Anyone using vmware ? i have just installed the redhat 9 into the vmware....but i found that the linux within vmware is very lagging.....response time is very long.....i wonder why....any ideas? thx a lot


p/s: im using windows XP , guest linux redhat 9
thanks in advance

Hi
How much memory have you allocated to the VM?
Also, which version of VMware are you using, always assuming that it is VMware for Workstation.

memory allocated for VMware? 128 MB

VMware workstation : 4.0.5 build 6030

is this ok?

Well ... I am running RH9 with samba and OpenOffice running and I had to increase from 192 MB to 256 MB to avoid waiting to get mouse control back. If you shut the VM down, you can make changes to the settings. I am assuming that you have at least 512MB on your host machine, although my Tablet suffers from the fact that the
video RAM is shared with XP Pro and Task Manager usually reports about 150MB used. However, on my Dell Laptop with 384MB and 64MB Videocard RAM (running Win2kSP3 as host), I don't have the same problems and the same RH9 VM runs happily on 192MB.

So ... if you can try upsizing your RAM allocation and see if it helps, otherwise you will have to cut back on the services that are running on one and/or the other machines (i.e. Host and/or guest).

HTH, if not let us know

Try installing the VMWare tools program on the RedHat 9 system.

i have only 256 DDR ram in my com....so the max memory can be allocated to vmware is just 176mb.....could the performance be better if i increase my ram to 256?

I guess that you will have to see what services you can stop on the host, because as soon as either the host or guest start to use the virtual RAM (i.e. swap memory to and from the hard disk) you will get excessive degradation. Anyway try with the 176 and post here if there is any improvement. Otherwise i would suggest that you download a copy of knoppix 3.4 and create an iso-image CD, and try running it as a live CD just to see how fast your machine really can run a linux distro.

I am not quite sure what you meant by 'increasing the RAM to 256' obviously your host machine has to have enough RAM to run without swapping 'background' services and programs in and out of memory. If you mean slotting in another 256 RAM DIMM, SIMM or whatever, I would suggest that this would automatically solve your problems.

Just wondering, what's vmware like? I've been toying with the Idea of buying it but I want to know if it really does run all Windows programs?

IMHO VMware is not really designed to 'run Windows programs'. It is more a developer's tool that allows one to run a variety of operating systems concurrently in a networked environment mainly for testing purposes. While I can only speak for the Workstation versions, and then only with indepth knowledge of using Windows based hosting, it does allow one to duplicate 'real world' applications. For example, a couple of years ago, on my Win2k laptop, I was able to create and run a NT server running SQL server to develop an accounting package with customized add-ons, without being connected to any servers or evenn the internet. This meant that I could test enhancements to the software that was being developed before allowing it to go live. it also meant that I could download the various databases at the end of the day and check and/or update them without affecting the live data. Since all the data was on one physical PC (my laptop, in this case) it was just as fast as using the 'real' system with all its servers load balancers, routers etc.

If, however, you are Linux based ('hosted' in VMware speak) then with the workstation version and with sufficient RAM - I would suggest that today 512MB-1GB as minimum - you should be able to run a couple of different OS's concurrently on seperate virtual machines, but if you are looking to run graphic intensive Windows only programs, such as games, then you would not be happy with VMware. Notwithstanding having a 128MB 8xAGP videocard on one of my machines, VMware is unable to utilize its full potential. you may have heard mention of VMware tools and/or toolbox which basically sets the graphics and peripherals for VM's running on your particular hardware - however this is restricted in terms of color and screen resolution. I guess developers don't need great graphics and don't have time to play games. Also one is restricted in the peripherals that one can attach to a virtual machine so forget about a joystick / flight yoke / pedals etc., even though the most recent versions of VMware support most USB devices and firewire-iLink.

So maybe Wine is what you need or should investigate.

HTH