HowTo: Windows (XP) on Ubuntu with VMWare Server

[InDenial]

i'm pretty sure this doesn't apply to installing windows in vmware - it only applies to an already existing installation of windows, where you want to change the hardware.

As far as I know, when you validate a copy of windows XP it keeps a certain file in your windows/system32 directory which contains your hardware. This file is checked against a database at Microsoft whenever you want to do windows update. So I do agree that this applies to changing hardware when the system is already installed, but I am very positive that it applies to the situation where you first installed it on another machine and then reinstall windows in vmware since the hardware changes dramaticly. In this case you would have to re-validate your copy.

the problem pillypoon has with his "dell" cd is that it is restricted for use only to install on a "dell" pc. it has nothing to do with "changed hardware" - that is a different issue. i'm sure the cd would work on other "dell" pcs with different hardware configurations.

I do not agree with that. The thing is that windows XP delivered Together with a pc is pre-validated at the company who deliveres the pc's. This means that it MIGHT work if you use the copy on almost exactly the same pc, but it will fail on a pc with a different configuration. Besides most of the time you just get a recovery cd which won't work on different hardware.

installing windows in vmware involves a clean install, so windows does't know anything about "previous" hardware.

as far as creating a new virtual machine goes, as long as the virtual devices selected are the same, there will be no problem - with physical systems, you can substitute the hardware for another part of the same make and model, without effect. it is only if you switch from an nvidia card to an ati card, or from an asus motherboard to a gigabyte motherboard (for examples) that it is an issue.

This only goes IF you validate your copy of windows when running in vmware. Once validated you are stuck with the hardware you got unless you let them reset the validation.

[ewonk]

This HOWTO worked seamlessly for me. I'm running on a dapper xubuntu and followed every step in the howto.

I'm on a Toshiba Satellite A15-127 laptop. Running the ubuntu 4.0.3 desktop under kernal 2.6.15-23-386 with gcc version 4.0.3 - oh I guess my gcc was different, however, I did install the 3.0 version of it. Maybe I have both or it got updated somehow?

Anyways, the toy is working and here's a screener.

[tokez]

**I AM USING UBUNTU DAPPER 6 WITH XGL AND COMPIZ INSTALLED AND ACTIVE**

i followed the howto are far as possible.

when i run 'vmware' i get this

vmware is installed, but it has not been (correctly) configured
for this system. To (re-)configure it, invoke the following command:
/usr/bin/vmware-config.pl.

so i follow the directions and it stops at this

None of the pre-built vmmon modules for 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]

after selecting yes, i get this error output

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

What is the location of the directory of C header files that match your running
kernel? [/lib/modules/2.6.15-25-386/build/include]

Extracting the sources of the vmmon module.

Building the vmmon module.

Using 2.6.x kernel build system.
make: Entering directory `/tmp/vmware-config4/vmmon-only'
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.15-25-386/build/include/.. SUBDIRS=$PWD SRCROOT=$PWD/. modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.15-25-386'
/tmp/vmware-config4/vmmon-only/Makefile:89: *** Inappropriate build environment: you wanted to use gcc version 4.0.3 while kernel attempts to use gcc version 3.4.6.
/tmp/vmware-config4/vmmon-only/Makefile:91: *** For proper build you'll have to replace gcc -m32 with symbolic link to /usr/bin/gcc-4.0.  Stop.
make[1]: *** [_module_/tmp/vmware-config4/vmmon-only] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.15-25-386'
make: *** [vmmon.ko] Error 2
make: Leaving directory `/tmp/vmware-config4/vmmon-only'
Unable to build the vmmon module.

For more information on how to troubleshoot module-related problems, please
visit our Web site at "http://www.vmware.com/download/modules/modules.html" and
"http://www.vmware.com/support/reference/linux/prebuilt_modules_linux.html".

Execution aborted.

thanks in advance.

[slider]

tokez-

Reading the error message it looks like you have the wrong version of gcc installed. You need to install gcc-4.0

apt-get install gcc-4.0

Chances are doing that and then rerunning the install will work. If not set the environment variable CC to point to the gcc-4.0 binary before starting the build (man env)

[slider]

I followed this tutorial and it worked great for me. Thanks a ton. I took it a step farther and followed the information here to back up my old XP install using ntbackup.exe and restore it as a client OS in vmware. Works like a charm. About the only time I have to jump over to XP is to use Photoshop and for browser testing.

If you try it, make sure to follow the link above and read the comments. There are a couple gotchas that are real timewasters.

[tokez]

I read thru 'man env' and figured to type the command ..

env CC=/usr/bin/gcc-4.0

this does not solve my problem ... i even attempted to run 'env CC=/usr/bin/gcc-4.0 /usr/bin/vmware-config.pl'

as you can probably see i am clueless please direct me in the right direction to forcing gcc to use 4.0
(apt-get install gcc-4.0 returns gcc-4.0 is newest version)

[andylei]

i'm on dapper, and when I executed the install script heres what happened:




================


Installing the content of the package.

In which directory do you want to install the binary files?
[/home/Andy/vmware]

The path "/home/Andy/vmware" does not exist currently. This program is going to
create it, including needed parent directories. Is this what you want?
[yes]

What is the directory that contains the init directories (rc0.d/ to rc6.d/)?
[/etc]

What is the directory that contains the init scripts?
[/etc/init.d]

In which directory do you want to install the daemon files?
[/home/Andy/sbin]

The path "/home/Andy/sbin" does not exist currently. This program is going to
create it, including needed parent directories. Is this what you want?
[yes]

In which directory do you want to install the library files?
[/home/Andy/lib/vmware]

The path "/home/Andy/lib/vmware" does not exist currently. This program is
going to create it, including needed parent directories. Is this what you want?
[yes]


In which directory do you want to install the manual files?
[/home/Andy/man]
The path "/home/Andy/man" does not exist currently. This program is going to
create it, including needed parent directories. Is this what you want?
[yes]

In which directory do you want to install the documentation files?
[/home/Andy/doc/vmware]

The path "/home/Andy/doc/vmware" does not exist currently. This program is
going to create it, including needed parent directories. Is this what you want?
[yes]

Unable to get the access rights of source file "./vmware-vix/bin".

Execution aborted.

===============



anyone know what went wrong?

[bobc]

I am on Breezy and it workd nicely for me Thanks!!

[slider]

Tokes-

Not sure why it would ignore CC. Only other suggestion is to link /usr/bin/gcc to /usr/bin/gcc-4.0

ln -s /usr/bin/gcc-4.0 /usr/bin/gcc

Make sure to remember where gcc points to first so you can reset it afterward

ls -als /usr/bin/gcc*

[kopolee11]

i'm on dapper, and when I executed the install script heres what happened:




================


Installing the content of the package.

In which directory do you want to install the binary files?
[/home/Andy/vmware]

The path "/home/Andy/vmware" does not exist currently. This program is going to
create it, including needed parent directories. Is this what you want?
[yes]

What is the directory that contains the init directories (rc0.d/ to rc6.d/)?
[/etc]

What is the directory that contains the init scripts?
[/etc/init.d]

In which directory do you want to install the daemon files?
[/home/Andy/sbin]

The path "/home/Andy/sbin" does not exist currently. This program is going to
create it, including needed parent directories. Is this what you want?
[yes]

In which directory do you want to install the library files?
[/home/Andy/lib/vmware]

The path "/home/Andy/lib/vmware" does not exist currently. This program is
going to create it, including needed parent directories. Is this what you want?
[yes]


In which directory do you want to install the manual files?
[/home/Andy/man]
The path "/home/Andy/man" does not exist currently. This program is going to
create it, including needed parent directories. Is this what you want?
[yes]

In which directory do you want to install the documentation files?
[/home/Andy/doc/vmware]

The path "/home/Andy/doc/vmware" does not exist currently. This program is
going to create it, including needed parent directories. Is this what you want?
[yes]

Unable to get the access rights of source file "./vmware-vix/bin".

Execution aborted.

===============



anyone know what went wrong?

The same thing happened to me, and to tell the truth I have no idea what happened. However, I was able to install vmware by going back to the vmware directory and running

sudo ./vmware-install.sh

For some reason it didn't show the error the second time, and instead it simply skiped that step. You just then continue with the installation, all the way up to the installation key.

I know this isn't the most official answer, but try again, and see if it works.