I am downloading Fedora Core 3 and I saw in it's release notes that VMWare works with it (FC 3 is based in a 2.6 kernel) if you install the vmware-any-any package

I tried using vmware-any-any-update84.tar.gz

First of all, I would like to know what does that program does

2) Will that fix the NTLDR problem with FC3 and other 2.6 based distros such as Mandrake?

REgards

No, VMWARE is a virtual PC emulator.

It permits you to run another OS inside of Linux, so to speak.

It does not FIX or affect NTLDR problems on your NTFS partitions.

It's not a NTFS partition. It's a FAT partition. What I want to do is use Mandrake 10.1 Community and launch Windows XP (which is installed on the first partition of the disk).
I tried with Fedora Core 1 and RedHat 9 it works ok.

However with Mandrake 10 (kernel 2.6.8xx) it doesn't works.

I inserted a bootable CD wich lets me use DOS to examine the partition. I noticed that the C: and D: partitions are read correctly, however, when I went to c:\windows and type dir, I see that there's an error reading that directory.

In other words, VMware doesn't supports Mandrake 10.1 yet. It doesn't meantions Fefora Core 3, however in the Release Notes of FC 3, it sais that VMWare shoudl work with the vmware-any-any fix

Any suggestions?

VMWARE works fine under 10.1 as I'm running it.

The failure to see the drive is unrelated to VMWARE.

Are you sure?
Will you please tell me the excact kernel and OS version that you are running?
what is your Win file System?

According to

VMWare community forum[/b] this is the description of the problem:

What is it 'NTLDR' problem? I know only about problem with dualbooting caused by people using wrong geometry for their dualbooting disks. You can fix it yourself by using correct geometry in rawdisk's .vmdk file.

Do you know how to figure out the correct geometry of my disk?
Seems like that will fix my problem.

I have a 20 GB HD with 5 partitions:
a) c: (fat32)
b) /root (ext3)
the following partitions are part of the extended partition
c) d: (fat32)
d) /home (ext3)
e) /swap (linux swap)

Regards

YES

Quote:

Will you please tell me the excact kernel and OS version that you are running? what is your Win file System?

Kernel-2.6.8-1-12mdk

I've created a seperate virtual drive in linux under VMWARE. This creates a large file on my Linux partition containing my Windows OS.

Quote:

According to VMWare community forum

NTLDR has NOTHING to do with VMWARE.

As the above states, it's a problem with dualbooting.

I think you are very confused.

Please state the problem you are trying to solve or fix.

The problem is that my Native WinXP partition runs perfectly (with dualbooting)

However, if I try to run WinXP from Linux (that means, assigning the entire physical disk to my WindowsXP Virtual Machine), then I got the NTLDR error.

Whenever I boot Vmware, it displays me a message telling me that my kernel is not supported. I assume it will work perfectly if I would create a virtual drive, however I really need (and have already worked like that) WinXP to boot both natively and virtually

Regards

Workstation 4.0.1 supports the following versions of Mandrake Linux as host and guest operating systems: 8.2 and 9.0.

Mandrake Linux 9.1 is not supported.

The reference to Mandrake Linux 9.1 in the user's manual linked from the Workstation 4.0.1 Help menu is incorrect.

According to vmware, Mandrake Linux 9.1 is not supported, I suppose that 10.1 Community doesn't works neither

I really hope that SuSE 9.2 and/or Fedora Core 3 will be supported.

I don't think you want to do it this way.

The virtual machine does not behave the same way, nor does it appear to have the same hardware to XP.

It will create problems because the real install differs so greatly from the virtual hardware.

Xp will attempt to initialize hardware that isn't there or conversely reconfigure itself for what it sees under the virtual machine.

At worst you should create a small virtual disk under Linux and use that to access your real XP partition as another drive, in case you need to see the data files while running under Linux.

Which of these OS will work on Vmware 4.5.2-8848

1) SuSE Linux 9.2 Professional
2) Fedora Core 3
3) Mandrake Linux 10.1 Community

Is there a workaround for any of these OS?

What if I boot with a floppy with:
ntldr
ntdetect.com
boot.ini (with /sos instead of /fastdetect)