Booting from CD after installing an OS in WinVPC

After you install an OS in Windows VPC, you’ll notice that you can’t boot from a CD after that…the reason, the boot order is hard drive then CD.  As long as your hard drive (VHD) is bootable, the VM won’t bother with your CD.

It’s fairly simple to change: first you need to get into the BIOS of the VM, to do this, you need to be able to see the VM’s boot window, press SHIFT+ESC as the VM starts to unhide this, next you need to be very quick and press the DEL key to enter the BIOS, as soon as your VM starts, rapidly hit the DEL key.  If you’re successful then you will be rewarded with the blue and gray BIOS screen.  Go to Boot–>Boot device priority, and change the 1st boot device to CD, the BIOS will automatically swap the Hard drive to the 2nd boot device.  Save your changes in the BIOS and now you will be able to boot from a CD or DVD.

Installing VirtualBox 3 in LinuxMint/Ubuntu

I have a second computer set up as a triple boot system (LinuxMint 7 x64, Utlimate Linux 2.3 x64, and Windows 7 Pro x64).

After installing VBox 3 inside VBox 3 running on my main Win7 system.  I thought I’d install VBox on my native LinuxMint system.

I thought I’d just downloaded and installed VBox, but alas, that simple 1-step operation is still missing (at least for VBox) with Linux.

There’s a good set of steps for doing this here: Installing VirtualBox 3.0 on an Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop

It’s not difficult, but you can’t right-click your .deb file and just install with Archive Manager or GDebi.  LinuxMint does provide a simple install if you want to go all the way back to version 2 of VBox.

Next step:  adding my Windows server shares to Linux.

Good comparison chart for VMW6.5, Player 3

From vmfaq?  They’ve been around since 2003?  This was my first visit.

http://vmfaq.com/entry/5/

Feature comparison

Feature/Product	Workstation 6.5	Player 2.5	Player 3.0 beta	Server 2.x
Intended use	Desktop use, test environments, Q&A, product development	Run VMs made elsewhere	Desktop use, testing	Host production VMs
Edit VM settings?	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Max RAM / VM	8GB	8GB	8GB	8GB
VSMP	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Snapshots	Multiple, branchable, linked clone	No	No	Single
USB 2.0	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
3D acceleration	DirectX 9 with Shader Model 2.0	DirectX 9 with Shader Model 2.0	DirectX 9 with Shader Model 3.0	No
Other	-Integrates MS Visual Studio/Eclipse -Allows definition of properties of the virtual networks within VM teams – Record/replay functionality -Unity mode – Shared folders	– Editing of .vmx settings by hand possible – Unity mode – Shared folders	– Create / edit VMs – Unity mode – Shared folders
Cost	$189	Free

Windows 7’s location aware printing

Take your laptop home from work, want to print?  With Win7 it’s easy.  Click a printer and then click Manage default printers and you can set your home printer to be the default at home, and your work printer at work.

LinuxMint 7 runs under WinVPC

Since its very similar to Ubuntu, but IMHO, superior in many ways, you can use the same “trick” to get LinuxMint 7 to boot in WinVPC.

I selected “Start Linux Mint (compatibility mode)” pressed “tab” to edit options,  I deleted the end “–” and replaced with “vga=791 noreplace-paravirt”, then press “enter”

Full installs for both Ubuntu 9.10 and LinuxMint7 are in progress now.  Once completed, I’ll try and get an update here and on my site.

Edit: installs completed, but are not accessible.  I’ll need to set aside some time to figure this out.

Ubuntu 9.10 works under Windows VPC (Sort of)

Thanks to Matthew Guay, Ubuntu 9.10 was found to work under WinVPC  http://www.flickr.com/photos/42564061@N06/4059419695/. 

More OSes that work in WinVPC: http://www.essjae.com/virtualization/wwadw.htm

Edit:  I haven’t had any success in getting this to work yet 😦

Edit2: I was able to get Ubuntu 9.10 to boot by using the old VPC2007/Ubuntu 9.04 trick:

On the first screen, choose [English].
Press [F4] and select [Safe Graphics].
Press [F6], press [Escape].  This will reveal the command line. Remove “quiet splash –“replace “vga=791 noreplace-paravirt” without the quotes.
Press [Enter] to start the installation.

VMWare Player 3.0 no longer just a “player,” or maybe it’s now a “major player” in VM apps

The upcoming 3rd version of VMWare Player now allows users to create VMs, without the need for 3rd party add-ons.

Feature Highlights:

• The ability to create Virtual Machines
• Aero support for Windows 7 and Windows Vista guests!!!
• OpenGL support for Windows guests (give Google Earth a try!)
• New User Interface including a Virtual Machine Library
• Windows 7 support (as a Host and Guest OS)
• Automatically download and install the latest VMware Tools package
• Multiple Monitor Support
• Print from your VM without installing printer drivers. Virtual Printing courtesy of our friends at ThinPrint.
• ALSA Sound support on Linux hosts enables multiple VMs to play “music” concurrently
• VIX API support will let our coding fans write applications that can interact with their VMs

Not sure about OpenGL, I tried to run a couple older 3d games that use OpenGL on my new VMWare Workstation 7 and they error out on with OpenGL issues and want a driver update.

This is essentially a free version of Workstation…This is very interesting since I’d think it would significantly reduce the number of Workstation 7 sales.

OpenSuSe 10.2 + VS2005 Linux Additions + Windows VPC = Success

It’s quite easy to get the Virtual Server 2005 Linux Additions installed into OpenSuSe 10.2.

Mount the ISO, copy the contents to a local folder, mount the 10.2 DVD ISO, then install vmadd-full-2.0.1.i386.rpm from GUI (right-click, select “Open with “Install Software””)

These additions don’t provide much more than mouse integration and time sync with the host, but mouse integration is a big step for usability.

For the complete list of OSes that have been compiled so far: http://www.essjae.com/virtualization/wwadw.htm

If you tried something that works or doesn’t work, use the link to send me an email and let me know!

What is Windows XP Mode?

XP Mode is a pre-created and pre-licensed virtual machine for use with Windows Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise.  XP Mode is just a VM, it’s not a virtualization application and to use it you’ll need something like Windows Virtual PC to run it.

Windows Virtual PC is not required.  Microsoft says you can use Windows Virtual PC, but they do not state this as a requirement.  Virtual PC 2007 will run XP Mode, as will other VM programs, but you will lose some of the features that Windows Virtual PC & XP Mode provide. 

Running XP Mode under VPC2007 is quite simple, after you install XP Mode, you will need to create a differencing disk and specify the Windows XP Mode base VHD as the parent, boot it up, remove the IC and then install VPC2007’s VM Additions.

Direct Link for XP Mode (requires validation)

“Overview

Windows XP Mode for Windows 7 makes it easy run many of your productivity programs that run on Windows XP on Windows 7. It uses virtualization technology such as Windows Virtual PC to provide a Virtual Windows XP environment for Windows 7.

Windows XP Mode provides a 32-bit virtual Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 (SP3) environment. This download includes a virtual hard disk (.vhd file) with Windows XP SP3 preinstalled. Client virtualization software, such as Windows Virtual PC is required to use Windows XP Mode.”

Windows Virtual PC is not just for Pro and Ultimate!

There is definitely a lot of confusion about Windows Virtual PC and what OSes support it (or it supports).

Windows Virtual PC Direct Download (requires Validation)

Windows Virtual PC supports the following Host and Guest Operating systems (validation required):

• Host: Windows 7 Home Basic, Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows 7 Enterprise.

• Guest: Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) Professional, Windows Vista Enterprise Service Pack 1 (SP1), Windows Vista Ultimate Service Pack 1 (SP1), Windows Vista Business Service Pack 1 (SP1), Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows 7 Enterprise.

Update: The information above is DIRECT from Microsoft, see the link, so the info is accurate.