I would like to install Mepis on a laptop to get rid of viruses and adwares. I also want to setup a Virtual Machine (Windows XP) inside Mepis. My problem is that I really can't decide whether to use VMWare or Qemu. Basically, I think I will only be satisfied if I can do the following:

1.) A guest OS (Windows XP) which has a USB support. Maybe you're wondering why. Its because still some hardwares are not compatible with Linux so I need a guest OS which can handle hardwares such as digital cameras, USB Wifi, Ipods, scanners and few printers.

2.) Internet connection. I tried networking before in Qemu and VMWare and looks fine. I haven't tried bridging wireless lan though.

3.) Enable the guest OS to use the printer installed in Mepis. Or if possible, use the parallel port for printing even if the Mepis OS could not detect the printer.

I also noticed that Qemu is slower compared to VMWare. I am still haven't tried installing kqemu which other people told me that it is a speed booster. How fast can it be when installed kqemu?

I also tried downloading VMWare Server from the VMWare website. It is a beta version. What I found out is that it slows down the system because VMWare Server is loaded after the bootup. I think I must use VMWare workstation instead of the VMWare Server to eliminate the load on the machine.

Hope someone can give me some suggestions on either to use Qemu or VMWare. Thanks.

1) I've not used vmware recently but I've seen that qemu has a working usb implementation.
2) The wireless part shouldn't affect the guest OS, it will just appear to have a wired connection to the host.
3) Since you'll have networking enabled this shouldn't be a problem. Just set up the printer to work with samba and then share it with the XP guest.

kqemu definately speeds things up, I wouldn't reccommend running without it. I'd also take the time to get rid of any graphical effects used in the guest such as fading menus etc. Since the graphics processing is done by the host proccessor and not on a graphics chip it can slow things down quite a lot.

I've used Qemu before without installing kqemu. Its just too slow. I tried installing kqemu but I find it hard installing it. I've read in some forums that you'll have to recompile the kernel. Is there an easy way to install kqemu? I also tried searching kqemu on the synaptic which I think will be easier to install but can't find one. Can you help me install kqemu the quickest way?

You shouldn't need to recompile the kernel. If following the installation instructions fails then let us know how far you got and what error messages you encountered.

I just followed the how-to from http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=320569

I noticed that kqemu support is not set to "yes" after I issued the command
./configure --enable-adlib --cc=gcc-3.4 --host-cc=gcc-3.4.

Hope you can help me on this. Thanks.

Can you post the output from the configure script.

David,

Like I said, I did everything written on the how-to. I've downloaded everything except for the kernel headers. I can't seem to download it because the apt-get tells me that it is not available. I am using Mepis 3.3.1. I also tried downloading the kernel source but can't download the linux-headers for whatever reason. After typing:
./configure --enable-adlib --cc=gcc-3.4 --host-cc=gcc-3.4, I get the following messages:

Could not find kernel includes in /lib/modules or /usr/src/linux - cannot build the kqemu module
Install prefix /usr/local
BIOS directory /usr/local/share/qemu
binary directory /usr/local/bin
Manual directory /usr/local/share/man
ELF interp prefix /usr/gnemul/qemu-%M
Source path /home/armscor/source/qemu-0.8.0
C compiler gcc-3.4
Host C compiler gcc-3.4
make make
host CPU i386
host big endian no
target list i386-user arm-user armeb-user sparc-user ppc-user mips-user mipsel-user i386-softmmu ppc-softmmu sparc-softmmu x86_64-softmmu mips-softmmu arm-softmmu
gprof enabled no
static build no
SDL support yes
SDL static link yes
mingw32 support no
Adlib support yes
CoreAudio support no
ALSA support no
DSound support no
FMOD support no
kqemu support no

It seems the kqemu could not be loaded. Hope you can help me on this. Thanks.

David,

I get the following errors after I modprobe kqemu:

FATAL: Error inserting kqemu (/lib/modules/2.6.15-1-586tsc/misc/kqemu.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)

Hope you can help me on this.

What error was shown when you ran dmesg?

David,

Here's the error I got from dmessg

kqemu: no version for "struct_module" found: kernel tainted.
kqemu: module license 'unspecified' taints kernel.
kqemu: Unknown symbol page_address

I don't know how to solve this. I want to thank you for being patient enough to help me on this. Thank You very much.

I already fixed mine. Well, the problem is that I'm installing an old version of VMWare which 5.0. I've downloaded 5.5 from the VMWare website and followed the instruction from the Mepis Lovers and it went well. Thanks to everyone who helped me.

I run VMWare Workstation routinely, hosting one or more copies of Win2K. I haven't upgraded it since 4.5.

I experience no compatibility issues, except with zip drives. Everything works and works well. Video is too slow for games, but fast enough for anything else (including WMP). Sound is fine.

Hard drives are slower than native too, sometimes much slower. However I have some screaming SCSI drives so it doesn't really bother me.