Blog of Finster » virtualisation

VirtualBox piix4_smbus Error

finster — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 20:00:23 +0000

VirtualBox 3.2.10 gives me the following error message when booting Ubuntu 10.10: -

piix4_smbus 0000.00.07.0: SMBus base address uninitialized - upgrade bios or use force_addr=0xaddr

This error is caused by VM having no smbus but Ubuntu always trying to load the module. It doesn’t affect anything but is a bit annoying – to fix: -

1. Check module is being loaded: -

lsmod | grep i2c_piix4

2. If so, blacklist it in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf, by adding the following to the end of the file :-

blacklist i2c_piix4

3. Update the initramfs

update-initramfs -u -k all

Starting a VM from the Command Line

finster — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:20:00 +0000

Starting a VM from the Command Line (or via a shortcut on the desktop) is easy – just use the command: -

VBoxManage startvm name_of_virtual_machine

for example : -

VBoxManage startvm “Windows XP”

USB in VirtualBox

finster — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 09:36:00 +0000

Here are the steps required to get USB working on a Linux host (tested with VirtualBox 2.1.4)

1. Create a group usbusers and put yourself in it.

sudo addgroup usbusers
usermod -a -G usbusers andy

2. Note down the vendor and id numbers for the USB devices that you want to enable after running the following command: -

VBoxManage list usbhost

3. In VirtuaBox’s USB section add both of these devices, making sure you have the vendor and id numbers correct.

4. Add the following lines in /etc/fstab (you can get the ID of the usbusers group by looking in /etc/group) : -

# usbusers is the USB group (id 1001)
none /proc/bus/usb usbfs devgid=1001,devmode=664 0 0

5. A reboot is required.

Ubuntu 8.10 Under VirtualBox

finster — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 22:29:00 +0000

Ubuntu 8.10 works great under Sun’s Virtual Box. To get everything working perfectly, you need to install “Guest Additions”. This is done by selecting “Install Guest Additions” from the VirtualBox Menu, and then entering the following into a terminal: -

sudo /media/cdrom/VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run

This installs better mouse & video drivers and enables things like automatic resolution changing, and better mouse control.

For some reason, my xorg.conf file wasn’t updated properly though – the following lines should be present in /etc/X11/xorg.conf : -

Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “Configured Mouse”
Driver “vboxmouse”
Option “CorePointer”
EndSection

Section “Device”
Identifier “Configured Video Device”
Driver “vboxvideo”
EndSection