I’m in the process of testing upgrade – yes, upgrade, no fresh
reinstall – of my old trusty 11.2 to the unknown 11.4.
One of the applications I need is VMware. I’m using vmware server, and
I’m thinking of migrating to the player version, because the server is
not supported, it seems.
So I have installed a small test partition with 11.4, and in it I have
installed VMPlayer. It looks nice (I had to install a lot of development
packages, gcc, kernel-source, etc - nothing new here). Sound in the
guest (I’m testing my virtual Windows Me) works; it wasn’t working in
the server. Nice surprise.
One missing feature is snapshots. The trick is to simply replicate all
the files of the virtual machine to a backup. It is huge space wasted, 9
GB for a small machine, but it is doable.
One thing I do not know how to do: VMplayer gives a notice that the
virtual machine is version “Workstation 5.xx virtual machine”, and that
this version’x CMOS is not compatible and will use a default cmos
instead. But I have not seen anywhere how to choose or change or upgrade
the virtual machine type.
Is it somewhere else?
–
Saludos/Cheers
Carlos E.R.
(testing 11-4 Celadon on Lilliput)
Carlos E. R. wrote:
> One thing I do not know how to do: VMplayer gives a notice that the
> virtual machine is version “Workstation 5.xx virtual machine”, and that
> this version’x CMOS is not compatible and will use a default cmos
> instead. But I have not seen anywhere how to choose or change or upgrade
> the virtual machine type.
VMWare Player simply does not have the feature to upgrade the hardware type
of the virtual machine to a higher version, until now I did not find out if
there is an external tool which can do that.
Just as a side note: Virtual Box 4 can run VMWare machines (before one has
of course to remove the vmware tools I run myself one machine I never
converted but simply reused it as it was), just in case it is of interest
for you (better snapshot features than vmware player).
–
PC: oS 11.3 64 bit | Intel Core2 Quad Q8300@2.50GHz | KDE 4.6.3 | GeForce
9600 GT | 4GB Ram
Eee PC 1201n: oS 11.4 64 bit | Intel Atom 330@1.60GHz | KDE 4.6.0 | nVidia
ION | 3GB Ram
–
PC: oS 11.3 64 bit | Intel Core2 Quad Q8300@2.50GHz | KDE 4.6.3 | GeForce
9600 GT | 4GB Ram
Eee PC 1201n: oS 11.4 64 bit | Intel Atom 330@1.60GHz | KDE 4.6.0 | nVidia
ION | 3GB Ram
On 06/02/2011 09:21 PM, martin_helm wrote:
> Carlos E. R. wrote:
>> One thing I do not know how to do: VMplayer gives a notice that the
>> virtual machine is version “Workstation 5.xx virtual machine”, and that
>> this version’x CMOS is not compatible and will use a default cmos
>> instead. But I have not seen anywhere how to choose or change or upgrade
>> the virtual machine type.
>
> VMWare Player simply does not have the feature to upgrade the hardware type
> of the virtual machine to a higher version, until now I did not find out if
> there is an external tool which can do that.
I wonder if one could create a new virtual machine, and then “add” the
hard disk. I think that the file containing the hard disk doesn’t
contain the virtual machine description.
At worst, I could use the guest machine to replicate its “hard disk” to
another one (usb), then create a new guest and use those tools (aka
ghost) to reimport.
Nuisances…
Oh, another one… the guest might not like the change of hardware, so
it might be better to remain without upgrading the virtual machine type.
> Just as a side note: Virtual Box 4 can run VMWare machines (before one has
> of course to remove the vmware tools I run myself one machine I never
> converted but simply reused it as it was), just in case it is of interest
> for you (better snapshot features than vmware player).
Unfortunately, VB does not support old operating systems like Windows Me
or MsDos.
–
Saludos/Cheers
Carlos E.R.
(testing 11-4 Celadon on Lilliput)
On 06/02/2011 09:40 PM, martin_helm wrote:
> There is a short thread here which mentions editing the .vmx file (but
> without feedback if that works)
> http://communities.vmware.com/thread/278581
>
It does! Wow! :-OO
Thanks
–
Saludos/Cheers
Carlos E.R.
(testing 11-4 Celadon on Lilliput)
> I wonder if one could create a new virtual machine, and then “add” the
> hard disk. I think that the file containing the hard disk doesn’t
> contain the virtual machine description.
>
That should work, the hard disk does really not contain the hardware info.
> Oh, another one… the guest might not like the change of hardware, so
> it might be better to remain without upgrading the virtual machine type.
>
It will result in the need to activate windows again for newer windows
versions and change the drivers.
> Unfortunately, VB does not support old operating systems like Windows Me
> or MsDos.
>
I see the point (I have no ME running but an old DOS which runs in qemu) it
is one nuisance about VB that it does not support “old” systems.
–
PC: oS 11.3 64 bit | Intel Core2 Quad Q8300@2.50GHz | KDE 4.6.3 | GeForce
9600 GT | 4GB Ram
Eee PC 1201n: oS 11.4 64 bit | Intel Atom 330@1.60GHz | KDE 4.6.0 | nVidia
ION | 3GB Ram
On Thu, 02 Jun 2011 19:08:13 +0000, Carlos E. R. wrote:
> One missing feature is snapshots. The trick is to simply replicate all
> the files of the virtual machine to a backup. It is huge space wasted, 9
> GB for a small machine, but it is doable.
>
> One thing I do not know how to do: VMplayer gives a notice that the
> virtual machine is version “Workstation 5.xx virtual machine”, and that
> this version’x CMOS is not compatible and will use a default cmos
> instead. But I have not seen anywhere how to choose or change or upgrade
> the virtual machine type.
>
> Is it somewhere else?
Player doesn’t really have the full set of functionality to do
configuration - it’s intended to be used with pre-built systems.
For that full functionality, you either need server (which as you noted
doesn’t work well/at all on 11.4 because VMware apparently stopped
updating it) or workstation (which I can confirm does run on 11.4).
On 06/02/2011 09:50 PM, martin_helm wrote:
> Carlos E. R. wrote:
I did the editing change on the link you posted, it worked.
>> Oh, another one… the guest might not like the change of hardware, so
>> it might be better to remain without upgrading the virtual machine type.
>>
> It will result in the need to activate windows again for newer windows
> versions and change the drivers.
Win-Me doesn’t have that, fortunately. I wasn’t sure I had all the
drivers i would need, but it appears that the vmware people are using
hardware easy to find support for. I had everything.
Years ago I bought a game or two I still play now and then on that
Win-Me
>> Unfortunately, VB does not support old operating systems like Windows Me
>> or MsDos.
>>
> I see the point (I have no ME running but an old DOS which runs in qemu) it
> is one nuisance about VB that it does not support “old” systems.
On 06/02/2011 10:20 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Thu, 02 Jun 2011 19:08:13 +0000, Carlos E. R. wrote:
>> Is it somewhere else?
>
> Player doesn’t really have the full set of functionality to do
> configuration - it’s intended to be used with pre-built systems.
But it can create virtual machines now, they added that feature. I
haven’t tested it, but so I read.
If not, I’ll keep a partition with 11.2 in order to create the machines
there with the server version.
> For that full functionality, you either need server (which as you noted
> doesn’t work well/at all on 11.4 because VMware apparently stopped
> updating it) or workstation (which I can confirm does run on 11.4).
Unfortunately, the workstation version is payware, and I don’t think I
need all the features.
On Thu, 02 Jun 2011 20:34:22 +0000, Carlos E. R. wrote:
> On 06/02/2011 10:20 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> On Thu, 02 Jun 2011 19:08:13 +0000, Carlos E. R. wrote:
>
>>> Is it somewhere else?
>>
>> Player doesn’t really have the full set of functionality to do
>> configuration - it’s intended to be used with pre-built systems.
>
> But it can create virtual machines now, they added that feature. I
> haven’t tested it, but so I read.
It’s not still as fully functional as the other products - that’s as
intended.
> If not, I’ll keep a partition with 11.2 in order to create the machines
> there with the server version.
>
>> For that full functionality, you either need server (which as you noted
>> doesn’t work well/at all on 11.4 because VMware apparently stopped
>> updating it) or workstation (which I can confirm does run on 11.4).
>
> Unfortunately, the workstation version is payware, and I don’t think I
> need all the features.
I was glad to see they added snapshots to server, but Workstation’s
ability to do linked clones and multiple snapshots is really handy.
> Player doesn’t really have the full set of functionality to do
> configuration - it’s intended to be used with pre-built systems.
>
VMWare Player 3 can create machines very well and with a good way to
configure them (I used that many times before I started to switch to VB).
–
PC: oS 11.3 64 bit | Intel Core2 Quad Q8300@2.50GHz | KDE 4.6.3 | GeForce
9600 GT | 4GB Ram
Eee PC 1201n: oS 11.4 64 bit | Intel Atom 330@1.60GHz | KDE 4.6.0 | nVidia
ION | 3GB Ram
> I was glad to see they added snapshots to server, but Workstation’s
> ability to do linked clones and multiple snapshots is really handy.
I think snapshots have been available for a long time, dunno. Maybe I don’t
remember well. Linked clones I don’t know what it is. Multiple snapshots
would be nice, but what I do is multiple backups. Sure it uses lots of disk
space.
Snapshots is a feature I’ll miss, even with backups. It’s a click. Was.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)
On Fri, 03 Jun 2011 18:38:06 +0000, Carlos E. R. wrote:
> On 2011-06-02 22:44, Jim Henderson wrote:
>
>> I was glad to see they added snapshots to server, but Workstation’s
>> ability to do linked clones and multiple snapshots is really handy.
>
> I think snapshots have been available for a long time, dunno.
In server it’s “relatively” recent, and was limited to 1.
In Workstation, it’s been around since the 3.x or 4.x days, but multiple
snapshots came along in 5 or 6.
> Maybe I
> don’t remember well. Linked clones I don’t know what it is. Multiple
> snapshots would be nice, but what I do is multiple backups. Sure it uses
> lots of disk space.
Linked clones are where you build one base image and then customize it in
different ways. It’s a clone, but without wasting the disk space to
duplicate the common base image.
– of my old trusty 11.2 to the unknown 11.4.
