Running Linux, 5th Edition - Matthias Kalle Dalheimer [492]
According to VMware, Workstation Version 5 runs on the following:
32-bit systems
SUSE LINUX Pro 9.2, SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9.0, Mandrake Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0, and Windows Server 2003 SP1 beta (experimental support).
64-bit systems
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0, SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9, SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 SP1, SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 8, Windows Server 2003 SP1 (experimental support), and Windows XP (experimental support).
Figure 28-1. VMware Workstation 5 on Novell Linux Desktop 9
Users of Fedora Core 3, Gentoo, Red Hat, and Debian have reported that VMware 5 also runs on their systems without difficulty, although the company does not claim to support them. As shown in Figure 28-1, the author found VMware completely functional on NLD 9.
Each guest operating system runs in an isolated virtualized machine. VMware maps a host's computer hardware resources to the virtual machine's resources, so each virtual machine has its own CPU, memory, disks, and I/O devices, so to speak. At least it looks that way to the guest operating system. The virtual machine appears to the guest operating systems as a standard x86 computer.
Once VMware Workstation installs on its host, you can install and run unmodified versions of Windows, Linux, Novell NetWare, and Sun Solaris x86, as well as applications written for those platforms, on one machine. The promise of VMware is for users to derive the benefit of using multiple PCs without the expense, physical setup, and maintenance of various hardware platforms. VMware Workstation makes it easy for Linux users to run Windows applications.
VMware Workstation as a product may turn out to have a limited lifetime. It could be seen as a way to allow Linux users to run their favorite Windows applications while they move toward replacing them with versions that run natively in GNOME, KDE, and other desktop environments. It's worth remembering that the workstation product is just one product among VMware's offerings, and that the future for VMware, the company, probably lies in the server area, where it has given Linux a leg up in the data center.
Still, VMware has an important place in the history and evolution of Linux. Many people still love it and are glad it's around. Hopefully, the company will continue to innovate and make using Windows applications simpler for Linux users while it grows its server business.
Installing VMware Workstation 5
We had some difficulty installing VMware on SUSE Professional 9.2, even though the company listed it as a supported platform. The installation seems simple. One downloads VMware as either a gunzipped tarball or as an RPM. Once the package installs, simply run vmware-config.pl. But SUSE 9.2 kept giving this error message:
None of the pre-built vmmon modules for VMware Workstation is suitable
for your running kernel. Do you want this program to try to build the
vmmon module for your system (you need to have a C compiler installed
on your system)?
CC [M] /tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/linux/driver.o
/bin/sh: scripts/basic/fixdep: No such file or directory
make[2]: *** [/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/linux/driver.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [_module_/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.11.4-21.7'
make: *** [vmmon.ko] Error 2
make: Leaving directory `/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only'
Unable to build the vmmon module.
When we decided to switch and try Novell Linux Desktop, installing it without any updates, VMware installed as well. Afterward, we updated NDL 9 and tested VMware Workstation 5; it continued to work.
We later discovered that SUSE's 9.x kernels have patches that do not come with a stock Linux kernel. Many packages relying on prebuilt modules fail. You can recompile the modules as a workaround. To recompile the modules, use:
# cd /usr/src/linux
# make cloneconfig
# make prepare
#vmware-config.pl
vmware-config.pl will