vmware player for linux64, wtf?

[konakona]

I have been using vbox with no problems whatsoever, but just wanted to try something different. When I was using the vbox, I had stripped down an XP install to suit my needs with nlite. The resulting iso file was used on multiple computers with different vbox hosts (windows, linux, both 32 and 64bit versions) flawlessly.

Here I am trying to use the same iso with vmware player to install xp sp3, and now it is asking for "VMware SCSI Controller Installation Disk into drive A:"

I have googled for it and searched vmware site but have not found a satisfying answer yet. Does anyone know a solution for this? If you must point out the obvious (oh, why are you using nlite, blah blah), I am afraid I will have to go back to the tried and true vbox; this is a laptop and I don't want to waste resources on unneeded bloat of the guest OS.

TIA!

 

[Brazen]

try it with an unmodified XP cd, just as a test.

 

[PCTC2]

When you set up VMs in VMware, the default disk is SCSI. Try VMware's IDE implementation.

 

[konakona]

try it with an unmodified XP cd, just as a test.

yeah well I knew that was gonna work but would have used vbox rather, duh

When you set up VMs in VMware, the default disk is SCSI. Try VMware's IDE implementation.

That's what I was thinking too, looked around and have not found any settings on the hdd other than the size. Maybe I am overlooking something.

 

[ulukay]

some vmware products don't allow to change VMs disks into ide ones.
this should help: http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmscsi-1.2.0.4.flp

insert it into your virtual floppy, press F6 and load the scsi drivers.

btw. use KVM, it's much faster than vmware and vbox

 

[konakona]

some vmware products don't allow to change VMs disks into ide ones.
this should help: http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmscsi-1.2.0.4.flp

insert it into your virtual floppy, press F6 and load the scsi drivers.

btw. use KVM, it's much faster than vmware and vbox

thanx, can't try it now but should come it real handy, just what I needed!

I have two desktops on a L-shaped desk at home, complete with two sets of keyboard video monitor I will need to use an XP VM on my linux laptop though.

Alas, that didn't work. I am forever stuck on this screen. F3 works, but enter just induces a brief screen flash (I am assuming it is trying to access the floppy image) and just sits there.


That, and hitting F6 at the very beginning rendered all the inputs inoperable and I was forced to do a hard reboot <-- guess I was hitting F6 one too many times, vmware didn't take that nicely. Now I am finally at a screen that says "The file vmscsi.sys is corrupted. Press any key to continue." I have downloaded the file again from and not a thing has changed...

 

[konakona]

Just a thought, can't vmware clients read or import vbox's .vdi files? Maybe I could just get the installation going in vbox and load that image file up with vmware player.. Or is that only good for inspecting image files in some sort of file explorer sort of deal?

I broke down and installed a full version of vmware. Felt a bit heavy and sluggish compared to vbox, didn't quite like the fact it did not prompt you to select what kind of shutdown you would want (vbox gives you snapshot/turn off signal/force shutdown - very nifty). What really had me impressed was some of the games that didn't even run in vbox were running quite well, with playable framerates and sound and all! One less reason to miss windows on the laptop now

btw, I found this really sweet looking mplayer frontend that has a very KMP-like (not to be confused with kmplayer) feel to it. Streamlined interface, has all the essential features (customizable shortcusts, screenshots, superb subtitles, etc) and runs smooth without any hiccups. I found SMPlayer way more acceptable than VLC, but with this discovery I am actually quite satisfied. The only thing I am missing now is a foobar-like audio player - something lightweight, customizable and doesn't enslave you in tags-only sorting scheme.

 

[mfenn]

I have two desktops on a L-shaped desk at home, complete with two sets of keyboard video monitor I will need to use an XP VM on my linux laptop though.

Lol, different KVM.

 

[konakona]

oh, I see. never heard anything about it
Can it run D3D games (nothing crazy high-spec'd, just modest stuff)?

here is something I found: http://www.ogre.com/node/136
I take it you would have to use QEMU with KVM? Isn't vbox sort of a descendant of QEMU

QVM86
QVM86 was a Linux kernel module to provide x86 virtualization capabilities for the QEMU emulator. Virtualization allowed "emulated" code to be run natively on the host CPU, using the CPU protection mechanisms to intercept and emulate privileged events. It was licensed under GNU GPLv2 license. It was developed as a drop-in replacement for the then closed-source KQEMU, which has since been made available under the GPL. The developer of QVM86 ceased development on January 21, 2007 as they decided that the project had been rendered obsolete by the release of VirtualBox.

The real need for VM in my case is an activeX-only download tool that only works under windows/IE environment. There is no equivalent in linux, and vbox had just what I needed - minimal resources taken away from the host. If KVM can minimize that even further, I'd be all for it. The actual performance of whatever's running inside isn't critical.

Then there is my recent discovery of running games in vmware. Not a must have, but would be very nice if possible. VMWare seems to be satisfactory in this regard. I tried a few more games, one was perfect and another was about as good (or as bad) as cedega/wine - some key effects missing and slow but runs otherwise. Oh, and vmware couldn't scale full screen apps to fit the entire screen... 640x480 games were rendered in a tiny area in the middle instead.

 

[Jodell88]

The only thing I am missing now is a foobar-like audio player - something lightweight, customizable and doesn't enslave you in tags-only sorting scheme.

mpd with the sonata frontend is music heaven

Warning: mpd would most likely require configuration via a text file but it is easy

 

[mfenn]

oh, I see. never heard anything about it
Can it run D3D games (nothing crazy high-spec'd, just modest stuff)?

here is something I found: http://www.ogre.com/node/136
I take it you would have to use QEMU with KVM? Isn't vbox sort of a descendant of QEMU



The real need for VM in my case is an activeX-only download tool that only works under windows/IE environment. There is no equivalent in linux, and vbox had just what I needed - minimal resources taken away from the host. If KVM can minimize that even further, I'd be all for it. The actual performance of whatever's running inside isn't critical.

Then there is my recent discovery of running games in vmware. Not a must have, but would be very nice if possible. VMWare seems to be satisfactory in this regard. I tried a few more games, one was perfect and another was about as good (or as bad) as cedega/wine - some key effects missing and slow but runs otherwise. Oh, and vmware couldn't scale full screen apps to fit the entire screen... 640x480 games were rendered in a tiny area in the middle instead.

QEMU (and thus KVM) doesn't support any kind of OpenGL or D3D passthrough to my knowledge. VBox (with VT-x) is going to be nearly identical to KVM in terms of performance. Neither really has much memory overhead either. You'll just have to play around with the memory settings until you find the minimal amount that your VM is happy with.

 

[konakona]

I am following this guide to set up and configure sonata + mpd.

Installation went smoothly without a hitch, but the library wouldn't update. I only see a single item called "Music" in the library tab and can't do anything with it - doesn't respond to update command. Guess I will have to play around with it a bit.

 

[Jodell88]

Is sonata connecting to mpd?

 

[konakona]

no, it isn't. at one point I saw the files show up but was unable to play them.

Then I made changes to use pulse audio for playback. Upon next reboot, I would get unstoppable music starting right at the login. None of the audio control buttons on the laptop worked and sonata was showing 'not connected'. The only way to stop this was to kill mpd in terminal. Seems to be a recurring problem, happens on every reboot, ughhh.

 

[Jodell88]

I've noticed that the link you provided does a system wide install. I found it to be harder to setup system wide than for individual users.

I would suggest you use this link to setup mpd http://gmpc.wikia.com/wiki/MPD_INSTALL_USER_SERVICE_UBUNTU

If you need to setup pulse then use this link http://mpd.wikia.com/wiki/PulseAudio

Also you may need to do some configuration using the preferences in sonata to get it to connect with mpd. That part isn't difficult though.

Below is a copy of my .mpdconf. Hopefully it can help you in some way.

music_directory        "/home/nicholas/Music/"
playlist_directory "/home/nicholas/.mpd/playlists"
db_file "/home/nicholas/.mpd/mpd.db"
log_file "/home/nicholas/.mpd/mpd.log"

user "nicholas"
port                "6600"
log_level            "default"
gapless_mp3_playback            "yes"
metadata_to_use    "artist,album,title,track,name,genre,date,composer,performer,disc"

audio_output {
    type        "alsa"
    name        "My ALSA Device"
##    device        "hw:0,0"    # optional
##    format        "44100:16:2"    # optional
    mixer_device    "default"    # optional
    mixer_control    "PCM"        # optional
##    mixer_index    "0"        # optional
}