Installing ubuntu 10.04 LTS in Microsoft VPC

[MrDerekBush]

Hello Ubuntu Community!

I figured that my first post in this forum should be a helpful one. I've notice several posts regarding people having issues installing Ubuntu 10.04 LTS in the Microsoft Virtual PC environment. Instead of simply telling these people to use virtual box or a different virtualization solution, I think we should welcome our Microsoft brethren to the fold - as some of us don't have a choice . I personally work in a Microsoft based development shop, so its mandated that I use MS based products, but wanted to be able to try out the new version of Ubuntu. I was able to make some progress on the install this morning, and here's what I did:

1: Create a brand new VM with a fixed disk.

2: Before booting for the first time, point the DVD drive to the ubuntu.iso on your system

3: Start the VM and keep tapping the "F4" key until you get to the language selection screen.

4: Hit escape to clear the language selection, and then hit "F6" for other options and to bring up the Boot options string. Then hit escape again to clear the selection box.

5: edit the Boot Option string by deleting the part that says “quiet splash -” and replace it with “vga=791 noreplace-paravirt”

6: Select the "Try ubuntu without installing" option.

7: Wait for it to boot completely into the desktop environment.

8: Once in, run the Install Ubuntu script on the desktop and follow the prompts.

And this is as far as I got. At this point the grub configuration needs to be edited, but since this version uses grub 2.x, I'm not as familiar and will poke at this as time permits. Hopefully this gets some of you out there moving forward with this.

Thanks,

-Derek

[texhead]

Thanks MrDerekBush, Even tho i am using Kubuntu 10.04 this got me through to installation.

Thanks again.

[edit] After installation the virtual session failed and wouldn't boot into Kubuntu, back to the drawing board.....[/edit]

[pessimism]

To edit grub's configuration after you install do this

places ->XGB Filesystem to mount hard drive
sudo mount -o bind /dev /media/<long gibberish id number>/dev
sudo chroot /media/<long gibberish id number>/ /bin/bash
mount -t proc none /proc
nano /etc/default/grub
remove quiet splash from grub_cmdline_linux_default
comment grub_hidden_timeout

nano /etc/grub.d/10_linux
under linux_entry section, change args="$4" to
args="$4 noreplace-paravirt"
save and exit
update-grub ignore cannot find list of partitions error


From there I have issues with seeing the console, there are different solutions involving setting grub to text console, nomodeset as kernel parameter, setting a grub graphic resolution etc. I tried a few combinations but the kernel always locks and shuts off the VM just after processor detection at the line
ftrace: allocating 22402 entries in 44 pages

noapic, nolapic, acpi=off all had no effect

[crouz]

I am running Ubuntu 10.04 Server through Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 on a Windows 7 64-bit OS.

Just adding any VPC valid VGA mode, e.g vga=788, avoids the crash for me and it also fixes the broken graphics. For graphic mode details please refer to http://www.pendrivelinux.com/vga-boo...en-resolution/

The noreplace-paravirt is not required for me.

To fix this permanently (or at least until you install a new kernel), make the same edit to /boot/grub/menu.lst. By default it is the first entry in the kernel list that is used.

[qpackard]

xp pro sp3
vpc 2007 sp1
Ubuntu 10.04
Dell d410 latitude
2048Mb ram
1.73 GHz
P&P Monitor, 9152GM/GMS/910GML

I have set up my vpc with 512mb, Ubuntu loads up (takes forever,) but when I try to move the mouse around to select Install the screen chops itself into horizontal pieces, the mouse does not respond properly and the cursor will not respond to the tab, shift or arrow keys. Have tried this about 5 times and expecting different results everytime, but it is always the same. Any suggestions to make it work?

[OneSeventeen]

I've notice several posts regarding people having issues installing Ubuntu 10.04 LTS in the Microsoft Virtual PC environment. Instead of simply telling these people to use virtual box or a different virtualization solution, I think we should welcome our Microsoft brethren to the fold - as some of us don't have a choice .

Awesome, AWESOME attitude!

Oh, and thanks for the help, Ubuntu 10.04 installing now on my Windows 7 machine without installing yet another virtual machine environment to junk up my hardware manager... I love VMware and virtualbox, but Virtual PC came with my Windows 7 Ultimate along with a legit copy of Windows XP Pro, which lets me do what I need to for my business. Nothing is worse than having several virtual environments generating their own virtual network adapters and virtual hardware adapters just so I can use geek-politically-correct software where I can.

EDIT: I tried rebooting the VM and it got stuck on *casper is resyncing snapshots and caching reboot files... after I forced it to power off, it just sat there for a while with a blinking cursor...
any tips? Did I do something wrong?

Thanks again for all the help!

[squa89]

Awesome, AWESOME attitude!

Oh, and thanks for the help, Ubuntu 10.04 installing now on my Windows 7 machine without installing yet another virtual machine environment to junk up my hardware manager... I love VMware and virtualbox, but Virtual PC came with my Windows 7 Ultimate along with a legit copy of Windows XP Pro, which lets me do what I need to for my business. Nothing is worse than having several virtual environments generating their own virtual network adapters and virtual hardware adapters just so I can use geek-politically-correct software where I can.

EDIT: I tried rebooting the VM and it got stuck on *casper is resyncing snapshots and caching reboot files... after I forced it to power off, it just sat there for a while with a blinking cursor...
any tips? Did I do something wrong?

Thanks again for all the help!

I'm about at the same place as OneSeventeen. I followed the OP's steps and it appeared to install Ubuntu successfully to my virtual hard drive. At the end of the installation it said it needed to reboot and gave me a message similar to "casper is resyncing snapshots and caching reboot files". It then did attempt to reboot.

However, when VPC rebooted, it quickly flashed a terminal/command-line type message on the screen and then shut down. All subsequent attempts to start up the VPC end up with the same outcome. The virtual hard drive shows about 2.5 GB of space used, so it does appear files were installed. Just not working.

Attached is a screen grab of the one message I get prior to VPC shutting down when I try to run it.

Anyone have any thoughts?

BTW, I'm relatively new to the whole Linux world, so if I missed something simplistic, I apologize in advance

[markwilson]

Thank you @MrDerekBush for posting a real solution instead of a "install another virtual machine manager" workaround - I too work in an environment where I'm already using Virtual PC and I don't want the complexity of adding Virtual Box or VMware Workstation to the mix!

Following Derek's instructions, and then @pessimism's additional commands, with the inclusion of

vga=788

to /etc/default/grub in place of quiet splash as @crouz suggested, I was able to get Ubuntu 10.04 Desktop (32-bit) to work on Windows Virtual PC, on top of Windows 7 Enterprise x64 (I did add the

noreplace-paravirt

to /etc/grub.d/10_linux, even though it may not be needed)

I too had the message about casper resyncing snapshots (on shutdown after installing). I left it for a while (about an hour, perhaps) but then I had to go home so I hibernated the VM. When I brought it back online the next day, it just booted Ubuntu as normal.

[pestaa]

EDIT: I tried rebooting the VM and it got stuck on *casper is resyncing snapshots and caching reboot files... after I forced it to power off, it just sat there for a while with a blinking cursor...
any tips? Did I do something wrong?

At this point, I pressed Enter.

[RonSMeyer]

After numerous attempts I finally got it to install and boot.
However the functionality is limited:

Sound doesn't work
Can only get 800x600
Mouse wheel doesn't work

Can those thing be made to work?
Would they work with virtual-box or vmware?