Virtualbox shows only 32-bit machine options

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Sat, 2020-01-25 at 16:20 +0000, Manish Jain wrote:
> I installed virtualbox-ose as the documentation, but when I try to 
> create a new virtual machine (Win 10-64bit), Virtualbox shows only 
> 32-bit options. That's not specific to Win10. Even Linux options are 
> only 32-bit.
> 
> So how do I install a 64-bit virtual machine ?

There might be virtualization settings provided by the BIOS of your
computer and/or by FreeBSD that needs to be enabled or disabled. Perhaps
you even need to update the BIOS.

Even while a missing Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack shouldn't
matter related to the available guest architectures, you never know. If
the Extension pack isn't installed, consider to install it.

On a Linux host running the Oracle branded non-OSE version, I always
need to fix the *.vbox file after installing a new release of
virtualbox, resp. after installing new guest additions for a Windows 10
guest. I don't need to do it for a Windows 7 guest.

For the Windows 10 guest I get "Cannot register the DVD image because
UUID already exists", even while the guest additions were ejected from
the virtual DVD drive.

It requires to delete the entries between "<DVDImages>" and
"</DVDImages>".

On my Linux host I fortunately are able to run the Oracle branded non-
OSE version. While it's said that nowadays the OSE version is the same
as the non-OSE version, it's actually not true. Differences between the
OSE and non-OSE version already start by mouse cursor rendering.

In my experiences with Linux hosts the OSE version is way more a PITA,
than the non-OSE version is.

Oracle seems not to provide a non-OSE version for FreeBSD.

There are way better, less failure prone virtual machines than
virtualbox available. I'm just using virtualbox, because it's the
easiest to set up VM, e.g. regarding shared folders or even how to get
the desktop visible on the host. However, if for what ever reason
virtualbox should become more a PITA than it already is, I would migrate
to another VM.

Virtualbox always is a little bit fishy. It works for me on a Linux
host, running Windows guests for a relatively short time. It already is
risky to run guests for a long time, or to rely on USB, if a connected
device might disconnect the USB connection, regarding an update done for
the connected device via the guest.

In my experiences it needs to be carefully considered, if the advantages
of using virtualbox outshine the disadvantages, compared to less easy to
set up, but more reliable VMs.

Hopefully somebody is able to answer your request regarding 64 bit
guests on a FreeBSD host. Anyway, keep in mind that virtualbox has got
pros and cons compared with other virtual machines.