Google Chrome in XP (VM) under Ubuntu

Once I had my VM version of Windows XP running under Ubuntu on the Dell, it was a very simple matter to get Google Chrome up and running.
The other alternative was to run Chrome with Wine in Ubuntu but I understand that this is not as fast as the normal Chrome in Windows.
However, in the VM Windows, it seems to be absolutely fine with no shortcomings that I have seen so far.

Problems installing VMware Server in Ubuntu Hardy

For some reason, VMware Server is no longer installed in Hardy on the Dell. So, today, expressly for the purpose of running Google Chrome within/under Ubuntu, I tried to install it again.
I used this guide but I still had problems:
1. VMware Server would not launch either from dock, from Applications>System Tools or from a terminal (vmware-server-console). In this latter, just got a command not found error.
The solution was as shown in post #3 of this thread which is to run these two lines in a terminal AFTER install

sudo ln -sf /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux-gnu/4.2.3/libgcc_s.so /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libgcc_s.so.1/libgcc_s.so.1

and

sudo ln -sf /usr/lib/libpng12.so.0 /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libpng12.so.0/libpng12.so.0

Note that I had initially installed VMware Server 1.0.6 and then ran these two lines. Then I uninstalled this and installed 1.0.7 in its place. However, this too would not launch UNTIL I had run these same two lines (not at all changed) once again.
2. Permissions problem in running .vmx file Error message said something about insufficient permissions to copy the .vmx to the "inventory".
I then changed the owner of my VM folder (~/virtualmachines) from root to me (same with group) and used the Apply to Enclosed Files button.
However, still got permissions error.
Only when I ran this command

sudo chown -R paul:paul ~/virtualmachines

did the problem go.
3. It is worth noting that without the installation of xinetd, I kept getting a "Can't open inetd" error during the vmware server compile.

Installed VMwareServer in KuruminNG

VMware Server is available as a Magic Icon and is therefore very easy to install (although you still have to get your own serial number -- however, I have seen before that once you have a serial number you can use the same number over and over for various installs on different computers and different OSes).
Installed fine but couldn't get the VMware icon into the awn dock but it's there on the desktop.
Tried it with Senryu and it worked fine other than I couldn't get it to go to FullScreen. Got this error message:

Unable to find an appropriate host video mode.
Adding the guest mode to the 'display' subsection of the 'screen' section of your /etc/X11/XF86Config and restarting X is likely to help.

Failed to switch to full screen SVGA mode.

I found a solution here and it involves two steps:
1) In VMware Server, go to "View" and select "Autofit window" and "Autofit Guest"
2) In a a terminal

sudo gedit ~/.vmware/preferences

Find the line

pref.autoFitFullScreen = "fitHostToGuest"

and change it to:

pref.autoFitFullScreen = "fitGuestToHost"

and then reboot and everything should be fine.

Failed to install vmware-tools in Kurumin VM on MacBook

I used this guide to try to install vmware-tools in Kurumin VM in both Foresight and Sidux on the MacBook.
However, no success at all here.
I tried to install using both the .tar.gz and the .rpm installers but neither worked.
The .tar.gz al least came close but what happened in all of about 4-5 tries was that during the installation when it came to install the libraries in /usr/lib/vmware-tools, the screen just froze every time and nothing more happened.
I have no explanation for this.
I also tried the .rpm installer out of desperation, even though I wasn't using any distros that would handle rpms.
The guide says to double-click on the vmware-tools CD that shows up on the desktop after clicking on VM>Install VMware-tools. This worked fine in that the folder opened showing the tar.gz and rpm files. But double-clicking on the rpm just led to a dialog asking how it should be opened.

Incidentally, VMware-tools won't install in Haiku as it's designated in the Other category rather than something more recognizable like Windows or Linux.

So a totally blank day on the vmware-tools front.

More efforts to get VMware Server working well in Linux on MacBook

OK, so VMware Server in Sidux on the MacBook just wasn't great based on my initial experience with Haiku.
Then I tried Kurumin (new 8.04 Beta) VM in Sidux and had quite a few problems. In particular, when in Firefox (never got as far as installing Opera), there was a distinct tendency for the mouse pointer to become either very slow/unresponsive or actually disappear altogether.
Because of these problems, I decided I'd have a look at how VMware Server stacks up in Hardy and Foresight.
However, in both cases, although the install seemed to go fine, clicking on VMware Server Console in Applications>Other gave nothing. Trying from a terminal (vmware-server-console)gave a "command not found" error.
Then I remembered that in the case of both installs, I had asked for bridging to be set up for both ath0 and eth0 in the Virtual Machines. I wanted to not have to plug in the ethernet cable when I started up a VM on the Mac. However, maybe this was the problem.
So, I had to uninstall all of what was installed and start again.
To uninstall use this:

sudo vmware-uninstall.pl

(See here for more details)
Then reinstall VMware server as normal (see guide)
This time just bridge eth0 rather than trying for both eth0 and ath0 (wonder what would happen if I just selected ath0 -- is the VM set up to handle wireless?)
Now, the VMware Server can be started as normal.
Some things I noticed:
1. The Kurumin 8.04 screen in Foresight is the size you'd expect for the default 800x600 resolution. In Sidux, however, it fills the screen (after hitting fullScreen) but still "looks" like 800x600.
2. On the desktop, I was able to add the appropriate cheatcode to get the 1280x1024 screen to show for Kurumin 7 VM (in Ubuntu). But, certainly in Foresight, there doesn't seem to be any opportunity available to add this cheatcode. So does this mean we're stuck at 800x600?
3. In neither case have I added vmware-tools to kurumin 8.04 so that might make a big difference.
4. Mouse movement in Kurumin in Foresight was pretty good although still not quite perfect -- again this may well be because vmware-tools hasn't yet been installed.

VMware Server installed in Sidux

Still in the process of getting my MacBook HDD set up just as it was before it "fell off a table" in Brasil. Just noticed today that I hadn't got virtualization set up on any of the OSes currently installed (Hardy, Foresight, Sidux).
So, as I was working on the configuration of Sidux at the moment, I installed VMware Server here.
This went without a single problem although I had to use the any-any patch. I followed this guide for Ubuntu. But apart from not using "sudo" (I used sux), I didn't have to change anything to get this guide to work perfectly.
I then downloaded and extracted the latest Senryu from Haikuware Superpacks and placed it in ~/virtualmachines. It started up fine, but there's a major problem with the mouse. It's just not very controllable and is close to being unusable. I played around with the mouse preferences and got a very small improvement by slowing down. However, very far from being satisfactory. Very much looks like it needs vmware-tools but, IIRC, this is not available for Senryu/Haiku.
I'm currently downloading Kurumin 8.04 Beta with the intention of setting this up as VM. This will tell me if the problem is just haiku or VMware Server has a problem. I suspect the former.

Edit: (2-06-2008)
The guide that I referred to above no longer includes the commands needed to download and install the any-any patch as, apparently, newer versions of VMware Server don't need it.
Nevertheless, as it may still be needed in the many non-Ubuntu OSes in which I might want to install VMware Server, I'm going to add it here separately:

wget http://xmi.pl/kernel/vmware-any-any-update-116.tgz
tar -xzvf vmware-any-any-update-116.tgz
cd vmware-any-any-update116/
sudo ./runme.pl

Permission problems while creating VM

I had noticed this before in VMware Server but it happened very frequently today.
This is when you go to the final step in the creation process which is to power on the new VM in order to install it, you get an error saying Permission is Denied.
Now this is even when I am the owner of the folder where the new .vmdk file is to be created.
Also, it seems to just crop up out of the blue without any changes having been made.
So, right now I really don't have full explanation for this annoyance, but here are two features which may be useful in future in getting over this difficulty:

1) Of course, you must go to the folder where the .vmdk and .vmx file sare to be place and make sure that the permissions are appropriate.
2) I noticed that VMware always tries to make these files in /var/lib/vmware/Virtual_Machines/ and this last folder may very well be owned by root. So this has to be changed.
However, nearly always, I put my VMs in ~/virtual_machines/ which is always owned by me. Nevertheless, it seems you must make the first folder (/var/lib/vmware/Virtual_Machines/) owned by user before as there seems to be some adverse influence on the VM creation process if not.
I know that's a pretty pathetic explanation but it's more something to keep in mind until a more scientifically rigorous explanation can be found.

Some more VMs

I'll just quickly mention here that I installed two further VMs in my ~/virtual_machines folder today on the Dell.
1) Syllable (from here)
Seems to work OK in VMware Server and have Internet. The .vmdk size is about 350MB
2) FreeBSD 6.3 from here
Seems that this is a purely GUI-free version so I haven't really looked at it at all. But it's there.

Finally, Haiku coming to life!

Well, a lot of positive changes today.
First, I downloaded a newer version of Haiku's daily build (from 18/02/08) and found that I got an Internet (wired) connection immediately on boot. So, a huge step forward.
Then I tried to install Links (text browser) from this link (bottom of comment posted on 15-02-08) and this worked fine although Links takes a bit of getting used to for anybody accustomed to GUI browsers.
However, in the same link as above I saw that there is available a weekly-updated Haiku super-pack that is expandable to 1 GB HDD size and has quite a lot of apps and other stuff included in the package. Get this from here.
Now I did this and installed but couldn't get an Internet connection with the latest super-pack.
So I downloaded an earlier version (Feb 9) and same result--no Internet.
I noticed also that those Haiku's that gave an Internet connection (actually only one up to this point) gave a broadcast address of 255.255.255.255 while all the others gave something like 192.168.1.255.
Then I made a dramatic discovery: trying out one of the super-packs, I noticed that the network was set as Nat while the only one version that gave a connection was set at Bridged.
So, I changed from Nat to Bridged (goto Dell page, edit settings,set on Ethernet and change from Nat to bridged).
Internet connection was immediate and the broadcast address changed to 255.255.255.255

Before I discovered that the super-packs could have Internet too, I downloaded Opera (for BeOS) 3.62 in the Haikuware site (on the Mac). Then, as the file was only 2.05 MB in size, I transferred it to the Dell using cl1p.net (which is supposed to take a max file size of 2 MB but took this slightly larger one without complaint.
This was a .bin file and the way to install these is:

1) Go to directory where the .bin file is
2) chmod +x filename.bin #make the file executable
3) ./filename.bin #now it will install

So, all-in-all, a very successful day although the Opera version and that of Firefox in the super-packs are very clunky and difficult to use. What's more, you just can't get to your personal iGoogle in either browser.

Still struggling with internet connection to Haiku

What I have found is that:
1) I can ping to the local host (127.0.0.1)
2) I can ping to the OS IP (right now it's set at 192.168.1.0)
3) Cannot ping to anything else

Another thing I found is that the Network Preferences box seems to go back to Static from DHCP when I shut it down. I thought that perhaps, as my router is not set up to accept static IPs, it was getting confused with this and this was the reason for me not being able to get an Internet connection.
Still asking questions in the forums but getting few answers and , up to now, no valuable answers.

A little progress on Haiku

Actually, not a lot of progress as I still don't have an Internet connection. Nevertheless, I saw a blog where the guy seemed to have no problem getting Internet although he complained about no browser being available. I posted to him asking him how he did it.
I think it may come down to me compiling the driver for the Marvell NIC but I'm really not at all sure how to do this.
A major problem here is that you're basically on your own as the Haiku forum seems almost dead.
Anyway, I did get the Deskbar back (not sure how but it just came back) and changed the resolution to 1280x1024 and it really does look good in VMware.
But, I need to get Internet otherwise there really will be little point in sticking to this. Might move on the FreeBSD.

Haiku now running on my Dell 4550

Aparently there are Haiku VM images all ready to be started in VMware Server here. So, I downloaded the latest one, unzipped it (using unzip) and loaded the .vmdk and .vmx files into a folder called Haiku. Then i opened VMware Server and started up Haiku. Worked well.
Haiku, from what I've seen so far seems very limited. Up to now, I can't even get an internet connection and no significant apps seem to be available.
Note that the .vmdk file is only 100MB so it's not surpreising it's limited.
The latest BeOS .vmdk is over 300MB which, although still very small, shuld be a little more interesting.

First look at Haiku

Today I tried to get Haiku running in VMware server on the Dell 4550 but ran into a kernel panic, probably because the guide I was using was not well written.
Haiku is an OS in development and is not Linux-based.
I'm interested to get involved in something like this from the very (well, almost) beginning as this might be exciting.
Also, something other than Linux looks highly interesting too.
I had a problem while trying to install Haiku which I posted in the Haiku forum.