Ubuntu and Vista

corblimey

Up to now, I've got an Ubuntu installation running on one machine and Vista running on another. Ubuntu is installed on an external hd and I boot into it directly. However, the machine this external hd is connected to is dying, bad sectors all over the place, etc. I also recently broke my kvm switch so I'm having to use 2 mice, 2 keyboards,etc. So I'm considering moving the Ubuntu installation onto the other machine. However, I'd like to be able to do things in Ubuntu at the same time as doing things in Vista as I currently do.

So, can I use VMWare player (or similar) to create a virtual machine on the Vista box and install my version of Ubuntu inside that vm? I don't really want to install Ubuntu again but will if I have to. Is this a better solution than running the liveCD version - am I right in thinking that this doesn't retain user settings, etc? I could use some tips, recommendations, etc

Webmonkey

I'm assuming you mean install a new ubuntu on a virtual machine and not copy your existing one? - Probably possible alright with Ghost but moving from real to virtual might cause problems. I know people went from virtual to real so much be possible.

Using a virtual machine is a much better solution than running a Live CD and it does in fact keep your settings. However VMWare Player is just for running an already made Virtual Machine. You can't create a virtual machine with it, you'd need something like VMWare work station for that. There is an open source one, VirtualBox (funny name) from Sun - http://www.virtualbox.org/. I found it quite good but networking support (NAT) isn't as good as VMWare but it still runs great.

Performance on both is great, even with a gig of ram on my AMD Turion dual core it runs very smoothly. Even though things get slow if you have other things opened on Windows so I'd def recommend 2GB.

It's just like working as if Linux is installed permantly on your computer. Obviously performance is less and there are some limitations (for example, you can't access on board card readers, but you can with USB ones)

corblimey

Ideally, it would just be a matter of using the existing installation on the external h/d in some kind of virtual window in Vista - is that possible?

My plan would be to use a virtual desktop mgr in Vista so that I could have Vista running as normal in desktop 1 and Ubuntu running as normal in desktop 2. I would need access to usb ports, but onboard card readers are not essential. What choices have I got?

uberpixie

corblimey wrote: »

Ideally, it would just be a matter of using the existing installation on the external h/d in some kind of virtual window in Vista - is that possible?

My plan would be to use a virtual desktop mgr in Vista so that I could have Vista running as normal in desktop 1 and Ubuntu running as normal in desktop 2. I would need access to usb ports, but onboard card readers are not essential. What choices have I got?

http://www.vmware.com/download/

Go here, download VMserver whcih is free once you fill out an annoying registration form.

VMserver will run on your PC and ou use a web front end to configure it. Pretty straight forward once you play with it a little.

Have no issues running XP and a VM of Ubuntu at the same time, both on the internet.

ATM I have the VM fully expanded running off a 17" TFT and XP on my main 22" all running off my rig.

CTRL + ALT to leave the screen and go back to XP, simple.

corblimey

After trying and failing all day to get VMWare Server - the connection to the download site kept dropping - I downloade VMWare Player instead. Loaded that up then installed Ubuntu from cd-rom (not liveCD, just the ISO burned to a CD). That has now installed correctly and everything seems to be working.

Why didn't I do this before?

Webmonkey

How did you create a virtual machine with VMware Player? - or did you have a empty VMWare image that you installed onto with it?

corblimey

Webmonkey wrote: »

How did you create a virtual machine with VMware Player? - or did you have a empty VMWare image that you installed onto with it?

I just downloaded a load of .vmx files from various places and messed around with them until they worked . I also visited easyvmx.com to get a starter set of files.

I have a massive problem now though in that I can't use shared folders. I thought I'd be able to connect to the Windows Share via samba in the VM version of Ubuntu, but it keeps asking me for a password. I've disabled password protection on that folder in Windows, but still it asks for a password. It's encouraging that it's at least finding the folder, but where is this password request coming from?

ETA: ok, never mind, found a solution (I created a new user with a non-blank password then used that to log in)

Webmonkey

Ah cool. In VMWare Workstation you can link shared folders and use VMWare tools then to access it without any samba etc. Probably wouldn't have that flexibility in the player though.

duffman85

I know you've solved your problem now but another option is to use VMWare Converter.

VMWare converter lets you convert a physical machine into a virtual one. Its a free download btw.

corblimey

Webmonkey wrote: »

Ah cool. In VMWare Workstation you can link shared folders and use VMWare tools then to access it without any samba etc. Probably wouldn't have that flexibility in the player though.

Yea, tools don't seem to be available for player, straight out of the box anyway. I found a load of sites that gave tips on installing them separately and like you say, once installed, Shared folders are a piece of piddle.

corblimey

After using this for a week, I've come across a little problem. Ubuntu guest is running sloooooowwwwwww. Everything seems to take just that little bit longer. I noticed it on Sunday, so I shut down vmware player, restarted my machine and started it back up. It's still running very slow. I notice the .vmdk file is over 12 gigs in size and my Ubuntu install is set in only 16 gigs?

sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 16.1 GB, 16106127360 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1958 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00017cb6

  Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        1870    15020743+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2            1871        1958      706860    5  Extended
/dev/sda5            1871        1958      706828+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

Can I remove the .vmdk file or shrink it in some other way? Why is it so large? Any theories as to why Ubuntu may be running so slow? Does it need more space/swap area? There's nothing particularly large installed in Ubuntu although gparted is telling me I'm using over 9 gigs.