I'm running an AMD dual core with 2GB of RAM. I've got Gutsy as a host and VirtualBox running XP as a guest in 1GB of RAM. Seems like it ought to be plenty right?
If you just stick to apps in one OS or the other, it's fine. The VM seems to run quite well and fast and be stable. I often use seamless mode and that's pretty slick. Other than no 3D I'm pretty amazed with it. However, I've noticed that transitioning from a Windows program to an Ubuntu app or vice versa is very slow. Once the app finally appears, it seems okay. But then going back to an app in the other OS, quite a hesitation. If I've got 5-6 apps open (nowhere near a problem in Ubuntu only) the system can really crawl.
Further, I've noticed that after a boot, my system idling uses something less than 240MB of RAM and no swap. Start a VM, of course RAM usage climbs to the predictable 1.3GB plus any other apps and swap starts getting used. However: shut down the VM, and RAM usage indicates remaining at the same 1.3GB-plus, and swap is still up around 2GB. Weird because generally if you shut down a program RAM usages goes back down. I have to reboot to get the usage graph back to normal. I've been thinking of doubling my RAM to 4GB just to eliminate the swapping and maybe improve the speed, it's not really that expensive. However it's still stupid if you've got half your RAM sitting there unusable.
Any thoughts, suggestions?
Bookmarks