Hi have u ever tried the vmware linux version? Dp u have any problems? Do u know if vmware can launch from linux a preinstalled windows version from my hard disk. I know that i can install windows inside my linux but what i need is to launch from linux a preinstalled windows system...
Suggestions?

I'm using VMWare 5.5 under Linux at the moment. I had some problems with version 5.0 and had to use a 3rd party patch from http://ftp.cvut.cz/vmware/ called vmware-any-any-update96.tar.gz, but 5.5 doesn't need it (I'm using Slackware 10.2 with kernel 2.16.4.5).

If you're also using Slackware, I recommend http://www.cs.ucr.edu/~jbyrne/vmware.htm for getting VMWare installed.

I haven't used a pre-installed version of Windows before so I can't comment on that...

Can u plz check it a little? I think if u try to create a new virtual machine u can easily check if u can launch a preinstalled os like windows

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by pre-installed, however I'm running Windows 2000 as the guest OS on a Linux host. Is this what you're asking?

I've been using vmware under linux for a long time, and there are no problems launching and running anything from windows95 up to 2003 datacenter.

Are you by chance trying to get an image on a running hardware pc into VMware? If so, you're looking for their P2V software, which cdboots a pc and then migrates the build over to vmware where it runs as if it was built inside of vmware.

Thx a ot but let me explain it more... I have in installed in my system suse 10 and windows 2000 i use grub at boot time to select os... I want to know if i use vmware on my linux box if i would be able to launch windows 2000 already installed in other partition.. Do u have something in mind?
RThx a lot

Yes, you can use VMware to boot up your Windows install, but only if it is on its own hard drive. Before you do this, I recommend backing up your Windows install because VMware installs its own drivers and this will screw up your Windows install when you boot it up with out VMware.

When I was using Slackware 10.0, installing VMware was no sweat. I always compile the required modules that VMware uses in any distribution that I used. I never had problems with VMware when using XFS as my filesystem.

I still use VMware 4.5 because that is the only version that I rights for now.

Kernel version is at 2.16.4.5. I must be sleeping too looong.

I saw the load from harddisk option and will take Electro's advice but also I have a question.
Can a recovery, from that issue you [Electro] mention, be done with a restore point made just before messing it up?
<Yes but I will have to re-jig it again when I return>

Just for the record.
I installed VMware 5.5 on SuSE 10.0 with no glitches at all.
Installed Ubuntu; cool. Then I installed Windows versions 4.0(95) 4.1(98) and 2000(xp). Dynabolic had twin, mini screens on display that were all messed up.
Amazingly, in win98 when I click the "Restart the computer" button I am back and loaded in 15 seconds total.

Thx a lot do u know how to put vmware in a highest priority using renice because the guest operating system goes too slowlu

According to the man pages for nice renice, priorities on the system range from -20 (highest) past 0 to +20 (lowest). Normal users cannot set their priority higher than 0, only root can do that. However, depending on your system setup, VMWare may start with a high priority anyway. On my box, VMWare runs with a priority of -10.

When you run top, what priority is it running with on your system and what processes are running with a higher priority?

Changing the nice value of a program using 2.6.x kernels will spend all the time running the program while other programs can come to a halt. Do not renice VMware. Keep it at 0, so other programs can be run too. Until processors include virtual hardware instructions, VMware will be 30% slower than running the OS in a normal system. What I am saying, assume that it will perform slowly because it is a virtual machine.

Actually, I didn't set the priority of VMWare - the installer did and the other processes on my PC are not slowed to a halt so I haven't changed it.

Are you saying that there is a problem with scheduling in 2.6 kernels? I'd like to read more about this, but haven't found anything useful on google. Even searching the linux-kernel archive at http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel for renice problems only found discussions about individual problems, not the whole system. Can you point me to some sources for this?

Thanks.

Thx a lot whats the vmwares main process? ps -aux bring me a bunch of v,ware processes

When I run top, the nice'd process is called vmware-vmx. When I grep for this in the ps output using:

I get:

I haven't manually set the priority for this task - vmware did it for (to? ) me.