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Can you run a machine emulator (Bochs) inside a virtual machine?

14

Is it possible to, say, run VirtualBox on Windows 7 with a Linux guest, and inside that Linux machine run Bochs?

The reason is that I'm interested in starting OS development, and I've found that all the tutorials and stuff are much easier to follow on *nix machines. I tried using Cygwin, but I think it's adding another layer of complexity and not necessarily making things easier.

2 Answers

4

I sometimes run a whole VMware vSphere virtual infrastructure within VMware Workstation, along with virtual Cisco routers and switches and EMC Celerra Virtualized Storage Appliance, for self-learning and testing purposes.

I call it 'Inception Computing', and it can get pretty confusing. It is however somewhat cheaper than using the real gear.

3

Its possible, but not very feasible, especially for development. You should probably look at running Linux as your native OS, or getting a second box to host the VMs on.


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Can you run a machine emulator (Bochs) inside a virtual machine?

14

Is it possible to, say, run VirtualBox on Windows 7 with a Linux guest, and inside that Linux machine run Bochs?

The reason is that I'm interested in starting OS development, and I've found that all the tutorials and stuff are much easier to follow on *nix machines. I tried using Cygwin, but I think it's adding another layer of complexity and not necessarily making things easier.


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9

I sometimes run a whole VMware vSphere virtual infrastructure within VMware Workstation, along with virtual Cisco routers and switches and EMC Celerra Virtualized Storage Appliance, for self-learning and testing purposes.

I call it 'Inception Computing', and it can get pretty confusing. It is however somewhat cheaper than using the real gear.

edit

@countfloortiles: It's a reference to the film, of course. - paradroid Aug 17, 2013 at 14:03

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