Using Cobalt in VirtualBox
Cobalt officially supports VirtualBox.
To allow DOS programs to access your network (and to transfer files between your computer and Cobalt), you need to make sure the network is working. Shut down Cobalt if you have it running, select Cobalt in the main VirtualBox window, and click the Settings button. Then click on the Network menu option, and click the arrow net to Advanced to see all the options. Your network settings should look like this:
Make sure 'Attached to' is set to 'Bridged Adapter,' so the FTP server is visible to other devices on your local network (including the host computer). After you change these settings, start up the Cobalt virtual machine and run this command (if you are in the GEM desktop, you will need to exit it first):
newip
This command assigns Cobalt a working IP address on your local network. You can make sure that everything is working by running the ping command:
ping google.com
If you see Replies lost: 0, then your network connection is working!
VirtualBox doesn't natively support transferring files to and from a DOS virtual machine, but Cobalt works around this by running an FTP server. FTP access only takes a few minutes to set up. You will need to have the VirtualBox add-on package for Cobalt installed, and you must follow the above instructions for setting up network access.
You will also have to download an FTP client for your computer. I recommend Cyberduck. Once you download Cyberduck, start the FTP server from Cobalt by running this command:
ftpsrv
Once the server starts, it will display Cobalt's IP address, like in the below screenshot:
Open Cyberduck on your computer, and click the 'Open Connection' button at the top left. Type in Cobalt's IP address in the 'server' slot, type cobalt as the username, and type password as the password. The window should look like this:
Click the checkbox for Save Password at the bottom, and click connect. If you see a popup that says 'Unsecured FTP connection', click the 'Don't show again' checkbox and click Continue. Cyberduck will now show a list of drives in Cobalt:
Just double-click the DRIVE_C folder, and you can instantly see all of Cobalt's files! Now you just need to bookmark the connection, so you can easily access Cobalt's files later. Click the 'Action' button at the top of the Cyberduck window, click New Bookmark, type in Cobalt as the nickname, and close the window. To close the FTP server in Cobalt, press Control and C on the keyboard at the same time.
Once you have everything set up, it's easy to transfer files between Cobalt and your computer. On Cobalt, just run this command to start the FTP server (if you're in the GEM desktop, go to the Options menu and select Enter DOS Commands):
ftpsrv
Now that the server is running, open Cyberduck on your computer and double-click the Cobalt bookmark. After a few seconds, you should see all of Cobalt's files. Just drag and drop folders and files into the Cyberduck window to copy them. After you're done copying files, click the Disconnect button in Cyberduck, and exit the FTP server in Cobalt by pressing Control and C on the keyboard at the same time.