Installing VMWare Workstation

Antman · 23 Jun 2009

I have my 30 day trial VMWare WS 6.5.2. Installing Windows XP SP2 from ISO and mounted ISO yields the attached result. The target drive is RAID0. Am I missing an opportunity to Press F6? My fingers are not fast enough if I am.

Any insight from members who have successfully installed and operate VMware?

I will purchase VMWare if it will allow Media Player playback in the VM with better quality than Virtual XP.

Never mind. Used bootable CD. I now have the opportunity to Press F6, but I forgot to do so. Will wait for this install to fail and try again.

Two thumbs up to VMWare for the EasyInstall feature. It corrected the F6 driver error automatically, or had a native driver. Also, by some PFM, it corrected for my error in using a custom CD with references to a second (non-existent) drive - without creating the second drive. That is worth $189 if I choose to include WMWare in my customer toolbox.

Antman · 24 Jun 2009

At least one order of magnitude separates VMWare Workstation from VirtualPC/XP. Absolutely not in the same ballgame.

I am off now to learn all about VirtualBox.

I'll go to any ballgame with free tickets.

Antman · 24 Jun 2009

Did I mention that I am trying Virtual Box now?

Mistakes made:
1. Created Vdisks as IDE instead of SATA.
This was not a mistake, after all. It is the correct method. The virtual controller interface is changed AFTER system setup.

I did not want to deal with attaching a USB floppy drive for the Press F6 drivers. I have a floppy, but it's not a disk. I am experiencing some lag/jitter that I cannot attribute to VirtualBox design until I rule out this as a possible cause.

2. Created Vdisks as dynamically resizable instead of fixed size.

Now I can watch the Vdisk grow, so I am waiting on additional disk writes. Fragging my disks as well. Again, this may have some impact on the lag/jitter.
The lag/jitter disapperaed after I changed this.

3. I used a custom XP install disk that writes the User Profile(s) and temp files to a second drive.

While this is prudent in a real machine, it is not the correct approach working with Vdrives. This is accomplished in the Vmachine host application setup. I have the two Vdrives sitting on a RAID0 volume. Again, this may have some impact on the lag/jitter.
My final implementation kept this intact - solely because the version of XP that I am using is a volome license OEM release. An advantage would be the ability to replicate the volume in other VMs without affecting the target VMs OS, but I am keping no data on it that would be useful elsewhere. Laziness triumphs over practicality.

So, I am a few hours into this and I will not have a solid comparison value when I am done. Still, my goal remains the same - watch streaming video on the same HTPC platform that I do everything else on, from within Windows 7.

ARRGGGH! Stupid attack! I set my OS Vdisk size as 2GB. WTFWIT?!? At least I can fix the earlier mistakes. It is only valuable time...

Antman · 26 Jun 2009

I wrestled a bit with VirtualBox, but it is now working flawlessly and suits my purpose 100%. I now have a virtual streaming HTPC running on a second monitor. This VM HTPC has it's own HID - ATI Remote Wonder Plus. Two separate users are utilizing a single computer independently and simultaneously.

What I learned:
VirtualXP is well-suited for it's target environment. I am not in that environment. System integration is top-notch.

VMWare Workstation is an outstanding program - worth every penny. System integration is workable and nearly perfect.

VirtualBox lacks the ease-of-use that some end-users might require. System integration is in a different realm, but works perfectly in my specific application.

Wrestling with VirtualBox, I may have learned enough about the limitations of streaming DRM from ABS-CBN's TFC Now! to eliminate the need for the virtual machine altogether! The problem appears to be unrelated to codecs after all, but rather in the implementation of the EdgeStream client.

digitalrurouni · 26 Jun 2009

I love virtual box out of all the vm players that are out there. It is a LOT more performant as well considering I have seen all the differences up close and in first hand.

septprince · 27 Jun 2009

i like Sun Vm. it supports all windows version, linux, solaris, os/2 and etc.
It works very good in windows 7. And more over it is 100% free software.

barryhxlSP1 · 08 Jul 2009

I use VMware Workstation (virtual machine) V6.0.2 Build 59824, runs XP SP2 to be smooth.I thought that in the virtual machine aspect, VMware is more powerful than Microsoft!

ezhik · 26 Jul 2009

Virtualization, specifically VMware Workstation has changed the way I use my computer. Since the days of Windows 98 I've dual or multi-booted, but now I've given all that up and gone the way of virtualization. I still need XP to run a couple of old quirky progs that I use, Linux because I'm interested in learning about it, and Mac OS X because I can.

I do dual boot, but that is now just two partitions with W7 x64, the second being an instant back-up in case of catastrophic failure, (ie me being a complete dunce and messing up big style).

With XP SP3, Ubuntu64 and Mac OS X Leopard all installed as guest operating systems, I have what I consider a pc more flexible than I could have imagined not long ago. Virtualization is definitely going to be a big part of the future of computing.

jimbo45 · 01 Aug 2009

Antman said:

I have my 30 day trial VMWare WS 6.5.2. Installing Windows XP SP2 from ISO and mounted ISO yields the attached result. The target drive is RAID0. Am I missing an opportunity to Press F6? My fingers are not fast enough if I am.

Any insight from members who have successfully installed and operate VMware?

I will purchase VMWare if it will allow Media Player playback in the VM with better quality than Virtual XP.

Never mind. Used bootable CD. I now have the opportunity to Press F6, but I forgot to do so. Will wait for this install to fail and try again.

Two thumbs up to VMWare for the EasyInstall feature. It corrected the F6 driver error automatically, or had a native driver. Also, by some PFM, it corrected for my error in using a custom CD with references to a second (non-existent) drive - without creating the second drive. That is worth $189 if I choose to include WMWare in my customer toolbox.

Hi there
You need to get into the "Virtual Bios" to change the boot order of the Virtual machine, Then either mount a CD or an ISO to install your guest.

Incidentally if you use QEMU to create your virtual machines you can then use vmware player (FREE) to run them.

Google on create vmware VM with QEMU. I can't remember the link at the moment but I think some months ago I posted this on the Forum.

Cheers
jimbo

Antman · 01 Aug 2009

jimbo45 said:

Hi there... Cheers
jimbo

Thank you, Viking raider! But where were you six weeks ago? My VMware 30 day trial is expired. I have since implemented VBox and have 99% working solution. There are "oddities" in window resizing the guest, and I sometimes have to re-boot the guest to get audio. Otherwise, solved my application need.

I may eventually purchase VMware Workstation. Hands down, it was the superior VM package.

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