Mandrake & VMWare issues
 

I have Mandrake 10.1 installed on the 3rd of 3 hard drives in my comp. Linux runs great when i boot it from LILO, however if I boot into windows and want to run linux via VMWare I get this error while booting:


http://img196.exs.cx/img196/5348/linuxerror9vz.jpg

Anyone have any clue to why this is happening? I'm rather new to linux, but I'm really loving it. I'm exploring WINE and everything. I just dont want to have to restart all the time when I've been working in 3D Studio Max 7 in windows.

Sorry, for double posting, but does anyone know the answer to this problem??

Did you try "failsafe"? If not, try that and see if it boots up.

I've tried booting the failsafe, its results in the same error. It it a configuration error, because I went from running on real hardware, to 'emulated' hardware?

VMWARE virtualizes the "PC" you are booting Linux from.

As such it's virtual configuration IS NOT the same as your actual computer, rather parts of the Virtual Machine are emulated...

This can cause real problems trying to utilize "hard" devices and/or partitions.

If you want to run Linux under Windows, in a VMWARE session you are supposed to create a "virtual" Linux installation to a "virtual" hard drive.

This "virtual" hard drive is basically a file created on your XP partition, that gets mounted like a HDD when the virtual machine starts up.

So basicly, if my linux install doesnt work now, its not going to? (with this current version of VMware) I'm ok with that I guess. Would virtual PC do any better with handling this sort of thing? Cause i wanna access my dual boot without having to reboot. Or as another alternative, maybe WINE would run 3D Studio Max, eliminating the need to use windows so often...

I've never tried running Linux under Windows, but have done the reverse on my laptop (Mandrake 10.1 host running Windows XP Pro as a guest OS). I was able to do this without any problems, even with Windows in a "raw" partition (actual NTFS and FAT32 partitions rather than a file on a Linux partition). When specifying which partitions to allow VMware to access, you have to let it access all of them; trying to allow it to see only particular ones doesn't seem to work.

I have to run a Windows app about once a week and don't like rebooting the machine to do it. This setup works well for me.

HTH a bit -- Bob

The problem is that the virtual PC does not see the same hardware as your actual computer.

e.g. the bios is virtualized, etc.

People have sucess with their arrangements, when the virtual machine looks (hardwarewise) the SAME as their actual computer.

This makes the same drives and partitions available to the OS be it virtualized or not.

In your case you have Linux in a relatively unusual location, so the virtual machine wakes up and expects things one way, but does not find the layout the OS is looking for.

It's doubtful that other software will solve this.