VMware workstation on
SUSE 10 OSS
A fantastic virtual environmet to run multiple operating systems
simultaneously on your host.
Suse 10.0
OSS here
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Installing VMware Workstation
virtual machine
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Installing
VMware on a SUSE 10.0 OSS host computer is pretty straight forward.
There's a couple of things that need to be done in addition to
otherwise well documented installation and configuration. I would
suggest that you open a new tab in your browser for http://www.vmware.com/support/ws5/doc/
Keep then both these documents available and you'll be just fine.
The steps to install VMware on a SUSE
10 host:
1. Install
kernel source and compiler if not installed already.
2. Run YOU update.
3. Install VMware, preferably RPM with Yast.
4. Prepare the kernel.
5. Configure VMware kernel modules.
6. Run VMware and install guest OS.
7. Install VMTools
8. Avoid reinstalls because of Windows corruption.
The first thing
to do before anything else on the host
is to make sure to have the kernel source and a compiler available.
So go to Yast
Software Management
and check kernel source. Iinstall also gcc and gcc-c++
compilers, I'm not sure if just one of them will do. No harm done if
they both are there.
If you didn't have the kernel source and you installed it now, let YOU
run an update after installing the kernel
source, otherwise your current kernel and the source may be different
versions. After the update everything should work perfectly in this
matter.
When that is all set, it's time to install VMware. I used my normal
procedure using the RPM package and Yast. After Yast has
done its job there it's time to
do something again that is not mentioned in VMware installation
instructions:
Become root, then:
cd /usr/src/linux
then command:
make mrproper cloneconfig prepare-all
After
this you go
ahead as instructed by VMware and run:
vmware-config.pl
You
will be asked a few questions, In SUSE 10.0 accepting all the defaults
is quite OK. Then exit.
Now it's time to start the virtual environment. You can start it in
K-menu System > More programs or in command line
/usr/bin/vmware
On the first time go to help first and give the serial number given to
you by VMware.
Installing a guest OS
After this you install
the Guest OS as you prefer it. Installing the guest OS takes
place just the way you would install it on a machine that has a new
unformatted hard disk. The methods depend on the OS. Whichever OS you
install, to move in and out of the guest OS window, press Ctrl+Alt. You
need to do this until the VMTools is installed after the guest OS is
working. You can start the installation of the new machine by booting
it from a floppy, CD/DVD or an ISO image. The image to use instead of a
disk can be chosen on the setup page of the virtual machine.
There's a box you can tick to choose to use an image instead of a
CD/DVD and the path to the image.
My first
test was Windows 98SE.
But I had kind of a special case. I only had available the following:
A boot floppy to install Win 98 from CD but no bootable CD.
A not booting CD for upgrading Win 95 to 98.
A Win 95 CD
A not booting upgrade only CD for XP,
I started with a floppy boot. After booting you need to run fdisk to
make a partition then format it, format c:
When installing Win 98 I've got used to make a directory where I put
the Win98 installation directory from the CD, so whatever I want to add
afterwards I will never need to use the CD again. Then install from
there.
After the initial boot of
the guest OS it's time to install VMTools. VMTools is a set of drivers
that makes your graphical environment work the way it does in the
normal OS. The features of your monitor
can be utilized as well as you can move in and out of the Virtual
machine window. VMTools is an item in the Windows control panel when
installed. The monitor settings are done the normal Windows way when
VMTools is installed. This is described in the VM documentation. In
linux you need to do a little bit more to install and start VMTools.
VMwareTools in SUSE
The next guest OS I installed was SUSE 9.3. The initial install starts
with a boot from CD and progresses the normal way. The first time
there is something new is when you install the VMTools.
You'll need, just as it was the case with the host OS, the kernel
source and a compiler again also in the guest OS. So install them,
again the normal route. Once that is done you proceed to installing
VMTools.
All the steps to
install
VMwareTools
1. Install kernel source and c-compiler if not
already installed
2. Make a directory /mnt/cdrom
3. Pull then down the menu VM and choose to install VMTools. You may
see warning about guest having locked the CDRom. It, OK, say Yes.
4. Then, as root: mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
5. A CD ISO
image is mounted. Open that directory in Konqueror. There's an RPM
VMwareTools. Klick on that and choose to install with Yast when asked.
You can also install the RPM the normal way from the command line:
rpm -Uvh /mnt/cdrom/name.of.the.rpm
If you use command line run also
SuSEconfig (note case)
6. Then in terminal, become root and:
cd /usr/src/linux
make cloneconfig
make prepare-all
7. After the compilation run,
still as root:
vmware-config-tools.pl
8. Accept the other questions with enter, but the question of screen
resolution requires you to choose one of the options.
9. Run command: vmware-toolbox &
10. Reboot guest.
It's also good practice
(it's also very easy) to make snapshots of the installation, so you
don't need to reinstall windows anymore when it crashes or just gets
corrupted. You just trash your Windows installed files and return to a
fresh version. You may also want to run different configurations of
Windows. Clone them and then just make another one out of a clone. This
comes real handy while running different experiments and tests.
Remarks
I installed everything like described above
and everything worked the way it should.
I then thought I'll do some Beta testing for SUSE and installed SUSE
10.1 Beta 2, both KDE and Gnome versions.
The installations went smoothly, but VMwareTools does not work
completely. I still need to release the cursor with Ctrl+Alt to come
out of the guest window at the moment.
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