description for your virtual machine, if
427	you want. This has no effect on the functionality of the machine, but
428	you may find this space useful to note down things like the
429	configuration of a virtual machine and the software that has been
430	installed into it.</para>
431	</sect2>
432	</sect1>
433
434	<sect1 id="settings-system">
435	<title>System settings</title>
436
437	<para>The "System" category groups various settings that are related to
438	the basic hardware that is presented to the virtual machine.<note>
439	<para>As the activation mechanism of Microsoft Windows is sensitive to
440	hardware changes, if you are changing hardware settings for a Windows
441	guest, some of these changes may trigger a request for another
442	activation with Microsoft.</para>
443	</note></para>
444
445	<sect2 id="settings-motherboard">
446	<title>"Motherboard" tab</title>
447
448	<para>On the "Motherboard" tab, you can influence virtual hardware that
449	would normally be on the motherboard of a real computer.<glosslist>
450	<glossentry>
451	<glossterm>Base memory</glossterm>
452
453	<glossdef>
454	<para>This sets the amount of RAM that is allocated and given to
455	the VM when it is running. The specified amount of memory will
456	be requested from the host operating system, so it must be
457	available or made available as free memory on the host when
458	attempting to start the VM and will not be available to the host
459	while the VM is running. This is the same setting that was
460	specified in the "New Virtual Machine" wizard, as described with
461	guidelines under <xref linkend="gui-createvm" /> above.</para>
462
463	<para>Generally, it is possible to change the memory size after
464	installing the guest operating system (provided you do not
465	reduce the memory to an amount where the operating system would
466	no longer boot).</para>
467	</glossdef>
468	</glossentry>
469
470	<glossentry>
471	<glossterm>Boot order</glossterm>
472
473	<glossdef>
474	<para>This setting determines the order in which the guest
475	operating system will attempt to boot from the various virtual
476	boot devices. Analogous to a real PC's BIOS setting, VirtualBox
477	can tell a guest OS to start from the virtual floppy, the
478	virtual CD/DVD drive, the virtual hard drive (each of these as
479	defined by the other VM settings), the network, or none of
480	these.</para>
481
482	<para>If you select "Network", the VM will attempt to boot from
483	a network via the PXE mechanism. This needs to be configured in
484	detail on the command line; please see <xref
485	linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm" />.</para>
486	</glossdef>
487	</glossentry>
488
489	<glossentry>
490	<glossterm>Chipset</glossterm>
491
492	<glossdef>
493	<para>Here you can select which chipset will be presented to the
494	virtual machine. Before VirtualBox 4.0, PIIX3 was the only
495	available option here. For modern guest operating systems such
496	as Mac OS X, that old chipset is no longer well supported. As a
497	result, VirtualBox 4.0 introduced an emulation of the more
498	modern ICH9 chipset, which supports PCI express, three PCI
499	buses, PCI-to-PCI bridges and Message Signalled Interrupts
500	(MSI). This allows modern operating systems to address more PCI
501	devices and no longer requires IRQ sharing. Note that the ICH9
502	support is experimental and not recommended for guest operating
503	systems which do not require it.</para>
504	</glossdef>
505	</glossentry>
506
507	<glossentry>
508	<glossterm>Enable I/O APIC</glossterm>
509
510	<glossdef>
511	<para>Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controllers (APICs) are a
512	newer x86 hardware feature that have replaced old-style
513	Programmable Interrupt Controllers (PICs) in recent years. With
514	an I/O APIC, operating systems can use more than 16 interrupt
515	requests (IRQs) and therefore avoid IRQ sharing for improved
516	reliability.<note>
517	<para>Enabling the I/O APIC is <emphasis>required</emphasis>
518	for 64-bit guest operating systems, especially Windows
519	Vista; it is also required if you want to use more than one
520	virtual CPU in a virtual machine.</para>
521	</note></para>
522
523	<para>However, software support for I/O APICs has been
524	unreliable with some operating systems other than Windows. Also,
525	the use of an I/O APIC slightly increases the overhead of
526	virtualization and therefore slows down the guest OS a
527	little.<warning>
528	<para>All Windows operating systems starting with Windows
529	2000 install different kernels depending on whether an I/O
530	APIC is available. As with ACPI, the I/O APIC therefore
531	<emphasis>must not be turned off after
532	installation</emphasis> of a Windows guest OS. Turning it on
533	after installation will have no effect however.</para>
534	</warning></para>
535	</glossdef>
536	</glossentry>
537
538	<glossentry>
539	<glossterm>Enable EFI</glossterm>
540
541	<glossdef>
542	<para>This enables Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI), which
543	replaces the legacy BIOS and may be useful for certain
544	advanced use cases. Please refer to <xref linkend="efi" /> for
545	details.</para>
546	</glossdef>
547	</glossentry>
548
549	<glossentry>
550	<glossterm>Hardware clock in UTC time</glossterm>
551
552	<glossdef>
553	<para>If checked, VirtualBox will report the system time in UTC
554	format to the guest instead of local (host) time. This affects
555	how the virtual real-time clock (RTC) operates and may be useful
556	for Unix-like guest operating systems, which typically expect
557	the hardware clock to be set to UTC.</para>
558	</glossdef>
559	</glossentry>
560
561	<glossentry>
562	<glossterm>Enable absolute pointing device</glossterm>
563
564	<glossdef>
565	<para>If enabled, VirtualBox reports to the virtual machine that
566	a USB tablet device is present and communicates mouse events to
567	the virtual machine through this device. If disabled, mouse
568	events are communicated through a traditional PS/2 virtual mouse
569	device.</para>
570
571	<para>Using the virtual USB tablet has the advantage that
572	movements are reported in absolute coordinates (instead of as
573	relative position changes), which allows VirtualBox to translate
574	mouse events over the VM window into tablet events without
575	having to "capture" the mouse in the guest as described in <xref
576	linkend="keyb_mouse_normal" />. This makes using the VM less
577	tedious even if Guest Additions are not installed.<footnote>
578	<para>The virtual USB tablet was added with VirtualBox 3.2.
579	Depending on the guest operating system selected, this is
580	now enabled by default for new virtual machines.</para>
581	</footnote></para>
582	</glossdef>
583	</glossentry>
584	</glosslist></para>
585
586	<para>In addition, you can turn off the <emphasis role="bold">Advanced
587	Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI)</emphasis> which VirtualBox
588	presents to the guest operating system by default. ACPI is the current
589	industry standard to allow operating systems to recognize hardware,
590	configure motherboards and other devices and manage power. As all modern
591	PCs contain this feature and Windows and Linux have been supporting it
592	for years, it is also enabled by default in VirtualBox. It can only be
593	turned off on the command line; see <xref
594	linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm" />.<warning>
595	<para>All Windows operating systems starting with Windows 2000
596	install different kernels depending on whether ACPI is available, so
597	ACPI <emphasis>must not be turned off</emphasis> after installation
598	of a Windows guest OS. Turning it on after installation will have no
599	effect however.</para>
600	</warning></para>
601	</sect2>
602
603	<sect2 id="settings-processor">
604	<title>"Processor" tab</title>
605
606	<para>On the "Processor" tab, you can set how many virtual <emphasis
607	role="bold">CPU cores</emphasis> the guest operating systems should see.
608	Starting with version 3.0, VirtualBox supports symmetrical
609	multiprocessing (SMP) and can present up to 32 virtual CPU cores to each
610	virtual machine.</para>
611
612	<para>You should not, however, configure virtual machines to use more
613	CPU cores than you have available physically.</para>
614
615	<para>On this tab you can also set the CPU execution cap. This setting
616	limits the amount of time a host CPU spents to emulate a virtual CPU.
617	The default setting is 100% meaning that there is no limitation. A setting
618	of 50% implies a single virtual CPU can use up to 50% of a single host
619	CPU. Notet that limiting the execution time of the virtual CPUs may induce
620	guest timing problems.</para>
621
622	<para>In addition, the <emphasis role="bold">"Enable PAE/NX"</emphasis>
623	setting determines whether the PAE and NX capabilities of the host CPU
624	will be exposed to the virtual machine. PAE stands for "Physical Address
625	Extension". Normally, if enabled and supported by the operating system,
626	then even a 32-bit x86 CPU can access more than 4 GB of RAM. This is
627	made possible by adding another 4 bits to memory addresses, so that with
628	36 bits, up to 64 GB can be addressed. Some operating systems (such as
629	Ubuntu Server) require PAE support from the CPU and cannot be run in a
630	virtual machine without it.</para>
631
632	<para>With virtual machines running modern server operating systems,
633	VirtualBox also supports CPU hot-plugging. For details about this,
634	please refer to <xref linkend="cpuhotplug" />.</para>
635	</sect2>
636
637	<sect2>
638	<title>"Acceleration" tab</title>
639
640	<para>On this page, you can determine whether and how VirtualBox should
641	use hardware virtualization extensions that your host CPU may support.
642	This is the case with most CPUs built after 2006.</para>
643
644	<para>You can select for each virtual machine individually whether
645	VirtualBox should use software or hardware virtualization.<footnote>
646	<para>Prior to VirtualBox version 2.2, software virtualization was
647	the default; starting with version 2.2, VirtualBox will enable
648	hardware virtualization by default for new virtual machines that you
649	create. (Existing virtual machines are not automatically changed for
650	compatibility reasons, and the default can of course be changed for
651	each virtual machine.)</para>
652	</footnote></para>
653
654	<para>In most cases, the default settings will be fine; VirtualBox will
655	have picked sensible defaults depending on the operating system that you
656	selected when you created the virtual machine. In certain situations,
657	however, you may want to change these preconfigured defaults.</para>
658
659	<para>Advanced users may be interested in technical details about
660	software vs. hardware virtualization; please see <xref
661	linkend="hwvirt" />.</para>
662
663	<para>If your host's CPU supports the <emphasis role="bold">nested
664	paging</emphasis> (AMD-V) or <emphasis role="bold">EPT</emphasis> (Intel
665	VT-x) features, then you can expect a significant performance increase
666	by enabling nested paging in addition to hardware virtualization. For
667	technical details, see <xref linkend="nestedpaging" />.</para>
668	</sect2>
669	</sect1>
670
671	<sect1 id="settings-display">
672	<title>Display settings</title>
673
674	<glosslist>
675	<glossentry>
676	<glossterm>Video memory size</glossterm>
677
678	<glossdef>
679	<para>This sets the size of the memory provided by the virtual
680	graphics card available to the guest, in MB. As with the main
681	memory, the specified amount will be allocated from the host's
682	resident memory. Based on the amount of video memory, higher
683	resolutions and color depths may be available.</para>
684	<para>The GUI will show a warning if the amount of video memory
685	is too small to be able to switch the VM into full screen mode.
686	The minimum value depends on the number of virtual monitors, the
687	screen resolution and the color depth of the host display as well
688	as of the activation of <emphasis>3D acceleration</emphasis> and
689	<emphasis>2D video acceleration</emphasis>. A rough estimate
690	is (<emphasis>color depth</emphasis> / 8) x
691	<emphasis>vertical pixels</emphasis> x
692	<emphasis>horizontal pixels</emphasis> x
693	<emphasis>number of screens</emphasis> = <emphasis>number of bytes</emphasis>.
694	Like said above, there might be extra memory required for any
695	activated display acceleration setting.</para>
696	</glossdef>
697	</glossentry>
698
699	<glossentry>
700	<glossterm>Monitor count</glossterm>
701
702	<glossdef>
703	<para>With this setting VirtualBox can provide more than one virtual
704	monitor to a virtual machine. If a guest operating system (such as
705	Windows) supports multiple attached monitors, VirtualBox can pretend
706	that multiple virtual monitors are present.<footnote>
707	<para>Multiple monitor support was added with VirtualBox
708	3.2.</para>
709	</footnote> Up to 8 such virtual monitors are supported.</para>
710
711	<para>The output of the multiple monitors will be displayed on the
712	host in multiple VM windows which are running side by side.</para>
713
714	<para>However, in full screen and seamless mode, they will use the
715	available physical monitors attached to the host. As a result, for
716	full screen and seamless modes to work with multiple monitors, you
717	will need at least as many physical monitors as you have virtual
718	monitors configured, or VirtualBox will report an error. You can
719	configure the relationship between guest and host monitors using the
720	view menu by pressing Host key + Home when you are in full screen or
721	seamless mode.</para>
722
723	<para>Please see <xref linkend="KnownIssues" /> also.</para>
724	</glossdef>
725	</glossentry>
726
727	<glossentry>
728	<glossterm>Enable 3D acceleration</glossterm>
729
730	<glossdef>
731	<para>If a virtual machine has Guest Additions installed, you can
732	select here whether the guest should support accelerated 3D
733	graphics. Please refer to <xref linkend="guestadd-3d" /> for
734	details.</para>
735	</glossdef>
736	</glossentry>
737
738	<glossentry>
739	<glossterm>Enable 2D video acceleration</glossterm>
740
741	<glossdef>
742	<para>If a virtual machine with Microsoft Windows has Guest
743	Additions installed, you can select here whether the guest should
744	support accelerated 2D video graphics. Please refer to <xref
745	linkend="guestadd-2d" /> for details.</para>
746	</glossdef>
747	</glossentry>
748
749	<glossentry>
750	<glossterm>Remote display</glossterm>
751
752	<glossdef>
753	<para>Under the "Remote display" tab, if the VirtualBox Remote
754	Display Extension (VRDE) is installed, you can enable the VRDP server
755	that is built into VirtualBox. This allows you to connect to the
756	console of the virtual machine remotely with any standard RDP viewer,
757	such as <computeroutput>mstsc.exe</computeroutput> that comes with
758	Microsoft Windows. On Linux and Solaris systems you can use the
759	standard open-source <computeroutput>rdesktop</computeroutput>
760	program. These features are described in detail in
761	<xref linkend="vrde" />.</para>
762	</glossdef>
763	</glossentry>
764	</glosslist>
765	</sect1>
766
767	<sect1 id="settings-storage">
768	<title>Storage settings</title>
769
770	<para>The "Storage" category in the VM settings allows you to connect
771	virtual hard disk, CD/DVD and floppy images and drives to your virtual
772	machine.</para>
773
774	<para>In a real PC, so-called "storage controllers" connect physical disk
775	drives to the rest of the computer. Similarly, VirtualBox presents virtual
776	storage controllers to a virtual machine. Under each controller, the
777	virtual devices (hard disks, CD/DVD or floppy drives) attached to the
778	controller are shown.<note>
779	<para>This section can only give you a quick introduction to the
780	VirtualBox storage settings. Since VirtualBox gives you an enormous
781	wealth of options in this area, we have dedicated an entire chapter of
782	this User Manual to explaining all the details: please see <xref
783	linkend="storage" />.</para>
784	</note></para>
785
786	<para>If you have used the "Create VM" wizard to create a machine, you
787	will normally see something like the following:</para>
788
789	<para><mediaobject>
790	<imageobject>
791	<imagedata align="center" fileref="images/vm-settings-harddisk.png"
792	width="10cm" />
793	</imageobject>
794	</mediaobject></para>
795
796	<para>Depending on the guest operating system type that you selected when
797	you created the VM, the typical layout of storage devices in a new VM is
798	as follows:<itemizedlist>
799	<listitem>
800	<para>You will see an <emphasis role="bold">IDE
801	controller,</emphasis> to which a virtual CD/DVD drive has been
802	attached (to the "secondary master" port of the IDE
803	controller).</para>
804	</listitem>
805
806	<listitem>
807	<para>You will also see a <emphasis role="bold">SATA
808	controller,</emphasis> which is a more modern type of storage
809	controller for higher hard disk data throughput, to which the
810	virtual hard disks are attached. Initially you will normally have
811	one such virtual disk, but as you can see in the above screenshot,
812	you can have more than one, each represented by a disk image file
813	(VDI files, in this case).</para>
814	</listitem>
815	</itemizedlist></para>
816
817	<para>If you created your VM with an older version of VirtualBox, the
818	default storage layout may differ. You might then only have an IDE
819	controller to which both the CD/DVD drive and the hard disks have been
820	attached. This might also apply if you selected an older operating system
821	type when you created the VM. Since older operating systems do not support
822	SATA without additional drivers, VirtualBox will make sure that no such
823	devices are present initially. Please see <xref
824	linkend="harddiskcontrollers" /> for additional information.</para>
825
826	<para>VirtualBox also provides a <emphasis role="bold">floppy
827	controller</emphasis>, which is special: you cannot add devices other than
828	floppy drives to it. Virtual floppy drives, like virtual CD/DVD drives,
829	can be connected to either a host floppy drive (if you have one) or a disk
830	image, which in this case must be in RAW format.</para>
831
832	<para>You can modify these media attachments freely. For example, if you
833	wish to copy some files from another virtual disk that you created, you
834	can connect that disk as a second hard disk, as in the above screenshot.
835	You could also add a second virtual CD/DVD drive, or change where these
836	items are attached. The following options are available:<itemizedlist>
837	<listitem>
838	<para>To <emphasis role="bold">add another virtual hard disk, or a
839	CD/DVD or floppy drive,</emphasis> select the storage controller to
840	which it should be added (IDE, SATA, SCSI, SAS, floppy controller)
841	and then click on the "add disk" button below the tree. You can then
842	either select "Add CD/DVD device" or "Add Hard Disk". (If you
843	clicked on a floppy controller, you can add a floppy drive instead.)
844	Alternatively, right-click on the storage controller and select a
845	menu item there.</para>
846
847	<para>On the right part of the window, you can then set the
848	following:<orderedlist>
849	<listitem>
850	<para>You can then select to which <emphasis
851	role="bold">device slot</emphasis> of the controller the
852	virtual disk should be connected to. IDE controllers have four
853	slots which have traditionally been called "primary master",
854	"primary slave", "secondary master" and "secondary slave". By
855	contrast, SATA and SCSI controllers offer you up to 30 slots
856	to which virtual devices can be attached.</para>
857	</listitem>
858
859	<listitem>
860	<para>You can select which <emphasis role="bold">image
861	file</emphasis> to use.<itemizedlist>
862	<listitem>
863	<para>For virtual hard disks, a button with a drop-down
864	list appears on the right, offering you to either select
865	a <emphasis role="bold">virtual hard disk
866	file</emphasis> using a standard file dialog or to
867	<emphasis role="bold">create a new hard disk</emphasis>
868	(image file), which will bring up the "Create new disk"
869	wizard, which was described in <xref
870	linkend="gui-createvm" />.</para>
871
872	<para>For details on the image file types that are
873	supported, please see <xref
874	linkend="vdidetails" />.</para>
875	</listitem>
876
877	<listitem>
878	<para>For virtual CD/DVD drives, the image files will
879	typically be in the standard ISO format instead. Most
880	commonly, you will select this option when installing an
881	operating system from an ISO file that you have obtained
882	from the Internet. For example, most Linux distributions
883	are available in this way.</para>
884
885	<para>For virtual CD/DVD drives, the following
886	additional options are available:</para>
887
888	<para><itemizedlist>
889	<listitem>
890	<para>If you select <emphasis role="bold">"Host
891	drive"</emphasis> from the list, then the physical
892	device of the host computer is connected to the VM,
893	so that the guest operating system can read from and
894	write to your physical device. This is, for
895	instance, useful if you want to install Windows from
896	a real installation CD. In this case, select your
897	host drive from the drop-down list presented.</para>
898
899	<para>If you want to write (burn) CDs or DVDs using
900	the host drive, you need to also enable the
901	<emphasis role="bold">"Passthrough"</emphasis>
902	option; see <xref linkend="storage-cds" />.</para>
903	</listitem>
904
905	<listitem>
906	<para>If you select <emphasis role="bold">"Remove
907	disk from virtual drive",</emphasis> VirtualBox will
908	present an empty CD/DVD drive to the guest into
909	which no media has been inserted.</para>
910	</listitem>
911	</itemizedlist></para>
912	</listitem>
913	</itemizedlist></para>
914	</listitem>
915	</orderedlist></para>
916	</listitem>
917
918	<listitem>
919	<para>To <emphasis role="bold">remove an attachment,</emphasis>
920	select it and click on the "remove" icon at the bottom (or
921	right-click on it and select the menu item).</para>
922	</listitem>
923	</itemizedlist></para>
924
925	<para>Removable media (CD/DVDs and floppies) can be changed while the
926	guest is running. Since the "Settings" dialog is not available at that
927	time, you can also access these settings from the "Devices" menu of your
928	virtual machine window.</para>
929	</sect1>
930
931	<sect1 id="settings-audio">
932	<title>Audio settings</title>
933
934	<para>The "Audio" section in a virtual machine's Settings window
935	determines whether the VM will see a sound card connected, and whether the
936	audio output should be heard on the host system.</para>
937
938	<para>If audio is enabled for a guest, you can choose between the
939	emulation of an Intel AC'97 controller, an Intel HD Audio
940	controller<footnote>
941	<para>Intel HD Audio support was added with VirtualBox 4.0 because
942	Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit versions) as well as 64-bit Windows Vista
943	do not support the Intel AC'97 controller.</para>
944	</footnote> or a SoundBlaster 16 card. In any case, you can select what
945	audio driver VirtualBox will use on the host.</para>
946
947	<para>On a Linux host, depending on your host configuration, you can also
948	select between the OSS, ALSA or the PulseAudio subsystem. On newer Linux
949	distributions (Fedora 8 and above, Ubuntu 8.04 and above) the PulseAudio
950	subsystem should be preferred.</para>
951	</sect1>
952
953	<sect1 id="settings-network">
954	<title>Network settings</title>
955
956	<para>The "Network" section in a virtual machine's Settings window allows
957	you to configure how VirtualBox presents virtual network cards to your VM,
958	and how they operate.</para>
959
960	<para>When you first create a virtual machine, VirtualBox by default
961	enables one virtual network card and selects the "Network Address
962	Translation" (NAT) mode for it. This way the guest can connect to the
963	outside world using the host's networking and the outside world can
964	connect to services on the guest which you choose to make visible outside
965	of the virtual machine.</para>
966
967	<para>This default setup is good for probably 95% of VirtualBox users.
968	However, VirtualBox is extremely flexible in how it can virtualize
969	networking. It supports many virtual network cards per virtual machine,
970	the first four of which can be configured in detail in the Manager window.
971	Additional network cards can be configured on the command line with
972	VBoxManage. </para>
973
974	<para>Because of the vast array of options available, we have dedicated an
975	entire chapter of this manual to discussing networking configuration;
976	please see <xref linkend="networkingdetails" />.</para>
977	</sect1>
978
979	<sect1 id="serialports">
980	<title>Serial ports</title>
981
982	<para>VirtualBox fully supports virtual serial ports in a virtual machine
983	in an easy-to-use manner.<footnote>
984	<para>Serial port support was added with VirtualBox 1.5.</para>
985	</footnote></para>
986
987	<para>Ever since the original IBM PC, personal computers have been
988	equipped with one or two serial ports (also called COM ports by DOS and
989	Windows). Serial ports were commonly used with modems, and some
990	computer mice used to be connected to serial ports before USB became
991	commonplace.
992	</para>
993
994	<para>While serial ports are no longer as ubiquitous as they used to be,
995	there are still some important uses left for them. For example, serial
996	ports can be used to set up a primitive network over a null-modem cable,
997	in case Ethernet is not available. Also, serial ports are indispensable
998	for system programmers needing to do kernel debugging, since kernel
999	debugging software usually interacts with developers over a serial port.
1000	With virtual serial ports, system programmers can do kernel debugging on a
1001	virtual machine instead of needing a real computer to connect to.</para>
1002
1003	<para>If a virtual serial port is enabled, the guest operating system sees
1004	a standard 16550A compatible UART device. Both receiving and transmitting
1005	data is supported. How this virtual serial port is then connected to the
1006	host is configurable, and the details depend on your host operating system.
1007	</para>
1008
1009	<para>You can use either the graphical user interface or the command-line
1010	<computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> tool to set up virtual serial
1011	ports. For the latter, please refer to <xref
1012	linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm" />; in that section, look for the
1013	<computeroutput>--uart</computeroutput> and
1014	<computeroutput>--uartmode</computeroutput> options.</para>
1015
1016	<para>In either case, you can configure up to two virtual serial ports per
1017	virtual machine. For each such device, you will need to
1018	determine<orderedlist>
1019	<listitem>
1020	<para>what kind of serial port the virtual machine should see by
1021	selecting an I/O base address and interrupt (IRQ). For these, we
1022	recommend to use the traditional values<footnote>
1023	<para>See, for example, <ulink
1024	url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COM_(hardware_interface)">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COM_(hardware_interface)</ulink>.</para>
1025	</footnote>, which are:</para>
1026
1027	<para><orderedlist>
1028	<listitem>
1029	<para>COM1: I/O base 0x3F8, IRQ 4</para>
1030	</listitem>
1031
1032	<listitem>
1033	<para>COM2: I/O base 0x2F8, IRQ 3</para>
1034	</listitem>
1035
1036	<listitem>
1037	<para>COM3: I/O base 0x3E8, IRQ 4</para>
1038	</listitem>
1039
1040	<listitem>
1041	<para>COM4: I/O base 0x2E8, IRQ 3</para>
1042	</listitem>
1043	</orderedlist></para>
1044	</listitem>
1045
1046	<listitem>
1047	<para>Then, you will need to determine what this virtual port should
1048	be connected to. For each virtual serial port, you have the
1049	following options:</para>
1050
1051	<para><itemizedlist>
1052	<listitem>
1053	<para>You can elect to have the virtual serial port
1054	"disconnected", which means that the guest will see the
1055	device, but it will behave as if no cable had been connected
1056	to it.</para>
1057	</listitem>
1058
1059	<listitem>
1060	<para>You can connect the virtual serial port to a physical
1061	serial port on your host. (On a Windows host, this will be a
1062	name like <computeroutput>COM1</computeroutput>; on Linux or
1063	Solaris hosts, it will be a device node like
1064	<computeroutput>/dev/ttyS0</computeroutput>). VirtualBox will
1065	then simply redirect all data received from and sent to the
1066	virtual serial port to the physical device.</para>
1067	</listitem>
1068
1069	<listitem>
1070	<para>You can tell VirtualBox to connect the virtual serial
1071	port to a software pipe on the host. This depends on your host
1072	operating system:<itemizedlist>
1073	<listitem>
1074	<para>On a Windows host, data will be sent and received
1075	through a named pipe. The pipe name must be in the format
1076	<computeroutput>\\.\pipe\<name></computeroutput>
1077	where <computeroutput><name></computeroutput> should
1078	identify the virtual machine but may be freely
1079	chosen.</para>
1080	<para>For forwarding serial traffic, you can use a helper
1081	program called VMware Serial Line Gateway, available for
1082	download at
1083	<literal> <ulink
1084	url="http://www.l4ka.org/91.php">http://www.l4ka.org/91.php</ulink>
1085	</literal>. This tool provides a fixed server mode named
1086	pipe at
1087	<computeroutput>\\.\pipe\vmwaredebug</computeroutput>
1088	and connects incoming TCP connections on port 567 with
1089	the named pipe.</para>
1090	</listitem>
1091
1092	<listitem>
1093	<para>On a Mac, Linux or Solaris host, a local
1094	domain socket is used instead. The socket filename must be
1095	chosen such that the user running VirtualBox has
1096	sufficient privileges to create and write to it. The
1097	<computeroutput>/tmp</computeroutput> directory is often a
1098	good candidate.</para>
1099	<para>On Linux there are various tools which can connect
1100	to a local domain socket or create one in server mode. The
1101	most flexible tool is
1102	<computeroutput>socat</computeroutput> and is available
1103	as part of many distributions.</para>
1104	</listitem>
1105	</itemizedlist></para>
1106
1107	<para>In this case, you can configure whether VirtualBox
1108	should create the named pipe (or, on non-Windows hosts, the
1109	local domain socket) itself or whether VirtualBox should
1110	assume that the pipe (or socket) exists already. With the
1111	<computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> command-line
1112	options, this is referred to as "server" or "client" mode,
1113	respectively.</para>
1114
1115	<para>For a direct connection between two virtual machines
1116	(corresponding to a null-modem cable), simply configure one VM
1117	to create a pipe/socket and another to attach to it.
1118	</para>
1119	</listitem>
1120
1121	<listitem>
1122	<para>You can send the virtual serial port output to a file.
1123	This option is very useful for capturing diagnostic output from
1124	a guest. Any file may be used for this purpose, as long as the
1125	user running VirtualBox has sufficient privileges to create and
1126	write to the file.
1127	</para>
1128	</listitem>
1129	</itemizedlist></para>
1130	</listitem>
1131	</orderedlist>Up to two serial ports can be configured per virtual
1132	machine, but you can pick any port numbers out of the above. However,
1133	serial ports cannot reliably share interrupts; if both ports are to be
1134	used at the same time, they must use different interrupt levels, for
1135	example COM1 and COM2, but not COM1 and COM3.
1136	</para>
1137	</sect1>
1138
1139	<sect1>
1140	<title>USB support</title>
1141
1142	<sect2 id="settings-usb">
1143	<title>USB settings</title>
1144
1145	<para>The "USB" section in a virtual machine's Settings window allows
1146	you to configure VirtualBox's sophisticated USB support.</para>
1147
1148	<para>VirtualBox can allow virtual machines to access the USB devices on
1149	your host directly. To achieve this, VirtualBox presents the guest
1150	operating system with a virtual USB controller. As soon as the guest
1151	system starts using a USB device, it will appear as unavailable on the
1152	host.<note>
1153	<orderedlist>
1154	<listitem>
1155	<para>Be careful with USB devices that are currently in use on
1156	the host! For example, if you allow your guest to connect to
1157	your USB hard disk that is currently mounted on the host, when
1158	the guest is activated, it will be disconnected from the host
1159	without a proper shutdown. This may cause data loss.</para>
1160	</listitem>
1161
1162	<listitem>
1163	<para>Solaris hosts have a few known limitations regarding USB
1164	support; please see <xref linkend="KnownIssues" />.</para>
1165	</listitem>
1166	</orderedlist>
1167	</note></para>
1168
1169	<para>In addition to allowing a guest access to your local USB devices,
1170	VirtualBox even allows your guests to connect to remote USB devices by
1171	use of the VirtualBox Remote Desktop Extension (VRDE). For details about
1172	this, see <xref linkend="usb-over-rdp" />.</para>
1173
1174	<para>In the Settings dialog, you can first configure whether USB is
1175	available in the guest at all, and in addition also optionally enable
1176	the USB 2.0 (EHCI) controller for the guest. If so, you can determine in
1177	detail which devices are available. For this, you must create so-called
1178	"filters" by specifying certain properties of the USB device.<note>
1179	<para>The EHCI controller is shipped as a VirtualBox extension
1180	package, which must be installed separately. See <xref
1181	linkend="intro-installing" /> for more information.</para>
1182	</note></para>
1183
1184	<para>Clicking on the "+" button to the right of the "USB Device
1185	Filters" window creates a <emphasis role="bold">new filter.</emphasis>
1186	You can give the filter a name (for referencing it later) and specify
1187	the filter criteria. The more criteria you specify, the more precisely
1188	devices will be selected. For instance, if you specify only a vendor ID
1189	of 046d, all devices produced by Logitech will be available to the
1190	guest. If you fill in all fields, on the other hand, the filter will
1191	only apply to a particular device model from a particular vendor, and
1192	not even to other devices of the same type with a different revision and
1193	serial number.</para>
1194
1195	<para>In detail, the following criteria are available:</para>
1196
1197	<orderedlist>
1198	<listitem>
1199	<para><emphasis role="bold">Vendor and product ID.</emphasis> With
1200	USB, each vendor of USB products carries an identification number
1201	that is unique world-wide, the "vendor ID". Similarly, each line of
1202	products is assigned a "product ID" number. Both numbers are
1203	commonly written in hexadecimal (that is, they are composed of the
1204	numbers 0-9 and the letters A-F), and a colon separates the vendor
1205	from the product ID. For example,
1206	<computeroutput>046d:c016</computeroutput> stands for Logitech as a
1207	vendor, and the "M-UV69a Optical Wheel Mouse" product.</para>
1208
1209	<para>Alternatively, you can also specify <emphasis
1210	role="bold">"Manufacturer"</emphasis> and <emphasis
1211	role="bold">"Product"</emphasis> by name.</para>
1212
1213	<para>To list all the USB devices that are connected to your host
1214	machine with their respective vendor and product IDs, you can use
1215	the following command (see <xref linkend="vboxmanage" />): <screen>VBoxManage list usbhost</screen></para>
1216
1217	<para>On Windows, you can also see all USB devices that are attached
1218	to your system in the Device Manager. On Linux, you can use the
1219	<computeroutput>lsusb</computeroutput> command.</para>
1220	</listitem>
1221
1222	<listitem>
1223	<para><emphasis role="bold">Serial number.</emphasis> While vendor
1224	and product ID are already quite specific to identify USB devices,
1225	if you have two identical devices of the same brand and product
1226	line, you will also need their serial numbers to filter them out
1227	correctly.</para>
1228	</listitem>
1229
1230	<listitem>
1231	<para><emphasis role="bold">Remote.</emphasis> This setting
1232	specifies whether the device will be local only, or remote only
1233	(over VRDP), or either.</para>
1234	</listitem>
1235	</orderedlist>
1236
1237	<para>On a Windows host, you will need to unplug and reconnect a USB
1238	device to use it after creating a filter for it.</para>
1239
1240	<para>As an example, you could create a new USB filter and specify a
1241	vendor ID of 046d (Logitech, Inc), a manufacturer index of 1, and "not
1242	remote". Then any USB devices on the host system produced by Logitech,
1243	Inc with a manufacturer index of 1 will be visible to the guest
1244	system.</para>
1245
1246	<para>Several filters can select a single device -- for example, a
1247	filter which selects all Logitech devices, and one which selects a
1248	particular webcam.</para>
1249
1250	<para>You can <emphasis role="bold">deactivate</emphasis> filters
1251	without deleting them by clicking in the checkbox next to the filter
1252	name.</para>
1253	</sect2>
1254
1255	<sect2>
1256	<title>Implementation notes for Windows and Linux hosts</title>
1257
1258	<para>On Windows hosts, a kernel mode device driver provides USB proxy
1259	support. It implements both a USB monitor, which allows VirtualBox to
1260	capture devices when they are plugged in, and a USB device driver to
1261	claim USB devices for a particular virtual machine. As opposed to
1262	VirtualBox versions before 1.4.0, system reboots are no longer necessary
1263	after installing the driver. Also, you no longer need to replug devices
1264	for VirtualBox to claim them.</para>
1265
1266	<para>On newer Linux hosts, VirtualBox accesses USB devices through
1267	special files in the file system. When VirtualBox is installed, these
1268	are made available to all users in the
1269	<computeroutput>vboxusers</computeroutput> system group. In order to be
1270	able to access USB from guest systems, make sure that you are a member
1271	of this group.</para>
1272
1273	<para>On older Linux hosts, USB devices are accessed using the
1274	<computeroutput>usbfs</computeroutput> file system. Therefore, the user
1275	executing VirtualBox needs read and write permission to the USB file
1276	system. Most distributions provide a group (e.g.
1277	<computeroutput>usbusers</computeroutput>) which the VirtualBox user
1278	needs to be added to. Also, VirtualBox can only proxy to virtual
1279	machines USB devices which are not claimed by a Linux host USB driver.
1280	The <computeroutput>Driver=</computeroutput> entry in
1281	<computeroutput>/proc/bus/usb/devices</computeroutput> will show you
1282	which devices are currently claimed. Please refer to <xref
1283	linkend="ts_usb-linux" /> also for details about
1284	<computeroutput>usbfs</computeroutput>.</para>
1285	</sect2>
1286	</sect1>
1287
1288	<sect1>
1289	<title>Shared folders</title>
1290
1291	<para>Shared folders allow you to easily exchange data between a virtual
1292	machine and your host. This feature requires that the VirtualBox Guest
1293	Additions be installed in a virtual machine and is described in detail in
1294	<xref linkend="sharedfolders" />.</para>
1295	</sect1>
1296
1297	<sect1 id="efi">
1298	<title>Alternative firmware (EFI)</title>
1299
1300	<para>Starting with release 3.1, VirtualBox includes experimental support
1301	for the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI), which is a new industry
1302	standard intended to eventually replace the legacy BIOS as the primary
1303	interface for bootstrapping computers and certain system services
1304	later.</para>
1305
1306	<para>By default, VirtualBox uses the BIOS firmware for virtual machines.
1307	To use EFI for a given virtual machine, you can enable EFI in the
1308	machine's "Settings" dialog (see <xref linkend="settings-motherboard" />).
1309	Alternatively, use the <computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> command
1310	line interface like this: <screen>VBoxManage modifyvm "VM name" --firmware efi</screen>
1311	To switch back to using the BIOS, use: <screen>VBoxManage modifyvm "VM name" --firmware bios</screen>One
1312	notable user of EFI is Apple's Mac OS X, but recent Linuxes (such as Fedora
1313	11) and Windows (starting with Vista) offer special versions that can be
1314	booted using EFI as well.</para>
1315
1316	<para>Another possible use of EFI in VirtualBox is development and testing
1317	of EFI applications, without booting any OS.</para>
1318
1319	<para>Note that the VirtualBox EFI support is experimental and will be
1320	enhanced as EFI matures and becomes more widespread. While Mac OS X and
1321	Linux guests are known to work fine, Windows guests are currently unable
1322	to boot with the VirtualBox EFI implementation.</para>
1323
1324	<sect2 id="efividmode">
1325	<title>Video modes in EFI</title>
1326
1327	<para>EFI provides two distinct video interfaces: GOP (Graphics Output
1328	Protocol) and UGA (Universal Graphics Adapter). Mac OS X uses GOP, while
1329	Linux tends to use UGA. VirtualBox provides a configuration option to
1330	control the framebuffer size for both interfaces.</para>
1331
1332	<para>To control GOP, use the following
1333	<computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> command: <screen>VBoxManage setextradata "VM name" VBoxInternal2/EfiGopMode N</screen>
1334	Where N can be one of 0,1,2,3,4 referring to the 640x480, 800x600,
1335	1024x768, 1280x1024, 1440x900 screen resolution respectively.</para>
1336
1337	<para>To change the UGA resolution: <screen>VBoxManage setextradata "VM name" VBoxInternal2/UgaHorizontalResolution 1440
1338	VBoxManage setextradata "VM name" VBoxInternal2/UgaVerticalResolution 900</screen></para>
1339
1340	<para>The video mode for both GOP and UGA can only be changed when the
1341	VM is powered off and remains persistent until changed.</para>
1342	</sect2>
1343	</sect1>
1344	</chapter>

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