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Run Linux and Windows Simultaneously

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

Ever had to work on two operating systems,

one to carry out the most common tasks on, while still working on the other? Well, I have.

As I write this article, I’m sitting on a Linux box and desperately wishing for Word

2000, while I type this text into gNotepad+ (I know of StarOffice and all that, but I like

Word2k, and intend to stick to that.) Now thanks to VMWare, I can do just that.

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VMWare lets you run a "virtual

computer" in a window in the currently loaded OS. That is, you can boot a different

OS in one window of your current OS.

Setting up VMWare

Installing VMWare is

pretty simple. Uncompress the tarball as root using "tar zxvf

vmware-forlinux-102.tar.gz". (Here’s a tip: You don’t need to gzip and then

tar xvf a tar.gz file. Simply use zxvf instead). This creates a directory called

vmware-distrib. Go to this directory and run the install script file using
/install-pl.

This quickly sets up VMWare on your system. If you’re using the trial version on the

CD, you’ll need to apply for a trial key at www.vmware.com/forms/download.

cfm. This

key will be sent to you by mail. Create a directory called .vmware (a hidden directory,

note the leading dot) in your home directory and save the file sent to you as

"license" in it.

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If you’re already in X, start a

terminal window and enter "vmware &". This starts up VMWare and very

quickly tests your display settings. It then starts a wizard to guide you through the

process of setting up a new virtual computer on your Linux system. Choose the

configuration wizard to continue.

The first thing you need to decide is the

OS you wish to run in the virtual PC. VMWare gives you a pretty nice choice, including MS

Dos, Win3.x/9x/NT, Linux, or others. The choice here is used only to optimizing VMWare to

work better with the OS being installed.

Next, you need to decide where you wish to

keep the files that the guest OS requires. Typically, this is a directory with the OS

name, under vmware in your home directory. Then choose the amount of virtual hard disk

space you wish to give to this OS. You can even choose more than the amount of free disk

space on your system, but expect to have problems later on if you try this. After this,

decide whether you want the guest OS to have access to the CD-ROM drive and the floppy

drive. Finally, select the type of networking you wish to allow. A bridged network allows

the guest OS to have a completely independent set of network protocols, and appear as a

separate machine to other computers on the network. Choosing host network allows only the

host OS to see the guest OS.

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Finally, VMware displays the configuration

it’s going to save. You can change any of these options using the configuration

editor in the program. By default, it allocates exactly half of the physical RAM on your

machine for the guest OS. (Of course, that’s only when the guest OS is switched on).

Running VMWare

Now, click the "Power

On" button and prepare to get amazed. It starts off with a RAM check. You can even

press a hot key to get into the computer BIOS and change settings like the device boot

sequence. Once the boot up starts, you can start installing your guest OS as you’d do

normally. Once the installation is over, the guest OS starts up normally and you can start

exploring immediately. The first thing to do is install the additional VMWare tools for

the guest OS. If your guest OS is Windows, the program lets you change the resolution to

any level supported by your card.

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Install networking as you’d normally

do. If you wish to transfer files between the host and the guest OS, simply FTP them

across each other. Note that unlike with a mounted partition, the host OS can’t see

the guest unless through VMWare and vice-versa. (This can, however, be achieved. More

about that later on.) I was able to install my favorite programs

without any problem. IE 5 came for first (I detest Netscape, especially on Linux, as

it’s far too buggy), then came a couple of other Internet programs like CuteFTP and

ICQ. None of them found anything amiss in the OS. I even ran a ScanDisk and installed

Word.

Switching between Linux and Windows is

pretty simple. If you have the VMWare tools installed, simply move the mouse off the edge

of the VMWare screen and you’re back into the host OS. Otherwise, press Ctrl-Alt-Esc

and the cursor control is forcibly released to the host.

Dual boot

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My next question

was–I’m already dual-booting Linux and Windows. I don’t want to install

Windows again and waste valuable disk space. Can’t I boot Windows off the original

install, instead?

Well, apparently you can. Although the

online documentation mentions that this is possible, it doesn’t give further details.

You have to follow a set of links to the VMWare Website and a slightly long process to get

this working. However, don’t try it until you’ve taken a backup of everything

you need from both the OSs on your system.

The first thing to do is to create hardware

profiles for your guest OS. Boot into the OS you wish to boot in a window natively first,

and create a new hardware profile. For Windows, go to Controlpanel>System>hardware

profile and add a new one. Rename it to something recognizable. Now boot into Linux and

start the VMWare configuration wizard using /usr/local/bin/wmware-wizard-rawdisk. Make

sure that the partition is not mounted under Linux natively.

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Once the wizard starts,  select the OS

name and the location to store configuration files. In the next step, choose

"existing partition" and select the read/write option for the partition that

contains the OS (hda, hdb, etc). Finally, set the other settings as required.

Power on the VMWare. When the system comes

on, boot into the guest OS from the boot manager. If you’ve configured the hardware

profiles as mentioned above, you’ll need to choose the new one on startup. The OS

will detect the new virtual hardware and configure itself. You can then continue to use it

as you normally would.

Performance

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I didn’t notice

any performance lag in either the host or the guest OS. This could be due to the fact that

I’m on a PIII/450 with 128 MB RAM. So I was able to allocate 64 MB to each OS. The

only time I noticed some lag in the guest OS was when I installed a couple of games (Quake

II and the just
-released Unreal Tournament demos). I even updated Win 98 with

DirectX 7 and was able to play these games pretty satisfactorily, albeit with a little

keyboard and mouse lag. None of the many applications and system utilities I installed in

Win 98 was able to detect anything amiss. All of them performed just as if they were

running natively. Conclusion

Unlike Wine and similar

products, VMWare is not an emulator. This actually boots the guest OS and gives it its own

virtual PC to work in. I’d even started a Solaris 2.6 for x86 setup in a new

VM, but

gave up due to lack of disk space. During the initial setup, though, Solaris too

did’nt find anything strange in the environment.

If you need to work in multiple OSs and

sometimes at the same time, then VMWare is the best choice around. You do need a high-end

system with oodles of RAM if you really want to exploit both the OSs, but that

shouldn’t be too much of a problem now. Also, if you’re a Linux fan and have to

work in Windows and wish for dear old Linux running in a window, that’s possible too.

VMWare for Win NT and 2000 also exists and can be obtained from the Web.

Previously, only Mac users had the luxury

of running two OSs simultaneously, thanks to virtual PC. Now, Linux and Windows users have

it too. I’m using it regularly on my Linux system and have no complaints. The

technology is pretty interesting by itself and the Website gives you a glimpse of what

goes on behind the scenes. And once I have the time and computing resources, I plan to do

something interesting. I’m going run Windows in a VMWare window, to run VMWare on the

Linux machine through an XServer connector, to connect to a raw Windows partition that has

VMWare native, and so on. After what I’ve seen, I’m pretty sure VMWare will

handle that.

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