Wetting up Windows VMs with Vagrant boxes.
Hi all, Now and then I need access to Windows VMs, for testing customer stuff, or sometimes for evaluating different solutions to an accessibility problem I am having at work, with our ever growing horrible tool set :) I just found that there are Windows boxes for Vagrant here: https://atlas.hashicorp.com/boxes/search?provider=virtualbox&q=windows&sort=&utf8=✓ I am installing one now. Just wondering if anyone else has used these boxes and has any tips for provisioning them with NVDA etc. I was planning to install something like LinuxTools or Chocolaty on them/it, then use 'wget' or similar to download NVDA. I am assuming that NVDA has an installer that can be run from the command line, but I have never investigated this. Any advice appreciated. Cheers, Jen.
Hi, I wouldn't trust those boxes personally since you don't know what work was done on them. You can make your own if you use Packer: http://www.hurryupandwait.io/blog/creating-windows-base-images-for-virtualbo... The packer templates for this solution are on GitHub, you can modify the commands that are ran as you see fit. Boxstarter is included here, so you get Chocolaty by default. Be aware that the package for NVDA on Chocolaty is old (2014.4). I use this method to get Chef test boxes up and running. Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Jen Bottom Sent: 21 January 2016 17:55 To: blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Wetting up Windows VMs with Vagrant boxes. Hi all, Now and then I need access to Windows VMs, for testing customer stuff, or sometimes for evaluating different solutions to an accessibility problem I am having at work, with our ever growing horrible tool set :) I just found that there are Windows boxes for Vagrant here: https://atlas.hashicorp.com/boxes/search?provider=virtualbox&q=windows&sort=&utf8=✓ I am installing one now. Just wondering if anyone else has used these boxes and has any tips for provisioning them with NVDA etc. I was planning to install something like LinuxTools or Chocolaty on them/it, then use 'wget' or similar to download NVDA. I am assuming that NVDA has an installer that can be run from the command line, but I have never investigated this. Any advice appreciated. Cheers, Jen. _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org https://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins
Andrew makes a good point. If you're willing to accept the risk, know that I've had good luck with the "Windows 7 with IE11" box, which is located here: http://aka.ms/vagrant-win7-ie11 After running "vagrant up" and having Virtual Box grab keyboard input, I installed NVDA by visiting www.ninite.com/nvda and running the provided installer. Chris On Thu, Jan 21, 2016 at 06:02:42PM +0000, Andrew Hodgson wrote:
Hi,
I wouldn't trust those boxes personally since you don't know what work was done on them.
You can make your own if you use Packer:
http://www.hurryupandwait.io/blog/creating-windows-base-images-for-virtualbo...
The packer templates for this solution are on GitHub, you can modify the commands that are ran as you see fit. Boxstarter is included here, so you get Chocolaty by default. Be aware that the package for NVDA on Chocolaty is old (2014.4). I use this method to get Chef test boxes up and running.
Andrew.
-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Jen Bottom Sent: 21 January 2016 17:55 To: blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Wetting up Windows VMs with Vagrant boxes.
Hi all,
Now and then I need access to Windows VMs, for testing customer stuff, or sometimes for evaluating different solutions to an accessibility problem I am having at work, with our ever growing horrible tool set :)
I just found that there are Windows boxes for Vagrant here:
https://atlas.hashicorp.com/boxes/search?provider=virtualbox&q=windows&sort=&utf8=???
I am installing one now.
Just wondering if anyone else has used these boxes and has any tips for provisioning them with NVDA etc.
I was planning to install something like LinuxTools or Chocolaty on them/it, then use 'wget' or similar to download NVDA.
I am assuming that NVDA has an installer that can be run from the command line, but I have never investigated this.
Any advice appreciated.
Cheers, Jen.
_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org https://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org https://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins
Do you know if either of these solutions do Windows update when they set up Windows so that you’re fully patched and ready to go? Right now, patching any recent version of Windows takes forever, as it can be two or three go-rounds depending on the version so that would be a big time-saver in a lab environment.
Ryan
-----Original Message-----
From: Blind-sysadmins
Hi,
I wouldn't trust those boxes personally since you don't know what work was done on them.
You can make your own if you use Packer:
http://www.hurryupandwait.io/blog/creating-windows-base-images-for-virtualbo...
The packer templates for this solution are on GitHub, you can modify the commands that are ran as you see fit. Boxstarter is included here, so you get Chocolaty by default. Be aware that the package for NVDA on Chocolaty is old (2014.4). I use this method to get Chef test boxes up and running.
Andrew.
-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Jen Bottom Sent: 21 January 2016 17:55 To: blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Wetting up Windows VMs with Vagrant boxes.
Hi all,
Now and then I need access to Windows VMs, for testing customer stuff, or sometimes for evaluating different solutions to an accessibility problem I am having at work, with our ever growing horrible tool set :)
I just found that there are Windows boxes for Vagrant here:
https://atlas.hashicorp.com/boxes/search?provider=virtualbox&q=windows&sort=&utf8=✓
I am installing one now.
Just wondering if anyone else has used these boxes and has any tips for provisioning them with NVDA etc.
I was planning to install something like LinuxTools or Chocolaty on them/it, then use 'wget' or similar to download NVDA.
I am assuming that NVDA has an installer that can be run from the command line, but I have never investigated this.
Any advice appreciated.
Cheers, Jen.
_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org https://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org https://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins
Hi,
Yes Windows Updates are done during the box creation stage. If I need to do a new box I tend to let it run during the night as it takes several hours.
Andrew.
-----Original Message-----
From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Ryan Shugart
Sent: 22 January 2016 00:34
To: Blind sysadmins list
Hi,
I wouldn't trust those boxes personally since you don't know what work was done on them.
You can make your own if you use Packer:
http://www.hurryupandwait.io/blog/creating-windows-base-images-for-virtualbo...
The packer templates for this solution are on GitHub, you can modify the commands that are ran as you see fit. Boxstarter is included here, so you get Chocolaty by default. Be aware that the package for NVDA on Chocolaty is old (2014.4). I use this method to get Chef test boxes up and running.
Andrew.
-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Jen Bottom Sent: 21 January 2016 17:55 To: blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Wetting up Windows VMs with Vagrant boxes.
Hi all,
Now and then I need access to Windows VMs, for testing customer stuff, or sometimes for evaluating different solutions to an accessibility problem I am having at work, with our ever growing horrible tool set :)
I just found that there are Windows boxes for Vagrant here:
https://atlas.hashicorp.com/boxes/search?provider=virtualbox&q=windows&sort=&utf8=✓
I am installing one now.
Just wondering if anyone else has used these boxes and has any tips for provisioning them with NVDA etc.
I was planning to install something like LinuxTools or Chocolaty on them/it, then use 'wget' or similar to download NVDA.
I am assuming that NVDA has an installer that can be run from the command line, but I have never investigated this.
Any advice appreciated.
Cheers, Jen.
_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org https://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org https://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins
Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org https://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins
Hi,
Yes Windows Updates are done during the box creation stage. If I need to do a new box I tend to let it run during the night as it takes several hours.
Andrew.
-----Original Message-----
From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Ryan Shugart
Sent: 22 January 2016 00:34
To: Blind sysadmins list
Hi,
I wouldn't trust those boxes personally since you don't know what work was done on them.
You can make your own if you use Packer:
http://www.hurryupandwait.io/blog/creating-windows-base-images-for-virtualbo...
The packer templates for this solution are on GitHub, you can modify the commands that are ran as you see fit. Boxstarter is included here, so you get Chocolaty by default. Be aware that the package for NVDA on Chocolaty is old (2014.4). I use this method to get Chef test boxes up and running.
Andrew.
-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Jen Bottom Sent: 21 January 2016 17:55 To: blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Wetting up Windows VMs with Vagrant boxes.
Hi all,
Now and then I need access to Windows VMs, for testing customer stuff, or sometimes for evaluating different solutions to an accessibility problem I am having at work, with our ever growing horrible tool set :)
I just found that there are Windows boxes for Vagrant here:
https://atlas.hashicorp.com/boxes/search?provider=virtualbox&q=windows&sort=&utf8=✓
I am installing one now.
Just wondering if anyone else has used these boxes and has any tips for provisioning them with NVDA etc.
I was planning to install something like LinuxTools or Chocolaty on them/it, then use 'wget' or similar to download NVDA.
I am assuming that NVDA has an installer that can be run from the command line, but I have never investigated this.
Any advice appreciated.
Cheers, Jen.
_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org https://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org https://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins
Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org https://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins
Hi, I wouldn't trust those boxes personally since you don't know what work was done on them. You can make your own if you use Packer: http://www.hurryupandwait.io/blog/creating-windows-base-images-for-virtualbo... The packer templates for this solution are on GitHub, you can modify the commands that are ran as you see fit. Boxstarter is included here, so you get Chocolaty by default. Be aware that the package for NVDA on Chocolaty is old (2014.4). I use this method to get Chef test boxes up and running. Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Jen Bottom Sent: 21 January 2016 17:55 To: blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Wetting up Windows VMs with Vagrant boxes. Hi all, Now and then I need access to Windows VMs, for testing customer stuff, or sometimes for evaluating different solutions to an accessibility problem I am having at work, with our ever growing horrible tool set :) I just found that there are Windows boxes for Vagrant here: https://atlas.hashicorp.com/boxes/search?provider=virtualbox&q=windows&sort=&utf8=✓ I am installing one now. Just wondering if anyone else has used these boxes and has any tips for provisioning them with NVDA etc. I was planning to install something like LinuxTools or Chocolaty on them/it, then use 'wget' or similar to download NVDA. I am assuming that NVDA has an installer that can be run from the command line, but I have never investigated this. Any advice appreciated. Cheers, Jen. _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org https://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins
participants (4)
-
Andrew Hodgson -
Chris Nestrud -
Jen Bottom -
Ryan Shugart