VMware

I just installed VMware on my SuSE 10.1 so that I can use Windows XP also simultaneously. I must say it is a truly good software. It provides literally and entire new virtual machine. My windows installation on the virtual machine actually seems to be running faster than my native install!!!

It is a phenomenal concept. Of course now the virtualization is moving down to the hardware level where next generation processors offer virtualization technology at the basic processor level - well that is a lot different from the software virtualiazation though. In software virtualization, you provide a virtualization layer between the guest OS and host OS which runs on the actual machine. But in hardware virtualization, you will actually have 2 native OS that can run on the physical hardware.

Below are the steps that I used to get Windows XP Pro (guest OS) running on my SuSE 10.1 (Host OS). I need this post as a reference for myself if I need to reinstall it later :) These are the settings that I used and I guess would pretty much work for most systems.

1. Install VMware Server on Linux (From RPM).
2. run vmware-config.pl - Use all default settings. Only change the location for the Virtual Machine files if required.
   
3. Run VMware.
4. Click on Create new virtual machine - Set it to Windows XP Professional and follow steps to create the Virtual Machine drives.
   
5. Insert Windows XP CD and click on "Power ON the virtual Machine". Then follow normal windows installation procedure.
6. Shutdown the virtual machine.
   
7. In VMware go to Edit->Preferences. Check the autofit guest option.
8. Do this step if fullscreen mode does not work without doing this... gedit ~/.vmware/preferences -> Change the option pref.autoFitFullScreen from "fitGuestToHost" to "fitHostToGuest". Only then does full screen mode seem to work in higher resolutions. This is because the host OS might not support certain video modes that the guest OS uses.
9. Now let us set up the virtual sound device. Click on Edit Virtual Machine Settings and in hardware click Add. Choose Sound adapter and follow the steps.
   
10. Boot Windows XP on the Virtual Machine. It will first recognise a new sound device and install a driver for it. Dont bother if it is not the driver that for the sound card that you actually have on your PC. It only requires driver for the sound card on the virtual machine.
    
11. Click on VM->Install VMware Tools. This will install it on the guest OS. After this, change resolution to anything supported by your monitor and hit Ctrl+Alt+Return. That will take you to full screen in the Guest OS.