Running Second Life in a Virtual Machine

[SLAddict Allen]

So, I am testing Windows 10. We downloaded Windows 10 Technical Preview build 10024. Not comfortable installing this on production computer, and with no backup machine, a virtual machine is our only option. The VM software we are currently using is VirtualBox.

Now, with it not being our main OS, we are running SL on Windows 8.1 currently. However, we would like to really test out Windows by putting it through its paces. Having some trouble logging into Second Life, however. We tried it on Build 9926, and got a graphics card error. We tried installing the driver, but could only attempt to install on the main C drive.

Is there any way to get this working?

On a side note, if this is not possible, is it possible to roll the tech preview back to Win 8, if we decide to go nuts and install straight to hard drive instead?

Note #2 Tried a dual boot setup. Major headaches. Didn't work.

[Madelaine McMasters]

Hi Allen,

I'm a Mac gal, so I'm just going to guess here (and I did two minutes of Googling). SL requires OpenGL and I don't think VIrtualBox supports that on Win8/10.

Search for OpenGL in the following two pages and you'll see that it appears that Win 7 is the newest guest OS that supports OpenGL.

https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch04.html#guestadd-3d

http://askubuntu.com/questions/441318/opengl-2-1-or-greater-on-oracle-virtualbox

[SLAddict Allen]

I figured as much. Thank you for trying to help me out Madelaine

[Sassy Romano]

VMware workstation works fine. 30 day trial.

In SL you usually need to disable Mouse warp in debug settings.

[SLAddict Allen]

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Sassy Romano wrote:

VMware workstation works fine. 30 day trial.

In SL you usually need to disable Mouse warp in debug settings.

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Thanks for this Sassy.

I got into 10 via VMWare, but Firestorm is still giving me an error. Will not launch due to video card drivers not installed correctly.

[Ohjiro Watanabe]

I think Virtual Machines don't use your graphics card, they use some kind of VGA emulation. Dual booting is the way to go. I haven't tried it with W10 yet but I have done it with every other version of windows. Here is a how to: http://www.howtogeek.com/197647/how-to-dual-boot-windows-10-with-windows-7-or-8/

 

[Madelaine McMasters]

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Ohjiro Watanabe wrote:

I think Virtual Machines don't use your graphics card, they use some kind of VGA emulation. Dual booting is the way to go. I haven't tried it with W10 yet but I have done it with every other version of windows. Here is a how to:

http://www.howtogeek.com/197647/how-to-dual-boot-windows-10-with-windows-7-or-8/

 

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I agree that dual booting will get the best performance, but virtual machines like VMWare can and do use GPUs if the application calls a supported graphics API like OpenGL or DirectX. There is a performance hit, but it gets smaller with each new generation of virtualization software.

[dghawkjw]

I'm testing 10 in VirtualBox as well - and just tried Firestorm x32 & x64, Singularity, and the SL Viewer. All of them say the load fails due to gfx driver not passing... WIll try VMWare player, but that means installing a new VM of 10 - that'll take a little time. 

 

Also going to test with Linux Mint in a VM as well... :-) 

Will keep you all posted. 

[DragonRey]

sorry if i answer on this old topic late but i think i found a way for use sl in the virtual machine

singularity is the only one viewer that start on my vm guest win10 virtualbox:

- you need to set guest with 3d enabled and set 256mb vga memory

- install the guest addon

- edit the singularity lnk icon and add these 2 parameters: --noprobe --safe

the link must be like this: "C:\Program Files\Singularity\SingularityViewer.exe" --set InstallLanguage en --noprobe --safe

Now you can start singularity and login with your account in low graphic detail but will be very slow.

If i enable ->graphics ->hardware -> streamed VBOs the graphic performance is better (my video card in the host is an old nvidia 9600gt)

[Apollosmile]

The Workaround is easy but highly annoying. Delete the settings file from C:\Users\YOURNAME\AppData\Roaming\Firestorm_x64\user_settings you will need to show hidden files to get here. EACH and every time before you start firestorm. Yes it kills settings each start but it will work every time.