HowTo: Windows (XP) on Ubuntu with VMWare Server

[veloce]

I got it--Veloce hit the nail on the head. Ubuntu updated my kernel, so the vmmon installed using my old header files was no longer valid. Wish the program woulda told me that instead of silently failing.

Yeah, I spent ages trying to track this one down. I'd just spent ages trying to get dual screens working and thought it was X causing the problem!

[Vincent_Lin]

Dear all,

I am mostly certain that this question has been asked before, but bear with me for being too lazy lookin it up.

I have xp running as guest in vmware server under 6.10. Everything works (except skype, that's a well known problem), including sound, usb, networking, highresolution, ..).

The problem is that I could not use audio device in xp when another program is using audio device outside vmware, say mplayer, with or without gnomes' esound enabled. Message is something like audio device not availabe, or used by another program, something like that.

Does any one have a workaround?

Thank you very much.

Cheers,


Vincent Lin

[praxis22]

The problem is that I could not use audio device in xp when another program is using audio device outside vmware,

I would have expected that to be honest, either that or you'll get a cacophony of two separate sets of sounds coming out of the same speakers. Though of the two options I would expect that only one application can exclusively use the audio output registers at one time to be the logical choice.

You can only really listen to one thing at a time anyway, failing that buy and configure a USB sound card, that way you have two sound cards, one for each OS.

[littlewing0906]

Wow! It works great! Great guide btw!

But i'm having 1 problem!

I press the "full screen" button, and i get a error!

Unable to find an appropiate 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.

I think it means Xorg.conf in the same directory, but i have no idea to "add the guest mode."

I'm going to restart X now to see how that goes!

I'll post results here.

After surfing the VMTN Discussion forums I found a thread,
http://www.vmware.com/community/thre...519426&#519426

i am currently running X at 1280x800; the guest OS is Windows XP. I turned off the guest OS, then opened and added to the *.vmx file these lines:
svga.maxWidth = "1280"
svga.maxHeight = "800"
Then I started the guest OS up and changed the resolution in WindowsXP to 1280x800.
I was able to get full screen working! By default, the vmx file is stored under /var/lib/vmware/VMWare Machines/.

[caffienda]

Wow, long thread! My eyes are bleeding..
I'm having an install problem, and I saw many other users experiencing this throughout the thread, but they were all different. I apologize if this is a repeated question, but I didn't see an answer that fit my question.

I just installed 6.10 Server and am trying to now install VMware server. I am getting a error about 2/3's of the way through the install. Any idea on how to clear this up?

apt-get install libx11-6 libx11-dev libxtst6 xlibs-dev xinetd wget apt-get install 
  linux-headers-386 build-essential apt-get install gcc binutils-doc cpp-doc make manpages-dev 
  autoconf automake1.9 libtool flex bison gdb gcc-doc gcc-4.0-doc libc6-dev-amd64 lib64gcc1 

tar xvfz VMware-server-*.tar.gz cd vmware-server-distrib sudo ./vmware-install.pl

This is the message I get pretty far into the install:

None of the pre-built vmmon modules for the VMware server is suitable for your running kernel. Do you want this program to try to build the vmmon module for your system (you need to have a C compiler installed on your system)? [yes]

using compiler "usr/bin/gcc". Use environment Use enviornment variable CC to override.

What is the location of the directory of C header files that match your running kernel? [/usr/src/linux/include]

The path "/usr/src/linux/include" is not an existing directory.

The text in blue is what loops when I press enter here. I guess it is missing a C compiler or something?

I have the following directories in the /usr/src/ folder
linux
linux-headers-2.6.17-11
linux-headers-2.6.17-11-386
I've tried using all of these folders in the install, followed by the /include folder.
ex. /usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.17-11/include and this is what I get:
The directory of the kernel headers (version 2.6.17-11) does not match your running kernel (version 2.6.17-10-server). Even if the module were to compile successfully, it would not load into the running kernel.

What do I do?

[garren]

I'm having two problems, one of which is similar to that which someone else posted. I got VMWare-server running, and I intalled XP, after I power down my computer and turn it on again, when I run vmware-server-console, it gives me this error:

VMware Server Error:
VMware Server is installed, but it has not been (correctly) configured for your running kernel. To (re-)configure it, your system administrator must find and run "vmware-config.pl". For more information, please see the VMware Server documentation.

At the suggestion of the error box as well as the replies in this forum, I ran vmware-sonfig.pl again. Doing so fixed the problem...until I turned off the computer and turned it back on again (to tell you the truth, I don't know if actually turning off the computer did it; I may have gotten the same error after turning vmware off and on again, but I'm not sure because I haven't tried it. I can though if you guys really need me to) [EDIT: I have now experimented with this; merely quiting the server console does not mess things up--it's only when I turn off my computer and restart it that I get the problem. Every time I restart my computer, if I want to run VMware, I have to run vmware-config.pl].

Any ideas?
[EDIT: Answer found here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=288018. Man, you forum guys are so smart!]
[EDIT (again): The answer above was mostly ok, except deleting the "not configured" file messed up my server. So I ran "vmware" in the console, and it had me reconfigure something, and now it is working properly.]

Second problem--I think this is because of the way I installed VMware. To run it, I have to open a console and use sudo, I can't just open it from the menu. What did I do wrong, and how should I make it so I can just open it from the menu?

[EDIT: I have now tried "sudo chown -R <my username> <whatever file I need to do this to>; and it worked.]

Oh--by the way; this is VMware 1.0.2 build-39867 on Edgy (with kernel-2.6.17-11-generic) on a dell D400 laptop.

[schorsch]

Hi,

I have the following directories in the /usr/src/ folder
linux
linux-headers-2.6.17-11
linux-headers-2.6.17-11-386
I've tried using all of these folders in the install, followed by the /include folder.
ex. /usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.17-11/include and this is what I get:
The directory of the kernel headers (version 2.6.17-11) does not match your running kernel (version 2.6.17-10-server). Even if the module were to compile successfully, it would not load into the running kernel.

What do I do?

I guess, you have updated all packages as proposed by Ubuntu. But you did not not boot into the updated kernel 2.6.17-11-server, right? As long as you have not booted the updated kernel, the updated kernel-headers do not match the running kernel, So please either boot into the new kernel or downgrade the kernel headers to version 2.6.17-10-server.

[caffienda]

Hi,


I guess, you have updated all packages as proposed by Ubuntu. But you did not not boot into the updated kernel 2.6.17-11-server, right? As long as you have not booted the updated kernel, the updated kernel-headers do not match the running kernel, So please either boot into the new kernel or downgrade the kernel headers to version 2.6.17-10-server.

Thanks for the response. I tried rebooting and am still getting the same error:

The directory of the kernel headers (version 2.6.17-11) does not match your running kernel (version 2.6.17-10-server). Even if the module were to compile successfully, it would not load into the running kernel.

I'm not sure how to downgrade my kernel or make it run the 2.6.17-11 version. Suggestions?

[PartisanEntity]

I installed vmware server and win xp pro today. I am trying to get win xp to access the internet. When I try to enable NIC0 in Vmware Tools Properties but I get an error message that

Could not open /dev/vmnet8: No such file or directory
Failed to connect virtual device Ethernet0.

Now in edgy I am connected to wifi only through eth1.

Screenshots to follow:

[ace_a1]

hello !!
i have ubuntu running as a host and xp home edition as a guest .. i got the vmware server working today .. finally !! thanks to the guide here !! but as i was looking through my windows i found out .. that i have no sound and no internet connection .. plus on my ubuntu i m connected to the internet via wifi and its the eth1 network connection .. so while configuring vmware server i used the eth1 for connection .. i dont know if tht is wht i should do .. plus i really need the sound thing working .. and yeah when i check the device manager on my computer (xp) all the drivers are installed .. but the funny thing is its using vmware drivers !! newayz i hope some one finds the solution !!