I've looked on the 'Net and cannot find a simple howto on setting up a virtual network using Linux as the host and win98 as the guest.
In order to be able to use an HP scanner and its windows software (that works much faster and produces far superior results than Sane/Xsane) I've set up win98 in a VMware Server virtual machine.
I would like to be able to go to the virtual machine from the Linux host and pull the .pdf files over to the Linux partition or while in win98 as guest move the files to the Linux host. Either way is OK as long as I can get the files to the Linux partition.
I have two books on Linux and read what I can find on the 'Net about VMware, but it doesn't seem to apply in this situation.
If someone could point me toward some documentation that is written in plain English it would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you very much.

You may want to try setting up either an ftp server or an scp (ssh) server on the linux host. Since your win98 VM should have an ip address, you should be able to transfer files as if they were two separate computers.

Let's say your linux host (which has a ftp server running) has the ip 192.168.10.2, and your win98 vm has the ip 192.168.10.3
From the win98 vm, you could then ftp to 192.168.10.2 and issue a put command on the file that you want.

--Shaun

I would suggest you setup a Samba file server on your Linux host, and share it to your Windows machine running in VMware... This is what I did for my machine.

Or this http://www.ntfs-3g.org/. If your Windows is using VFAT, you can mount it in your Linux actually.

http://polishlinux.org/howtos/vmware...irtualization/

http://www.howtoforge.com/debian_sar...e_server_howto

http://www.howtoforge.com/debian_sar...erver_howto_p2

1. The follow-up window will contain setting parameters related to the network conditions. With questions about the way you’d like to setup your network, if at all. The options are fairly clear - you can “Use bridged networking”, run your host as a NAT, create a virtual network between your host and a starting system via “Use host-only networking” or cut off your virtual machine from a network with the “Do not use network connection” option.
---------


2. Networking: If you want the virtual machine to be part of the same network than the server itself, select bridged networking.
If you want to use a virtual NAT, select Network address translation.

(1 and 2 equate or resolve to the same thing) and Both of those fall under "creation of a new virtual machine" at above url's

At 2nd url above it shows how to prep the host OS for vmware server (1. host OS must have a static IP, and 2. the IP itself of the vmware server into /etc/hosts and more -- note: I think 1 and 2 are different IP addresses -- IOW host OS has an unique IP and vmware server has a unique IP)

I'm guessing slightly on some of this -- I currently run Qemu is EZ to do with its default user mode network stack, has its own built in Samba server, nat ,dhcp sever and all.

qemu -boot c sda3 ~/images/win2k.qcow -m 1000 -smb ~/ntp -localtime

that means my smb shared folder (between Win 2K guest and Slack 12 host) is /home/al/ntp

In Win I had to map a network drive in order to get it to work. Oh, but does it ever work! And reliable. never breaks! Ez file sharing between host and guest.

Oh but did I ever scratch my head for a while until I eventually got it working. But then I saw how easy it was (I had been trying to overcomplicate -- and also a thing or two I had not yet grasped).

For my next proj., I haven't yet decided if it will be Xen or if it will be Vmware Server (or Virtual Box for that matter).

I've run Vmware Player too (on Slack 11). But I had to run my own Samba server there (no built in)

Slack 12 I used Eric Hameleer's Qemu and gcc "compatability" build scripts/packages and I copied my Win 2K file from Slack 11 and it works fine (that's time saving to not have to install Win 2K again.

Vmware player fell by the wayside on Slack 12 (did not do it).

Good luck.

http://www.google.com/linux?hl=en&q=...to&btnG=Search

--
Alan.

I agree with reikyv and use the same solution.
I am running a Samba server on Slackware 12, sharing a folder for exchanging files between the two OSs.
In Windows I then "connect" to a "network drive" and can copy all I want.

The opposite is also possible: sharing a folder on your Windows virtual machine and then doing a smbmount on Slackware.

Thanks to everyone for their help.
Greatly appreciated!

OK. I'm back at it. I have a weekend to myself so I'm trying again.
This time I installed VMware Server and tried XP, again.
I took the default of using a bridged network when installing XP into the virtual machine. However, XP said it wasn't connect to a network.
So for chuckles, I changed it to "host only" and bingo, now it says it is connect to the local area network. However, I can't see the host, Slackware 12, and in Slackware I can't see XP, the guest.
I really do appreciate all the advice so many of you have been so kind to give, but, to be honest, most of it just isn't simple enough, as in layman's terms, for me to understand.
Just what, exactly, do I have to do to be able to see the guest from the host (Linux) and transfer files from the guest (XP) to Linux, the host.
Thanks you very much.

What I've done here to get a working Samba connection to my XP vmware guest:

• in your XP install, tell it to be member of the same WORKGROUP that your linux samba server is configured to (not sure if necessary)
• set XP to get it's IP via DHCP, after booting let you show the IP-address: open up a Windows "terminal" and type "ipconfig"
• activate file- and printersharing in your windows box
• open up a folder for sharing, I do this with Windows Explorer, right click on folder/drive - properties - "sharing" (sorry, German version here, I hope it's called sharing), don't set a password to just test it
• in Slackware open up krusader, once again German locale, but I think it should read "commands" - "new network connection" -- choose "smb" as protocol, then as host type in the IP you got from your windows box
• pray

I hope it's complete, but from memory that's all that should get your connection working.