Windows 7 on the Mac Under VirtualBox
I’m trying out Windows 7 on my old Intel-based iMac, and it’s going pretty well. One of the ways I’m doing this is with VirtualBox (a free, open-source virtualization tool from Sun).
I had some adventures, mostly stupid, getting it installed. But now it’s working, and mostly correctly… with some issues.
In general, Windows 7 is sprightly and responsive running in a child window on my 2.16 GHz dual-core Intel Mac. It hogs up most of my 2 Gb of RAM, and works the CPUs hard, but that’s good, I think. It takes just eight seconds, total, to start VirtualBox and restore the Windows session. Sweet!
Video playback is smooth, even when Windows is doing other things in the background like initializing a “Homegroup.”
But so far I haven’t been able to get a peep out of the sound card. Not so much as a bzzt. Windows says that “no audio devices are installed.”
When you’re setting up your pretend computer, VirtualBox offers two choices each for Host Audio Driver and Audio Controller. I’m clever enough to know that “Null Driver” isn’t an audio driver from a really hip company called “Null.” In fact, it means: I don’t want any audio. Send the audio to the bit-bucket.
So I cleverly picked CoreAudio. Whatever that is.
The “Audio Controller” question is less obvious. This is what the VirtualBox control looks like:
Virtualbox choices for Host Driver and Controller
In my experience, “Sound Blaster 16″ means: emulate the stupidest 16-bit 1980s sound card imaginable. So I tried that. I also tried the ICH AC97 controller (whatever that is).
Neither choice has yielded any noises (more specifically: neither has convinced Windows that there’s a sound card).
But I will persist, and figure this out.
Update #1: These two guys may have figured it out, by dint of having a clue about Windows 7, which I clearly don’t.
I will test.
Update #2: Ha! Victory! Two words: Windows Update (which is now conveniently located 17 menu-layers down, in the Control Panel, under System and Security). Windows Update found an audio driver for the AC97 hardware, installed it, and then made a little victory click. Sound works now. No need even to reboot. Smooth!
I am, by the way, a complete Mac fanboi. Writing positive things about any version of Windows is hard for me. But I’m trying to report it like I see it.
January 15th, 2009 at 11:09 am
Had been having the ‘no sound’ problem, despite the drivers showing as installed correctly and the speaker symbol showing on the taskbar.
Your screen shot “Audio’ above made me look at my settings again and I switched from ‘Null’ to ‘Core’ (along with the ICH AC97) and on the next reboot I had sound!
Hope yours gets sorted as easily.
January 16th, 2009 at 2:28 am
Just wanted to drop in and say thanks for the mention!
So, well, thanks!
January 16th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Hi, I just wanted to let you and your readers know that I have had no problems with sound in my Win7 install on VirtualBox. I think it is in large part due to the thorough and direct instructions from two tech guys (http://twoguystech.com/blog/art/installing-windows-7-beta-suns-virtualbox#comment-878) and they are my new heros! I don’t know about anyone else but following their instructs to the letter I have experienced no issues. One thing they mentioned and I have witnessed is the way Win7 automatically searches for drivers and installs them without asking–its very cool and very scary (I hope the OS is only trusting digitally signed certs, but I need to check out that documentation to be certain how the driver installs are working).
Cheers!
July 13th, 2009 at 3:47 am
THANK YOU! it took me forever to find the driver! thank you! windows update works! i am currently running it on my acer netbook under virtual box on xp. i could not get sound. i finnally found it thanks to you!
November 26th, 2009 at 12:31 am
Hi, I had a slightly different experience with this issue that I’d like to share. I also had problems with audio. In the snapshot settings, I enabled the audio and set the host driver to Core Audio and the controller to ICH AC97. This alone did not fix the problem. Then I find this blog entry from mhinkle and performed a Windows Update. The speaker symbol still had the exclamation mark and no audio. I then installed the Guest Additions as recommended by Two Guys Tech, but that didn’t resolve the issue neither, and I doubt the Guest Additions played any part in the end solution. Lastly, I downloaded and installed the AC97 drivers from the Realtek website for Windows7 and my sound was fixed instantly.
In my case, I think I could have managed by setting the snapshot settings and then installing the AC97 drivers in the Guest VM.
BTW, I’m running Snow Leopard 10.6.2 with VirtualBox version 3.0.12 r54655 and a Windows7 Ultimate Edition Guest VM.
December 12th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Thanks a lot Seyerl. Installing AC97 drivers from realtek solved my problem !!
April 8th, 2010 at 1:42 am
do you guys think they will upgrade this product to a better one ?
April 16th, 2010 at 11:36 am
I also had to download AC97 drivers for sound to work when running Windows 7 on Mac OS 10.6.3 using VirtualBox 3.1.6.
Dowloaded the drivers from the relatek site at:-
http://www.realtek.com.tw/DOWNLOADS/downloadsCheck.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=23&PFid=23&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false
April 17th, 2010 at 6:41 am
Super information,I have bookmarked this site for future and will keep a eye on your other postings. Thank you
July 4th, 2010 at 8:46 am
Just wanted to drop in and say thanks for the mention!
So, well, thanks!