Install Linux on Virtualbox, Infinite Loop

Symptom:

You create a virtual machine on VirtualBox, mount a Linux distro DVD, and boot it. It says it's loading the Linux kernel, but when that finishes the virtual machine goes into an infinite loop.

This afflicted me on openSuSE 11.4 (i586) as a guest, hosted on openSuSE 11.2 with virtualbox-ose-3.0.6-9.11.2.i586. I had similar problems with earlier versions of both the host and the guest, and also on x86_64 architecture. I don't actually know how widespread it is in versions and across host and guest distros, but there are occasional forum postings with possibly related symptoms.

What's happening:

I have no idea what's actually happening, but symptomatic relief is at hand  . . .

How to fix:

On the VirtualBox GUI console select your virtual machine for editing. On the System page, Motherboard tab, disable ACPI. That cured it for me.

P.S. When you configure your network adaptor, the name associated with it is the name of the host interface on which guest traffice will be sent. I believe that eth0 is the default even if it's inactive, and if so (e.g. if you have an inactive wired NIC and an active wireless one) you will need to change this setting accordingly.