Virtualization

Plucky users who need to work with virtual machines are advised to use a virtualization software that works with Plucky, such as VirtualBox.

On modern versions of Plucky, a block host rule (e.g., block google.com) applies both in a web browser and inside desktop apps if system is enabled.

This means if you try to load google.com in a web browser running in a VM, even without Plucky installed in the VM, Google will be blocked.

This only works with simple block rules and doesn’t offer the same flexibility as having Plucky installed on the machine.

That’s why we recommend once inside the VM the user also install Plucky and configure it with all the same configurations as the host machine.

This two-layered approach makes it much harder to circumvent Plucky’s filtering.

Use verdicts to confirm blocking is effective

On the host machine, run this command in a terminal window and let it sit in the background while you launch a virtual machine.

pluck verdicts -f virtualbox

If you’re able to see verdicts for virtualbox while it’s running, especially block verdicts, you will know Plucky’s filtering is effective.