Topic: Create FREE images that work with FREE VM Player - any OS

[AndyCocker]

Hi,

I found that you can actually create your own Virtual Machines that work with the free VM Player that can be used to run virtual operating systems from within your normal OS.

I know there are some prebuilt SME Servers available on Contribs (thanks hanscees), but with this method, you can install your own OS from scratch without having to download the VM SME images.  

I have only tested this with a couple of Ubuntu installations on 2 seperate machines so far, but I see no reason why it won't work for most OS's

Here's the neccessary steps for those on Windows:

I got the idea from this article:

http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2005/10/26/vmware-player-windows-xp.html

First you need to install the free VMPlayer from here
http://www.vmware.com/products/player/

and QEMU from here
http://free.oszoo.org/ftp/qemu/win32/release/QemuInstall-0.7.2.exe

Assuming an install of Ubuntu to which I allocated 3 Gig of HD space, I used:

Code: [Select]

qemu-img.exe create -f vmdk Ubuntu.vmdk 3G

This created a file called Ubuntu.vmdk

I moved this file to where the virtual machine will sit on my HD, in my case

Code: [Select]

c:\VM Ware\Ubuntu

Next, I created my vmx configuration file.

To semi automate this task, I went here.

VM Builder http://www.consolevision.com/members/dcgrendel/vmxform.html

I pasted the resulting text into a text file and renamed it "Ubuntu.vmx" and saved it in the same directory as the .vmdk file I saved earlier (C:\VM Ware\Ubuntu).

My configuration file looked like this (after I had edited it by hand to get things to work OK - I wasn't sure how to fill the Builder web page in):

Code: [Select]

config.version = "8"
virtualHW.version = "3"

MemAllowAutoScaleDown = "FALSE"
MemTrimRate = "-1"

uuid.location = "56 4d 4e 82 79 24 de 6c-38 99 0e 70 73 ce e7 39"
uuid.bios = "56 4d 4e 82 79 24 de 6c-38 99 0e 70 73 ce e7 39"

uuid.action = "create"
checkpoint.vmState = ""

displayName = "Ubuntu VM"
guestOS = "ubuntu"
memsize = "256"

ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
ethernet0.connectionType = "bridged"
ethernet0.addressType = "generated"
ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:ce:e7:39"
ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"

usb.present = "TRUE"
usb.generic.autoconnect = "TRUE"

sound.present = "TRUE"
sound.virtualdev = "es1371"

scsi0.present = "FALSE"

floppy0.present = "TRUE"
floppy0.fileName = "auto detect"
floppy0.startConnected = "TRUE"

ide0:0.present = "TRUE"
ide0:0.fileName = "Ubuntu.vmdk"
ide0:0.deviceType = "disk"
ide0:0.mode = "persistent"
ide0:0.redo = ""
ide0:0.writeThrough = "FALSE"
ide0:0.startConnected = "TRUE"

ide0:1.present = "FALSE"

ide1:0.present = "TRUE"
ide1:0.fileName = "auto detect"
ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-raw"
ide1:0.autodetect = "TRUE"
ide1:0.startConnected = "TRUE"

ide1:1.present = "FALSE"


That's all there is too it.

Insert your Installation CD ROM, and double click on the vmx file you just created. The VMware Player should boot the CD, and you can install your OS.

I got an error about floppy drive, which I have yet to look into, but just OK the dialog and it all works.

Hope it works for you too,

All the best,

Andy Cocker

[RonM]

I finally got a chance to try this out - it works.

With a bit of tweaking, I got SME6 installed into a vmware machine, with two nics. I bridged eth0/Ethernet to the host nic and host-only on eth1/Ethernet2 (reversed in server-manager) - SME6 connected to the internet fine.

Then, I made an XP vm with eth0/Ethernet on host-only, and with a bit of head-bashing, got it to accept DHCP from SME6, and connect to the internet through SME6.

Yum update is running fine.

So we can definitely use this for testing SME. I hope some folks will step forward to help with this, especially now that there is not so many to do do - we really need to get a more complete test.

RonM

[hanscees]

Hi,

A vmware clientmachine of sme7.0pre3 is being uploaded as we speak.
You can use this vmware host for development or testing for instance
It should end up here and on other mirrors:
http://mirror.contribs.org/smeserver/contribs/hanscees/

see also:
http://smeserver.sourceforge.net/sme70/sme70/Manual/DeveloperHowtos?v=1ju

for some howtos on this. This www page is temporary by the way. It will be merged into the developers docu for sme7.

Hans-Cees