Can we run VirtualBox on the Pi?

[PairedPrototype]

Hi guys, as the title says, is it possible to run VirtualBox on the Pi? I found a thread (link below) that suggests it is possible as theres links to a dropbox file, but it seems the thread is no longer kept active and nor is the file.

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2961

Would appreciate the help! Thanks for your time guys.

[fruitoftheloom]

VirtualBox is for x86 Operating Systems, the RPi's Linux Operating Systems are for ARM:

https://packages.debian.org/wheezy/virtualbox

[PairedPrototype]

Guess theres no hope for me running a VM on my Pi then I've got the Pi 2 which is ARM sadly

[fruitoftheloom]

Guess theres no hope for me running a VM on my Pi then I've got the Pi 2 which is ARM sadly

What do you hope to achieve with running a Virtual OS on a low powered ARM Device

[kusti8]

You could try and get QEMU running, which people have done, but it's so slow that it's only use is showing off. Get a cheap Intel stick or laptop or Chrome book.

[r4049zt]

I wouldn't recommend it. Much of what goes on in virtualbox software is to link contemporary names for lots of useless extra bits in modern hardware to WinXP or other system names for useless extra bits which might or might not have been present in the older hardware and which the commercial operating systems use to "get" an id pinned on you. So for example, if Win98 won't run without some codes which identify the hardware which it is running on, virtualbox provides suitable numbers, and redmond agreed a limited range of pretend codes which could be shown to the operating system. In some cases, virtualbox allows the guest operating system to access particular circuits on the host cpu. If those are not available then it will usually (slowly) emulate them. As the raspberry pi has a lot less circuitry defined in its cpu than some legacy operating systems demanded, the guest will run horribly slowly if at all if it depends on too many non-present registers.

So, better to avoid altogether than get bogged down wondering why Windows 3.1 for 33MHz i386 with 2Mb is so slow on a modern quad-core running at 900 MHz. The i386 had a few proprietary extra registers, maths mistakes, and other oddities, which slow down the emulation of it on a "fast and flawless" chip. The commercial solution historically has been to duplicate the "legacy" hardware design and then add extra bits. As in, if someone drew in dependency upon a maths mistake in 1992, then the 2015 latest best chip still has a section with that mistake in it just in case. The raspberry pi does not, so virtualisation won't run particularly well.

[rpdom]

I wouldn't recommend it. Much of what goes on in virtualbox software is to link contemporary names for lots of useless extra bits in modern hardware to WinXP or other system names for useless extra bits which might or might not have been present in the older hardware and which the commercial operating systems use to "get" an id pinned on you. So for example, if Win98 won't run without some codes which identify the hardware which it is running on, virtualbox provides suitable numbers, and redmond agreed a limited range of pretend codes which could be shown to the operating system. In some cases, virtualbox allows the guest operating system to access particular circuits on the host cpu. If those are not available then it will usually (slowly) emulate them. As the raspberry pi has a lot less circuitry defined in its cpu than some legacy operating systems demanded, the guest will run horribly slowly if at all if it depends on too many non-present registers.

So, better to avoid altogether than get bogged down wondering why Windows 3.1 for 33MHz i386 with 2Mb is so slow on a modern quad-core running at 900 MHz. The i386 had a few proprietary extra registers, maths mistakes, and other oddities, which slow down the emulation of it on a "fast and flawless" chip. The commercial solution historically has been to duplicate the "legacy" hardware design and then add extra bits. As in, if someone drew in dependency upon a maths mistake in 1992, then the 2015 latest best chip still has a section with that mistake in it just in case. The raspberry pi does not, so virtualisation won't run particularly well.

Interesting point of view... might even have been correct - if the Pi used a similar CPU to Windows systems.

As it is, the Pi uses an ARM CPU, not an x86 CPU and it uses a completely different set of instructions and "circuitry" so any instructions, registers and hardware would need to be emulated, thus making it very slow.

[r4049zt]

Yeah, that's my point. The ARM left out some of the mistakes prevalent in other commercial cpu designs, so there isn't a funnycircuit for virtualbox to present to the host os. Fast&flawless was the goal of the risc design, and "too slow to use if emulated by something fast&flawless" was the (alleged) goal of some of the commercial designs.

[PairedPrototype]

Well thanks for you help guys I'll either like someone suggested, source another device or I'll find a work around for my needs
Just wanted to host a small really low traffic website (of course, Linux is my chosen solution for this) and I want to run mIRC too, but theres no Linux support and thinking about nor ARM support i would have thought.

So I may try and find another IRC client that supports scripts and ARM. Best bet would be a Java app I guess.

Thanks for the info guys

[fruitoftheloom]

Well thanks for you help guys I'll either like someone suggested, source another device or I'll find a work around for my needs
Just wanted to host a small really low traffic website (of course, Linux is my chosen solution for this) and I want to run mIRC too, but theres no Linux support and thinking about nor ARM support i would have thought.

So I may try and find another IRC client that supports scripts and ARM. Best bet would be a Java app I guess.

Thanks for the info guys

konversation version 1.4 Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client should be in Raspbian Repositories

https://konversation.kde.org/?about


Yes many users run their Website from a Raspberry Pi