Can I run Windows 7 in a VM on ARM Processor under Ubuntu/Xubuntu/Lubuntu?

Question

I'm trying to run a Windows 7 virtual machine on this device, and I want to use a host OS that supports VirtualBox. I want to throw on the least resource-intensive (CPU and RAM, HDD space is not a concern) host OS that I can get. I will be dedicating most of the computer's resources to the VM. I want to use the VM, so I can backup snapshots easily. So that if the computer crashed, it would be a simple copy+paste to migrate it to another computer.

My obstacle is, that the device I want to throw it on has a 32-bit ARM processor.

• Is there an ARM compiled distro of Xubuntuor or Lubuntu?
• Is there another Linux OS that supports VirtualBox and has an ARM compilation that would be better to throw on other than an Ubuntu-based distro (one that would eat up less resources)
• From what I understand, Lubuntu and Xubuntu are lightweight/featherweight versions of Ubuntu?
• Will a Windows 7 VM work operating under an ARM processor?

Solution 1

To answer each question:

• Is there an ARM compiled distro of Xubuntu or or Lubuntu?

Yes. Ubuntu - and other distros - can run on ARM (though there might or might not be a port available for your device) and (presumably) you could install XFCE/LXDE on it.

• Is there another Linux OS that supports VirtualBox and has an ARM compilation that would be better to throw on other than an Ubuntu-based distro (one that would eat up less resources)

You can't run VirtualBox on ARM CPUs. The closest possible is QEMU, but performance will be hopelessly slow (and next to useless if you are running a full-fledged Windows VM).

• From what I understand, Lubuntu and Xubuntu are lightweight/featherweight versions of Ubuntu?

Yes: they run a lighter desktop environment, which can run better when less resources are available.

• Will a Windows 7 VM work operating under an ARM processor?

No. VirtualBox is x86/x86-64 only.

Solution 2

VirtualBox is an x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product. I believe there isn't a version that runs on ARM hardware.

You may be able to run some versions of Windows on ARM using an emulator such as QEMU, Bochs or DOSBox but I doubt the path will be smooth..

Solution 3

You might be able to run Windows RT in a VM on an ARM (someday) but regular Windows requires either a 32 or a 64-bit Intel architecture processor. The (predominantly) C language that it's written in has to be compiled for the instruction set on the target machine. Intel and ARM processors have different instruction sets. Windows is compiled for Intel (and similar) architecture processors.

It might still be possible to emulate an Intel architecture on an ARM or to translate the x86 Windows binaries into ARM binaries on the fly the way DEC used to run x86 Windows binaries on their Alpha machines running Windows NT in the 90s. But the former is really slow and the latter is really hard.

Solution 4

Check out exagear desktop from eltechs, the goal is x86 on arm and it does a lot of things well when mixed with wine. https://eltechs.com/product/exagear-desktop/

Exagear gives you an i386 vm, then you can install and run wine on that vm and install and run windows software in wine.

Here's a tutorial for setting up dotnet on a raspberry pi but the concept of any other arm device or windows software is basically the same. https://eltechs.com/dotnet-raspberry-pi/

Good luck with dotnet though, 3.0 never worked for me and in turn neither did the software I wanted to run. There's supposed to be a new version of exagear any time that I'm told will correct this. Plenty of other software works just fine though.

Some people prefer the interface of playonlinux over the wine interface, best I can tell its basically a wrapper. playonlinux dot com I can't post 3 links so there's that one.

Solution 5

QEMU supports emulation of x86/64. You just may need to compile QEMU manually because not all package managers will install all emulators of QEMU. VirtualBox is based out of QEMU so it may or may not recognize your build. If it doesn't, you can still use QEMU as a direct alternative for VirtualBox. You just may lose some of the amazing GUI features that VirtualBox comes packed with.

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Comments

[uSlackr]

VirtualBox doesn't run on ARM processors - more here. forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=41706

[Lil' Bits]

What about converting the VDI to QCOW2 and running it under QEMU?

[Thalys]

As an aside, unless you're talking about the absolute low end, you can get a reasonably modern x86/windows system for about the same cost as a better ARM based system. I've seen dodgy chinese tablets for ~150 USD online, and I have a lovely very light vm host on a celeron based brix.