Hello to All,
Nervous about Fedora install deleting the real sd0.
I know that anyone who has installed VmWare on the 'host,' and then installs another OS as the 'guest' goes through this scary situation the first time.

I am at the place where Fedora does not recognize the format of the hard drive partition and wants to properly set up by formating and thus deleting all information on sd0.

sd0 is the home installation of XP PRO SP3 for work. There is that feeling in the pit of my stomach when I look at that screen saying, "All information will be deleted when you press that button."

I know this installation of Fedora9 will be within the 'file' on the 'host' hard drive. I am pretty sure this is normal and the yast installation of Fedora doesn't really know it is only in a 50GB file on a 320Gb hard drive in a virtual environment.

Question...
Is everything Okay and normal for a VmWare installation of Linux OS?

Thanks in advance for relaxing my fears of wiping out the existing OS that has to many files I can't afford to lose.
Spiritual Warrior

I am wondering if I have posted this in a manner that is understood by the people reading this thread.

I am all but ready to continue this install of Fedora Core 9 32 bit as "Guest" on this "Home" OS.

I just don't want to delete the existing files on the hard drive.

First time using VmWare.
I am trying it because I would prefer not making any other partitions on this hard drive and it is very simple theoretically to switch between and share files between different OS's on the same hard drive and on the network.

Thanks for your help in Advance.
I know there are many people asking questions with great need and patience is requested and demonstrated.

Spiritual Warrior

Okay, I took the plunge after having dinner.
I went back to the laptop and noticed the windows taskbar on the botton and that this was not an ordinary Linux install on a hard drive.

This is a Linux install on a virtual partition of a virtual hard drive that is a 50GB file on a physical hard drive.

Fedora only sees the VmWare hard drive/partition and installs just fine.

If anyone is interested I will relate what happens next otherwise I will wait a while and just delete this thread if it is possible.

This may be a totally useless thread.
Sorry, If you feel like this is a waste of time, to anyone reading this.

Nothing like the screen showing you the message, "You are about to lose ALL DATA on this hard drive," to make you hesitate a little.

So now I know.

Thanks to All

Ok...Ill give ya a hand. I have a Windows XP machine running VMWare and I have FC6 running fine on it. Whats your problem again? From the above post it looks like you got it installed...

Thanks for the reply bunyan,

Everything installed fine.
One minor problem though upon rebooting I come to the login and password and get dropped off at text root@localhost.
It has been a year or so and I forget how to get into the gnome desktop.
I wanted the KDE 4 but had errors on install, so went with Gnome instead.

I am not offered any options except interactive boot.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Spiritual Warrior

So youre saying you are getting a text window to log into and not a GUI?

Exactly.

After install, I was presented a window for configuration of Network, Firewall, Keyboard, Day/Time,ect. about 8 or 10 items to configure.

I clicked "next" and instead of the GUI coming up I was in the text window.

Installing Fedora 7 for the first time I had three different kernels and had to adjust which was primary boot in the beginning.

Using VmWare is a little bit different. If I find it creates too many minor problems to use, I'll just install the old way in a dual boot.

So here I am in a text window.
I am typing this from the workstation at work.

Thanks Bunyan,

I deleted the Virtual drive and started over with 'Guest' install of Fedora Core 9.
This time chose Graphical install and KDE instead of Gnome.

Everything worked out exactly as before.
After DVD pops out and install is finished.
A text window pops up with configuration tools.
I finish with the 'Display' which is last and choose only 1024x768 for Dell LCD laptop display, and chose my Nvideo GeoForce as well. It was accepted and reboots and I'm back at the text prompt.

I can edit the boot before it starts but don't know what to put after the 2.6.25-16 kernel for options.

Perhaps now I'm a little off thread, and forgive me if so.

I thank you for your help, Spiritual Warrior

I found out why I am in text mode after Graphical install.

My laptop uses Nvidia's Geoforce driver that is not supported by Fedora yet. So when you choose the above card, the X driver supplied with Fedora gets overwritten and your beautiful 3D display doesn't work.

So as a work around, upon booting into the text mode 'root@localhost',
I typed startX and went into x video mode and am able to access the GUI that way for now.

I would like to play with Plasma a bit in KDE 4.0. But this is going to be about work running Java 1.6 with Eclipse IDE making a speech recognition program for Speech to Screen Text.

Thanks to All who viewed and have fun playing with Linux, "The superior OS for an Ailing Planet."

Blessings,
Spiritual Warrior

Well, I've deleted the VmWare and Fedora Core 9.
I have installed SUSE 10.3 on my 320 GB hard drive and most devices setup from first boot. The sound is an issue as are several other fine points for this Dell M1330 Core2Dual laptop.

SUSE 10.3 was a snap.

Thanks,
Spiritual Warrior

Spiritual Warrior,
Glad to see you got Suse installed. I havent worked with that flavor so much but Im glad it took care of most of your issues. When installing on laptops I have found you have more issues vs installing on a desktop.