Tomorrow morning, TB will arrive to start workstudy, working on the Wheelock Latin exercises (adding macrons). We decided that it might be simplest just to do this using a Windows VM, and it would be a good opportunity to figure out the best approaches to creating and managing VMs and storage for netlink users on the Linux boxes. This is what I did:

• Logged on as HCMC.
• Copied the generic Windows XP.vdi file to WinXPTheo.vdi (in the same folder).
• Started VirtualBox and added the new VDI to the media manager.
• Created a new VM with this VDI.
• Started the new VM, and logged on as hcmc.
• Installed required software (Hot Potatoes and WinSCP).
• Logged off the VM, and logged on again as WorkerBee.
• Made sure the software was installed and working, and downloaded a copy of the data for the project, into the user's My Documents folder.
• Shut down the VM.
• Logged off Linux and logged on as mholmes to create a PAM/netlink user.
• Logged off again, and logged on as HCMC.
• Copied the .VirtualBox folder from /home/hcmc/ to /home/netlink/mholmes/.
• Created a subfolder inside it called disks, and copied the VirtualBox VDI file into it.
• Edited /home/netlink/mholmes/.VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml to change the path of the VDI file from /home/netlink/Shared/ to /home/netlink/mholmes/.VirtualBox/disks/.
• Logged off as hcmc, and logged back on as netlink mholmes.
• In /home/netlink/mholmes/, did su hcmc.
• As hcmc, did chown -R Holmes: .VirtualBox. (This can only be done this way, because the mholmes user only exists on the local machine while it's actually logged on.)
• As mholmes, started VirtualBox. FIRST AND ONLY PROBLEM: VirtualBox complained about the VDI file, saying it couldn't load it, although it had the path correct and the file was fine.
• In the VirtualBox media manager, Released the VDI file (which disconnects it from the VM).
• Removed it from the media manager.
• Added it back into the media manager.
• Added it as the HD for the VM.
• Started the VM and confirmed that everything was working.

The advantage and purpose in doing all this is that you can create and configure a VM for the project in advance, and then relatively quickly set it up for the person who'll be using it the first time they arrive and log on.

Issues I haven't yet addressed: The VM needs to be configured to mount a shared folder in the user's own documents (on the Linux side), and the data actually needs to be stored there. Then I need to write a script to back it up somewhere -- preferably Rutabaga -- so I can retrieve it.