virtualize xp on opensuse or opensuse on xp?

English Open Chat
1

so u noticed this is my first post… my other account got deleted maybe because of the forum merge or something but anyways i’m back with a lot more to share…

I am still waiting for opensuse 11 to finish the download… i’m in congo and it takes 24hrs to download the live cd… i know horrible right… i pay $150 dollars for this a month…

anyways to point… I was wondering if it would be better virtualizing xp on opensuse or opensuse on xp…

i personally prefer keeping opensuse my OS but I was wondering what performance difference would it give…

I wish i could just keep linux but somethings i just can’t live without that only work on win:(
and ofcourse linux is a must!..

looking forward to opensuse support!..

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Using VirtualBox on Suse to run XP works great and you don’t have to worry about getting XP viruses destroying your system.

Usually, I just look for ways to get things done without even using Windows. Except for gaming, there isn’t much that Windows can do that Linux cannot.

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I do to but eventhough i like linux/opensuse so much i cannot compromise productivity… Photoshop for example… I also trade forex so tools such as metatrader 4… Ruckus Player etc… There isn’t much I can do about all that… And not everything works under wine…

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aslamc wrote:

>
> so u noticed this is my first post… my other account got deleted maybe
> because of the forum merge or something but anyways i’m back with a lot
> more to share…
>
> I am still waiting for opensuse 11 to finish the download… i’m in
> congo and it takes 24hrs to download the live cd… i know horrible
> right… i pay $150 dollars for this a month…
>
> anyways to point… I was wondering if it would be better virtualizing
> xp on opensuse or opensuse on xp…
>
> i personally prefer keeping opensuse my OS but I was wondering what
> performance difference would it give…
>
> I wish i could just keep linux but somethings i just can’t live with
> that only work on win:(
> and ofcourse linux is a must!..
>
> looking forward to opensuse support!..
>
>
go with your primary os - where do you spend most of your time

Suse 11.0 x64, Kde 3.5.9, Opera 9.x weekly

5

Its been a while ( 'bout 10 years) since I looked at forex software, but there was a time when some forex trading software provided (and required) a hardware locking device that one connected to their parallel port. They did this to try prevent users from hacking their software. I don’t know if this is the case with your software but if so, and if you need to use such a device, then that device may not function correctly if XP is a client in a virtual session under openSUSE.

Otherwise, if you do not use games, my guess is having openSUSE as your main OS, and winXP as a client, is a good way to go. Support for winXP is gradually being removed by Microsoft.

If it were me, and I was uncertain, and if my hard drive was large enough (large hard drives are inexpensive) then I would install both openSUSE and WinXP in a dual boot. Then I would install openSUSE as a virtual client under WinXP, and install WinXP as a virtual client under openSUSE. I would evaluate the two, and go with the setup that worked best for me.

6

Well, to give you and example, when I first started with Linux I made a dual boot system.
put XP on one partition, openSUSE (and swap) on a second and third partition and a big NTFS partition to put all the shared data.

The main thing that happened with this setup is that I did not really get to use Linux because I did not know my way around it and kept having to go back into Windows to be productive.

I setup a different strategy that worked for me;

  1. Maintain an XP system partition (so you can boot into it when needed)
  2. Make three partitions for openSUSE (for the swap, / and /home)
  3. Make a shared NTFS partition that both XP and openSUSE are allowed to use
  • To get past the 4 partitions per disk limitation you can make one LVM container or use an win95 extended partition.
    Another option is to use a boot manager like BootIT. This last option can make life very easy with testing and imaging.

Once setup, get yourself working in openSUSE by default.
For all related XP apps you can make a virtual XP system that has a disk big enough to hold xp/programs.

Shared data and the VM :
In the XP VM you can access partition 3) by making a Samba share in openSUSE and map this as D:\ in the VM. This is to place all your important data outside the VM.
By doing this you also have the advantage that you can make use of snapshots for the XP vm and keep it clean by reverting to a set point (a point where you have set it up as you like but it’s not too bloated) once every so often.

Following this I noticed I was starting my XP vm quite often (and sometimes booted back into the XP at 1), but the more I learned how to do things in openSUSE the less I need XP. Now I would say 80% in openSUSE, 20% XP (for some specific applications and tools). I haven’t booted into XP at 1) for 7 or 8 months.

One thing that you will need in running openSUSE and XP as vm and also wanting to use programs like photoshop… Enough RAM!!
I would say to get at lease 2 GB in you system.

Well… that was my 2c

Sorry for the long story, but thought it might give some extra ideas in how you can set it up.

Hope this kept you busy and your download is finished! :wink:

Cheers,
Wj

ps. Both VirtualBox and VMWare Workstation are two good tools to do this with, the first one being OSS. Don’t forget to install the guest tools for XP (goes for both Vbox and VMWare)

7

thanks,
but my download still has 3 more hrs to go…

The problem that I have with dual boot is that I need to use xp and suse at the same time and virtualization is my only option… 99% I was going virtualize xp on suse but I was just wondering if there was any 1 strong point that would make me switch to have xp as my main… like to stay open minded… oh and I have shared my desktop on virtualbox the way I am using it right now and mapped the drive so I can easily access it from my computer… and for me 50% of my needs are with windows… I try getting rid of xp but there is always 1 thing or the other the requires me to use xp… somethings such as ruckus doesn’t have a linux solution yet…

Also I was wondering is there anyway I can copy my whole setup on virtualbox from ubuntu and when I install opensuse 11 just transfer the whole thing isntead of reinstalling windows again on it… my guess would be no but I might get lucky…

8

forex software don’t need any hardware encryption anymore… Metatrader the one I use for charting can run under wine but its not completely functional and the software I use to make the trades (oanda) is java so it works on suse… pretty well after installing the fonts… it still has some minor issues but I don’t chart on it so that fine… however I still need xp for my other apps… Once the download is done I’ll just install suse and virtualize xp… If there is a way to copy my whole virtualization setup from virtualbox that would be great…

9

forgot to mention I do have 2GB of ram this laptop… I also have seld 10.0 but I am going to install opensuse 11 on another laptop that has 512 ram centrino 1.73ghz…

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P2V XP you mean? You could do that without to much problems.

I’ve done this enough times with VMWare and Xen setups… VirtualBox should be no different.

As a first attempt you could just make an image of XP (using your favorite imaging software), copy that image into an ISO file format, mount the ISO in your XP vm guest & write that image back onto the virtual hard disk.

See if that boots up ‘as is’ and if so, install the Virtual box guest addons.
If you get a BSOD or reboot loop, there are ways to inject the needed disk controller drivers into your XP guest.

… I am going to install opensuse 11 on another laptop that has 512 ram centrino 1.73ghz…

Hope your not planning on running the XP vm with that laptop? :smiley: openSUSE should run fine on the laptop.

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COOL… that just saves me a whole lotta time from reinstalling windows and all the programs in it again…

Sorry but do you mind laying it out a little better please… I get the picture but not well enough…
I appreciate it…

12

Will do… but first, …tell me one thing…

Whats your favorite imaging software/technique? Then I can specify a bit better. :slight_smile:

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by imaging do you mean backing up an image of xp… u mean something like nortorn ghost?

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Yep, that is exactly what I mean, the copy and dump tool :smiley:

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well i don’t have any preference… can you suggest a good one

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for me the best solution is XP on one partition, openSUSE on a second and another one to put all the shared data

do you know 3dstudiomax??

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yes the animation software…
but see I need to use xp suse at the same time so I have to virtualize them

18

My personal favorite is (here we go again - for those that have read this many times cover your eyes :smiley: ) : BootIT! Boot Manager, Partition Manager, and Drive Image Utility - BootIt Next Generation
It’s small and gets the job done.

The thing to do is download it, unpack the zip and run bootitng.exe, follow the directions to create an ISO that you can than use to boot on your system running XP. (or use Ghost is you like). You don’t need to buy it to image your disk!

A little pressed with time, but here is a quick howto:

Assuming you want to use BootIt;
If you have a USB disk handy, hook that up to the system with XP so you can stream the image directly onto that USB disk.
Shut down XP and reboot using the BootIt CD and at the start screen cancel prompts to setup and enter the maintenance mode.

In the top menu goto the settings and there select to also use USB 2.0 devices (so you can stream a copy of the xp partition to the USB disk)… Apply this and return to the main screen.

Select Partitions.
It will scan for disks and here you should at least see (on the left) HD0 (disk with XP) and HD1 (USB disk) - numbers may vary.
Select the disk with the XP partition on it, select the partition and select ‘Image’ & 'create 'on the right side. (note you get a ‘paste pending’ message at the bottom.

Select the USB disk on the left, there you will see the partition (assuming it will be an NTFS or FAT32 partition) where you can paste you image on. Select the partiton to put the image file on and select the Paste button on the right, select NO to verify (not needed in this case) & default image file size 2GB is fine.

Imaging will begin…

Restoring the Image:
When this is done it’s just a matter of reversing the process.
Create a virtual machine, if you have the non OSS version of VirtualBox you also have USB support, so you can boot with the iso of bootit and stream back bij selecting the partition where you wrote the image, selecting Image ‘restore’ , and pasting the image on your virtual disk.

When done set the partition to active using the MBR tool and try to boot.

Have to go but will get back to this thread… so let me know where I was not clear or you want more detail…

Cheers & good luck!
Wj

19

As true with just about any install…a clean install is ALWAYS better if at all possible…it will run better due to less clutter. It will be setup for the vm virtual hardware…and once you have the vm built the way you want you can back it up so you can copy to another machine…or restore in case of problems.

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Understand.

The idea behind the dual boot was as a trial … once you have trailed both, and are happy with the one that is best as the server, then simply remove the other.