Knoppix 7.4 - Virtualbox not working

[Werner P. Schulz]

You exaggerate!

You cannot judge on VirtualBox and look only within Koppix. Within Knoppix 7.4.2 KK has modified 61 tools and packages so that they work for Adriane. He also did his own Kernel version 3.16.3!

Try VirtualBox within a pure Debian installation.

[chris_Xnest]

OK, after a whole lot of pain, I realized Direct 3D will not work from a virtual machine, no matter what kind of machine that is.

But the next step I wanted to take was to try and have a same version of VirtualBox in my old Knoppix remaster (5.3.1) and also in the new one (7.4.2). After some digging I concluded the latest possible version that would agree to both is 4.1.44. (Just as with everything else O.S., the same rule applies to VirtualBox: the newer, the dumber!)

So I tried installing it in my old remaster. Surprise, (or maybe not, when I think about programmers' IQs these days) it doesn't work because the program is so stupid it can't see an extension pack already installed because the path to it is a symbolic link. Wow!!!

So I took the sources and built it from scratch using --disable-hardening as parameter to "configure". That did it.

But when it came to building the same sources in K742, big nightmare happened:

Compiler errors.
Change the compiler version.
More compiler errors.
Patch the VBox sources after having a big headache figuring out the new age moronisms introduced in latest gcc versions.
More compiler errors.
Try to get the gcc-4.4.2 as debian packages and install them in K742.
Found out that stupid dpkg has absolutely NO OPTION to just install whatever the hell I tell it to, without downgrading/removing anything if I say so.
Try to get the sources for gcc/g++ 4.2.0 and just build it from scratch in /opt in K742.
Compiler errors.
Chase more moronisms in the newer gcc version used to compile the 4.2.0.
Generate patches.
Apply patches to gcc-4.2.0 sources.
Found out that there is no clear documented way to build gcc/g++ so that, when you compile something with it, it will just have everything the hell it needs to do it. Just couldn't find its -pthreads for some reason... (Oh yeah!! Almighty Open Source!!).
Gave up to the idea of building gcc-4.2.0 from scratch and retried with 4.6 after installing it in K742 from .deb packages.
Chase compiler errors and figure out a patch.
Apply patch.
Compile.
Error building the VirtualBox User Manual PDF, because texlive obeys the same OS rule as above (the newer, the dumber).
Chase and google the cause for some stupid "restricted \write18 mode" garbage spit by texlive while building.
Found nothing to get rid of the mess.
Get the sources for some older texlive and try to build it in K742.
More compiler errors.
Chase error causes and figure out patches to get it to compile with newer gcc.
Apply patches.
More compiler errors, this time impossible to fix.
Try to get texlive binaries already built and use them.
Bash complains "no such file" when I try to execute "./pdflatex" even though the file is right the hell there.
New age cretin bash! Good job bash team!
Gave up trying to build a new texlive.
Compiled VirtualBox with the --disable-docs option and just used the pdf manual built under my old remaster.

Hm, who needs computers anyway? I can get the same result much faster if I just sit in my couch, have a nice meal, watch a nice movie and then put a bullet through my brain.