Running UCCNC in a Virtual PC

[IamCNC]

Is it possible to run UCCNC in a Virtual PC like Virtualbox? When I try to start the program it complains about the version of OpenGL. It seems OpenGL 1.3 is required, and the virtual PC has OpenGL 1.1.

I would like to run in a virtual pc only for creating my own screenset, or customizing the standard screenset.

[cncdrive]

However I'm not too familiar with Virtualbox, but I don't think it only supports OpenGL 1.1., because then Virtualbox would be useless for about any softwares using OpenGL graphics,
and this is because OpenGL 1.1 missing key features to do any high performance hardware accelerated graphics.
For example OpenGL 1.1 do not support even memory image compressions and lots of other things which are key functions...
The 1.1 standard was released in 1997, so it is 20years old, so you may guess how many features it is missing.

If the UCCNC complaints about OpenGL compatibility then probably what have happened is that you did not install the video card drivers in VirtualBox, so the virtually installed OS can't use the video card features properly.
Since a Virtualbox installed OS acts as a standalone OS you probably have to install the video card drivers inside the Virtual Box, otherwise the virtually installed OS will not be able to talk to the video card correctly.

Quickly googling after I also found this thread about that you also have to enable the hardware accelerated graphics in the Virtual box settings: https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=65702

[Dale]

I get the same OpenGL error when trying to run the software using Microsoft Remote desktop.
Software loads fine on the PC, but refuses to run when logged in remotely.
I think its an issue with the video graphics being transposed for transfer over ethernet.

[cncdrive]

Yes, it may be possible. It all depends on what those "virtual softwares" can do or can't do.
If they don't support OpenGL then there will be problems.
Windows natively supports OpenGL, the OpenGL interface is built into all Oses which the UCCNC supports, so the issue can only be the softwares you using,
because Windows is definately able to use OpenGL and if the video card supports OpenGL 1.3 or higher and if there are still problems then the issue is with the virtual software.

However I beleive VirtualBox supports OpenGL (I saw references that it even supports OpenGL 3.0 which is much higher than what the UCCNC requires and so it should be OK) and in this case it should work, but as said for the virtual OS to use OpenGL you have to install the graphics card drivers, otherwise the virtual OS will be unable to talk the OpenGL language with the graphics card, just like how it is with a real, non-virtually installed OS.

[dezsoe]

I often used VirtualBox for UCCNC testing, but when the new (1.2xxx) version came with OpenGL instead of Flash, I could not use it again. Now you gave me the idea to test again with latest VirtualBox and UCCNC. It works! I made a new virtual machine to be fresh without any garbage from the past. Windows 7 32bit install with only Guest Additions. So, the settings:

Here VirtualBox wants to install basic features: select No!

vb31.png (11.42 KiB) Viewed 18315 times

[IamCNC]

I got a step further:

A VM running Win10 64bit does not run UCCNC. Error says the pc supports only opengl 1.1. The virtualbox guest additions are correctly installed. I think Win10 has issues with the experimental 3D support of Virtualbox.

When i create a win7 32bit VM with virtualbox additions installed and 3D support switched on I can start UCCNC. Unfortunately also here some issues with 3D support:

Version 1.2037 shows a white screen with only a few controls. 95% of the controls are not shown
Version 1.2042 shows 99% of the controls. Only on the probing screen is almost nothing is show.

It most be an issue with Virtualbox 3D support. Switching off the 3D support causes the opengl error.

My setup (not my cnc pc):
Shuttle bare bone z170, skylake core i7, 64 Gb ram, Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti graphics card (2 Gb ram). Host OS is windows 2008r2

Tomorrow I continue with testing with some other windows versions.

[cncdrive]

I just got a VirtualBox installed with Windows 7. and ran the UCCNC 1.2042 and it ran, but I had the same results, with some controls, on the jog panel were missing.
I'm not sure why is this, but I guess it is because of the limited OpenGL capabilities of VirtualBox, probably bugs in the OpenGL implementation. Since this functionality in Virtualbox seems to be "experimental only" yet, it is probably not fully working and not fully tested.
Will later try the same with a Win10 virtual OS.

[IamCNC]

I got V1.2042 running in VM Win10 64bit, but still with controls missing on the jog panel.

I added the following lines to my registry to solve the OpenGL error:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0000]
"OpenGLDriverName"="VBoxOGL.dll"
"OpenGLDriverNameWow"="VBoxOGL-x86.dll"
"OpenGLFlags"=dword:00000001
"OpenGLFlagsWow"=dword:00000001
"OpenGLVersion"=dword:00000001
"OpenGLVersionWow"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\OpenGLDrivers\MSOGL]
"DriverVersion"=dword:00000001
"Flags"=dword:00000001
"Version"=dword:00000001
"DLL"="VBoxOGL.dll"

(If found the reg settings here: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questio ... el-capitan)