Subj : virtual box install on win7
To   : Ogg
From : Fzf
Date : Wed Jan 01 2025 02:27 pm

  Re: virtual box install on win7
  By: Ogg to Fzf on Mon Dec 30 2024 09:29 am

 Og> Thanks for the heads up on 6.0.24. But where is the last 
 Og> official Win7 supported version for it documented?

Look at the "Supported Host Operating Systems" section of both the 6.0 and 6.1 manuals.  You'll not see Windows 7 past the 6.0 series.

 Og> I don't think my pc is that old/bad.
 Og> T540p, Intel Core i5 4300M, 2 Cores, 2.6GHz

You'll be fine using 6.0.24 and most modern Linux distributions.  Your more significant limit is going to be RAM.  So many distributions come with every single thing imaginable already installed and configured so even 4GB might be a little constraining.

Also, just a warning, go ahead and assign both CPU cores to any Linux or Windows 10 virtual machines you create.  VirtualBox won't do this automatically and a single core creates many headaches (100% CPU utilization for no reason).

 Og> BTW.. my CPU analysis reports:
 Og> Virtualization: Supported, Disabled.
 Og> Does this have to be enabled before I can expect VirtualBox to
 Og> work? There doesn't seem to be any docs on that matter either.

VirtualBox will actually work without the CPU virtualization features enabled.  But it will do so slowly.  With those features enabled, virtual machines will normally run at close to the speed they would natively.

The minimum required CPU features are listed in the first section of the manuals and are quite modest.  The uses of the virtualization features are scattered throughout the manual in the virtual machine installation sections.  Just enable the feature(s) in your BIOS configuration and let VirtualBox take care of the relevant configurations during the automatic settings of virtual machine creation.

 Og> Noted. Not planning to have the latest/greatest linux on my 
 Og> machine. I just want basic access to some linux tools.

This is both easy and so difficult to do.  Linux distributions are going to 'see' a virtualized VMWARE environment which VirtualBox will mostly be providing.  But some **REALLY** odd configuration issues (both in VirtualBox and Linux) are going to come up when you are trying to fine tune things as a result of this.  For just getting X and ylp going, and not doing anything out of the ordinary, you shouldn't encounter any issues.
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