This was not quite as straightforward as I remember it being in Fedora 11. I ran into a problem and couldn’t find the solution in 5 minutes of searching, so I offer it here: the steps to install VBox Guest Additions in Fedora 12.

I’m assuming you’re using VBox 3.1.2 (latest as of writing) and the kernel version is 2.6.31.9 on an x86_64. What does all that mean? In the long strings of numbers, some of them might change for you.

First, in the VM menu (not the Guest but the chrome around it) go to Devices > Install Guest Additions. It will mount a new disc image. Then fire up terminal.

$ su
# yum install kernel-headers kernel-devel gcc
# export KERN_DIR=/usr/src/kernels/2.6.31.9-174.fc12.x86_64
# cd /media/VBOXADDITIONS_3.1.2_56127
# ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-amd64.run

This time the kernel modules should compile. Then restart the system.

Caveats!

There’s a pretty good chance that some directories will be different, so rather than typing this out, you probably want to make liberal use of the tab key. Navigate to the right source directory (probably the only one in /usr/src/kernels) and then try: # export KERN_DIR=`pwd`

There’s also a small chance you might get an error that says gksu: not found, and most probably the autorun script won’t do anything. I ran # ln -s /usr/bin/sudo /bin/gksu and it seemed to clear the problem up. (I only ran into this when starting the install via autorun.sh, not with the .run file.

Update for 32-bit Guests

A few possible changes if this doesn’t work for you with a 32-bit guest. (It didn’t for me, so I had to play around/research a bit more.)

1. Run # uname -r. If you see the letters PAE, then you’ll need to follow the rest of these steps. If you don’t see PAE, you should be fine.
2. If so, make sure your kernel is up to date with # yum update kernel-PAE. After this, restart.
3. Instead of the kernel-devel package, you’ll need to install kernel-PAE-devel. That makes the second line of the example above:
   # yum install kernel-headers kernel-PAE-devel gcc
4. If you’d already installed the kernel-devel package, you may want to remove it: # yum remove kernel-devel as it can confuse things.
5. Then, everything else should be the same.

This is only a problem when I try to work on LAMP web applications. Sure, I could install XAMPP, but running Apache/PHP on Windows is really not close enough to a production environment. So I have two choices: I can dual-boot Linux and work in an OS—well, a window manager—I don’t like, or I can turn to virtual machines.

VMWare is a pretty heavyweight solution. Fusion, for OS X, is a great product. But in Windows, I opt for Sun’s VirtualBox.

VirtualBox New Virtual Machine Wizard

VirtualBox lets me run Linux (I opt for Fedora as it’s close to our production environment and I like it) in just another window, right next to Firefox.

To create a new VM, you’ll only need VirtualBox and a Linux ISO. (Or, you could use a pre-existing VM, or an “appliance,” copied from somewhere else. I’m not going to cover that.) Step through the wizard. Some of my recommended settings:

VirtualBox New Disk Settings

• At least 512 MB of RAM for running Gnome+Apache+MySQL+VIm(+Firef0x?) in the VM.
• At least 30 GB of hard disk. Yes, you can add more later, but expanding an existing disk is difficult, and if you use a “Dynamically expanding storage”-type of disk (see above) it won’t take the full 30 GB right off the bat.
• There are two ways to go about doing Network settings—I do both.
  • Use Bridged networking. This gives your VM an IP address accessible to the rest of your network.
  • Use NAT. This gives your VM an IP address on a virtual network that only exists in your computer, but with a virtual gateway giving your VM access to the internet.
  • (You can also use Host-only networking, but that would prevent your VM from accessing the internet at all, and that’s no good.)
• Mount your installation media ISO as a CD/DVD drive via VirtualBox. You’ll be able to boot off the ISO and install Linux. You may run into issues if you leave the ISO mounted after installation.

VirtualBox Network Settings

Once you’re in Linux, set up your web server environment (use yum, apt-get, or whatever other package manager you choose). The key software I use:

• Apache
• PHP
• MySQL
• Memcached
• Sphinx
• Squid

With the software above, I can very nearly replicate the production environment for our web applications, while still spending most of my time in Windows. (When I do switch to the VM, I’m usually in VIm, my favorite text editor, anyway.)

Apache/PHP/MySQL is the typical PHP app stack. We use memcached for output caching (on SUMO, anyway). We use Sphinx to power our search engine. Squid is useful from time to time for approximating an application behind a reverse-proxy cache and load-balancing server. (You could also use nginx or Varnish.)

If you use NAT or Bridged networking, you’ll be able to navigate to your VM’s IP address from a browser on the host computer (in my case, in Windows). By using Bridged, I can access my local Apache instance from browsers on Windows, Linux, or a nearby Mac, which is immensely valuable when doing browser support work and testing. I can even send my VM’s IP address to other people in the office and have them look at my local work.

There is a performance cost with a VM. HTTP requests would come back faster in a real Linux environment, and sometimes I do boot into Linux, but the convenience is worth it to me.