Ubuntu Jaunty, VirtualBox, and IE6/7/8

by vyolian

There are lots of sources on this already (see bottom) but I must have been an uber-noob for none of them to exactly work for me. This is just for myself to document how to test on IE6/7/8 with VirtualBox on Ubuntu Jaunty:

1. sudo apt-get install virtualbox-3.0 wine

2. Download one of the exe files from Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Image page.
– The download takes about 30-40 minutes.
– For the Vista ones, you have to download the exe and the rar files.
– You’ll be repeating this process starting from this step for each IE version / Windows OS you want to test with.

3. wine [IE_number-OS_name].exe
– Go through the installation with defaults.
– At the end, you should have a .vhd file.

4. Create new VM
– VirtualBox
– New -> Give it a name (“WinXP”) and select the appropriate operating system -> Choose RAM (512 for me).
– At the Virtual Hard Disk screen, Existing -> Add -> Select .vhd from earlier.
– At the end, you should see your new VM in the list.

5. Install Guest Additions
– Select your new VM -> Start.
– Cancel all the prompts when Windows starts up.
– Devices (in the outermost VM window) -> Install Guest Additions.
– Restart windows when you’re done.

6. Back on Linux, Download PCnet Driver
– Download the latest AMD PCnet driver
– sudo apt-get install brasero
– brasero
– Project -> New Project -> New Data Project
– Add -> Browse to the zipped driver -> Burn

7. Back in Windows, Install PCnet Driver
– Devices -> Mount CD/DVD-ROM -> CD/DVD-ROM image
– Add -> The ISO you got from the previous step
– Open the drive -> Move and unzip the file into a folder
– Start -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Device Manager
– Right click on the batteries and disable them.
– Right click AMD PCNET adapter -> Update Driver -> Select the driver you unzipped if it can’t find it on its own.

8. IE should work now.

9. Configuring your “localhost”
– On ubuntu, use ifconfig and copy your ip address (something like 192.168.0.101)
– On windows, open up C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts in notepad
– Modify the line “127.0.0.1 localhost” to “192.168.0.101 localhost”

Resources

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1097080
http://primeval-soup.blogspot.com/2009/02/ie8-in-ubuntu-intrepid-with-virtual-box.html