VMWare laggy under Vista

[Leros]

I'm using VMWare Server 1.0.5 on Vista Ultimate. I'm using it for a guest OS of Ubuntu. Vista has 2GB of ram, 512mb is given to Ubuntu.

Of course, VMWare nearly brings my computer to a halt when it loads up, but that seems to be a vista thing.

Once I get the virtual machine up and running, it runs fairly fast except it lags (or appears to, could be video drivers). If I type really fast, the characters sometimes take a split second to show up. If I open a window it pops up in a stuttery form. Its just about as smooth as VNCing into a Linux box on campus, which is what I was trying to improve with the local virtual machine.

Is there anything I can do?

 

[Rebel44]

I am runing VMware in Vista HP64bit and I dont have any problems - my system has 4GB RAM (1GB for Linux and 3GB for Vista).

 

[yinan]

Install the Vmware tools, they are the drivers for all of the virtual hardware.

 

[loup garou]

As asked, did you install VMWare tools? Also, Server doesn't officially support vista as a guest or host afaik, I'd use player to run your VMs, I find it much more usable. I use easyvmx.com to create vmx files so I don't even have to deal with Server on another machine.

 

[Leros]

I already had VMWare tools installed, although it did have some problems creating the custom drivers for my specific kernel.

 

[Leros]

Reinstalled it. Seems a bit faster, but still a bit laggy. Maybe I'm just expecting too much out of my laptop.

 

[ultimatebob]

Yeah, you're asking too much of your laptop. VMWare Player works well on a laptop, but VMWare Server expects more memory and a faster hard drive than what you got.

Since you built the virtual machine already, you should be able to use that in Player IF you only configured it for 1 CPU.

Besides, Vista wouldn't be my first (or second, or third...) choice of a host OS. There will be too many background processes running that are going to slow down your guest.

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: ultimatebob
Yeah, you're asking too much of your laptop. VMWare Player works well on a laptop, but VMWare Server expects more memory and a faster hard drive than what you got.

Since you built the virtual machine already, you should be able to use that in Player IF you only configured it for 1 CPU.

Besides, Vista wouldn't be my first (or second, or third...) choice of a host OS. There will be too many background processes running that are going to slow down your guest.

Vista is a fine host OS. VMWare just needs to get their crap together and support it properly.

 

[Chiropteran]

I'd suggest trying Virtualbox, unless you need support for 64bit guests. It seems to run faster for me, and it's usable on 64bit vista.

 

[yinan]

Also, run VMware server 2.0 it should play better with Vista.