| JP Vossen on 24 Sep 2007 19:09:02 -0000 |
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Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2007 16:54:32 -0400 From: jeff <jeffv@op.net> Subject: [PLUG] What next? and small rant [...] 2. how to get your spouse interested in linux She uses W2K in a VM under Ubuntu, I just didn't tell her about the Linux part. Then the kids hit CTRL-ALT which exits the VM "full screen" mode and dumps you into the VMware Console and she says, "What the heck is THIS?!?" :-) 3. how to get strippers interested in linux
[...] Parallel to this, I brought a small Dell server home to install 7.04 Server and VMServer. I figured this was better than W2003 and VMServer due to resources (and I hate Windows).> Ignoring the fact that my linux knowledge is spotty (I know some basics and some technical stuff but I'm undereducated). I got 7.04 server on without a hiccup (thank you Ubuntu). Someone suggested I'd need the GUI to install VM, which turned out to be true. `Install gnome and gdm, if you want graphical login' they said.' I did and it didn't. Oops - gnome no come with xorg. You got some bad advice there, a couple of ways. First, you do not need a GUI to install VMware Server on Ubuntu. However either VMware Player or Workstation require a GUI to run, so you may as well installed them that way too if you are using them. I much prefer to run VMware Server both on servers with no GUI (no monitor even!), and under GUIs. I know VMware Player is in one of the Ubuntu repos, and I believe Server is too. However, the method I use is the latest *.tgz from vmware.com. Second, no matter how you install it, sooner or later a kernel upgrade will "break it" and you'll need to recompile some stuff. This is trivially easy on Ubuntu--*if* you know how and do it right. (Both the Ubuntu and VMware folks seem to have gone to some effort on this.) Some of this stuff addresses issue below, but it seemed better to keep it together. # = comment, $ = user prompt # One time only # Install the kernel image and header files. You may see similar instructions on the 'Net that have `uname -r` in them. Don't do that! That will work--once. The image and header files I listed are pseudo-packages that contain nothing but a "depends" on the current, correct packages. Install these once and you'll always Just Have what you need. $ sudo apt-get install linux-image-686 linux-headers-686 # Install the stuff you need to *compile* the VMware modules # Note xinetd in needed for the VMware Console on port 902 $ sudo apt-get install build-essential xinetd autoconf2.13 automake1.9 automake
# Download and extract the software # http://register.vmware.com/content/download.html $ wget 'http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmserver/VMware-server-1.0.4-56528.tar.gz' $ tar xzf VMware-server-1.0.4-56528.tar.gz # Install and configure it--follow the prompts, take the defaults if you don't know what it's asking, but be sure to configure networking (you probably want bridged) $ cd vmware-server-distrib $ sudo ./vmware-install.pl Note, if you've installed an Ubuntu server and wish to add a desktop, simply install the desktop pseudo-package you want. Yeah, I know this is one of those things you just have to know about, but it's pretty obvious once you do: # --or-- kubuntu-desktop, or xubuntu-desktop or edubuntu-desktop # http://ubuntulinuxhowto.blogspot.com/2006/06/how-to-install-other-desktop.html # http://tuxicity.wordpress.com/2007/01/30/howto-switch-from-ubuntu-to-kubuntu-or-xubuntu-or-edubuntu-or-vice-versa-610-edgy/ # One time only $ sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop Note: some may argue I should use aptitude instead of apt-get. They are probably correct. I use apt-get from force of habit and I *know* these commands worked. You could probably :%s/apt-get/aptitude/g with no problems. Bottom line, I'm running at least 4 VMware Servers (that I can recall) on the following via the above: Ubuntu 6.06, 7.04 CentOS-4.x (not covered above, since they use yum, not apt-get) Then I untarred VMServer. BOOM - couldn't build VMMON. Searched on errors - I'm not the only one having this problem and it probably isn't Gutsy. DL any.any update - no go. Research further. DL updated any.any update - still nothing. Research again. DL Ubuntu pkg because solution was for RPM system. Re-apply any.any updated update - Finally Success! (in the form of no error message). See above, and possibly related: http://www.vmware.com/support/server/doc/releasenotes_server.html#resolved [...] v 1.0.4 [...] # This release fixes a problem that prevented the VMware vmmon module from building correctly on hosts running Linux with kernel version 2.6.20-rc1. # This release fixes a problem that prevented the VMware vmnet module from building correctly on hosts running Linux with kernel versions higher than 2.6.21. [...] So up pops my first server, with absolutely no indication of VM being installed. Dammit - am I going to have to READ THE INSTRUCTIONS? I hate reading instructions. Oh boy - it wants me to control everything from a different server. But wait - I found the console. Yeah, that's another one you just have to know. But the sweet part if because of the fat GUI console, you can control a headless server from anywhere. This lets you create a very minimal "host" server with no GUI tax, thus giving more resources to the "guest" OS(s). For example, when my wife has a problem, I can VMware console to her machine from my office, and we can *both* use it at the same time. Just like VNC only better. She uses the VMware Console on "localhost" in full screen mode (her Ubuntu log sin, and auto runs the console to connect in full-screen mode. When that PC reboots it ends up at a logged in, full screen W2KP session--eventually. Right now I'm building some base vm's. They recommend running full screen for best performance. The depends. Most of my VMs (I have over 40) are command line only Linux or Unix, so full screen is a waste, especially since I only SSH into them anyway. Even for a Windows or Ubuntu GUI in a VM, I've never had a problem, except perhaps playing video. > It just `rebooted' and the screen looks like it's underwater. Back to a window. Much better. I've had xorg.conf problems with that on VMware Workstation 5.x on CentOS-4, but several Ubuntu machine (see above) Just Worked. As noted, my wife runs a W2KPro VM full screen on top of Ubuntu 6.10 (IIRC) flawlessly. It even plays vids no problem. [...] This is killing my smugness when I proclaim to the Windows folks that I use the superior OS. Sure, I don't have to reboot all the time -- once I manage to get it installed. <my rant> The thing that infuriates me about Windows, aside from the malicious vendor lock-in and DRM, is the lack of transparency. Google has helped this. But with F/OSS, "any problem is shallow with sufficient eyeballs" applies (and Google then supplies the solution) whereas with Windows you have to hope that M$ or someone who has dedicated their life to understanding Windows arcana has already found and solved the problem. Windows requires much more voodoo and brute force (reboot/reinstall) to troubleshoot and once "fixed" you often don't know what broke, why it broke, what actually fixed it and how to prevent it. Linux problems can almost always be fixed more directly, and once fixed they stay fixed and you learned something about how/what/why. IMOHO. YMMV. Granted 98-99% of computer users will never get to either state--they'll just call one of us. You ever try to talk someone through fixing something in a GUI over the phone? "OK, in the upper left corner of the window there's this little box with this little picture in it. OK, click that... What'd it do? OK, now...." As opposed to either "OK, let me just SSH in and fix it," or "Go type 'grep foo /var/log/syslog' and tell me what it says." That's why I'm a) trying to get away from Windows as much as possible and b) putting the Windows I can't avoid into VMs under Ubuntu. </my rant> Finally, I use VMware because it's easy (relativity), slick, mature, powerful and mainstream. There are alternatives, esp. qemu, but VMware is the right choice for my needs at the moment. I'd much prefer if they were more "free as in speech" but I've been very happy with paid-for Workstation (5.0+) and free Server (1.0+) for a while now. Later,
JP
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JP Vossen, CISSP |:::======| jp{at}jpsdomain{dot}org
My Account, My Opinions |=========| http://www.jpsdomain.org/
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Microsoft has single-handedly nullified Moore's Law.
Innate design flaws of Windows make a personal firewall, anti-virus
and anti-malware software mandatory. The resulting software arms race
has effectively flattened Moore's Law on hardware running Windows.
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