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By xhi at 2005-10-20 17:58
Installation of VMware Workstation 5 on Slackware -- 10-20-2005
-------------------------------------

I decided to write this after I have spent a day and a half trying to install a single
application. Namely %$##%^&%$# VMware. ;)


<- my current setup ->
* slack 10
* athlon xp 3000+ (400fsb)
* 1gb 3200 ddr
* geforce ti4200 (128mb)
* 40gb wd ata100
* 160gb wd sata150

* kernel 2.6.13.4 c
* any configure options specific to vmware
>> CONFIG_RTC - Real Time Clock ?? not sure if you have to have this ??
* kernel sources in /usr/src/linux
* VMware installed to /usr/local
* using VMware-workstation-5.0.0-13124.tar.gz


<- required patches ->
----------------------
- vmware-any-any-update94.tar.gz -- to resolve numerous problems
- vmscsi-1.2.0.2.flp -- serial ata @ the winxp F6 additional drivers screen


<- Install Notes ->
-------------------
- There was nothing clever about the linux install. Just run the package. I sent mine to /usr/local/. The installer had all the options about the mimetypes and icons correct. The only thing that one should not be confused about is the Slackware init directory. I ran across a lot of references while searching the web of ways to change the way it installs to rc.d. I DID_NOT change anything. The default procedure is fine. There is not directories under rc.d for rc0.d, rc1.d, etc, but VMware will create them, and it works fine this way. As long as you don't care about rc.d being junked up a bit just let it do its thing and go with it. The file 'vmware' that it installs in rc.d points into the rc*.d's and that is all you have to worry about.

- After the initial install package be sure to run the any-any-update**, I used update94. This is probably what resolved a lot of my problems I will list below.

- The WinXP (Guest OS) install was pretty smooth compared to the host in Linux. The only two things to mention is that if you need to install third party drivers for a normal XP install, you have to for the VMware install (obviously). I do not have a floppy on my comp so I used the image mount option in VMware, it worked great! And the other thing that cost me a "few" minutes was the VM-Tools install. In windows XP the tools installed fine until it came to the point where the install tried to start the VMtools service. This would not happen. It stopped with an error of, 1920 (i think) "The service could not be started, check your permissions". The was not due to my permissions as I was an admin. I found some guides on changing this registry entry
>> HKLM > System > CurrentControlSet > Services > VMTools
It said to change the image path tag from unquoted to quoted. so it was C:\Progr......, and should have been "C:\Progr......".. this did not help. I ended up skipping that step altogether later on. The problem was resolved when I changed the install path in the installer itself. Anything but the default install path should work fine. So simple. That cost me another hour till I figured that out.
:( But now it works just fine......


<- problems I ran into ->
-------------------------
1. EXTREME_Lag during install
* my winxp is not bootable so I had to install win98 first. It took about 12 hours to complete the install. It ran fine until it came to the Plug and Play detection. This took about 8 hours to install. Then when it got past that it took about a half hour after the network login screen. I was not logging into a network, just hitting cancel. Once WindowsXp install started this was resolved. I changed the settings in VMware to disable sound, and network. This may have done it? Don't know for sure as I have not had to reinstall yet. (This problem may have been resolved with the patch if I would have used it at this point ???)

2. Linux would not bridge the network when starting VMware
* When VMware was configured or when I booted the network bridging failed. This in itself is not a huge problem, however when the bridge failed it caused a whole lot of other problems! I am not sure what resolved this issue either, I am almost positive it was the patch for VMware, update94. The other things that happened include but may not have been limited to the following.
* at boot there were a whole gaggle of errors about the network failing, and a lot of debug print for VMware.
* If VMware attempted to init at startup and failed (which it always did) there was no way to load X. After `startx` that console would lock, leaving a message about not being able to obtain a socket. (I never saved this error message) It included some stuff about IPv6 and such that threw me on the wrong path for a
while. There was no way to get rid of this, no kill command would kill xinit and the only option was to reboot. After a shutdown was issued there were errors that the hard drives were busy and could not be unmounted. So I did not have clean unmounts. Luckily I am on Reiser now so that was not a big problem.
* The only way to get around the previous problem to work was to move the init scripts out of /etc/rc.d and into another dir. I would then, once in X, move them back to /etc and run them manually. VMware would start and run XP with no problem however the network was screwed up and I had the same problems at shutdown, or if I left and reentered X.
* After applying the patch and reconfiguring VMware everything worked like a charm! The network completed and started with no problem.!!!!! So simple, just overlooked the patch to begin with. :(


<- Final result ->
------------------
- Everything is working as it should. Shared folders, sound, network at an excellent speed. Quite a nice program. Especially cool is that fact that when you share a Reiser or ext filesystem with a guest, you can write to it. I have mounted NTFS shared into VMware but have not tried to write yet. So this day and half of work was well worth it. I hope this helps someone, as I have done a bit of chasing my tail on this one. Maybe this will save you a little time figuring a simple problem out. Just remember, Slackware, if anything should be easier to install on than most other OS's. IMO anyhow.


Oh, and no I don't really want or need winxp.. It is strictly for malicious purposes, I assure you. :)
If there would be any specific questions comments or complaints about this little tut, email me through the LQ site.
xhi

by penguinsRUs on Mon, 2006-04-24 00:26
Glad to see someone is taking this virtualization stuff seriously early on. I have been touting it as the biggest thing to be soon revolutionizing IT , for at least the last year and a half.....and now, for those who have been paying attention [doesn't hurt if you have current information practically from the horse's mouth either] ,Microsoft [behemoth company with name suggesting need for Viagara] and Intel along with key player VMWare have been less silent about where the longer view may be taking things. It doesn't take too many psychedelic mental windows to start seeing where creative types will make profitable use of virtualization technology - apart from some fairly common use in assisting with development of software in corporate settings, how about some of the other possibilities.....not that these are all everyone's cuppas, but imagine how many tv channels you can have going simultaneously, or internet cafes, or classrooms.....how many actual boxes? Well 2 PCs with 2500Mb or 3 gigs of ram could easily accomodate 6-8 guest OS's, - using something like
ATI's hydravision, 10 monitors out of one box could accomodate half to a third of a class of kids,, at enormous hardware savings. I've run up to 5 virtual machines with 2 gigs of ram and generally they are damn fast with 256 mb of ram allocated per vm. They are now, thanks to VMWare Player [which is free] portable, yes you can take your computer on a disk and pop it into a friend's pc for example, so long as they have the free player installed [and leave their machine unperturbed]. There's little end of interesting ways which Virtual machines will make computing easier, and likely a lot safer for everyone. You can basically trash a virtual machine and it would be about as dire as a Matrix Agent needing to replicate on the rebound [with vmware you can clone them and store the clones independent of or dependent upon the original. What I REALLY want to know is what is true regarding some claims I've heard made re: impact of viruses in these virtual environments. Despite having been told by a friend who did robotics at MIT and is big into security that they can run wild in these things and not do much if any damage [provided they don't get out, maybe, like in a Mac where u were using Office]....I still want to see what happens. If anyone is knowledgeable about this topic of virii in virtual machines, through experience, research, and /or reliable information, I'd be glad to learn more about it. In the end, will it make any sense at all to keep running Windows on hardware as a host OS or only OS when it can be run inside a shell impervious to Windows viruses, in a virtual environment which may also offer further protection from malware?

Maybe there has been discussion on this board around these questions/issues but I am very new here and learning the lay of the land.

cheers
I


  



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