Virtual PC/ VMWare

Smokey · n00b Joined: 27 Aug 2003 Posts: 10 Location: USA

hi, I wanted to get into gentoo but currently only have one computer and wanted to try gentoo first....... if all goes smooth I'll get rid of windows.
I'm aware of dual booting but it's easier for me if I could use vmware or Virtual pc

So here's the question. Should I use vmware or Connectix Virtual PC??
Whats your recommendations? Pros/Cons

Thanks in advance and I hope to some day be as good as you people. Oh BTW: maybe I should mention before theres posts about "oh your still using windows this is too much for you" yada yada that I have used redhat and done decent...... I like taking my time and learning how things are. I also have 3 friends who run linux distros and 1 of which uses gentoo. But when I asked their opinions on vmware and virtual pc they had no comments on which would be a better program to try.

delta407 · Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2003 2:59 am Post subject:

I've gotten Gentoo to work properly in VMware, and many others in the forum can help you make it work. Fewer have experience with VirtualPC, but I have heard of problems... I don't know. Both should work, but of them, I would choose VMware.
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Smokey · n00b Joined: 27 Aug 2003 Posts: 10 Location: USA

kewl thanks. I'll give it a shot...... how much space does a vmware use to run it?? I read in the faq that it increases as the virtual OS increases....... so it's a good assumption that it'll require a bit more then what a normal install of it would be?

"it" being gentoo.

I think tomorrow morning I'll check back at this thread for a reply and if non is present I'll go ahead and install and see for myself..... I only have 19gb free on this drive and 30 free on the other........ tonight I'll burn about 3 gb off this one and probably 7 or so off the other........ I should have way more then enough.

TecHunter · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 15 Feb 2003 Posts: 124

Smokey · n00b Joined: 27 Aug 2003 Posts: 10 Location: USA

k. my systems not that bad but I take your word for it.

I have a P4 1.3ghz, 640mb rdram...... hell might aswell post all the specs.
2 hds (40gb and 80gb), 19in monitor, geforce 2 gts (I'm aware it needs replacing...... just meets minimum game requirements haha) and I guess that just about covers it.

Is it recommended I use P4 livecds?? seeing how a 1.3ghz is "just" making p4 and I'll be running 2 OS's (gentoo and my pre-existing XP).

speter · n00b Joined: 20 Sep 2003 Posts: 2 Location: Edison, NJ

shamansanchez · n00b Joined: 20 Sep 2003 Posts: 1

I'm currently trying to install on Virtual PC, with no luck. Whenever I try to run fdisk, I get a ton of errors with "cloop" or something like that. I have no idea what that is though, considering I'm pretty new to Linux.

speter · n00b Joined: 20 Sep 2003 Posts: 2 Location: Edison, NJ

fdisk works fine for me. What did you do before you booted the Gentoo CD? (That is, how did you set up the machine?) Have you tried fdisking the disk with another distro?
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pilgrim337 · n00b Joined: 07 Oct 2003 Posts: 63

I'm using VPC, and the main problem I've had is that during the emerging xfree freaks out, and says some errors that I've posted to another forum (I think they were with the package and not with VPC). Besides that, I've had no problems with the rest of the install (it recognizes all my Virtual devices). However, the bootstrap process takes a lifetime (but that's not really a problem). Out of curiosity, how long did it take to bootstrap your computers on VPC/VMWare?

IMHO: Compared to VMWare, VPC requires less work on the user's side, and boots Linux faster (for my system, others seem to have different results). I'd recommend at least 512MB of RAM. Enjoy.

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stonent · Veteran Joined: 07 Aug 2003 Posts: 1139 Location: Texas

Bootsplash and vesa video modes work in VPC.

Here's a basic comparison

Vmware:

Video: Custom non-vesa VGA
Network: AMD PCnet32
Chipset 82440BX, 82371EB
Audio: SB16 compatable
SCSI: Buslogic PCI

Can boot off of a real drive or partition SCSI or IDE (but not USB)

VPC 2004:

Video: S3 Trio64
Network: DEC/Intel 21140 series (Tulip)
Chipset 82440BX, 82371EB
Audio: Not sure
SCSI: N/A

Can't boot from a real drive or partition.

Both support booting from an ISO file.

Correct me if any of this is wrong.

Overall VPC seems to work best as far as hardware detection / X setup. VMware is more flexible but harder to set up.
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