A few days ago I installed Gnome Boxes on my PC.
Zorin 17.2 Core, and my OS is up to date.
I installed Gnome Boxes (as Admin / Zorin APT) and made a virtual machine with a minimal and debloated Windows 11 ISO. I gave the Boxes VM 4GB RAM en 32GB storage space. Everything installed smoothly.
Because the minimall Windows 11 does not have a webbrowser i had to install a webbrowser.
I configured Shared Folders and Spice Webdav as indicated.
It did not succeed in connectable shared folders
I attached a USB-drive with the browser software.
In the preferences the USB-drive was quickly found.
But unfortunately also the USB-drive was not connectable.
I have tried 2 different USB-drives.
My question:
How do I get both options working?
On my other PC I installed VirtualBox ant that is running fine.
Unfortunately I have 1 or 2 programs that need a Windows environment:-(
I cloud install Virtual Box or even VMware on my PC, but why should I use them?
I thought that Gnome Boxes would the perfect match with Zorin...
The fact that the USB is detected by the guest OS means that Gnome Boxes has done it's job as expected. This makes me think that there's something going on with the USB drive itself. For example, Windows won't be able to read the USB drive if it's formatted using EXT4, the default filesystem used by Zorin OS. Did you format it in this way beforehand?
PS: Is there a reason why you're not installing the software through the VM itself?
Originally the format was NTFS. I re-formatted the USB-drive to FAT32.
Checked again. In the host system the drive is recognized and I can read and write the drive. In the VM preferences I can tick the USB, the VM accepts the drive. But in the Windows Explorer, the drive does not show up.
Your question: Is there a reason why you're not installing the software through the VM itself?
Answer: You mean a browser? Because I did not know I could install software without a Microsoft Account...
Just be sure to not use the default location for the 'pool' - this is usually in /var/libvirt/. I created a Virtual Machines folder inside /home and point to that. I create new .qcow2 storage in that location which means you can have quite a few Virtual Machines at your disposal.
Am I correct that installing the virt-manager using the Zorin Software Center (Zorin APT Package) gives me the possibility to manage the Boxes VM?
And many more I read on their website.
You need a Microsoft account to install software now?! This raises so many other questions, but I guess we should stay on-topic...
This seems to be consistent with what I suggested above. Gnome Boxes is doing what is supposed to do, and letting the USB device through to the guest OS. You can definitely rule out an issue with Gnome boxes by spinning up another VM running any other Linux distribution and see if the same steps work. Otherwise, I'd assume this is an issue with how Windows, or perhaps specifically its file explorer.
I have not really tried myself — I have only used Virtual Manager, which I also recommend — but my understanding is that Gnome Boxes and Virtual Manager both make use of the same underlying technologies. You should be able to.
It is clear to me now that virt-manager and Gnome Boxes basically do the same.
But virt-manager has so more options. I am not sure if I want that.
Nevertheless I might give a try.
In my post I wrote:
Because I did not know I could install software without a Microsoft Account...
But what I meant to write was:
Because I did not know I could install software from the Microsoft Store without a Microsoft Account.
I definitely encourage you to try Virtual Manager. It's a great resource and will work even when you are using a desktop environment other than Gnome.
To clarify, you can use Gnome Boxes with other desktop environments but it will install a lot of dependencies that you might not otherwise need or use. Which may not even be a problem at all, but I just prefer to keep my system as lean as possible.
Anyway, if you still prefer using Gnome Boxes, please try spinning another VM with Linux and see if it can read the same USB. This should tell us for sure if there's a problem with how things are wired up to the guest. And if there is indeed an issue, I'd suggest moving on to Virtual Manager and try the same thing.
Whilst working from home during lockdown until I retired I ran Windows 7 in Virtual Box on Feren OS. In December 2020 I migrated to Devuan 3.0 and imported my Windows 7 Pro.vhd into virt-manager. Shortly after this, Windows 7 became EOL. I'd already paid an employee licence a few years previous for Windows 8.1 Pro and experienced my first Windows OS update in a virtual machine. It went without a hitch. So why the upgrade? In order to access work's shared drive on the school server that did not allow Windows 7 to login. I noticed that when I did login to the secured web page and then had to login to the server a small file was downloaded, an .exe file which launched the login interface. I had configured my VM to have my USB thumb drive as part of the setup which means if I took it out the VM would not boot. Moving on I downloaded this small .exe to my thumb drive. On powering off the VM, my USB was automatically recognised by the host OS. I had discovered that Remmina could utilise the small .exe which enabled me to login to the shared drive with just one login in Devuan where Windows via Edge needed 3 logins!
Just to add, I only needed Windows for a shared mailbox that I could not configure in Evolution, and Brailleblaster for Linux which worked in Feren OS but not in Devuan.
Yep, its been that way since Windows 10 I think. Did you know that you also need a Microsoft account, in order to play Halo Master Chief Collection? Yeah, found that out when I bought it off Steam, installed it, then began to run it.
I had a good night sleep over it.
To use 1 or 2 Windows programs I installed Boxes with the idea that it would be a simple and quick solution. Compared to Virtual Box I like the simplicity.
Just a few bells & Whistles.
But I have come to the conclusion that I will polish my old Microsoft Surface and use this device for the Windows programs that I use 3 to 4 times a year.
It is not worth to reconfigure a lean and mean Zorin laptop just for these occasions.
Nevertheless it was a win-win situation.
The forum helped me to come to my goal and also gave me a lot of information about virtual machines.
So, a big thank you for everybody who responded.
This raises so many other questions, but I guess we should stay on-topic...
