VM /ETC

Posts Tagged ‘vmware workstation’

I was inspired to try a full install of the Androidx86 OS in a VMware Workstation VM after Eric Sloof created a video of the Androidx86 LiveCD running in a vSphere VM. I’ve documented building the VM and configuring it to run in this post. I also list some navigation tips for getting around inside Androidx86. Finally check out my video of the working VM.

Since most are probably wondering I’ll mention this now, once the VM is connected to the Internet you can download a very limited selection of Apps, but I had sporadic success with the various Apps I tried. For the few that I did get to install, I wasn’t able to get all of them running. So, use an Androidx86 VM as a way to get a feel for what an Android device is like. Maybe it will help you make a decision about buying a Tablet like the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Browsing the web worked great. I do not test email.

Download, Create New VM, and Install Androidx86 from .ISO

Download the latest revision of the Androidx86 .ISO here:

http://www.androidx86.org/downloads.html

Build a new “typical” VMware Workstation VM (this should work just the same with the free VMware Player), and when you point the install wizard at the Androidx86 .iso the OS type FreeBSD is auto detected. I chose to install the operating system later as I did not want to invoke the auto download of the VMware Tools.

  

This choice forces you to manually specify FreeBSD from the next screen of the wizard.

I kept the default disk size of 8GB and to chose to store the virtual disk as a single file.

I customized the virtual hardware and did the following

• bumped the RAM to 512 mb. The Workstation wizard suggested 256 mb.
• deleted the floppy
• pointed the vCD/DVD at the Androidx86 .iso and made sure it was connected at power on.
• changed the vNIC to Bridged. NAT should work just fine too. (Note that additional networking changes need to be made later)

Once your ready, boot your new VM and choose to install to harddisk when prompted by the Android Installer.

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If you are exploring the latest beta version of VMware Workstation or Player you are not getting access to the full performance of the application due to debug mode being enabled by default. Sure I want to help in the development process, but there are times I just want to experience the bliss of reveling in the latest application improvements at top performance. For these times, this post documents a couple of ways others have successfully turned off debug mode for VMware Workstation on Windows and on suggests how to do the same on Linux. This post also points out that disabling debug mode in the free VMware Player is not an option.

Although I’ve received a similar notice when running beta VMware Workstation on my systems, I most recently have been exploring the Player 3.1 Beta. The following screen shot shows the debug mode pop up notification whenever a VM is powered on.

Disable Debug Mode In VMware Workstation on Windows

Here’s one of the latest VMware Communities threads explaining how to do it: Turn off Beta Debug mode. As described in the forum thread, the answer to disabling debug mode could be this simple:

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Almost as if to segue from my recent Virtumania Podcast episode about type 2 hypervisors, VMware has announced the release of the public betas for the latest versions of their popular Workstation and Player desktop products. Touting several new features and performance improvements, VMware Workstation 7.1 and Player 3.1 betas can now be downloaded from their VMware Beta Community pages.

I am downloading my copy as I write this post, but several new features have caught my attention.

• Open GL 2.1 support for Windows 7 and Vista guests
• Improved graphics support enabling high resolution videos in VMs
• Autologin for Windows Guests
• Inclusion of the OVF 1.0 command line tool to convert VMs to .OVF files for exporting to other hypervisors
• 8 way vCPU support in VMs
• up to 2TB virtual disks
• Direct Launch – drag icon to host desktop and seamlessly start an application inside a VM – even after closing VMware Workstation or Player.
• Support for Fedora 12 as a guest OS
• VMware Ace upgraded to version 3.7

Also, I can’t help but notice Known Issues from the Release Notes such as the following:

“Display

• Exiting FIFA 08 game on Windows 7 guests and hosts with Aero enabled, might cause the desktop wallpaper to turn black.
• There are known issues with the ATI Linux driver 10.2. VMware recommends that you use ATI Linux driver 9.11 for the best 3D user experience.”

Looks like I’ve got some new testing to do! (and maybe a new 3D games video to make!)

Copying more information from the Release Notes:

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I created a Windows 7 virtual machine in VMware Player, ran it for a while on my Windows notebook, and then decided to move it to one of my Ubuntu machines and host it in VirtualBox. I had no problem copying the folder and files between the different host based hypervisors. VirtualBox can use a virtual disk in the VMware .vmdk format so it was just a matter of file transfers between computers. VirtualBox has it’s own Guest Editions (or host tools) to add functionality and improve performance, so I needed to make that switch inside the VM too. My problem was that I did not remove the VMware Tools before I moved the VM.

When I went to uninstall VMware Tools after powering the VM on Ubuntu and in VirtualBox I received a message that “no VMware Products were detected”. Luckily, I quickly figured out I wasn’t the first to attempt this move and experience this hurdle. The post Uninstalling VMware tools when not running on a VMware host tells the same tale and provides the answer.

“I added the VMware Tools ISO to that VM and opened a command prompt. Then I found the “setup.exe” or “setup64.exe” files on the cd. Run those in the cmd window with a /c switch. (example:  ”setup64.exe /c” )  This will remove the Tools.  I installed the VirtualBox additions and then reboot.  On my Windows 2008 server it crashed on first reboot, then then I tried again and it loaded up just fine.  Network works and everything! Yay!”

On my Windows host with VMware Player installed (VMware Workstation has a similar location) the windows.iso file was found at C:\program files(x86)\VMware\VMware Player\windows.iso. Your path needs to be adjusted based on whether you have a 32 bit or 64 bit OS obviously. Mine was a 64 bit host even though the directory was at c:\program files(x86), by the way.

I’ll let you figure out your preferred method on how to copy the windows.iso file to the Ubuntu host, but once you do you can:

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After a few short weeks as a Release Candidate (RC), Version 7 of VMware Workstation is now officially available. The gallery above contains images provided by VMware of Workstation 7 in action. The following list points out highlighted product enhancements from the draft press release I was forwarded:

• VMware Workstation 7 is optimized for maximum performance when running on 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7 PCs and works seamlessly with Flip 3D and Aero Peek to show live virtual machine activity.
• Run even more 3D applications with support for Windows Aero, DirectX 9.0c Shader Model 3 and OpenGL 2.1 in Windows virtual machines.
• VMware Workstation 7 streamlines software development and testing with new IDE integrations for the SpringSource Tools Suite and Eclipse IDE for Java & C/C++ along with Record Replay Debugging improvements that make it faster to find non-deterministic bugs.
• Run 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems with up to four virtual CPUs and 32GB of RAM dedicated to each virtual machine.

As previously mentioned in my post about the Workstation 7 RC, another significant new feature is that ESX/ESXi 4 is now a supported guest operating system. ESX/ESXi can now be selected in the drop down list of OSes when building a new VM. This greatly simplifies using VMware Workstation as a platform for administrator training and VCP certification preparation.

For more information about VMware Workstation 7 go to www.vmware.com/workstation. VM /ETC readers can also take advantage of an additional 10% discount when ordering Workstation here.

The next version of VMware Workstation was made publicly available as a release candidate this past Friday (10/02/09). Jason Joel’s post titled Workstation 7 Release Candidate Available! on the Workstation Zealot Blog helped announced the new version now downloadable from http://communities.vmware.com/community/beta/workstation.

The community site also lists several new Workstation 7 features:

As Vladan Seget points out in his post No more tweaks of VMX files. With VMware Workstation 7 you will be able to run ESX 4 with nested VMs without any tweaks, Workstation 7 lists ESX 4 as one of the supported guest operating systems making the process of configuring “ESX in a Box” an automated and much simpler procedure.

The version 7 release also coincides with new versions of VMware ACE and VMware Player as well.

Go to the communities page linked above for a serial number, download links, and documentation to get started with Workstation 7.

Everybody talks about running VMware ESX on VMware Workstation, but how come we don’t see more about running ESX on VMware Server 2.0? I’ve tried and been semi successful. This post is sort of a “how to” and kind of “need help” post about this topic.

First, Duncan Epping over at yellow-bricks.com made a quick post to remind himself of the configurations necessary to run ESX/ESXi 3.5 on VMware Workstation 6.5. There are numerous other posts about how to do this, but the post ESX in Workstation contains just the basic information to remember. If you’ve never done this before and you need pictures and a good explanation then I recommend the .pdf from Xtravirt.com titled VI 3.5 in a box.

Trying to take this a step further, I have moved the ESX 3.5 VMs I created on Workstation 6.5 to a VMware Server 2.0 running on a 64 bit Ubuntu 8.10 Desktop. I can start the ESX server VMs just fine, but unfortunately I can’t run the VMs (hosted on the ESX VMs). It’s still a convenient option for learning, testing and configuring the latest builds and features even without running VMs.

Using basically the same configuration settings I’ve also been able to install and run Citrix XenServer 5.0 and Microsoft Hyper-V on both VMware Workstation and VMware Server 2.0. Here is a screenshot of my VMware Server Summary tab. Click on it for a larger view. Read the rest of this entry »