startup.nsh & UEFI in Oracle Virtualbox v.5 - What do I do next...?

startup.nsh & UEFI in Oracle Virtualbox v.5 - What do I do next...? - Printable Version

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startup.nsh & UEFI in Oracle Virtualbox v.5 - What do I do next...? - m654321 - 07-25-2015

I have downloaded version 5 of Oracle Virtualbox as it has USB 3.0 support; useful as my new laptop doesn't have USB 2.0.
I installed win 8.1 in Virtualbox - guest additions installed successfully.

I then noticed that Virtualbox version 5 has UEFI support, so thought I'd create another win 8.1 virtual machine, though this time with EFI enabled, to see if there was any advantage conferred with UEFI. At the beginning of the installation, using anwin8.1 installation CD, I was then presented with the screen below in Virtualbox, but don't know what to do next... any ideas?

[Image: 0f8FVnR.png]

Also, how is Secure Boot enabled in Virtualbox? Is it possible? Does it confer any advantages over the default 'standard boot' in Virtualbox?

Many thanks for any help with this.
Regards
Mike

Re: startup.nsh & UEFI in Oracle Virtualbox v.5 - What do I do next...? - Wirezfree - 07-25-2015

Whilst I do not know if it's relevant..??
You said you have installed "Guest Additions",
But
Did you also install the "Extension Pack"..??

VirtualBox 5.0 Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack
On the download page
https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
Download it, then in Virtualbox
File > Preferences > Extensions
Use little down arrow to navigate to the Extension pack.
You need the matching Extension pack for things to work correctly.

GL

Re: startup.nsh & UEFI in Oracle Virtualbox v.5 - What do I do next...? - m654321 - 07-25-2015

Yes I did install the Extension pack for VBox v.5.
I thought guest additions would not install without this?
Please orrect me if I'm wrong here...

Regards
Mike

Re: startup.nsh & UEFI in Oracle Virtualbox v.5 - What do I do next...? - Wirezfree - 07-25-2015

O.K,

No, they serve different purposes... IIRC
Extension pack, to allow for External devices to work correctly, like USB
Guest additions, add drivers to allow Guest to work with underlying H/W, like Display H/W

Re: startup.nsh & UEFI in Oracle Virtualbox v.5 - What do I do next...? - m654321 - 07-25-2015

Quote:O.K,

No, they serve different purposes... IIRC
Extension pack, to allow for External devices to work correctly, like USB
Guest additions, add drivers to allow Guest to work with underlying H/W, like Display H/W/

Thanks Wirezfree... what are IIRC & H/W acronyms for?
Actually, thinking about it, I think there is a problem with the guest additions with this 'EFI install'.
Extension pack was definitely installed. I'll try to get back to you on this.

Mike

Re: startup.nsh & UEFI in Oracle Virtualbox v.5 - What do I do next...? - Wirezfree - 07-26-2015

IIRC =If I remember correctly
H/W = Hardware

Just another comment.
Check your motherboard or PC supplier website in downloads section.
They may have a "USB 3.0" driver pack that you will need to install in your "Windows Guest"
At one stage Windows did not support all "USB 3.0" Hardware, so needed extra drivers.
I do know on one of my PC's it would need additional drivers for USB 3.0 support.

The USB ports would still work, but at USB 2.0 speed, not 3.0

Re: startup.nsh & UEFI in Oracle Virtualbox v.5 - What do I do next...? - m654321 - 07-26-2015

Many thanks for your interest and comments Wirezfree. A few more details about what I did exactly just to clarify - sorry I was a bit sketchy with initial details of the Oracle VirtualBox set-ups I'd created.

I set up two VMs with win8.1 as guest in LL2.4 host:

1st one: guest installed in normal Legacy mode, USB 3.0 connectivity works fine (using v.5 of VBox), so extension pack installed, and file sharing with host, and guest takes up full-screen, so guest additions installed too. Works very well.

2nd one: out of curiosity, guest installed in UEFI mode (this option is offered for the 1st time in v.5 of Vbox). I am unable to install guest additions as I can't get past the 'UEFI Interactive Shell' screen, when I boot the guest (i.e. the screenshot at start of this thread) - this was crux of the problem that I needed help with on the thread.

I suspect installing guest in UEFI mode is only experimental at the moment as it's so new, and I can't find any useful information about this on the net, and what to do at the UEFI interactive shell step. Frankly, I only wanted to try the virtual UEFI install to see if it conferred any advantage over the standard Legacy/BIOS in a VM. The standard virtual Legacy install works just fine so will probably stay with that for now.

Regards
Mike

Re: startup.nsh & UEFI in Oracle Virtualbox v.5 - What do I do next...? - Wirezfree - 07-26-2015

Hi,

Googling xxx finds lots of stuff even pre VBox 5.0, like
http://askubuntu.com/questions/566315/virtualbox-boots-only-in-uefi-interactive-shell

I found this:
Note that the VirtualBox EFI support is experimental and will be enhanced as EFI matures and becomes more widespread.
[/size]While Mac OS X and Linux guests are known to work fine, Windows guests are currently unable to boot with the VirtualBox EFI implementation.
Here:
https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch03.html#efi

and also this:

[/size][color=rgb(63, 0, 7)]VirtualBoxVirtualBox by default uses the BIOS firmware for virtual machines. It supports EFI too, but unfortunately does not support booting UEFI-based system volumes, which includes Windows 8 in UEFI mode. However, if you'd still like to test or use EFI with other operating systems, enabling EFI support is easy. Open the VM settings, select System, and on the Motherboard tab, select Enable EFI (special OSes only).
Here:
http://www.serverwatch.com/server-tutorials/enabling-uefi-on-virtual-machines.html

Not sure if this is[/color]

Re: startup.nsh & UEFI in Oracle Virtualbox v.5 - What do I do next...? - m654321 - 07-28-2015

Thanks Wirezfree - I haven't looked at the links you gave me just yet - to update you...

I made some progress.

The mistake I made when I first installed win8.1 in VirtualBox was to shut the shut the machine down, following installation, and then trying to install the guest additions in the subsequent reboot. It's during the subsequent reboot that I got stuck at the UEFI Interactive Shell screen.

Following this, I reinstalled win8.1 as a VM in UEFI mode but, this time before I shut it down following installation, I installed the guest additions right away. This meant I avoided the UEFI Interactive Shell entirely.

All went very well, following this, until one of the security patches (around 700MB) refused to install. I went through the procedure recommended by a win8.1, specifically for installation of this patch, using windows command line, but to no avail. Subsequent reboots just resulted in the VM freezing. So it seems early days for UEFI for windows in VBox, at least for me. My curiosity was piqued by a UEFI VM, but is now satisfied. I'm going to return to a standard VM install of win8.1 on LL host for now, which seems to tick all the boxes for my present needs.

Regards
Mike

Re: startup.nsh & UEFI in Oracle Virtualbox v.5 - What do I do next...? - Wirezfree - 07-28-2015

@m654321,

O.K, glad you made some progress.
The challenge of the "Freeze" is to figure out if it's a quirk of the Windows update, or the underlying Virtualbox..??

GL.. Dave