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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 id="guestossupport">
22	<title>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>Linux 3.x</glossterm>
88
89	<glossdef>
90	<para>All versions/editions are fully supported (32 bits and 64
91	bits). Guest Additions are available.</para>
92	</glossdef>
93	</glossentry>
94
95	<glossentry>
96	<glossterm>Solaris 10 (u6 and higher), Solaris 11 (including Solaris
97	11 Express)</glossterm>
98
99	<glossdef>
100	<para>Fully supported (64 bits, prior to Solaris 11 11/11 also 32 bits).
101	Guest Additions are available.</para>
102	</glossdef>
103	</glossentry>
104
105	<glossentry>
106	<glossterm>FreeBSD</glossterm>
107
108	<glossdef>
109	<para>Requires hardware virtualization to be enabled. Limited
110	support. Guest Additions are not available yet.</para>
111	</glossdef>
112	</glossentry>
113
114	<glossentry>
115	<glossterm>OpenBSD</glossterm>
116
117	<glossdef>
118	<para>Requires hardware virtualization to be enabled. Versions 3.7
119	and later are supported. Guest Additions are not available
120	yet.</para>
121	</glossdef>
122	</glossentry>
123
124	<glossentry>
125	<glossterm>OS/2 Warp 4.5</glossterm>
126
127	<glossdef>
128	<para>Requires hardware virtualization to be enabled. We
129	officially support MCP2 only; other OS/2 versions may or may not
130	work. Guest Additions are available with a limited feature
131	set.<footnote>
132	<para>See <xref linkend="KnownIssues" />.</para>
133	</footnote></para>
134	</glossdef>
135	</glossentry>
136
137	<glossentry>
138	<glossterm>Mac OS X</glossterm>
139
140	<glossdef>
141	<para>VirtualBox 3.2 added experimental support for Mac OS X
142	guests, but this comes with restrictions. Please see the following
143	section as well as <xref linkend="KnownIssues" />.</para>
144	</glossdef>
145	</glossentry>
146	</glosslist></para>
147
148	<sect2 id="intro-macosxguests">
149	<title>Mac OS X guests</title>
150
151	<para>Starting with version 3.2, VirtualBox has experimental support for
152	Mac OS X guests. This allows you to install and execute unmodified
153	versions of Mac OS X on supported host hardware.</para>
154
155	<para>Whereas competing solutions perform modifications to the Mac OS X
156	install DVDs (e.g. different boot loader and replaced files), VirtualBox
157	is the first product to provide the modern PC architecture expected by
158	OS X without requiring any "hacks".</para>
159
160	<para>You should be aware of a number of <emphasis role="bold">important
161	issues</emphasis> before attempting to install a Mac OS X guest:<orderedlist>
162	<listitem>
163	<para>Mac OS X is commercial, licensed software and contains
164	<emphasis role="bold">both license and technical restrictions</emphasis>
165	that limit its use to certain hardware and usage scenarios. It is
166	important that you understand and obey these restrictions.</para>
167
168	<para>In particular, for most versions of Mac OS X, Apple prohibits
169	installing them on non-Apple hardware.</para>
170
171	<para>These license restrictions are also enforced on a technical
172	level. Mac OS X verifies whether it is running on Apple hardware,
173	and most DVDs that that come with Apple hardware even check for an
174	exact model. These restrictions are <emphasis>not</emphasis>
175	circumvented by VirtualBox and continue to apply.</para>
176	</listitem>
177
178	<listitem>
179	<para>Only <emphasis role="bold">CPUs</emphasis> known and tested
180	by Apple are supported. As a result, if your Intel CPU is newer
181	than the build of Mac OS X, or if you have a non-Intel CPU, it will
182	most likely panic during bootup with an "Unsupported CPU"
183	exception. It is generally best to use the Mac OS X DVD that came
184	with your Apple hardware.</para>
185	</listitem>
186
187	<listitem>
188	<para>The Mac OS X installer expects the harddisk to be
189	<emphasis role="bold">partitioned</emphasis> so when it does not
190	offer a selection, you have to launch the Disk Utility from the
191	"Tools" menu and partition the hard disk. Then close the Disk
192	Utility and proceed with the installation.</para>
193	</listitem>
194
195	<listitem>
196	<para>In addition, as Mac OS X support in VirtualBox is currently
197	still experimental, please refer also to <xref linkend="KnownIssues" />.</para>
198	</listitem>
199	</orderedlist></para>
200	</sect2>
201
202	<sect2 id="intro-64bitguests">
203	<title>64-bit guests</title>
204
205	<para>VirtualBox supports 64-bit guest operating systems, even on 32-bit
206	host operating systems,<footnote>
207	<para>64-bit guest support was added with VirtualBox 2.0; support
208	for 64-bit guests on 32-bit hosts was added with VirtualBox
209	2.1.</para>
210	</footnote> provided that the following conditions are
211	met:<orderedlist>
212	<listitem>
213	<para>You need a 64-bit processor with hardware virtualization
214	support (see <xref linkend="hwvirt" />).</para>
215	</listitem>
216
217	<listitem>
218	<para>You must enable hardware virtualization for the particular
219	VM for which you want 64-bit support; software virtualization is
220	not supported for 64-bit VMs.</para>
221	</listitem>
222
223	<listitem>
224	<para>If you want to use 64-bit guest support on a 32-bit host
225	operating system, you must also select a 64-bit operating system
226	for the particular VM. Since supporting 64 bits on 32-bit hosts
227	incurs additional overhead, VirtualBox only enables this support
228	upon explicit request.</para>
229
230	<para>On 64-bit hosts (which typically come with hardware
231	virtualization support), 64-bit guest operating systems are always
232	supported regardless of settings, so you can simply install a
233	64-bit operating system in the guest.</para>
234	</listitem>
235	</orderedlist></para>
236
237	<para><warning>
238	<para>On any host, you should enable the <emphasis role="bold">I/O
239	APIC</emphasis> for virtual machines that you intend to use in
240	64-bit mode. This is especially true for 64-bit Windows VMs. See
241	<xref linkend="settings-general-advanced" />. In addition, for
242	64-bit Windows guests, you should make sure that the VM uses the
243	<emphasis role="bold">Intel networking device</emphasis>, since
244	there is no 64-bit driver support for the AMD PCNet card; see <xref
245	linkend="nichardware" />.</para>
246	</warning></para>
247
248	<para>If you use the "Create VM" wizard of the VirtualBox graphical user
249	interface (see <xref linkend="gui-createvm" />), VirtualBox will
250	automatically use the correct settings for each selected 64-bit
251	operating system type.</para>
252	</sect2>
253	</sect1>
254
255	<sect1>
256	<title>Emulated hardware</title>
257
258	<para>VirtualBox virtualizes nearly all hardware of the host. Depending on
259	a VM's configuration, the guest will see the following virtual
260	hardware:<itemizedlist>
261	<listitem>
262	<para><emphasis role="bold">Input devices.</emphasis> By default,
263	VirtualBox emulates a standard PS/2 keyboard and mouse. These
264	devices are supported by almost all past and present operating
265	systems.</para>
266
267	<para>In addition, VirtualBox can provide virtual USB input devices
268	to avoid having to capture mouse and keyboard, as described in <xref
269	linkend="keyb_mouse_normal" />.</para>
270	</listitem>
271
272	<listitem>
273	<para><emphasis role="bold">Graphics.</emphasis> The VirtualBox
274	graphics device (sometimes referred to as VGA device) is, unlike
275	nearly all other emulated devices, not based on any physical
276	counterpart. It is a simple, synthetic device which provides
277	compatibility with standard VGA and several extended registers used
278	by the VESA BIOS Extensions (VBE).</para>
279	</listitem>
280
281	<listitem>
282	<para><emphasis role="bold">Storage.</emphasis> VirtualBox currently
283	emulates the standard ATA interface found on Intel PIIX3/PIIX4
284	chips, the SATA (AHCI) interface, and two SCSI adapters (LSI Logic
285	and BusLogic); see <xref linkend="harddiskcontrollers" /> for
286	details. Whereas providing one of these would be enough for
287	VirtualBox by itself, this multitude of storage adapters is required
288	for compatibility with other hypervisors. Windows is particularly
289	picky about its boot devices, and migrating VMs between hypervisors
290	is very difficult or impossible if the storage controllers are
291	different.</para>
292	</listitem>
293
294	<listitem>
295	<para><emphasis role="bold">Networking.</emphasis> See <xref
296	linkend="nichardware" />.</para>
297	</listitem>
298
299	<listitem>
300	<para><emphasis role="bold">USB.</emphasis> VirtualBox emulates three
301	USB host controllers: xHCI, EHCI, and OHCI. While xHCI handles all USB
302	transfer speeds, only guest operating systems released approximately
303	after 2011 support xHCI. Note that for Windows 7 guests, 3rd party
304	drivers must be installed for xHCI support.</para>
305	<para>
306	Older operating systems typically support OHCI and EHCI. The two
307	controllers are needed because OHCI only handles USB low- and full-speed
308	devices (both USB 1.x and 2.0), while EHCI only handles high-speed
309	devices (USB 2.0 only).</para>
310	<para>
311	The emulated USB controllers do not
312	communicate directly with devices on the host but rather with a
313	virtual USB layer which abstracts the USB protocol and allows the
314	use of remote USB devices.</para>
315	</listitem>
316
317	<listitem>
318	<para><emphasis role="bold">Audio.</emphasis> See <xref
319	linkend="settings-audio" />.</para>
320	</listitem>
321	</itemizedlist></para>
322	</sect1>
323
324	<sect1 id="generalsettings">
325	<title>General settings</title>
326
327	<para>In the Settings window, under "General", you can configure the most
328	fundamental aspects of the virtual machine such as memory and essential
329	hardware. There are three tabs, "Basic", "Advanced" and
330	"Description".</para>
331
332	<sect2>
333	<title>"Basic" tab</title>
334
335	<para>Under the "Basic" tab of the "General" settings category, you can
336	find these settings:</para>
337
338	<glosslist>
339	<glossentry>
340	<glossterm>Name</glossterm>
341
342	<glossdef>
343	<para>The name under which the VM is shown in the list of VMs in
344	the main window. Under this name, VirtualBox also saves the VM's
345	configuration files. By changing the name, VirtualBox renames
346	these files as well. As a result, you can only use characters
347	which are allowed in your host operating system's file
348	names.</para>
349
350	<para>Note that internally, VirtualBox uses unique identifiers
351	(UUIDs) to identify virtual machines. You can display these with
352	<computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput>.</para>
353	</glossdef>
354	</glossentry>
355
356	<glossentry>
357	<glossterm>Operating system / version</glossterm>
358
359	<glossdef>
360	<para>The type of the guest operating system that is (or will be)
361	installed in the VM. This is the same setting that was specified
362	in the "New Virtual Machine" wizard, as described in <xref
363	linkend="gui-createvm" />.</para>
364
365	<para>Whereas the default settings of a newly created VM depend on
366	the selected operating system type, changing the type later has no
367	effect on VM settings; this value is then purely informational and
368	decorative.</para>
369	</glossdef>
370	</glossentry>
371	</glosslist>
372	</sect2>
373
374	<sect2 id="settings-general-advanced">
375	<title>"Advanced" tab</title>
376
377	<para><glosslist>
378	<glossentry>
379	<glossterm>Snapshot Folder</glossterm>
380
381	<glossdef>
382	<para>By default, VirtualBox saves snapshot data together with
383	your other VirtualBox configuration data; see <xref
384	linkend="vboxconfigdata" />. With this setting, you can specify
385	any other folder for each VM.</para>
386	</glossdef>
387	</glossentry>
388
389	<glossentry>
390	<glossterm>Shared Clipboard</glossterm>
391
392	<glossdef>
393	<para>You can select here whether the clipboard of the guest
394	operating system should be shared with that of your host. If you
395	select "Bidirectional", then VirtualBox will always make sure
396	that both clipboards contain the same data. If you select "Host
397	to guest" or "Guest to host", then VirtualBox will only ever
398	copy clipboard data in one direction.</para>
399
400	<para>Clipboard sharing requires that the VirtualBox Guest
401	Additions be installed. As a result, this setting has no effect
402	otherwise; see <xref linkend="guestadditions" /> for
403	details.</para>
404
405	<para>The shared clipboard is disabled by default. See
406	<xref linkend="security_clipboard"/> for an explanation. This
407	setting can be changed at any time using the "Shared Clipboard"
408	menu item in the "Devices" menu of the virtual machine.</para>
409	</glossdef>
410	</glossentry>
411
412	<glossentry>
413	<glossterm>Drag'n'Drop</glossterm>
414	<glossdef>
415	<para>This setting allows to enable support for drag'n drop: Select
416	an object (e.g. a file) from the host or guest and directly copy
417	or open it on the guest or host. Multiple per-VM drag'n drop modes
418	allow restricting access in either direction.</para>
419
420	<para>For drag'n drop to work the Guest Additions need to be
421	installed on the guest.</para>
422
423	<note>Drag'n drop is disabled by default. This setting can be
424	changed at any time using the "Drag'n'Drop" menu item in the
425	"Devices" menu of the virtual machine.</note>
426
427	<para>See <xref linkend="guestadd-dnd"/> for more information.</para>
428
429	<footnote><para>Experimental support for drag and drop was added
430	with VirtualBox 4.2.</para></footnote>
431	</glossdef>
432	</glossentry>
433
434	<glossentry>
435	<glossterm>Removable Media</glossterm>
436	<glossdef>
437	<para>If this is checked, VirtualBox will save the state of what
438	media has been mounted between several runs of a virtual machine.</para>
439	</glossdef>
440	</glossentry>
441
442	<glossentry>
443	<glossterm>Mini ToolBar</glossterm>
444	<glossdef>
445	<para>In full screen or seamless mode, VirtualBox can display a
446	small toolbar that contains some of the items that are normally
447	available from the virtual machine's menu bar. This toolbar
448	reduces itself to a small gray line unless you move the mouse
449	over it. With the toolbar, you can return from full screen or
450	seamless mode, control machine execution or enable certain
451	devices. If you don't want to see the toolbar, disable this
452	setting.</para>
453	<para>The second setting allows to show the toolbar at the top
454	of the screen instead of showing it at the bottom.</para>
455	</glossdef>
456	</glossentry>
457	</glosslist></para>
458	</sect2>
459
460	<sect2>
461	<title>"Description" tab</title>
462
463	<para>Here you can enter any description for your virtual machine, if
464	you want. This has no effect on the functionality of the machine, but
465	you may find this space useful to note down things like the
466	configuration of a virtual machine and the software that has been
467	installed into it.</para>
468	<para>To insert a line break into the description text field, press
469	<emphasis>Shift+Enter</emphasis>.</para>
470	</sect2>
471	</sect1>
472
473	<sect1 id="settings-system">
474	<title>System settings</title>
475
476	<para>The "System" category groups various settings that are related to
477	the basic hardware that is presented to the virtual machine.<note>
478	<para>As the activation mechanism of Microsoft Windows is sensitive to
479	hardware changes, if you are changing hardware settings for a Windows
480	guest, some of these changes may trigger a request for another
481	activation with Microsoft.</para>
482	</note></para>
483
484	<sect2 id="settings-motherboard">
485	<title>"Motherboard" tab</title>
486
487	<para>On the "Motherboard" tab, you can influence virtual hardware that
488	would normally be on the motherboard of a real computer.<glosslist>
489	<glossentry>
490	<glossterm>Base memory</glossterm>
491
492	<glossdef>
493	<para>This sets the amount of RAM that is allocated and given to
494	the VM when it is running. The specified amount of memory will
495	be requested from the host operating system, so it must be
496	available or made available as free memory on the host when
497	attempting to start the VM and will not be available to the host
498	while the VM is running. This is the same setting that was
499	specified in the "New Virtual Machine" wizard, as described with
500	guidelines under <xref linkend="gui-createvm" /> above.</para>
501
502	<para>Generally, it is possible to change the memory size after
503	installing the guest operating system (provided you do not
504	reduce the memory to an amount where the operating system would
505	no longer boot).</para>
506	</glossdef>
507	</glossentry>
508
509	<glossentry>
510	<glossterm>Boot order</glossterm>
511
512	<glossdef>
513	<para>This setting determines the order in which the guest
514	operating system will attempt to boot from the various virtual
515	boot devices. Analogous to a real PC's BIOS setting, VirtualBox
516	can tell a guest OS to start from the virtual floppy, the
517	virtual CD/DVD drive, the virtual hard drive (each of these as
518	defined by the other VM settings), the network, or none of
519	these.</para>
520
521	<para>If you select "Network", the VM will attempt to boot from
522	a network via the PXE mechanism. This needs to be configured in
523	detail on the command line; please see <xref
524	linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm" />.</para>
525	</glossdef>
526	</glossentry>
527
528	<glossentry>
529	<glossterm>Chipset</glossterm>
530
531	<glossdef>
532	<para>Here you can select which chipset will be presented to the
533	virtual machine. Before VirtualBox 4.0, PIIX3 was the only
534	available option here. For modern guest operating systems such
535	as Mac OS X, that old chipset is no longer well supported. As a
536	result, VirtualBox 4.0 introduced an emulation of the more
537	modern ICH9 chipset, which supports PCI express, three PCI
538	buses, PCI-to-PCI bridges and Message Signaled Interrupts
539	(MSI). This allows modern operating systems to address more PCI
540	devices and no longer requires IRQ sharing. Note that the ICH9
541	support is experimental and not recommended for guest operating
542	systems which do not require it.</para>
543	</glossdef>
544	</glossentry>
545
546	<glossentry>
547	<glossterm>Pointing Device</glossterm>
548
549	<glossdef>
550	<para>The default virtual pointing devices for older guests is the
551	traditional PS/2 mouse. If set to <emphasis>USB tablet</emphasis>,
552	VirtualBox reports to the virtual machine that a USB tablet
553	device is present and communicates mouse events to
554	the virtual machine through this device. The third setting is
555	a <emphasis>USB Multi-Touch Tablet</emphasis> which is suited
556	for recent Windows guests.</para>
557
558	<para>Using the virtual USB tablet has the advantage that
559	movements are reported in absolute coordinates (instead of as
560	relative position changes), which allows VirtualBox to translate
561	mouse events over the VM window into tablet events without
562	having to "capture" the mouse in the guest as described in <xref
563	linkend="keyb_mouse_normal" />. This makes using the VM less
564	tedious even if Guest Additions are not installed.<footnote>
565	<para>The virtual USB tablet was added with VirtualBox 3.2.
566	Depending on the guest operating system selected, this is
567	now enabled by default for new virtual machines.</para>
568	</footnote></para>
569	</glossdef>
570	</glossentry>
571	<glossentry>
572	<glossterm>Enable I/O APIC</glossterm>
573
574	<glossdef>
575	<para>Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controllers (APICs) are a
576	newer x86 hardware feature that have replaced old-style
577	Programmable Interrupt Controllers (PICs) in recent years. With
578	an I/O APIC, operating systems can use more than 16 interrupt
579	requests (IRQs) and therefore avoid IRQ sharing for improved
580	reliability.<note>
581	<para>Enabling the I/O APIC is <emphasis>required</emphasis>
582	for 64-bit guest operating systems, especially Windows
583	Vista; it is also required if you want to use more than one
584	virtual CPU in a virtual machine.</para>
585	</note></para>
586
587	<para>However, software support for I/O APICs has been
588	unreliable with some operating systems other than Windows. Also,
589	the use of an I/O APIC slightly increases the overhead of
590	virtualization and therefore slows down the guest OS a
591	little.<warning>
592	<para>All Windows operating systems starting with Windows
593	2000 install different kernels depending on whether an I/O
594	APIC is available. As with ACPI, the I/O APIC therefore
595	<emphasis>must not be turned off after
596	installation</emphasis> of a Windows guest OS. Turning it on
597	after installation will have no effect however.</para>
598	</warning></para>
599	</glossdef>
600	</glossentry>
601
602	<glossentry>
603	<glossterm>Enable EFI</glossterm>
604
605	<glossdef>
606	<para>This enables Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI), which
607	replaces the legacy BIOS and may be useful for certain
608	advanced use cases. Please refer to <xref linkend="efi" /> for
609	details.</para>
610	</glossdef>
611	</glossentry>
612
613	<glossentry>
614	<glossterm>Hardware clock in UTC time</glossterm>
615
616	<glossdef>
617	<para>If checked, VirtualBox will report the system time in UTC
618	format to the guest instead of local (host) time. This affects
619	how the virtual real-time clock (RTC) operates and may be useful
620	for Unix-like guest operating systems, which typically expect
621	the hardware clock to be set to UTC.</para>
622	</glossdef>
623	</glossentry>
624
625	</glosslist></para>
626
627	<para>In addition, you can turn off the <emphasis role="bold">Advanced
628	Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI)</emphasis> which VirtualBox
629	presents to the guest operating system by default. ACPI is the current
630	industry standard to allow operating systems to recognize hardware,
631	configure motherboards and other devices and manage power. As all modern
632	PCs contain this feature and Windows and Linux have been supporting it
633	for years, it is also enabled by default in VirtualBox. It can only be
634	turned off on the command line; see <xref
635	linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm" />.<warning>
636	<para>All Windows operating systems starting with Windows 2000
637	install different kernels depending on whether ACPI is available, so
638	ACPI <emphasis>must not be turned off</emphasis> after installation
639	of a Windows guest OS. Turning it on after installation will have no
640	effect however.</para>
641	</warning></para>
642	</sect2>
643
644	<sect2 id="settings-processor">
645	<title>"Processor" tab</title>
646
647	<para>On the "Processor" tab, you can set how many virtual <emphasis
648	role="bold">CPU cores</emphasis> the guest operating systems should see.
649	Starting with version 3.0, VirtualBox supports symmetrical
650	multiprocessing (SMP) and can present up to 32 virtual CPU cores to each
651	virtual machine.</para>
652
653	<para>You should not, however, configure virtual machines to use more
654	CPU cores than you have available physically (real cores, no hyperthreads).</para>
655
656	<para>On this tab you can also set the <emphasis role="bold">"CPU execution
657	cap"</emphasis>. This setting
658	limits the amount of time a host CPU spents to emulate a virtual CPU.
659	The default setting is 100% meaning that there is no limitation. A setting
660	of 50% implies a single virtual CPU can use up to 50% of a single host
661	CPU. Note that limiting the execution time of the virtual CPUs may induce
662	guest timing problems.</para>
663
664	<para>In addition, the <emphasis role="bold">"Enable PAE/NX"</emphasis>
665	setting determines whether the PAE and NX capabilities of the host CPU
666	will be exposed to the virtual machine. PAE stands for "Physical Address
667	Extension". Normally, if enabled and supported by the operating system,
668	then even a 32-bit x86 CPU can access more than 4 GB of RAM. This is
669	made possible by adding another 4 bits to memory addresses, so that with
670	36 bits, up to 64 GB can be addressed. Some operating systems (such as
671	Ubuntu Server) require PAE support from the CPU and cannot be run in a
672	virtual machine without it.</para>
673
674	<para>With virtual machines running modern server operating systems,
675	VirtualBox also supports CPU hot-plugging. For details about this,
676	please refer to <xref linkend="cpuhotplug" />.</para>
677	</sect2>
678
679	<sect2>
680	<title>"Acceleration" tab</title>
681
682	<para>On this page, you can determine whether and how VirtualBox should
683	use hardware virtualization extensions that your host CPU may support.
684	This is the case with most CPUs built after 2006.</para>
685
686	<para>You can select for each virtual machine individually whether
687	VirtualBox should use software or hardware virtualization.<footnote>
688	<para>Prior to VirtualBox version 2.2, software virtualization was
689	the default; starting with version 2.2, VirtualBox will enable
690	hardware virtualization by default for new virtual machines that you
691	create. (Existing virtual machines are not automatically changed for
692	compatibility reasons, and the default can of course be changed for
693	each virtual machine.)</para>
694	</footnote></para>
695
696	<para>In most cases, the default settings will be fine; VirtualBox will
697	have picked sensible defaults depending on the operating system that you
698	selected when you created the virtual machine. In certain situations,
699	however, you may want to change these preconfigured defaults.</para>
700
701	<para>Advanced users may be interested in technical details about
702	software vs. hardware virtualization; please see <xref
703	linkend="hwvirt" />.</para>
704
705	<para>If your host's CPU supports the <emphasis role="bold">nested
706	paging</emphasis> (AMD-V) or <emphasis role="bold">EPT</emphasis> (Intel
707	VT-x) features, then you can expect a significant performance increase
708	by enabling nested paging in addition to hardware virtualization. For
709	technical details, see <xref linkend="nestedpaging" />.</para>
710	</sect2>
711	</sect1>
712
713	<sect1 id="settings-display">
714	<title>Display settings</title>
715
716	<glosslist>
717	<glossentry>
718	<glossterm>Video memory size</glossterm>
719
720	<glossdef>
721	<para>This sets the size of the memory provided by the virtual
722	graphics card available to the guest, in MB. As with the main
723	memory, the specified amount will be allocated from the host's
724	resident memory. Based on the amount of video memory, higher
725	resolutions and color depths may be available.</para>
726	<para>The GUI will show a warning if the amount of video memory
727	is too small to be able to switch the VM into full screen mode.
728	The minimum value depends on the number of virtual monitors, the
729	screen resolution and the color depth of the host display as well
730	as of the activation of <emphasis>3D acceleration</emphasis> and
731	<emphasis>2D video acceleration</emphasis>. A rough estimate
732	is (<emphasis>color depth</emphasis> / 8) x
733	<emphasis>vertical pixels</emphasis> x
734	<emphasis>horizontal pixels</emphasis> x
735	<emphasis>number of screens</emphasis> = <emphasis>number of bytes</emphasis>.
736	Like said above, there might be extra memory required for any
737	activated display acceleration setting.</para>
738	</glossdef>
739	</glossentry>
740
741	<glossentry>
742	<glossterm>Monitor count</glossterm>
743
744	<glossdef>
745	<para>With this setting VirtualBox can provide more than one virtual
746	monitor to a virtual machine. If a guest operating system (such as
747	Windows) supports multiple attached monitors, VirtualBox can pretend
748	that multiple virtual monitors are present.<footnote>
749	<para>Multiple monitor support was added with VirtualBox
750	3.2.</para>
751	</footnote> Up to 8 such virtual monitors are supported.</para>
752
753	<para>The output of the multiple monitors will be displayed on the
754	host in multiple VM windows which are running side by side.</para>
755
756	<para>However, in full screen and seamless mode, they will use the
757	available physical monitors attached to the host. As a result, for
758	full screen and seamless modes to work with multiple monitors, you
759	will need at least as many physical monitors as you have virtual
760	monitors configured, or VirtualBox will report an error. You can
761	configure the relationship between guest and host monitors using the
762	view menu by pressing Host key + Home when you are in full screen or
763	seamless mode.</para>
764
765	<para>Please see <xref linkend="KnownIssues" /> also.</para>
766	</glossdef>
767	</glossentry>
768
769	<glossentry>
770	<glossterm>Enable 3D acceleration</glossterm>
771
772	<glossdef>
773	<para>If a virtual machine has Guest Additions installed, you can
774	select here whether the guest should support accelerated 3D
775	graphics. Please refer to <xref linkend="guestadd-3d" /> for
776	details.</para>
777	</glossdef>
778	</glossentry>
779
780	<glossentry>
781	<glossterm>Enable 2D video acceleration</glossterm>
782
783	<glossdef>
784	<para>If a virtual machine with Microsoft Windows has Guest
785	Additions installed, you can select here whether the guest should
786	support accelerated 2D video graphics. Please refer to <xref
787	linkend="guestadd-2d" /> for details.</para>
788	</glossdef>
789	</glossentry>
790
791	<glossentry>
792	<glossterm>Remote display</glossterm>
793
794	<glossdef>
795	<para>Under the "Remote display" tab, if the VirtualBox Remote
796	Display Extension (VRDE) is installed, you can enable the VRDP server
797	that is built into VirtualBox. This allows you to connect to the
798	console of the virtual machine remotely with any standard RDP viewer,
799	such as <computeroutput>mstsc.exe</computeroutput> that comes with
800	Microsoft Windows. On Linux and Solaris systems you can use the
801	standard open-source <computeroutput>rdesktop</computeroutput>
802	program. These features are described in detail in
803	<xref linkend="vrde" />.</para>
804	</glossdef>
805	</glossentry>
806
807	<glossentry>
808	<glossterm>Video Capture</glossterm>
809
810	<glossdef>
811	<para>Under the "Video Capture" tab you can enable video capturing
812	for this VM. Note that this feature can also be enabled/disabled
813	while the VM is executed.</para>
814	</glossdef>
815	</glossentry>
816	</glosslist>
817	</sect1>
818
819	<sect1 id="settings-storage">
820	<title>Storage settings</title>
821
822	<para>The "Storage" category in the VM settings allows you to connect
823	virtual hard disk, CD/DVD and floppy images and drives to your virtual
824	machine.</para>
825
826	<para>In a real PC, so-called "storage controllers" connect physical disk
827	drives to the rest of the computer. Similarly, VirtualBox presents virtual
828	storage controllers to a virtual machine. Under each controller, the
829	virtual devices (hard disks, CD/DVD or floppy drives) attached to the
830	controller are shown.<note>
831	<para>This section can only give you a quick introduction to the
832	VirtualBox storage settings. Since VirtualBox gives you an enormous
833	wealth of options in this area, we have dedicated an entire chapter of
834	this User Manual to explaining all the details: please see <xref
835	linkend="storage" />.</para>
836	</note></para>
837
838	<para>If you have used the "Create VM" wizard to create a machine, you
839	will normally see something like the following:</para>
840
841	<para><mediaobject>
842	<imageobject>
843	<imagedata align="center" fileref="images/vm-settings-harddisk.png"
844	width="10cm" />
845	</imageobject>
846	</mediaobject></para>
847
848	<para>Depending on the guest operating system type that you selected when
849	you created the VM, the typical layout of storage devices in a new VM is
850	as follows:<itemizedlist>
851	<listitem>
852	<para>You will see an <emphasis role="bold">IDE
853	controller,</emphasis> to which a virtual CD/DVD drive has been
854	attached (to the "secondary master" port of the IDE
855	controller).</para>
856	</listitem>
857
858	<listitem>
859	<para>You will also see a <emphasis role="bold">SATA
860	controller,</emphasis> which is a more modern type of storage
861	controller for higher hard disk data throughput, to which the
862	virtual hard disks are attached. Initially you will normally have
863	one such virtual disk, but as you can see in the above screenshot,
864	you can have more than one, each represented by a disk image file
865	(VDI files, in this case).</para>
866	</listitem>
867	</itemizedlist></para>
868
869	<para>If you created your VM with an older version of VirtualBox, the
870	default storage layout may differ. You might then only have an IDE
871	controller to which both the CD/DVD drive and the hard disks have been
872	attached. This might also apply if you selected an older operating system
873	type when you created the VM. Since older operating systems do not support
874	SATA without additional drivers, VirtualBox will make sure that no such
875	devices are present initially. Please see <xref
876	linkend="harddiskcontrollers" /> for additional information.</para>
877
878	<para>VirtualBox also provides a <emphasis role="bold">floppy
879	controller</emphasis>, which is special: you cannot add devices other than
880	floppy drives to it. Virtual floppy drives, like virtual CD/DVD drives,
881	can be connected to either a host floppy drive (if you have one) or a disk
882	image, which in this case must be in RAW format.</para>
883
884	<para>You can modify these media attachments freely. For example, if you
885	wish to copy some files from another virtual disk that you created, you
886	can connect that disk as a second hard disk, as in the above screenshot.
887	You could also add a second virtual CD/DVD drive, or change where these
888	items are attached. The following options are available:<itemizedlist>
889	<listitem>
890	<para>To <emphasis role="bold">add another virtual hard disk, or a
891	CD/DVD or floppy drive,</emphasis> select the storage controller to
892	which it should be added (IDE, SATA, SCSI, SAS, floppy controller)
893	and then click on the "add disk" button below the tree. You can then
894	either select "Add CD/DVD device" or "Add Hard Disk". (If you
895	clicked on a floppy controller, you can add a floppy drive instead.)
896	Alternatively, right-click on the storage controller and select a
897	menu item there.</para>
898
899	<para>On the right part of the window, you can then set the
900	following:<orderedlist>
901	<listitem>
902	<para>You can then select to which <emphasis
903	role="bold">device slot</emphasis> of the controller the
904	virtual disk should be connected to. IDE controllers have four
905	slots which have traditionally been called "primary master",
906	"primary slave", "secondary master" and "secondary slave". By
907	contrast, SATA and SCSI controllers offer you up to 30 slots
908	to which virtual devices can be attached.</para>
909	</listitem>
910
911	<listitem>
912	<para>You can select which <emphasis role="bold">image
913	file</emphasis> to use.<itemizedlist>
914	<listitem>
915	<para>For virtual hard disks, a button with a drop-down
916	list appears on the right, offering you to either select
917	a <emphasis role="bold">virtual hard disk
918	file</emphasis> using a standard file dialog or to
919	<emphasis role="bold">create a new hard disk</emphasis>
920	(image file), which will bring up the "Create new disk"
921	wizard, which was described in <xref
922	linkend="gui-createvm" />.</para>
923
924	<para>For details on the image file types that are
925	supported, please see <xref
926	linkend="vdidetails" />.</para>
927	</listitem>
928
929	<listitem>
930	<para>For virtual CD/DVD drives, the image files will
931	typically be in the standard ISO format instead. Most
932	commonly, you will select this option when installing an
933	operating system from an ISO file that you have obtained
934	from the Internet. For example, most Linux distributions
935	are available in this way.</para>
936
937	<para>For virtual CD/DVD drives, the following
938	additional options are available:</para>
939
940	<para><itemizedlist>
941	<listitem>
942	<para>If you select <emphasis role="bold">"Host
943	drive"</emphasis> from the list, then the physical
944	device of the host computer is connected to the VM,
945	so that the guest operating system can read from and
946	write to your physical device. This is, for
947	instance, useful if you want to install Windows from
948	a real installation CD. In this case, select your
949	host drive from the drop-down list presented.</para>
950
951	<para>If you want to write (burn) CDs or DVDs using
952	the host drive, you need to also enable the
953	<emphasis role="bold">"Passthrough"</emphasis>
954	option; see <xref linkend="storage-cds" />.</para>
955	</listitem>
956
957	<listitem>
958	<para>If you select <emphasis role="bold">"Remove
959	disk from virtual drive",</emphasis> VirtualBox will
960	present an empty CD/DVD drive to the guest into
961	which no media has been inserted.</para>
962	</listitem>
963	</itemizedlist></para>
964	</listitem>
965	</itemizedlist></para>
966	</listitem>
967	</orderedlist></para>
968	</listitem>
969
970	<listitem>
971	<para>To <emphasis role="bold">remove an attachment,</emphasis>
972	select it and click on the "remove" icon at the bottom (or
973	right-click on it and select the menu item).</para>
974	</listitem>
975	</itemizedlist></para>
976
977	<para>Removable media (CD/DVDs and floppies) can be changed while the
978	guest is running. Since the "Settings" dialog is not available at that
979	time, you can also access these settings from the "Devices" menu of your
980	virtual machine window.</para>
981	</sect1>
982
983	<sect1 id="settings-audio">
984	<title>Audio settings</title>
985
986	<para>The "Audio" section in a virtual machine's Settings window
987	determines whether the VM will see a sound card connected, and whether the
988	audio output should be heard on the host system.</para>
989
990	<para>If audio is enabled for a guest, you can choose between the
991	emulation of an Intel AC'97 controller, an Intel HD Audio
992	controller<footnote>
993	<para>Intel HD Audio support was added with VirtualBox 4.0 because
994	Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit versions) as well as 64-bit Windows Vista
995	do not support the Intel AC'97 controller.</para>
996	</footnote> or a SoundBlaster 16 card. In any case, you can select what
997	audio driver VirtualBox will use on the host.</para>
998
999	<para>On a Linux host, depending on your host configuration, you can also
1000	select between the OSS, ALSA or the PulseAudio subsystem. On newer Linux
1001	distributions (Fedora 8 and above, Ubuntu 8.04 and above), the PulseAudio
1002	subsystem should be preferred.</para>
1003	</sect1>
1004
1005	<sect1 id="settings-network">
1006	<title>Network settings</title>
1007
1008	<para>The "Network" section in a virtual machine's Settings window allows
1009	you to configure how VirtualBox presents virtual network cards to your VM,
1010	and how they operate.</para>
1011
1012	<para>When you first create a virtual machine, VirtualBox by default
1013	enables one virtual network card and selects the "Network Address
1014	Translation" (NAT) mode for it. This way the guest can connect to the
1015	outside world using the host's networking and the outside world can
1016	connect to services on the guest which you choose to make visible outside
1017	of the virtual machine.</para>
1018
1019	<para>This default setup is good for probably 95% of VirtualBox users.
1020	However, VirtualBox is extremely flexible in how it can virtualize
1021	networking. It supports many virtual network cards per virtual machine,
1022	the first four of which can be configured in detail in the Manager window.
1023	Additional network cards can be configured on the command line with
1024	VBoxManage. </para>
1025
1026	<para>Because of the vast array of options available, we have dedicated an
1027	entire chapter of this manual to discussing networking configuration;
1028	please see <xref linkend="networkingdetails" />.</para>
1029	</sect1>
1030
1031	<sect1 id="serialports">
1032	<title>Serial ports</title>
1033
1034	<para>VirtualBox fully supports virtual serial ports in a virtual machine
1035	in an easy-to-use manner.<footnote>
1036	<para>Serial port support was added with VirtualBox 1.5.</para>
1037	</footnote></para>
1038
1039	<para>Ever since the original IBM PC, personal computers have been
1040	equipped with one or two serial ports (also called COM ports by DOS and
1041	Windows). Serial ports were commonly used with modems, and some
1042	computer mice used to be connected to serial ports before USB became
1043	commonplace.
1044	</para>
1045
1046	<para>While serial ports are no longer as ubiquitous as they used to be,
1047	there are still some important uses left for them. For example, serial
1048	ports can be used to set up a primitive network over a null-modem cable,
1049	in case Ethernet is not available. Also, serial ports are indispensable
1050	for system programmers needing to do kernel debugging, since kernel
1051	debugging software usually interacts with developers over a serial port.
1052	With virtual serial ports, system programmers can do kernel debugging on a
1053	virtual machine instead of needing a real computer to connect to.</para>
1054
1055	<para>If a virtual serial port is enabled, the guest operating system sees
1056	a standard 16550A compatible UART device. Both receiving and transmitting
1057	data is supported. How this virtual serial port is then connected to the
1058	host is configurable, and the details depend on your host operating system.
1059	</para>
1060
1061	<para>You can use either the graphical user interface or the command-line
1062	<computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> tool to set up virtual serial
1063	ports. For the latter, please refer to <xref
1064	linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm" />; in that section, look for the
1065	<computeroutput>--uart</computeroutput> and
1066	<computeroutput>--uartmode</computeroutput> options.</para>
1067
1068	<para>In either case, you can configure up to two virtual serial ports per
1069	virtual machine. For each such device, you will need to
1070	determine<orderedlist>
1071	<listitem>
1072	<para>what kind of serial port the virtual machine should see by
1073	selecting an I/O base address and interrupt (IRQ). For these, we
1074	recommend to use the traditional values<footnote>
1075	<para>See, for example, <ulink
1076	url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COM_(hardware_interface)">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COM_(hardware_interface)</ulink>.</para>
1077	</footnote>, which are:</para>
1078
1079	<para><orderedlist>
1080	<listitem>
1081	<para>COM1: I/O base 0x3F8, IRQ 4</para>
1082	</listitem>
1083
1084	<listitem>
1085	<para>COM2: I/O base 0x2F8, IRQ 3</para>
1086	</listitem>
1087
1088	<listitem>
1089	<para>COM3: I/O base 0x3E8, IRQ 4</para>
1090	</listitem>
1091
1092	<listitem>
1093	<para>COM4: I/O base 0x2E8, IRQ 3</para>
1094	</listitem>
1095	</orderedlist></para>
1096	</listitem>
1097
1098	<listitem>
1099	<para>Then, you will need to determine what this virtual port should
1100	be connected to. For each virtual serial port, you have the
1101	following options:</para>
1102
1103	<para><itemizedlist>
1104	<listitem>
1105	<para>You can elect to have the virtual serial port
1106	"disconnected", which means that the guest will see the
1107	device, but it will behave as if no cable had been connected
1108	to it.</para>
1109	</listitem>
1110
1111	<listitem>
1112	<para>You can connect the virtual serial port to a physical
1113	serial port on your host. (On a Windows host, this will be a
1114	name like <computeroutput>COM1</computeroutput>; on Linux or
1115	Solaris hosts, it will be a device node like
1116	<computeroutput>/dev/ttyS0</computeroutput>). VirtualBox will
1117	then simply redirect all data received from and sent to the
1118	virtual serial port to the physical device.</para>
1119	</listitem>
1120
1121	<listitem>
1122	<para>You can tell VirtualBox to connect the virtual serial
1123	port to a software pipe on the host. This depends on your host
1124	operating system:<itemizedlist>
1125	<listitem>
1126	<para>On a Windows host, data will be sent and received
1127	through a named pipe. The pipe name must be in the format
1128	<computeroutput>\\.\pipe\<name></computeroutput>
1129	where <computeroutput><name></computeroutput> should
1130	identify the virtual machine but may be freely
1131	chosen.</para>
1132	<para>For forwarding serial traffic, you can use a helper
1133	program called VMware Serial Line Gateway, available for
1134	download at
1135	<literal> <ulink
1136	url="http://www.l4ka.org/91.php">http://www.l4ka.org/91.php</ulink>
1137	</literal>. This tool provides a fixed server mode named
1138	pipe at
1139	<computeroutput>\\.\pipe\vmwaredebug</computeroutput>
1140	and connects incoming TCP connections on port 567 with
1141	the named pipe.</para>
1142	</listitem>
1143
1144	<listitem>
1145	<para>On a Mac, Linux or Solaris host, a local
1146	domain socket is used instead. The socket filename must be
1147	chosen such that the user running VirtualBox has
1148	sufficient privileges to create and write to it. The
1149	<computeroutput>/tmp</computeroutput> directory is often a
1150	good candidate.</para>
1151	<para>On Linux there are various tools which can connect
1152	to a local domain socket or create one in server mode. The
1153	most flexible tool is
1154	<computeroutput>socat</computeroutput> and is available
1155	as part of many distributions.</para>
1156	</listitem>
1157	</itemizedlist></para>
1158
1159	<para>In this case, you can configure whether VirtualBox
1160	should create the named pipe (or, on non-Windows hosts, the
1161	local domain socket) itself or whether VirtualBox should
1162	assume that the pipe (or socket) exists already. With the
1163	<computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> command-line
1164	options, this is referred to as "server" or "client" mode,
1165	respectively.</para>
1166
1167	<para>For a direct connection between two virtual machines
1168	(corresponding to a null-modem cable), simply configure one VM
1169	to create a pipe/socket and another to attach to it.
1170	</para>
1171	</listitem>
1172
1173	<listitem>
1174	<para>You can send the virtual serial port output to a file.
1175	This option is very useful for capturing diagnostic output from
1176	a guest. Any file may be used for this purpose, as long as the
1177	user running VirtualBox has sufficient privileges to create and
1178	write to the file.
1179	</para>
1180	</listitem>
1181	</itemizedlist></para>
1182	</listitem>
1183	</orderedlist>Up to two serial ports can be configured per virtual
1184	machine, but you can pick any port numbers out of the above. However,
1185	serial ports cannot reliably share interrupts; if both ports are to be
1186	used at the same time, they must use different interrupt levels, for
1187	example COM1 and COM2, but not COM1 and COM3.
1188	</para>
1189	</sect1>
1190
1191	<sect1>
1192	<title>USB support</title>
1193
1194	<sect2 id="settings-usb">
1195	<title>USB settings</title>
1196
1197	<para>The "USB" section in a virtual machine's Settings window allows
1198	you to configure VirtualBox's sophisticated USB support.</para>
1199
1200	<para>VirtualBox can allow virtual machines to access the USB devices on
1201	your host directly. To achieve this, VirtualBox presents the guest
1202	operating system with a virtual USB controller. As soon as the guest
1203	system starts using a USB device, it will appear as unavailable on the
1204	host.<note>
1205	<orderedlist>
1206	<listitem>
1207	<para>Be careful with USB devices that are currently in use on
1208	the host! For example, if you allow your guest to connect to
1209	your USB hard disk that is currently mounted on the host, when
1210	the guest is activated, it will be disconnected from the host
1211	without a proper shutdown. This may cause data loss.</para>
1212	</listitem>
1213
1214	<listitem>
1215	<para>Solaris hosts have a few known limitations regarding USB
1216	support; please see <xref linkend="KnownIssues" />.</para>
1217	</listitem>
1218	</orderedlist>
1219	</note></para>
1220
1221	<para>In addition to allowing a guest access to your local USB devices,
1222	VirtualBox even allows your guests to connect to remote USB devices by
1223	use of the VirtualBox Remote Desktop Extension (VRDE). For details about
1224	this, see <xref linkend="usb-over-rdp" />.</para>
1225
1226	<para>In the Settings dialog, you can first configure whether USB is
1227	available in the guest at all, and then choose the level of USB support:
1228	OHCI for USB 1.1, EHCI (which will also enable OHCI) for USB 2.0,
1229	or xHCI for all USB speeds. <note>
1230	<para>The xHCI and EHCI controllers are shipped as a VirtualBox extension
1231	package, which must be installed separately. See <xref
1232	linkend="intro-installing" /> for more information.</para>
1233	</note></para>
1234
1235	<para>When USB support is enabled for a VM, you can determine in
1236	detail which devices are available. For this, you must create so-called
1237	"filters" by specifying certain properties of the USB device.</para>
1238
1239	<para>Clicking on the "+" button to the right of the "USB Device
1240	Filters" window creates a <emphasis role="bold">new filter.</emphasis>
1241	You can give the filter a name (for referencing it later) and specify
1242	the filter criteria. The more criteria you specify, the more precisely
1243	devices will be selected. For instance, if you specify only a vendor ID
1244	of 046d, all devices produced by Logitech will be available to the
1245	guest. If you fill in all fields, on the other hand, the filter will
1246	only apply to a particular device model from a particular vendor, and
1247	not even to other devices of the same type with a different revision and
1248	serial number.</para>
1249
1250	<para>In detail, the following criteria are available:</para>
1251
1252	<orderedlist>
1253	<listitem>
1254	<para><emphasis role="bold">Vendor and product ID.</emphasis> With
1255	USB, each vendor of USB products carries an identification number
1256	that is unique world-wide, the "vendor ID". Similarly, each line of
1257	products is assigned a "product ID" number. Both numbers are
1258	commonly written in hexadecimal (that is, they are composed of the
1259	numbers 0-9 and the letters A-F), and a colon separates the vendor
1260	from the product ID. For example,
1261	<computeroutput>046d:c016</computeroutput> stands for Logitech as a
1262	vendor, and the "M-UV69a Optical Wheel Mouse" product.</para>
1263
1264	<para>Alternatively, you can also specify <emphasis
1265	role="bold">"Manufacturer"</emphasis> and <emphasis
1266	role="bold">"Product"</emphasis> by name.</para>
1267
1268	<para>To list all the USB devices that are connected to your host
1269	machine with their respective vendor and product IDs, you can use
1270	the following command (see <xref linkend="vboxmanage" />): <screen>VBoxManage list usbhost</screen></para>
1271
1272	<para>On Windows, you can also see all USB devices that are attached
1273	to your system in the Device Manager. On Linux, you can use the
1274	<computeroutput>lsusb</computeroutput> command.</para>
1275	</listitem>
1276
1277	<listitem>
1278	<para><emphasis role="bold">Serial number.</emphasis> While vendor
1279	and product ID are already quite specific to identify USB devices,
1280	if you have two identical devices of the same brand and product
1281	line, you will also need their serial numbers to filter them out
1282	correctly.</para>
1283	</listitem>
1284
1285	<listitem>
1286	<para><emphasis role="bold">Remote.</emphasis> This setting
1287	specifies whether the device will be local only, or remote only
1288	(over VRDP), or either.</para>
1289	</listitem>
1290	</orderedlist>
1291
1292	<para>On a Windows host, you will need to unplug and reconnect a USB
1293	device to use it after creating a filter for it.</para>
1294
1295	<para>As an example, you could create a new USB filter and specify a
1296	vendor ID of 046d (Logitech, Inc), a manufacturer index of 1, and "not
1297	remote". Then any USB devices on the host system produced by Logitech,
1298	Inc with a manufacturer index of 1 will be visible to the guest
1299	system.</para>
1300
1301	<para>Several filters can select a single device -- for example, a
1302	filter which selects all Logitech devices, and one which selects a
1303	particular webcam.</para>
1304
1305	<para>You can <emphasis role="bold">deactivate</emphasis> filters
1306	without deleting them by clicking in the checkbox next to the filter
1307	name.</para>
1308	</sect2>
1309
1310	<sect2>
1311	<title>Implementation notes for Windows and Linux hosts</title>
1312
1313	<para>On Windows hosts, a kernel mode device driver provides USB proxy
1314	support. It implements both a USB monitor, which allows VirtualBox to
1315	capture devices when they are plugged in, and a USB device driver to
1316	claim USB devices for a particular virtual machine. As opposed to
1317	VirtualBox versions before 1.4.0, system reboots are no longer necessary
1318	after installing the driver. Also, you no longer need to replug devices
1319	for VirtualBox to claim them.</para>
1320
1321	<para>On newer Linux hosts, VirtualBox accesses USB devices through
1322	special files in the file system. When VirtualBox is installed, these
1323	are made available to all users in the
1324	<computeroutput>vboxusers</computeroutput> system group. In order to be
1325	able to access USB from guest systems, make sure that you are a member
1326	of this group.</para>
1327
1328	<para>On older Linux hosts, USB devices are accessed using the
1329	<computeroutput>usbfs</computeroutput> file system. Therefore, the user
1330	executing VirtualBox needs read and write permission to the USB file
1331	system. Most distributions provide a group (e.g.
1332	<computeroutput>usbusers</computeroutput>) which the VirtualBox user
1333	needs to be added to. Also, VirtualBox can only proxy to virtual
1334	machines USB devices which are not claimed by a Linux host USB driver.
1335	The <computeroutput>Driver=</computeroutput> entry in
1336	<computeroutput>/proc/bus/usb/devices</computeroutput> will show you
1337	which devices are currently claimed. Please refer to <xref
1338	linkend="ts_usb-linux" /> also for details about
1339	<computeroutput>usbfs</computeroutput>.</para>
1340	</sect2>
1341	</sect1>
1342
1343	<sect1>
1344	<title>Shared folders</title>
1345
1346	<para>Shared folders allow you to easily exchange data between a virtual
1347	machine and your host. This feature requires that the VirtualBox Guest
1348	Additions be installed in a virtual machine and is described in detail in
1349	<xref linkend="sharedfolders" />.</para>
1350	</sect1>
1351
1352	<sect1 id="efi">
1353	<title>Alternative firmware (EFI)</title>
1354
1355	<para>Starting with release 3.1, VirtualBox includes experimental support
1356	for the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI), which is a new industry
1357	standard intended to eventually replace the legacy BIOS as the primary
1358	interface for bootstrapping computers and certain system services
1359	later.</para>
1360
1361	<para>By default, VirtualBox uses the BIOS firmware for virtual machines.
1362	To use EFI for a given virtual machine, you can enable EFI in the
1363	machine's "Settings" dialog (see <xref linkend="settings-motherboard" />).
1364	Alternatively, use the <computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> command
1365	line interface like this: <screen>VBoxManage modifyvm "VM name" --firmware efi</screen>
1366	To switch back to using the BIOS, use: <screen>VBoxManage modifyvm "VM name" --firmware bios</screen>One
1367	notable user of EFI is Apple's Mac OS X, but recent Linuxes (such as Fedora
1368	11) and Windows (starting with Vista) offer special versions that can be
1369	booted using EFI as well.</para>
1370
1371	<para>Another possible use of EFI in VirtualBox is development and testing
1372	of EFI applications, without booting any OS.</para>
1373
1374	<para>Note that the VirtualBox EFI support is experimental and will be
1375	enhanced as EFI matures and becomes more widespread. While Mac OS X and
1376	Linux guests are known to work fine, Windows guests are currently unable
1377	to boot with the VirtualBox EFI implementation.</para>
1378
1379	<sect2 id="efividmode">
1380	<title>Video modes in EFI</title>
1381
1382	<para>EFI provides two distinct video interfaces: GOP (Graphics Output
1383	Protocol) and UGA (Universal Graphics Adapter). Mac OS X uses GOP, while
1384	Linux tends to use UGA. VirtualBox provides a configuration option to
1385	control the framebuffer size for both interfaces.</para>
1386
1387	<para>To control GOP, use the following
1388	<computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> command: <screen>VBoxManage setextradata "VM name" VBoxInternal2/EfiGopMode N</screen>
1389	Where N can be one of 0,1,2,3,4,5 referring to the 640x480, 800x600,
1390	1024x768, 1280x1024, 1440x900, 1920x1200 screen resolution respectively.</para>
1391
1392	<para>To change the UGA resolution: <screen>VBoxManage setextradata "VM name" VBoxInternal2/UgaHorizontalResolution 1440
1393	VBoxManage setextradata "VM name" VBoxInternal2/UgaVerticalResolution 900</screen></para>
1394
1395	<para>The video mode for both GOP and UGA can only be changed when the
1396	VM is powered off and remains persistent until changed.</para>
1397	</sect2>
1398
1399	<sect2 id="efibootargs">
1400	<title>Specifying boot arguments</title>
1401
1402	<para>It is currently not possible to manipulate EFI variables from within a running guest
1403	(e.g., setting the "boot-args" variable by running the <computeroutput>nvram</computeroutput> tool in a Mac OS X guest will not work).
1404	As an alternative way, "VBoxInternal2/EfiBootArgs" extradata can be passed to a VM in order to set
1405	the "boot-args" variable. To change the "boot-args" EFI variable:
1406	<screen>VBoxManage setextradata "VM name" VBoxInternal2/EfiBootArgs <value></screen>
1407	</para>
1408	</sect2>
1409
1410	</sect1>
1411	</chapter>

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