What does that mean? For one thing, VirtualBox installs on your existing Intel or AMD-based computers, whether they are running Windows, Mac, Linux or Solaris operating systems. Secondly, VirtualBox extends the capabilities of your existing computer so that VirtualBox can run multiple operating systems (inside multiple virtual machines) at the same time. So, for example, you can run Windows and Linux on your Mac, run Windows Server 2008 on your Linux server, run Linux on your Windows PC, and so on, all alongside your existing applications. You can install and run as many virtual machines as you like -- the only practical limits are disk space and memory.
Features of "Oracle VirtualBox 3.2.0":
* Avirtual SAS controller, emulating the LsiLogic SAS controller.
* Dynamic memory ‘ballooning,’ enabling 64-bit hosts to adjust the amount of memory dedicated to a VM on the fly.
* Guest Automation API.
* Large Page support for increased performance.
* Limited, experimental support for Mac OS X guests.
* Multi-monitor support in Windows guests.
* Page Fusion, a new feature that de-duplicates RAM used by similar VMs.
* RDP video acceleration.
* Snapshots can now be deleted while the VM is running.
* Support for desktop and server versions of Ubuntu “Lucid Lynx” 10.04 LTS.
* Support for Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.5.
* Support for the Unrestricted Guest Execution feature in Intel Core i5, Core i7 and Xeon 5600 Series processors.
* USB tablet/keyboard emulation.
* vCPU hot-plugging for Linux and some Windows guests.
Installing VirtualBox:
To install VirtualBox, you need to add the non free repository, add one of the following lines according to your distribution to your /etc/apt/sources.list:
deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian lucid non-freeAdd the verification key, type this command :
deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian karmic non-free
deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian jaunty non-free
deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian intrepid non-free
deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian hardy non-free
deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian squeeze non-free
deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian lenny non-free
deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian etch non-free
wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -
To install VirtualBox, do
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-3.2
This command will install the latest stable version of VirtualBox3.2.
Note: Ubuntu users might want to install the dkms package to ensure that the VirtualBox host kernel modules (vboxdrv, vboxnetflt and vboxnetadp) are properly updated if the linux kernel version changes during the next apt-get upgrade. The dkms package can be installed through the Synaptic Package manager or through the following command: sudo apt-get install dkms
source:http://linuxpoison.blogspot.com/2010/10/13578167757877.html