"Virtual" o/s on one partition ?

[John Fitzsimons]

Vmware at ;

http://www.vmware.com/

looks pretty interesting. Is there a freeware equivalent ? Does anyone
here know please ?

Regards, John.

--
****************************************************
,-._|\ (A.C.F FAQ) http://clients.net2000.com.au/~johnf/faq.html
/ Oz \ John Fitzsimons - Melbourne, Australia.
\_,--.x/ http://www.vicnet.net.au/~johnf/welcome.htm
v http://clients.net2000.com.au/~johnf/

 

[jmatt]

Don't use myself, have a look at these.

Virtual PC ( VPC )
http://langa.com/newsletters/2004/2004-06-28.htm
3) Excellent VPC Resources
As mentioned in the previous item, a Virtual PC makes it incredibly
easy to pop in and out of different OSes for testing or exploration;
without having to shut down, reboot, or alter your main desktop in any
way: Each of the other OSes runs in its own private, protected memory
space *inside* your regular OS. In my case, VPCs have become a mainstay
of my everyday work environment. (
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=18600449
)

You can still get a free trial copy of Microsoft's VPC at
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx , or an
open-source VPC at http://bochs.sourceforge.net/ ; and there are others
around too. If you haven't played with one yet, I urge you to give it a
go.

It's not hard at all to get a VPC up and running, but to get it running
really well, or to unleash its full potential, takes a bit of
investigation: These were originally developer tools, and the learning
curve has some odd speedbumps scattered about that may take you by
surprise.

But there's plenty of help available. These are the sites I found most
useful in getting the most from my VPCs. Maybe they'll help you, too:

Independent VPC FAQ and Link Collection:
http://www.robertmoir.co.uk/win/VirtualPC2004FAQ.html

Unofficial "What Works in VPC" Site:
http://vpc.visualwin.com/

Virtual PC Downloads:
http://www.essjae.com/VPC/virtual_pc_downloads.htm

Virtualization (general):
http://www.virtualization.info/

================================

vSubst v1.7 - 32-Bit-SUBST
http://home.tiscalinet.ch/t.bigler/utils.html
Creates drive-letters for any folders on your harddisk. Useful to
create virtual drives e.g. on laptops.
Allows easy removal of all virtual folders (= Visual
32-Bit-SUBST-Command)
Limitations:
· SUBSTed-drives don't operate 100% in networks
· Some copy-protected CD-ROMs check for the physical presence of a
disk...
· Volume-Label is always identical to the host label.
· vSubst just creates a virtual drive like the old subst-command -
nothing more or less.

 

[bambam]

Vmware at ;

http://www.vmware.com/

looks pretty interesting. Is there a freeware equivalent ? Does anyone
here know please ?

Here is a link that was posted in here recently, looks interesting:

http://linux.wolphination.com/?p=18

 

[wald]

Vmware at ;

http://www.vmware.com/

looks pretty interesting. Is there a freeware equivalent ? Does
anyone here know please ?

The standard open source answer to this is Bochs:

http://bochs.sourceforge.net/

Never used it myself...

Regards,
Wald

 

[Adam Piggott]

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Vmware at ;

http://www.vmware.com/

looks pretty interesting. Is there a freeware equivalent ? Does anyone
here know please ?

I paid for and use Microsoft's Virtual PC (not that expensive IIRC) and get
on well with it. It's reasonably quick as well, even on my PIII 733/1GB,
with it's accelerating "Virtual Machine Additions" drivers installed on it.

As said by other posters there's a evaluation version available to try out.

HTH

Adam Piggott,
Proprietor,
Proactive Services (Computing)
http://www.proactiveservices.co.uk/
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[drussell]

Vmware at ;

http://www.vmware.com/

looks pretty interesting. Is there a freeware equivalent ? Does anyone
here know please ?

Actually, vmware offers its own freeware solution, and from my
experience it provides faster performance than Virtual PC, but it is
more difficult to set up initially. These links should be enough to get
you started:

http://www.vmware.com/products/player/
The free virtualization software. Runs on Linux and Windows 2000 and
later operating systems.

http://petruska.stardock.net/software/VMware/
VMX Builder (requires Visual Basic runtime library) will help you
create your configuration and disk image files.

http://public.planetmirror.com/pub/vmware/
These are support files from vmware. There are disk images here
(extension .iso) that you must mount inside your installed virtual
operating system to provide drivers for the emulated devices.

 

[John Fitzsimons]

The standard open source answer to this is Bochs:

Never used it myself...

Thank you Wald. Will take a look.

Regards, John.

 

[John Fitzsimons]

Don't use myself, have a look at these.

Virtual PC ( VPC )
http://langa.com/newsletters/2004/2004-06-28.htm
3) Excellent VPC Resources
As mentioned in the previous item, a Virtual PC makes it incredibly
easy to pop in and out of different OSes for testing or exploration;
without having to shut down, reboot, or alter your main desktop in any
way: Each of the other OSes runs in its own private, protected memory
space *inside* your regular OS. In my case, VPCs have become a mainstay
of my everyday work environment. (
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=18600449

< snip >

Wow ! Thanks Matt. Very interesting indeed.

Regards, John.

 

[John Fitzsimons]

Here is a link that was posted in here recently, looks interesting:

http://linux.wolphination.com/?p=18

I agree. Thanks for the info. Appreciated.

Regards, John.

 

[John Fitzsimons]

John Fitzsimons wrote:

Actually, vmware offers its own freeware solution, and from my
experience it provides faster performance than Virtual PC, but it is
more difficult to set up initially.

Yes, according to ;

http://www.vmware.com/products/player/comparison.html

vmplayer free cannot "Create virtual machines"

I assume that the following somehow gets around that limitation ?

These links should be enough to get
you started:

http://www.vmware.com/products/player/
The free virtualization software. Runs on Linux and Windows 2000 and
later operating systems.

http://petruska.stardock.net/software/VMware/
VMX Builder (requires Visual Basic runtime library) will help you
create your configuration and disk image files.

http://public.planetmirror.com/pub/vmware/
These are support files from vmware. There are disk images here
(extension .iso) that you must mount inside your installed virtual
operating system to provide drivers for the emulated devices.

Assuming one has created a virtual o/s !

Thanks for your help as well.

Regards, John.

 

[John Fitzsimons]

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Hash: SHA1

John Fitzsimons wrote:

I paid for and use Microsoft's Virtual PC (not that expensive IIRC) and get
on well with it. It's reasonably quick as well, even on my PIII 733/1GB,
with it's accelerating "Virtual Machine Additions" drivers installed on it.

As said by other posters there's a evaluation version available to try out.

HTH

It does. Always nice to hear from users of recommended programs.
Rather a pity the MS program dies after 45 days. :-(

Regards, John.

 

[drussell]

Assuming one has created a virtual o/s !

The free vmware player certainly by itself can only run virtual
operating systems by double-clicking a preexisting .VMX file, but since
a .VMX file and hard disk images can be created with other free tools,
I consider it the best free solution, even if it is a little cumbersome
to have to shut down the virtual machine to mount CD's, for example.

The steps are:

1) Use VMX Builder to create the .VMX file using the options and
virtual devices you want (the hardest/trickiest part), then create a
disk image that represents your virtual hard disk

2) Use VMX Builder to mount an operating system install CD, or edit the
..VMX as if it were a text file and specify the path to the CD

3) Double click the .VMX to launch it in vmware player, boot from the
install CD, partition and format the virtual hard disk, and install the
operating system

4) Install drivers

 

[John Fitzsimons]

On 11 Jan 2006 05:24:42 -0800, (e-mail address removed) wrote:

http://public.planetmirror.com/pub/vmware/
These are support files from vmware. There are disk images here
(extension .iso) that you must mount inside your installed virtual
operating system to provide drivers for the emulated devices.

Thanks, but I have two problems. Going to the above address gives
me a lot of .rpm, .gz etc. files but no iso's. Secondly, I am still
not clear about the term "you must mount inside your installed virtual
operating system".

How is that done ? Presumably this is different than simply installing
software into the virtual o/s ?

If I have say 98SE on a disk and make eg. a 300MB iso of it then
wouldn't "mounting" (whatever that is) the iso limit my virtual o/s to
300MB ?

If so then wouldn't installing the programs from the 300MB drive be
better ? As I could dynamically increase my virtual o/s size ?

Regards, John.

 

[John Fitzsimons]

The free vmware player certainly by itself can only run virtual
operating systems by double-clicking a preexisting .VMX file, but since
a .VMX file and hard disk images can be created with other free tools,

Such as VMX Builder ? Are there any others that you/others here know
of and/or recommend ?

I consider it the best free solution, even if it is a little cumbersome
to have to shut down the virtual machine to mount CD's, for example.

Sorry, I am not quite following you here. Are you talking about using
a CD in the host o/s or the guest o/s ?

Are you talking about having the guest o/s files on a CD ? Or simply
using CDs in the guest o/s ? If the former then why not install them
as an o/s normally ?

The steps are:

1) Use VMX Builder to create the .VMX file using the options and
virtual devices you want (the hardest/trickiest part), then create a
disk image that represents your virtual hard disk

Okay, with you so far.

2) Use VMX Builder to mount an operating system install CD, or edit the
.VMX as if it were a text file and specify the path to the CD

Not quite clear here. What do you mean by "mount an operating system
install CD" ? Surely one just needs to (once ?) have the install CD ?
When the virtual o/s is being created ?

Presumably there is somewhere in the VMX Builder application where one
points to the o/s install CD ? Though I don't know where/how that
would be done.

3) Double click the .VMX to launch it in vmware player, boot from the
install CD, partition and format the virtual hard disk, and install the
operating system

Okay, now I am more confused. One uses the o/s CD in vmplayer not VMX
Builder ?

4) Install drivers

Okay.

Though I am not 100% clear on this I am certainly clearer than I was.
Being able to use freeware is great. Thank you for taking the time to
try and make things clearer for me. It is certainly appreciated.

A few extra questions for anyone. Is the (time limited) demo of VMware
Workstation 5 usable from when it is downloaded or from installation ?
In other words if I downloaded it but didn't install for 2 months
would I still have my full trial period ?

Secondly, is there a newsgroup and/or mailing list (preferably for
dummies) that discusses creating/using virtual o/s's ?


Regards, John.