Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Mon, 27 Nov 2000 16:45:41 +0800
From:      Peter Hornby <p.hornby@ned.dem.csiro.au>
To:        freebsd-emulation@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Vmware2 on 4.1-RELEASE
Message-ID:  <4.2.0.58.20001127161355.009d1900@solo.ned.dem.csiro.au>
In-Reply-To: <20001126180819.D19849@tmp.com.br>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help

Hi All,

<snip...>

>yamato::macedo[110]: vmware
><vmware starts and I'm able to configure a virtual machine>
><I want to use my original Windows partition as guest OS, so I set /dev/hda
>as disk and R/W access for it on the correspondent windows>
><VMware goes to the "power on" screen. When I click "Power on" I get the 
>crash>
>Abort trap
>yamato::macedo[111]:
>In the /var/log/messages:
>Nov 26 17:23:11 yamato /kernel: /dev/vmmon: ALLOW_CORE_DUMP called
>Nov 26 17:23:11 yamato /kernel: /dev/vmmon: ALLOW_CORE_DUMP called
>Nov 26 17:23:11 yamato /kernel: pid 6929 (vmware), uid 1000: exited on 
>signal 6
>Nov 26 17:23:11 yamato /kernel: /dev/vmmon: Vmx86_DestroyVM: unlocked 
>pages: 0, unlocked dirty pages: 0
>
>I believe the problem is in the physical disk handling functions because
>if I set it up to use a virtual disk, I'm at least able to boot the virtual
>machine with a W95 floppy. However, the floppy doesn't finish the boot.
>It gets frozen just after the Windows copyright message....

I've been waiting for some time for this problem to go away. Currently 
running vmware2 on FreeBSD 4.2-BETA. Works fine(ish) from virtual disk, got 
ethernet bridge to work, can even sync a palm pilot via the serial line to 
a mapped disk on an old DEC UNIX box on the network! The problems are:-

1) Attempts to set all forms of physical/raw disk crash the vmware 
configuration editor. This crash generally occurs when filling in the 
appropriate field in the configuration editor dialog. (The wizard seems to 
manage OK though). If one edits the files by hand, (or uses the wizard) 
then vmware crashes when it tries to access the disks. This occurs whether 
one says the disk is /dev/hda, /compat/linux/dev/hda, /dev/wd0 (hey, I'll 
try anything!).

2) This is more an X thing. If the vmware window is minimised, or on 
another desktop that is not currently being displayed, then ctrl-alt-F8 ing 
to the vmware full screen mode kills the vmware machine. (This usually 
rightly stuffs the sync on my old DEC monitor too :)

Other than that, it's looking pretty viable. A word of warning about 
booting native and a vm-machine from the same partition though. You may 
think that by setting two windows configurations that you will deal with 
the different hardware configurations seen by windows. If you think this 
will work, you don't know M$ very well. Alternate hardware profiles may 
indeed deal with the odd serial port, modem, or even an ethernet card going 
missing, but if you think M$ ever contemplated dealing with the entire 
BIOS, motherboard, graphics card etc. etc. etc. changing from one 
configuration to another, then think again. I've spent hours trying to 
tip-toe through this mine field.... auto-detecting hardware ad nauseam, 
trying this that & the other order of hardware additions, vmware corrupting 
registries.....and this is with a (real) chipset the same as the virtual 
one (though the real machine is dual CPU). If anyone has a way around 
this.............

Has anyone ported the linux perl (python? I forget) script that mounts 
vmware virtual disks, and allows access to them from the host operating system?

Regards,

_________________________________________________________
                         Dr P. Hornby
              CSIRO Exploration & Mining ,
                39 Fairway, PO Box 437,
           Nedlands, WA  6009  Australia
                Phone +61 8 9389 8421
                 Fax   +61 8 9389 1906
            e-mail p.hornby@dem.csiro.au
__________________________________________________________


To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-emulation" in the body of the message




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?4.2.0.58.20001127161355.009d1900>