Salix64 KDE 13.37 and Windows 7. Advice needed.

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globetrotterdk
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Re: Salix64 KDE 13.37 and Windows 7. Advice needed.

Post by globetrotterdk »

I have 8GB of memory and II am unable to get more than 128MB video RAM in Virtualbox. This isn't going to work out for what I need. I will have to install Win 7 on a physical drive. It should be possible to use Clonezilla and mirror my Salix install over to /dev/sdb, install Win 7 on /dev/sda, boot into Salix erase the MBR on /dev/sdb and reinstall Grub2 on /dev/sda (Win 7). This would work wouldn't it?
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Adys
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Re: Salix64 KDE 13.37 and Windows 7. Advice needed.

Post by Adys »

At least for a test, try using less colors in your win7 VM. If you are using, say, 32-bit colors, change it to 24 or 16, reboot the VM and check again if you are able to set a higher screen resolution than you were able before.

About the 128MB limit for video RAM, have you searched if there is any way to set a higher value using the command line (virtualbox manager)? The limit of 128 MB for video RAM might be only in the GUI interface (I'm thinking out loud; I don't really know if this alternative exists).

Now, about mirroring Salix from sda to sdb, if the above tests are not enough, then please explain why exactly you would want to transfer Salix to sdb, as a better solution (for the real problem) might be available.
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globetrotterdk
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Re: Salix64 KDE 13.37 and Windows 7. Advice needed.

Post by globetrotterdk »

Reducing colors won't be a solution for me. I need to use Win 7 for Dreamweaver, Photoshop and DTP for a job I am doing. I have been provided with the software, but the software puts demands on the Win 7 system that Virtualbox simply can't live up to.
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thenktor
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Re: Salix64 KDE 13.37 and Windows 7. Advice needed.

Post by thenktor »

128 MB should be way enough for your guest. I've never tried Win7 but with XP as guest I can easily run 1920x1000 and 32 bit colour depth with only 48 MB video RAM (actually this only needs about 8 MB video RAM). I've also disabled 3D acceleration.
In my experience running XP in VirtualBox still is fine for all applications, it's fast and a license is cheap.
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globetrotterdk
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Re: Salix64 KDE 13.37 and Windows 7. Advice needed.

Post by globetrotterdk »

Interesting. Thanks for the info.

Edit:
Can you recommend a reseller for an English language version of XP? I see on Amazon.co.uk that there are a number of postings warning about purchasing from resellers because they don't send what has been ordered and paid for.
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Re: Salix64 KDE 13.37 and Windows 7. Advice needed.

Post by thenktor »

Sorry, no idea. At amazon.de market place there are various sellers for XP Professional OEM with service pack 3 for about 20 € and AFAIK these are fine.
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Re: Salix64 KDE 13.37 and Windows 7. Advice needed.

Post by mimosa »

But how does it work if you buy an OEM licence? Don't you need a full licence (and install disk)? A friend of mine did it like that recently (also for use in a VM) and was surprised how expensive it was. Do you just download a pirate version but install using the OEM licence instead of whatever nefarious method would be needed to use it with no licence?
Last edited by mimosa on 22. Aug 2012, 19:30, edited 1 time in total.
Adys
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Re: Salix64 KDE 13.37 and Windows 7. Advice needed.

Post by Adys »

globetrotterdk wrote:Reducing colors won't be a solution for me.
As I said, it was just for your test. As thenktor said, 128MB for video RAM should be enough for those general (static) screen resolutions. From all your posts, I understand that you were unable to set an adequate driver for the monitor in your Win7 VM. Your Win7 VM needs an adequate monitor "driver", and also to emulate an adequate graphic card, so to be able to select the adequate screen proportions and high screen resolution as you want. As long as you can't set / use those adequate drivers in your VM, you won't be able to even test those resolutions. In this regard, this would be the same for a real Win7 system.
I need to use Win 7 for Dreamweaver, Photoshop and DTP for a job I am doing. I have been provided with the software, but the software puts demands on the Win 7 system that Virtualbox simply can't live up to.
If you installed Win7 in a VM, you should be able to use the same in a real system, specially since you are not going to use them both. Moreover, Win7 can be legally installed without product id key for a certain period. If you need this only for a test for Dreamweaver, Photoshop and DTP, the legal period could be enough for you.

Aside the relative lower performance in a VM, the same conditions for your screen resolution are needed in a real system or in a VM. Of course the VM resources are not unlimited, but, from your posts, I think you are yet to get to the VM limits.

Anyway, a real system should be better. The only issue would be: if you only need this temporarily, then all the trouble to set Salix aside might be "too much" (and yet, there are other alternatives too).
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Re: Salix64 KDE 13.37 and Windows 7. Advice needed.

Post by thenktor »

mimosa wrote:But how does it work if you buy an OEM licence? Don't you need a full licence (and install disk)?
I had a look at Wikipedia and it seems situation in Germany is different. The German Federal Supreme Court has decided that selling OEM software without hardware is allowed in Germany. Take a look at this link: http://www.usedsoft.com/en/glossary/en- ... tware.html (although this link mentions that situation in EU is the same I'm not sure if this is right, I'm not a lawyer ;))
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Re: Salix64 KDE 13.37 and Windows 7. Advice needed.

Post by mimosa »

Thanks Thenktor, that's interesting.

But assuming that situation applies (that you can buy and sell an OEM licence separately from the machine), once you've bought your licence, how do you get Windows installed before using the licence to validate it? For instance, as I suggested above, by downloading a pirate version, but then use the real activation code instead of the fake one (or however exactly that stuff works??

My wife's laptop has OEM Windows, and there is no installation disk. So if I wanted to sell the licence to someone else, I suppose it would just be some numbers.
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