[gentoo-user] VMWare & (Gentoo) Linux

[gentoo-user] VMWare & (Gentoo) Linux

[Jeff]

Hey all.

I have a question for any VMWare Linux users. My greatest concern, is
Windows being installed and run on top of Linux. When Windows is
'virtually' up and running, does it work as normal? AKA, does it detect
devices and what not, enabling printing, networking, etc? With Windows
running under VMWare, are you able to scan the host operating system's
file system in any way?

I haven't used VMWare for a very long time. Just wanted to get some input.

Thanks much!

-Jeff

-- 
Han Solo:
	You said you wanted to be around when I made a mistake,
	well, this could be it, sweetheart.
Princess Leia:
	I take it back.

-- 
gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-user] VMWare & (Gentoo) Linux

[Jeff Rollin]

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Hi.

On 28/03/06, Jeff <jmg_071769@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> Hey all.
>
> I have a question for any VMWare Linux users. My greatest concern, is
> Windows being installed and run on top of Linux. When Windows is
> 'virtually' up and running, does it work as normal? AKA, does it detect
> devices and what not, enabling printing, networking, etc?


VMWare basically emulates a subset of PC hardware (an Intel processor, RAM,
graphics, sound, and network cards). These are usually "VMWare-specific" or
very common hardware devices, but VMWare releases the specifications for,
e.g. its graphics-card emulation so that people can write drivers for them.
AFAIK, all current versions of Windows should run on VMWare.

No modification of the guest operating system beyond choosing the correct
drivers is required; Windows should do this itself. You may experience some
difficulty if you attempt to use the same partition for both a VMWare-hosted
guest OS and "standalone", i.e. running it on the hardware rather than in
VMWare.

VMWare should give you:

SVGA graphics

Centronics printer interface

Networking

CD-ROM drive

USB ports (??)

You will NOT be able to use any hardware from Windows that the host
(presumably Gentoo Linux) cannot use itself. Conversely, if the hardware
device is supported in Windows then VMware can use it to provide
functionality not available in another system. (For example, I use FreeBSD
under VMWare on a Windows XP laptop so that I can use its network bridging
functionality to take advantage of wireless networking.)


> With Windows
> running under VMWare, are you able to scan the host operating system's
> file system in any way?
>
> I haven't used VMWare for a very long time. Just wanted to get some input.
>
> Thanks much!
>
> -Jeff


If  you make a hard drive from a file (the default), you will be able to use
any tools you would use on a normal Linux file, but e.g. you will not be
able to write to NTFS unless you set up shares between the host and guest
using samba. If you install the guest OS directly onto a hard drive or
partition, then you will be limited to using the partition and
filesystem-editing tools in Linux, but again you can use samba to network
the host and guest filesystems.

Jeff
--
------------------------------------------------------

"I have /conquered Gaul/,
and subdued Pompey! I think I can handle
a small boy and a eunuch!"

-- Ciaran Hinds as Caesar -

ROME, BBC/HBO, 2004

------------------------------------------------------

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Re: [gentoo-user] VMWare & (Gentoo) Linux

[Jeff Rollin]

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For best performance, you should have enough memory to run a VM with at
least 128MB RAM, plus 128MB+ for the host OS (assuming you are not running
anything else particularly memory-hungry).

On 28/03/06, Jeff Rollin <jeff.rollin@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi.
>
>
> On 28/03/06, Jeff <jmg_071769@comcast.net> wrote:
> >
> > Hey all.
> >
> > I have a question for any VMWare Linux users. My greatest concern, is
> > Windows being installed and run on top of Linux. When Windows is
> > 'virtually' up and running, does it work as normal? AKA, does it detect
> > devices and what not, enabling printing, networking, etc?
>
>
> VMWare basically emulates a subset of PC hardware (an Intel processor,
> RAM, graphics, sound, and network cards). These are usually
> "VMWare-specific" or very common hardware devices, but VMWare releases the
> specifications for, e.g. its graphics-card emulation so that people can
> write drivers for them. AFAIK, all current versions of Windows should run on
> VMWare.
>
> No modification of the guest operating system beyond choosing the correct
> drivers is required; Windows should do this itself. You may experience some
> difficulty if you attempt to use the same partition for both a VMWare-hosted
> guest OS and "standalone", i.e. running it on the hardware rather than in
> VMWare.
>
> VMWare should give you:
>
> SVGA graphics
>
> Centronics printer interface
>
> Networking
>
> CD-ROM drive
>
> USB ports (??)
>
> You will NOT be able to use any hardware from Windows that the host
> (presumably Gentoo Linux) cannot use itself. Conversely, if the hardware
> device is supported in Windows then VMware can use it to provide
> functionality not available in another system. (For example, I use FreeBSD
> under VMWare on a Windows XP laptop so that I can use its network bridging
> functionality to take advantage of wireless networking.)
>
>
> > With Windows
> > running under VMWare, are you able to scan the host operating system's
> > file system in any way?
> >
> > I haven't used VMWare for a very long time. Just wanted to get some
> > input.
> >
> > Thanks much!
> >
> > -Jeff
>
>
> If  you make a hard drive from a file (the default), you will be able to
> use any tools you would use on a normal Linux file, but e.g. you will not
> be able to write to NTFS unless you set up shares between the host and guest
> using samba. If you install the guest OS directly onto a hard drive or
> partition, then you will be limited to using the partition and
> filesystem-editing tools in Linux, but again you can use samba to network
> the host and guest filesystems.
>
> Jeff
> --
> ------------------------------------------------------
>
> "I have /conquered Gaul/,
> and subdued Pompey! I think I can handle
> a small boy and a eunuch!"
>
> -- Ciaran Hinds as Caesar -
>
> ROME, BBC/HBO, 2004
>
> ------------------------------------------------------
>



--
------------------------------------------------------

"I have /conquered Gaul/,
and subdued Pompey! I think I can handle
a small boy and a eunuch!"

-- Ciaran Hinds as Caesar -

ROME, BBC/HBO, 2004

------------------------------------------------------

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Re: [gentoo-user] VMWare & (Gentoo) Linux

[JimD]

On Tue, 28 Mar 2006 09:04:23 -0500
Jeff <jmg_071769@comcast.net> wrote:

> Hey all.
> 
> I have a question for any VMWare Linux users. My greatest concern, is
> Windows being installed and run on top of Linux. When Windows is
> 'virtually' up and running, does it work as normal? AKA, does it
> detect devices and what not, enabling printing, networking, etc? With
> Windows running under VMWare, are you able to scan the host operating
> system's file system in any way?
> 
> I haven't used VMWare for a very long time. Just wanted to get some
> input.
> 
> Thanks much!
> 
> -Jeff

Yup.  VMWare is pretty slick.  I am running the 4.x series, and VMWare
is up to 5.x, I didn't feel like paying to upgrade.  I am able to run a
full WinXP development environment under Linux with VMWare.  That
includes SQL Server, Visual Sutdio .Net 2005, IIS, etc.  I also run my
VPN client under VMWare.  The linux version is borked and doesn't want
to work.  The windows version runs fine and lets connect to work
through VMWare.

The only thing I recommend is having at least 1 GB memory, maybe you
could get by with 768 MB.  I have 2 GB right now.  With 2 GB I give
WinXP a full 512 MB and tell VMWare to not swap to disk, and the
performance is pretty impressive.

Jim
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