Yesterday, i managed to install vmware under slack 9.0, everything went fine, 'til i tried to install the guest OS (XP) on a "just created" virtual machine -> it just doesn't power on, no matter what i do.

it doesn't boot from the cdrom drive, it doesn't load the .iso image (which they advised to create if the virtual machine did not boot from the cdrom).

the problem is probably not connected w/ the OS-s (more correctly w/ the bootable CD-s), 'cause i get the same result while trying to install Win98se,2000pro,XPpro,2003server, or Slack/Mandrake/RH as a guest OS.

any ideas how to fix the problem?

PS Sorry, if the answer to this question is already present in this forum.
I tried to search, but didn't find anything apropriate.

I've only ever installed win98 in vmware, but to get that to run I had to fiddle with the bios settings in the virtual machine (by pressing delete or f2 or whatever as the virtual machine is booting). I don't have vmware installed at the moment but from memory it involved changing the bios version from 1.4 to 1.1 or something like that.

Be aware that vmware is quite slow so unless you have a high end pc or you specifically need xp you might be better off installing an older version of windows.

i use to have the same kind of problem, after reboots or something (cant exactly remeber what all caused the problem) i would have to re-run the vmware-config file, believe its in the bin directory of vmware's folder

been awhile since i used vmware, sorry i cant help you anymore

OK you prompted me to reinstall vmware and xp pro. Basically the sticking point for me was that the setup prompts for the location of the rc*.d directories, of which there aren't any in Slackware. I got around that by making a directory /etc/rc.d/rc.dir, and in that directory I made empty directories rc0.d, rc1.d etc up to rc6.d. For the next install step (selecting the directory with the init scripts) I selected /etc/rc.d. I used bridged networking to access my router, although I guess if you're using dialup you'd use NAT.

I made a 20GB HD area for xp and installed it as normal, no probs, and now I have a running version of xp pro. It'll actually be useful for using the Google toolbar in IE and using Dreamweaver.

The problem with this setup is that when you reboot, you need to load the vmmon and vmnet modules and setup the bridged networking again. The way to do this is to (as root) run:

/etc/rc.d/vmware start

which will do all of these things. Without running this first after a reboot, the virtual machine won't run because there is no vmmon (virtual machine monitor) module loaded into the kernel. I suspect that this might be your problem. Theoretically to shut down all the vmware stuff you should be able to use:

/etc/rc.d/vmware stop

but this just results in error messages for me and stops, so it's easier to just reboot to kill the processes which are still running (which don't slow things down much anyway).

Try this link:

http://www.cs.ucr.edu/~jbyrne/vmware.htm

It told me all I needed to know to set up Win2k pro under Slack 9, and the only time I have to re-run vmware-config.pl is when I compile a new minor version kernel.

Enjoy!
--- Cerbere

Well first of all Happy New Year!!!
i had been busy with all this new year stuff, and had no time to read your posts.
ok:
how can i deal w/ the virtual machine BIOS, when it doesn't even let me to power it on?
well there of course are serveral ways aroud this problem, i did almost the same thing as you, but i created the rc*.d directories in /etc instead, then after installing and configuring vmware, i removed 'em.
instead of this, i used a script that checks if vmware is to be loaded, it loads all the necessary modules w/ the program itself, so the problem is not connecting w/ the modules either (i checked, for sure).

2 Cerbere
thanx for the link, but it's the one i used to install vmware, and i didn't find any hint there to solve my problem.

what i can't explain is that when i click on the "power on" it tries to turn on the vm, but it doesn't power on.
but the vmware loads correctly, it lets you to create/delete vm's, configure them, so the problem is not with the vmware itself, the problem is in the virtual machine configuration.
in next couple of days (if i find some free time) i'll try to figure out what's up w/ it and will post the results.

-take care-

ok, i fixed the 'problem' (if it can be called a problem, shit...)
i forgot that i had to load some modules for the filesystem support, dummy interface support, and ethernet support, which i did not need frequently, so i didn't bother to change the rc.modules file.
whatever, now i fixed it, and my vm started normally,
i edited some settings in the vm BIOS, and then booted from the CD and installed WinXP Pro.
Well it took about twice the amount of time it used to take to install XP normally (out of vmware). it installed successfully and i even configured it my way. But i needed to leave the house for a while, so i shut down the pc
(and i forgot to install the vmware tools for XP).
when i came back, i turned the comp on, and ran the vmware, it started normally, but when i tried to start the virtual machine itself, here's what i got:


any ideas??

try running vmware-config.pl again

i need to stop vmware to run vmware-config.pl,
but it won't let me stop vmware.
the command vmware stop just is not recognized by the system.