hello everyone,
i'm attempting to configure the vmware server on the above mentioned system, without luck.

i can't get the vmmon to compile.

I have tried this out-dated guide http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...e-13-a-779297/

but no luck.

I have setup made the necessary links as explained in this guide http://hangdog.pihl.no-ip.org/index....d=47&Itemid=53

I haven't managed to try out the any-any patch since no link to the patch is alive anymore.

Since slack 13.37 is using 2.6.37.3 kernel I wonder if anyone has found a way to compile the vmware modules on these recent kernels.

thank you for your help

Check out the patch from RISE Security. I usually had good luck with those. I don't think that the vmmon will compile on modern kernels without a patch.

As I said on my site, I've abandoned using VMWare server for exactly these kinds of reasons, namely VMWare simply doesn't care about Server, and it is a huge pain to keep running. It simply breaks too often, so unless you REALLY need to use VMWare, I'd suggest using VirtualBox instead. There are nice slackbuild scripts at Slackbuilds.org.

Hi Hangdog:

Will a DVD created using VMWare work in VirtualBox?

Thanks,

Hangdog42 thankyou for the reply.
I am not sure I would like to give up on VMware server yet, so I went ahead and tried the patch. No luck - the search hasn't been fruitfull either...

If i'm gonna switch to virtualbox I need some definitive answers (i'm googling them but I want some answers from experienced users).

1) I see in slackbuilds.org that the packages will not compile on x86_64 systems.Yet there exist precompiled 64bit binaries (*.run) in virtualbox website. Is multilib is the only way to go in slackware? or am I missing something? Does it work if I install the precompiled binary instead of going the (preferred) slackbuilds.org way?

2) soon enough I'll be setting another production system with many wm's running. I was thinking of installing vmware server ESXi (which is freeware). Since I will have to setup some guests already in the system i'm setting up now, will I be able to transfer them to vmware afterwards?
NOTE: I could of course install slackware there too and add virtualbox on top, but I must be able to run 64bit systems on that machine..

3) I see that there are several web-interface implementations. Is there a 'more complete' one?

4) Is there a way to convert a physical machine to a virtual machine in virtualbox, as is the case with vmware converter?

5) I will actually have to connect a pci card directly to one of the guests in the system. Does virtualbox support forwarding pci hardware as easy as it does usb hardware?

6) since I'm setting up production machines, speed is somewhat important. Is virtualbox 'heavier' and slower than the vmware server?

Thank you for the suggestions

I'm running multilib (using the AlienBob method) and VirtualBox runs fine on that. If you're pure 64bit, I have seen people around here say the binaries directly from Virtualbox work fine. Since I need multilib for things besides VirtualBox, it wasn't an issue for me.

Ah, this changes things a little. You can run VMware images on Virtualbox (and vice versa) with a little work, but moving back and forth between the two strikes me as added work and added chances for trouble. If you're going to be migrating images between machines, you're probably better off picking one of them and sticking to it.

[QUOTE]
NOTE: I could of course install slackware there too and add virtualbox on top, but I must be able to run 64bit systems on that machine..[/QUOTE=nass]

VirtualBox can run 64 bit guests, as long as your hardware supports it. For example, my Precision M6300 laptop is technically capable of running 64 bit OS, but Dell never enabled hardware virtualization on that laptop so it won't run 64bit guests. On my desktop machine, which has hardware virtualization enabled, 64 bit guests run fine.

I've only used the default interfaces for VirtualBox and VMware, so I really don't know.

I think there is, but I've never done it.

I'm not sure about this one, I've never had to do it. Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of running a VM in the first place?

My experience is that they are similar in speed. In fact VirtualBox had faster networking for me because of the patches I had to use on VMWare. That said, I've been using VMs for small-scale stuff (software development/testing), not serious production use.

I can't think why it wouldn't. A DVD is a DVD pretty much regardless of the OS used to create it.

1 members found this post helpful.

I run VirtualBox on my pure 64 bit system. The binary VirtualBox-3.2.12-68302-Linux_amd64.run installs Ok and builds the kernel modules so everything just works. I have VirtualBox-4.0.4-70112-Linux_amd64.run but I've not installed it yet as I have heard reports of people having problems with it.

hmm I might have not been precise in what I advice I seeked with 1) and the NOTE after 2).

Basically, if virtualbox-OSE needs multilib to compile, I pressume it compiles itself in 32-bit binaries... not in 64bit ones (or it wouldn't need the multilib).. As a direct implication of the 32bit vbox binaries I assume that 64bit guest can't run...

I think i'm not mistaken http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=9187
, unless i have understood something wrong about the reasoning for the requirement of the multilib by virtualbox.

The pci card is key mechanism for a structural computations application. it runs on a windows 2000 pc and I would like to get rid of , since it's only running to provide the authentication..
I'd claim that virtualizing such a machine really nails the purpose of virtualization

I really can't find anywhere any vmware server 2 patch for kernel 2.6.37.x (even though I did find such patches for the workstation version). So I feel I will have to go the virtualbox way.

Only please verify If I can go the multilib+virtualbox-OSE way and still be able to run 64-bit guests.

Thank you.

Hi

I run Slackware 13.1 x86_64 with Virtualbox 4.04 r70112 (64bit) and I am running RHEL 5 64 bit guest. There were no major configuration headaches. Never tried VMWare on Slackware, have used it on other Oses and was always causing me issues (mainly as I ran it on a Windows platform).

I think this is one case where you might have to do your own digging. I've been doing some reading on VT-d and it doesn't look like VirtualBox supports it, but most of the questions seem to revolve around PCIe pass-through (gamers wanting better performance) rather than PCI pass-through. This also seems to be highly hardware dependent, so you may need to investigate if your hardware will support VT-d.

And yeah, that is a good reason to virtualize. I usually use VMs for internet facing machines or for passing development machines around, in which case you want to keep them as isolated from hardware as possible.

If this doesn't work, maybe something like KVM might. If I'm reading things right, KVM does support VT-d (if the hardware does).

Like hyperhead, I've been able to install and run 64 bit guests.

This worked for me using vmplayer3.1.3 and 2.6.37.4.
http://asleepfromday.wordpress.com/2...-linux-2-6-37/

:S I thought hyperhead is using the precompiled version. not the version from slackbuilds..
if you can run 64bit guests with the slackbuild then i'm definitely going the slackbuild way

Reading through virtualbox forums it appears that pci cards are not 'forwarded' to the guests..
http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=34098
I found something similar in vmware forums but it was dating from 2004, so things may have changed.

Hardware does support VT, so I'm set as far as this bit is concerned. I may have to go the kvm way, but I'll try that later since i'm able to migrate from vbox files to kvm ones.

kprims are you suggesting I try the vmplayer patch on the vmware server module sources?
You have any success story? Cause (out of desperation) I tried the workstation patch - it couldn't even patch all the files...!

Sorry, my mistake, I thought the patch for the Vmplayer might lead to a patch for the Vmware server.