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Can all Windows users share the same Sage VirtualBox?

asked 2011-12-19 10:01:00 +0100

John D. Bell gravatar image

I am the administrator of the (Windows XP) computers in a student lab. I can install VirtualBox and Sage, and create a desktop shortcut to directly launch the Sage environment, as administrator. But, I want every (non-administrator) account to be able to launch the same installation.

Putting the desktop shortcut in "All Users\Desktop" doesn't work. Copying the VirtualBox folder to "All Users" doesn't work. I can't find the registry keys or configuration file which points out the location of the install. Any suggestions?  
 

John D. Bell
JDB@systemsartisans.com (for more details, or private discussion)

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answered 2011-12-20 09:25:29 +0100

Emil Widmann gravatar image

updated 2011-12-21 16:19:15 +0100

If you install Virtual Box for Windows, then the default locations for imported virtual machines is in the user directory (which is not accessible by other users). You can change this in the settings of the virtual machine (File --> Global Preferences). The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+G. If you change this to a directory which all users can access (e.g. C:/Sage) and then import the ova file it should work. (local install of sage on all computers)

Another remark: I spent some time recently to built a virtual machine of sage which should fit your requirements. It has a pre-configured sage server for up to 29 simultaneous users ("almost" no limits in total accounts). So it should be possible to work in lab with a class.

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answered 2011-12-19 14:35:21 +0100

Volker Braun gravatar image

updated 2011-12-19 16:41:58 +0100

The virtual machine data is in its virtual harddisk. If you share the installation, you also share all the files and worksheets. I would recommend you set up a separate Sage server that the XP machines can access over the network, this is what Sage is designed for.

If you don't have a Linux/OSX machine to run the server on, you can also use the virtual machine as a server. But a few steps would be necessary to secure it; Right now its security relies on the virtual network only being reachable by the host computer. I should probably write down the steps to using the VM as a network server somewhere, but I haven't yet. Let me know if you want to go that route...

Edit: I've written up some instructions on the Sage wiki

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Thank you. I'll have to consider this all, and take it back to the Math Dept. (their lab). I seem to remember reading something about multiple Sage accounts in the Windows install README.txt. Might do something like that.... I will come back to this thread to continue discussion of my options.

John D. Bell gravatar imageJohn D. Bell ( 2011-12-19 14:51:07 +0100 )edit

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Asked: 2011-12-19 10:01:00 +0100

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Last updated: Dec 21 '11