[mdlug] Converting Windows box to Linux+VMWare?

[Robert Adkins]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mdlug-bounces at mdlug.org
> [mailto:mdlug-bounces at mdlug.org] On Behalf Of Ingles, Raymond
> Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 9:47 AM
> To: Mdlug (E-mail)
> Subject: [mdlug] Converting Windows box to Linux+VMWare?
> 
> I've got a problem with my Windows machine at work. Recently, it's 
> started locking up hard when running VMWare. (The reason we need 
> VMWare is pure Microsoft silliness - their own compilers are slightly 
> incompatible between versions, so we need different revs of the 
> compilers and libraries to work on different revs of our product.) By 
> "locking up hard" I mean the screen freezes, audio playback halts, and 
> nothing can be done but cutting the power and rebooting.
> The system is stable except when running VMWare.
>

	I had something similar happen under Linux while running VMWare
hosting a Windows Server 2003 VM. On a whim, I recompiled the VMWare
launcher, which you must do with every kernel upgrade otherwise VMWare will
refuse to launch, and the problem simply disappeared.

> 
>  I haven't been able to identify anything in particular causing the 
> problem. I've upgraded to a bigger disk recently, but I've uninstalled 
> and reinstalled VMWare Workstation 5 and 6, and started from scratch 
> with new VMWare machine images, and I still get the same lockups.
> 
>  I've heard that one can run a Windows install on a physical partition 
> from within VMWare. I'm trying to decide if I should shrink a 
> partition on this machine, install Linux, and run a couple of 
> instances of VMWare from within Linux - one for my day-to-day office 
> stuff (like Outlook), and one for compiling and development. I'd like 
> to keep the existing Windows stuff insofar as possible, just running 
> it from within VMWare on Linux. I strongly suspect that VMWare will be 
> more stable on Linux than XP. The machine is a 2GHz P4 with 2GB of 
> RAM, so I figure it won't have too much trouble handling the load.
> 

	On my laptop, I dual boot Windows XP Pro and Linux (OpenSuSe 10.3),
I noticed no real difference between the performance and stability of VMWare
under either host OS.

	I am unsure as to whether or not you will be able to run a Windows
Install on a physical partition. I can take a looksee on my laptop, I am
only using the free downloadable VMWare client, which may have limitations
precluding that ability.

	I do know that Windows Vista performance with VMWare is incredibly
lackluster. I was running the same Windows Server 2003 VM on a brand new
dual-core, 2GB or RAM higher end Dell workstation running Windows Vista and
the performance of VMWare was simply appaling. My laptop, which is nearly 5
years old, ran circles around the Vista machine with VMWare performance.

>
>  Does anyone have any experience with this? Any tips or gotchas or 
> warnings or suggestions?
> 

	I have heard that VMWare can hose the heck out of network drivers on
both Windows and Linux, if you setup the client to provide network
capability to the virtual machines. I never had a reason to have network
access for the VM I was running, so I am unable to verify this rumor. I
would look into that before running into networking with VMWare.

	-Rob