Adding New Devices to Virtual Machine

Virtual Machine technology allows adding new devices to a Virtual Machine, to be the same as connecting new devices to a real computer. Virtual Machine configuration can include the following devices:

• up to four IDE devices - virtual hard disks and CD/DVD-ROM drives;
• a floppy drive;
• a network adapter;
• up to four serial ports;
• up to three parallel ports;
• a sound device.

New devices are added using Add Hardware Wizard. Device of any type (except hard disks) can be connected to a real drive as well as to virtual media. In addition, if you add a floppy drive, a new blank .fdd image can be created at the same time and connected to the drive. When adding virtual hard disk you may choose between connecting an existing hard disk image and creating a new one.

Note: In Linux primary OS to be able to connect any virtual device to a real one, you should have system privileges to access the real device. Otherwise the real device will not appear in the list of available devices despite it is installed on your computer.

To add new device to the Virtual Machine do the following:

1. Open the Virtual Machine to which you want to add new device, then select Edit Configuration in the File menu or click on the command button panel to open Configuration Editor.
2. In the lower left part of the Configuration Editor window click the Add button.
3. Add Hardware Wizard greets you with the Welcome to Add Hardware Wizard screen. Click Next.

   

4. On the Select hardware screen you should choose the device you want to add to your machine.

   The Available Hardware list contains devices available for adding. If the VM configuration already includes the maximum allowed number of some device type, this device type will not appear in the Available Hardware list. For instance, only one the floppy drive is allowed.

   The Wizard allows to add only one device at a time.

   

   On this screen you may prefer to add device immediately without specifying its options, in order to save your time. (You may set options later in the Configuration Editor.) To do so, click the Add device instantly button after selecting the desired device. The new device is added immediately with standard options, some of them are not set at all (for example, instant hard disk has zero size).

   To set options of the device being added click Next button.

5. Follow the wizard screens to configure the new device. You should select device type, media it is connected to, and options specific for the device and media type. All of them are described under the Editing Virtual Machine Configuration section. The last screen with options contains the Finish button.