Basic questions on VMWare 1

[sedawk]

I read some posts on this forum on VMWare. Since I am new to Linux I guess I missed some key points here about VMWare:

I've installed a dual boot laptop:XP and RH 9. I have to reboot to access either of them. Now, some posts said that it is no need to reboot then both of the two OS's could be access ed by installing VMWare. However, I got loss when some other said VMWare needs WinNT. Really confused in this concept. In short, my questions are:

1. is it possible to access both OS's without rebooting by VMWare or something else?

2. VMWare really depends on Win NT?

3. When I installed RH 9, I set it to be client/desktop and didn't install any server packages, how can I install VMWare then?

I think after I am clear about these basic concepts I can go comfortably to VMWare.com to see more detail.

Thanks.

 

[sedawk]

Oh, I forgot to ask this:

Is VMWare free? I heard that users are required to purchase license.

 

[AP81]

I think you are a little confused.

VMWare works by creating a virtual machine within another operating system. To get VMWare to work, you must then install another operating system through VMWare (to create the new virtual machine). Then it is possible to run one operating system from withing another. A virtual machine can be installed from within a Linux system or from within a Windows system.

As far as I am aware, if you already have a dual boot system, you can't configure VMWare to run the already installed OS. Don't hold me to that though. I guess it is possible to boot from an image, or boot disk, but I have not tried it. You would also have to reduce the amount of RAM the system uses. It is better to install and configured the OS through VMWare.

To answer your questions:
1. Yes
2. VMware works on NT systems. That means NT, W2k & XP will all work, as they are based on Windows NT.
3. It doesn't matter.
4. No it isn't free, but there is a trial available.

 

[sedawk]

All right, thanks a lot. I guess at very least I can try these:

1. download VMWare and obtain a trial license code(it there code for trial?)

2. Say I have a harddisk with only RH 9 installed. Then I can install VMWare workstation 4 on this harddisk, after VMWare installed I can try to install WinXP. Note that I mean the procedure is invert compared to dual boot system installation, ie., WinXP first RH 9 second. Also assumed here the RH 9 harddisk is not dual boot system.

3. Then use VMWare to configure WinXP as virtual machine.

Are this procedure reasonable?

In addition, I want to confirm with AP81: So Win98 can't be configured by VMWare since it is not based on Win NT, right?

Thanks a lot

 

[AP81]

>In addition, I want to confirm with AP81: So Win98 can't >be configured by VMWare since it is not based on Win NT, >right?

Right. You can't install VMware on a system running Windows 98 (as 98 isn't built on NT). However, you can install Windows 98 as a virtual machine through VMWare.

What you have said you want to do is fine.

1. Download VMWare, fill in your details, download the trial and you will be sent a trial licence. Remember that there are two different versions: Windows and Linux. Download the VMWare binaries for Linux.
2. Follow the instructions and set up VMWare. Then you can install Windows (even Windows 98). Have a look at

http://www.vmware.com/support/guestnotes/doc/index.html

3. You are done.

Just remember to read the VMWare help files. They contain everything you need to know.

Good Luck

 

[venkman]

Also, there are some limitations to vmware, particularly around directx. If you are trying to use it to run some of the newer windows games that require directx (like Warcraft3 as I discovered), then you probably need to keep your old school system. On that note, I run starcraft without any problems on vmware emulating a win xp system.

Anyways, vmware is really easy to setup. Once you have installed it (following the instructions), creating a virtual machine in their wizard is fairly self-explanatory.

-Venkman

 

[sedawk]

Thanks all, I am clear what I am gonna to do and where to seek help.

 

[hyperdaz]

Does anyone else have problems with VMware and KDE screensavers not kicking in...

Been Having this problem for a while

 

[bswip]

Make sure you get the latest version and that your RH9 source files are available. Why? Because I found that VMWARE wanted to recompile my kernel on RH9.

I have been running VMWARE Workstation for about 6 months now. I tried running it under two different configurations - W2K and Linux. The first release of VMWare Wkstation 4.0 did not support RH9, so I installed it under Suse 8.1. I recently migrated back to RH9 since it is now supported (base kernel for RH9 - that's why the recompile).

You are going about this in the right way. Just follow the FAQ's and you should be fine.

Make sure you have enough memory (max is 1 GB for Wkstn) and if possible install a second hard drive and place all your virtual machines there (I use a mount point of /usr/openv for my second drive). This way, if you want to expiriment with another supported Linux, you can easily recover your VM's.

 

[venkman]

bswip,

Are you sure about this base kernel stuff? I've been running vmware on RH 9.0 for a while with the regular RHN approved updates and I've had no problems with vmware. The only thing is that every time you update your kernel, vmware requires you to run its config program again. This is a 2 second operation though.

hyperdaz,
not sure exactly what your problem is; can you be more speciffic? Also, you should probably post your issue to a new thread.

-Venkman

 

[bswip]

It started when I migrated from Suse 8.1 to RH9.0 after applying all the updates. If I had started with the base RH9 then I would have had only the second step as you have expirenced (I have also reconfigured after a kernel update). That was my only point.