VMWare n00b

[nordloewelabs]

my first (in)experience with VMWare last night. XP Home is as my Guest OS and Server 1.0.5 is my VM app). the intallation process was more complicated than i expected from all guides i found online. got a few questions:

1) i chose VMWare Server because it's free and i just want to play with VMs at home. the download page offered 2 options: a) Master installer (150Mb) and b) Client package(25Mb). i chose the Master Installer but now i wonder if the Client Package can create and open VMs as well? to me, the less i bloat my system, the best! i dont wanna do anything fancy with VMs....i just wanna play with Linux and a Vista Ultimate disc that i got recently.

2) once i got my VMWare Server 1.0.5 installed, i tried to start it from my Restricted User Account, but i got an error about "a log not being accessible". the program only opens if i run it as the Admin. is that normal? more importantly, is it safe? i refrain from running progs as the Admin as much as possible.

3) during the creation of a "Linux VM", the wizard offers a list of distros for the user to choose from. what to do when your distro is not on the list (ie: Knoppix, DSL, PCLinuxOS)? how to decide the safest pick from that list? should i always choose "Other"?

4) my internal DVD Drive is running on its last legs so i usually handle CD/DVD operations with my USB DVD Drive. i tried to make my Kubuntu disc boot off my USB Drive but VMWare didnt seem to recognize it....(!) there's no way to do it? at the end i resorted to an ISO image, but i'd rather skip extra steps in future installations where i already have a disc.

5) once i booted from the ISO, my Kubuntu loaded and "apparently" got installed properly. however, once i re-started Kubuntu (from its own K menu), the VM went into a blak screen with a "non-blinking cursor" and my Kubuntu never booted.... if i restart the Kubuntu VM, all i see the black screen with the static cursor again. and according to TaskManager, VMWare is active and using all my CPU cycles....(!)

maybe there's some conflict between VMWare Server 1.0.5 and Kubuntu 7.10...? i'll try other Linux distros later today (just in case). i wanna play with my Vista Ultimate too, but since that's a longer install process, i'll only do it once i'm more experienced with VMWare.

any help deeply appreciated.

 

[Nothinman]

1) i chose VMWare Server because it's free and i just want to play with VMs at home. the download page offered 2 options: a) Master installer (150Mb) and b) Client package(25Mb). i chose the Master Installer but now i wonder if the Client Package can create and open VMs as well? to me, the less i bloat my system, the best! i dont wanna do anything fancy with VMs....i just wanna play with Linux and a Vista Ultimate disc that i got recently.

No, the client requires a server to connect to so unless you install VMWare Server on another box the client won't do you any good.

2) once i got my VMWare Server 1.0.5 installed, i tried to start it from my Restricted User Account, but i got an error about "a log not being accessible". the program only opens if i run it as the Admin. is that normal? more importantly, is it safe? i refrain from running progs as the Admin as much as possible.

I've never tried running it under an unrestricted account on Windows, it works fine as a regular user on Linux though so you might need to break out filemon and see what file's it's having problems writing to and then fixing their permissions.

3) during the creation of a "Linux VM", the wizard offers a list of distros for the user to choose from. what to do when your distro is not on the list (ie: Knoppix, DSL, PCLinuxOS)? how to decide the safest pick from that list? should i always choose "Other"?

I actually have no idea what the difference between all of the Linux versions in VMWare is, I really think they're meaningless and just there to make you feel better if you're using a distro that's listed. I usually just pick "Other Linux 2.6.x kernel" or whatever it's called.

4) my internal DVD Drive is running on its last legs so i usually handle CD/DVD operations with my USB DVD Drive. i tried to make my Kubuntu disc boot off my USB Drive but VMWare didnt seem to recognize it....(!) there's no way to do it? at the end i resorted to an ISO image, but i'd rather skip extra steps in future installations where i already have a disc.

VMWare's always let me pick from any attached DVD reader, but if you're going to playing around with VMs, ISO images are a lot more handy anyway.

5) once i booted from the ISO, my Kubuntu loaded and "apparently" got installed properly. however, once i re-started Kubuntu (from its own K menu), the VM went into a blak screen with a "non-blinking cursor" and my Kubuntu never booted.... if i restart the Kubuntu VM, all i see the black screen with the static cursor again. and according to TaskManager, VMWare is active and using all my CPU cycles....(!)

Do you get the grub menu at all or does it hang before that?

maybe there's some conflict between VMWare Server 1.0.5 and Kubuntu 7.10...? i'll try other Linux distros later today (just in case). i wanna play with my Vista Ultimate too, but since that's a longer install process, i'll only do it once i'm more experienced with VMWare.

Only if the Kubuntu people did something really, really wrong because I've put straight Ubuntu in VMWare on Linux before with no problems.

 

[nordloewelabs]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

5) once i booted from the ISO, my Kubuntu loaded and "apparently" got installed properly. however, once i re-started Kubuntu (from its own K menu), the VM went into a blak screen with a "non-blinking cursor" and my Kubuntu never booted.... if i restart the Kubuntu VM, all i see the black screen with the static cursor again. and according to TaskManager, VMWare is active and using all my CPU cycles....(!)

Do you get the grub menu at all or does it hang before that?

i've seen the Grub and Lilo menus before and there's nothing like either of them showing here.

here is what happened in details: once Kubuntu loaded, i triggered the installation from the icons on its desktop. i answered a few dialog boxes and the the installation started. i switched back to Firefox (running inside XP) to kill time while the installation was in progress. when i returned to VMWare the installation seemed done (no progress bar) and all that was left was the Kubuntu desktop, looking exactly like it did when it first loaded.

i found odd that there were no messages informing on the success of the installation or even asking me to reboot, but i guessed it was fine.

then i decided to restart Kubuntu from its K menu. after a few seconds, the GUI unloaded and i got the black screen message telling me to remove the CD and press ENTER. i did so, but then the screen flickered quickly and it the static cursor appeared on the top.

i waited a little, but nothing happened. i checked Windows' TaskManager and it said VMWare was taking all my CPU, as if it was busy doing something. i waited a bit more and nothing.

then i decided to close the VM and start it again. it momentarily displayed the screen with the VMWare logo + the F2=Setup option, then it showed the black screen with static cursor again. and again the TaskManager said VMWare was busy taking my CPU....

btw, i tried pressing F2 several times and i never got the so-called Setup screen.... is that option for real?

 

[Nothinman]

i found odd that there were no messages informing on the success of the installation or even asking me to reboot, but i guessed it was fine.

Ah, I'd guess that the install didn't finish fine then and the VM's disk doesn't have a boot loader installed.

btw, i tried pressing F2 several times and i never got the so-called Setup screen.... is that option for real?

Yes, VMWare has to provide a BIOS to the VM but there's not much in there that's useful since the hardware is all simulated.

 

[nordloewelabs]

after the installation failed the first time, i deleted the VM and start it all over, but the installation failed once more. so i guess i'll have to give up on Kubuntu for now. i might try Ubuntu, instead, then change the windows manager. well, i like PCLinuxOS too, so i have options.

btw, i've noticed that VMWare triggers ZoneAlarm all the time.... are the read/write operations done via TCP/IP?

 

[nordloewelabs]

i found solutions for a few of my problems so i'll post them here in case another lame-o like me gets into similar trouble with VMWare.... here it goes:

4) my internal DVD Drive is running on its last legs so i usually handle CD/DVD operations with my USB DVD Drive. i tried to make my Kubuntu disc boot off my USB Drive but VMWare didnt seem to recognize it....(!)

this one was tricky. the way i managed to make it work was, i went to the VM Settings and set the VM's CD-ROM Drive to "Host". once i did it, the letter of my USB DVD Drive appeared on the list of drives. then i had to start the VM, wait for it to fail booting and then press F2 on the keyboard. strangely, instead of opening the Bios setup, F2 rebooted the VM...(!) after the reboot it finally saw my USB Drive and loaded my Kubuntu disc. i know i could have used an ISO -- and ultimately i did -- but i really wanted to know how to boot from and external DVD Drive too....just in case. could be a useful knowledge someday.... 🙂

5) once i booted from the ISO, my Kubuntu loaded and "apparently" got installed properly. however, once i re-started Kubuntu (from its own K menu), the VM went into a blak screen with a "non-blinking cursor" and my Kubuntu never booted....

i finally realized what was my mistake there.... i was trying to install Kubuntu into a mere 2Gb VM.... it worked fine once i made a new VM of 5Gb....



well, i still havent figured out why my VMWare doesnt open from a Restricted Account.... very odd. i know some progs only work with Admin privileges, but i was hoping VMWare wasnt one of them -- after all a Restricted Account is a safer way under which to run an OS. would a piece of malware be able to do harm to my VMs or my Host OS if i'm running VMWare as an Admin? well, i guess that having the Guest OS itself running under a Restricted Account adds some security.

 

[nordloewelabs]

Originally posted by: nordloewelabs
2) once i got my VMWare Server 1.0.5 installed, i tried to start it from my Restricted User Account, but i got an error about "a log not being accessible". the program only opens if i run it as the Admin. is that normal? more importantly, is it safe? i refrain from running progs as the Admin as much as possible.

i did some research on VMWare's own Forum and got this info:

(...) VMware Server (any version) is not supported on non-server operating systems such as Windows XP. That said however, it will run perfectly well on XP as long as it is allowed administrative access to the machine. The reason it won't work as a restricted user is that it needs pretty much unrestricted access to the hosts hardware which is denied when running as a restricted user.

so i guess now i got all nailed. 🙂 having fun with my Kubuntu VM.

 

[tfinch2]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

3) during the creation of a "Linux VM", the wizard offers a list of distros for the user to choose from. what to do when your distro is not on the list (ie: Knoppix, DSL, PCLinuxOS)? how to decide the safest pick from that list? should i always choose "Other"?

I actually have no idea what the difference between all of the Linux versions in VMWare is, I really think they're meaningless and just there to make you feel better if you're using a distro that's listed. I usually just pick "Other Linux 2.6.x kernel" or whatever it's called.

That is what the VMware SDK/API uses to identify the GOS.

http://www.vmware.com/support/.../vim.vm.GuestInfo.html

It's the name of the OS that shows up in the guestFullName property.

Originally posted by: Nothinman
VMWare's always let me pick from any attached DVD reader, but if you're going to playing around with VMs, ISO images are a lot more handy anyway.

By far.

 

[Nothinman]

That is what the VMware SDK/API uses to identify the GOS.

http://www.vmware.com/support/.../vim.vm.GuestInfo.html

It's the name of the OS that shows up in the guestFullName property.

Which to me means pretty much meaningless.