[mdlug] Creating virtual machines

[Jeff Hanson]

On Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 1:44 PM, David McMillan <skyefire at skyefire.org> wrote:
>     So, my thought is, I *ought* to be able to create a VM from the
> copy of the stolen laptop's WinXP partition.  But aside from a bit of
> messing about with VMWare, I haven't got any experience in this area.
> Ideally, I'd like to create a VM that can be stored in my multi-access
> partition, and run from inside either Win7, or from Linux, so I don't
> have to reboot to access the VM when I need it.  So a multi-platform VM
> hosting system is essential, and of course the more Open-Source the better.
>     So, before I start thrashing about blindly, here's my list of
> questions:
>
>     1.  What's the best (loaded question, I know) open-source VM
> hosting system that runs under XP, Win7, and Linux well, and doesn't
> have any trouble hosting any of those OSs?
>     2.  How does one go about creating a VM from a drive image of an
> existing "hard" WinXP computer?  My only experience with VMs previously
> has been creating fresh VMs from scratch using an OS install disk.  I
> know that XP can mulish over being transferred to new hardware, but I'm
> hoping there's a howto of sorts for getting around this.
>     3.  Are there any known problems running 32-bit VMs under a 64bit
> host OS?  My new machine will be my first foray into 64bit operations.
>     4.  The new machine will have a quad-core processor.  Any
> experiences to relate regarding optimizing VMs for running on
> multi-core?  I've heard that cores can be "dedicated" to VMs to avoid
> bogging the system down, but it's not a subject I've researched yet in
> any degree of detail.
>

1. Get rid of Win 7.  Just use Linux and a VM.  I use VMware Player 3
for XP and run CAD in it.  It has limited 3D acceleration support..
2. I'm not sure.  The first problem is that WGA will be set off by the
hardware change (both CPU and Ethernet MAC address).  Better off with
a new OEM XP installation.
3.  CPU must be X86 and 32-bit compatible (most AMD/Intel are).
4.  XP only supports 2 CPUs, IIRC.

http://jhansonxi.blogspot.com/2008/09/improving-windows-xp-guest-in-vmware.html