Slavakion

In case you didn't know, VMware is a nifty program that lets you create virtual computers so you can test OSes, run potentially unstable code, whatever. A great part of it is that you don't need so set up ethernet devices (great for me since my wireless card didn't want to play nice).

I installed Red Hat Fedora Core 2, and in order for the X server to run, you need special drivers installed (VMware Tools). I'm pretty sure I installed VMTools right, but when I tried to launch X, it gives an error.

and it gives a short list where VMware: Option "hw_cursor" has stars next to it.

As far as I understand it, X is required for the GUI. Any ideas?

Latch

X *is* the GUI....

Could you copy and paste (or screenshot) the screen with the error? I think you mean it does something like:

(**) blah
(**) blah
(EE) blahblah
(**) blah
(**) blah

Am I correct?

bendsley

Fedora Core 2 Test xx ? What test of Core 2 are you running?

1 - Boot installation CD.
2 - At boot: prompt, type "linux vdso=0". This is very important, otherwise VMware will crash.
3 - Install as usual, configure however you like. You'll need to ensure "vdso=0" is set in the "advanced boot configuration" options.
4 - If you just reboot at the end of the install, the system will "freak out" a bit trying to start the x server. You can avoid this by editing the boot line (at the Fedora grub splash screen) and appending a 3 to the line.
5 - Boot.
6 - Unpack the VMware Tools tarball, then apply the patch below (vmware-fc2t3.patch) to vmwares-tools-distrib/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl.
7 - Install VMware tools. Use the defaults for all questions, except say NO when asked if you want to compile a vmhgfs module. It doesn't seem to compile with the 2.6 kernel headers.
8 - Reboot, and enjoy.

If you are running Fedora Core 2 Test 3, then look for the patch: vmware-fc2t3.patch.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

--- vmware-config-tools.pl.before 2004-05-11 19:51:19.608817712 +0200
+++ vmware-config-tools.pl 2004-05-11 20:55:42.508567688 +0200
@@ -2788,7 +2788,7 @@
}

sub xserver4 {
- return xserver_bin() . '/XFree86';
+ return xserver_bin() . '/Xorg';
}

sub xserver3 {
@@ -2984,7 +2984,7 @@
my $sub;

$xversionAll = direct_command(shell_string(xserver4()) . ' -version 2>&1') =~
- /XFree86 Version (\d+\.\d+\.?\d*)/ ? $1: '0.0.0';
+ /XFree86 Version (\d+\.\d+\.?\d*)/ ? $1: '4.3.0';

# This search order is issued from the XF86Config man page.
if (defined $ENV{'XF86CONFIG'} && file_name_exist($xconfig_path . '/' .
@@ -2994,6 +2994,8 @@
file_name_exist('/usr/X11R6/etc/X11/' . $ENV{'XF86CONFIG'})) {
$xconfig_path = '/usr/X11R6/etc/X11';
$xconfig_file_name = $ENV{'XF86CONFIG'};
+ } elsif (file_name_exist($xconfig_path . '/xorg.conf')) {
+ $xconfig_file_name = 'xorg.conf';
} elsif (file_name_exist($xconfig_path . '/XF86Config-4')) {
$xconfig_file_name = 'XF86Config-4';
} elsif (file_name_exist($xconfig_path . '/XF86Config')) {
@@ -3146,6 +3148,18 @@
$xversionAll);
}

+sub fix_gpm_file {
+ my $gpm_file = '/etc/sysconfig/gpm';
+ if (file_name_exist($gpm_file)) {
+ my %p;
+ undef %p;
+ backup_file_to_restore($gpm_file, 'GPM_FILE');
+ print "Fixing " . $gpm_file . "\n";
+ $p{'^MOUSETYPE="exps2"$'} = 'MOUSETYPE="ms"';
+ internal_sed($gpm_file . $cBackupExtension, $gpm_file, 0, \%p);
+ }
+}
+
sub fix_mouse_file {
my $mouse_file = '/etc/sysconfig/mouse';
#
@@ -3179,6 +3193,8 @@
}
}
}
+ system('touch ' . $mouse_file);
+ fix_gpm_file();
return $enableXImps2;
}

@@ -3499,6 +3515,7 @@
if ($major == 4 && $minor >= 2 &&
file_name_exist($cX4MouseDriverFile)) {
$line =~ s/%MOUSE_DRIVER%/vmmouse/g;
+ $line =~ s-/dev/mouse-/dev/input/mice-;
} else {
$line =~ s/%MOUSE_DRIVER%/mouse/g;
}

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

I have heard that FC2 runs sluggish with VMware as opposed to FC1. Your results may vary.

One more thing, you may have to update the mouse driver in /etc/XF86Config before X will start, but shouldn't be an issue.

__________________
"You hear the one about the fella who died, went to the pearly gates? St. Peter let him in. Sees a guy in a suit making a closing argument. Says, "Who's that?" St. Peter says, "Oh, that's God. Thinks he's Denny Crane."

Slavakion

I'm not running a test core (I think), it's just Core 2, which is named tettnang. Maybe you got confused when I said that you could test OSes. i meant you could run a different OS without repartitioning your HD. Or maybe I'm confused because I know very little about Linux. I checked the Fedora site, and they're on Core 3 Test 1, so...?

Here's the output



In case you're wondering, no I haven't gotten Mandrake to work either. Oh, and smartd always fails to load and shutdown. Whatever that is.

Vmware doesn't crash w/o vdso, so that's fine. But where do I append the 3? Do I 'e'dit the boot thingy or edit the 'a'rguments? Sheesh, seems like it'd be less work to install it to my HD

bendsley

It does have to be installed on your harddrive!!! You are able to run the OS in conjunction with windows, but they both must reside on the system in order to take advantage of the system resources (ie. mouse, keyboard, NIC, etc.). The only cd's that will run correctly without being installed are the "Live" cds like Knoppix, MandrakeMove, SuSE live, etc.

BUT YOU MUST HAVE FEDORA INSTALLED FOR VMWARE TO WORK CORRECTLY. Then you just tell VMWare to look at the boot record and boot into linux (ie. you run windows natively and then run linux in the window of VMWare)

VMWare was designed so that you could run multiple OS's on one machine at the same time, but, like above, they must be installed on the HDD.

__________________
"You hear the one about the fella who died, went to the pearly gates? St. Peter let him in. Sees a guy in a suit making a closing argument. Says, "Who's that?" St. Peter says, "Oh, that's God. Thinks he's Denny Crane."

Slavakion

Yeah, but they don't need to be installed like normal, they are installed on the virtual machine (which is on your real HD, yes) meaning that there is no "real" partitioning or "real" installation. It's all in a few gigs worth of a file in my documents.

I even saw it on TSS, Kevin made a new "machine," put in a redhat cd, and it started to install.

Slavakion

You know what? I'm going in. If I freshly defrag my HD (with a 3rd party prog like Diskeeper), then boot linux and tell it to format the empty space, I shouldn't screw up windows, right? And if there's a choice between bootloaders, will LiLo or Grub be more friendly to my Windows partition?

I await your answer(s) before taking the final step. *deep breath*

Latch

I think you're starting to confuse people hehe..

Yeah. They have to be installed on a hard drive, but it's not like you install them on the same hard drive you have windows on, and the files just coincide. In VMWare, you generally create a file (or series of files) that represent the hard drive. Windows doesn't know what's in them, nor does it care. VMWare reads them to create the virutal "hard drive" it uses for Linux. The virtual disk has it's own Master Boot Record, and that's that. Yes, there are other modes where you can actually use a physical disk as the vmware disk, but that's not what Slavakion is doing.

Now, Slavakion....

I see two errors on that screenshot. One is concerning the SecurityPolicy file missing, one is concerning the mouse not being found. I don't think they're related.. but hey.. the could be hehe. I don't believe either of them related to VMWare Tools not being installed on the machine (as it doesn't seem to be a graphics display problem).

Could you post another screenshot or whatever of your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file?

I'm looking for this part (yours will vary from mine):

Also, could you please do an "ls -al /dev/input/mice" or "ls -al (whatever it says for "Device" in the xorg.conf code)", and see if it actually lists a file or says "No such file or directory"?

Latch

Easy tiger. In theory, you're correct. In practice, FC2 is notourious for screwing up your boot partition and not letting you boot back into Windows.

LWN: Making Fedora Core 2 and Windows play well together Should help you out with it. You can even prevent the problem.

Otherwise, go for it.. good luck.

Actually, re-reading your post.. defragging won't do anything. You have one hard drive, I take it.. and wnat to have both Windows and Linux on it.

You need to partition the hard drive, so Windows can't see the free space anymore (leave it some!), and Linux has some space to create it's own partition (depending on how much you want to do with your Linux machine, up to 10 gig would probably be good).

There are programs like Partition Magic for Windows or parted/qtparted for Linux that can do this. I highly suggest using Partition Magic. It's easier on beginners and a bit more stable. Don't want to go wiping your Windows drive hehe.

BTW, you'll want to keep Windows as the primary partition, and install linux on the subsequent partitions (it'll probably going to make 3.. one for /boot, one for swap, and one for root (/)).

Latch

Also, I'd suggest using Grub. Bit easier to handle and use for recovery if something goes bad.

Slavakion

Well, I was thinking of using Mandrake 10. I would have used FC2, but I have the DVD image and no DVD burner -_-; Since they're on sale now for ~$70, I have no excuse... except... yes! I'm saving the environment by not wasting gas...*looks around*

Well, I read somewhere that it'd push the files down one end of the partition, lowering the chance of overwriting something. I'll probably do it anyway, just for housekeeping purposes.

Would Partition Magic be better than Mandrake's built-in partitioner?

EDIT: Wow, look at it! Of course it's better.

Latch

Ahhh, I frogot Mandrake 10 came with a partitioner.. that can handle windows...

defrag yeah.. keeps files together instead of in fragments.. and you may get a bit of extra space outta it.. so I guess it's worth it.

the Mandrake partitioner is just parted in the background, I think.. but I haven't heard of any major complaints about it.. so give it a go.. see how it works for you

Also, if you have two computers.. hope into #tfp if you have any questions.. There always seems to be Linux person or two.. in there.

Slavakion

Well, Partition Magic is on its way, and I'll just say thanks for your help.

Hopefully I won't be cursing your name because Linux tried to pull a fast one on me.

Latch

You should be alright. Mandrake is a popular and well-supported distribution. Good luck

Slavakion

Hehehe, now I do my happy dance! I haven't tested it yet, but I installed it, and Windows is fine!

It looks like I'll have to get special drivers for my Netgear wireless card (MADWIFI) and wireless tools . But I'm gonna save that for later. Does that sound about right, though?

Latch

Yeah, sounds about right.

If you can't get MADWIFI working (I assume you already know you have a supported card or something), there are alternatives. For example, there's a program that allows you to use your card's Windows drivers for Linux. The downside is that it costs after 30 days or something.. anyways.. good luck with it all hehe.

Slavakion

As a precaution so that I don't accidently write to my NTFS partition, i had a crazy thought. Could I make a ~10gb "common" FAT32 partition? As in, windows and linux can both read/write? Or, if linux can't write to it, at least I'd fry that instead of windows.

So that way, if I had something I wanted to share, I could drop it into the common partition, boot into the other OS, and then drag it into the native partition.

I already have that much free space waiting there (meant it to be swap part for linux, but oops) and my HD is pretty roomy so I can afford the hit.

Latch

Yeah, that'd work fine. In your fstab, you'll want to use the "vfat" driver to access Fat32.

Slavakion

Umm... could I use Mandrake's nice gui file manager? Because I don't know what an "fstab" is. *points to sign on back -- Linux newbie*

Latch

Not sure what Mandrake's tools are like.. so I can't answer. As long as you have something that can mount a newly created partition.. yeah, you're fine hehe.

Slavakion

Alright. I just didn't know if I'd have to type in a famous linux command string that's about 3 lines long. Well, I'm off.