Kubuntu Running on VMWare - Can I access Host OS?

[Guest]

Hi,
I am new to Linux so I hope that everyone here will be nice to a Noobie like me.

I have managed to install Kubuntu on VMWare as a Guest OS on my Windows Vista Machine. I like it but I am not sure what to do with it yet. I am sure that will change as I start to play with it more and more.

Anyway. Is there anyway to access the files on my Host OS using Kubuntu running on VMWare and do the opposite.

It seems that downloading using the inbuilt torrent program is better and faster running under Kubuntu as I wanted to download it on Linux and the transfer the files over to Vista for running etc?

Is this possible or am I talk poo!

Thanks

[askrieger]

Re: Kubuntu Running on VMWare - Can I access Host OS?

I know nothing about VMWare. I'm sure there are good reasons to use it, I just don't what they are. I also know absolutely nothing about Vista, and I hope I never do.

That said, let me tell you how I transfer stuff between Kubuntu and XP. I have both operating systems permanently installed in separate disk partitions. I have one small windows VFAT partition mounted read-write under Linux. The main (ntfs) C: drive is mounted read only under Linux. I can read ntfs files in Linux and write vfat files in Linux for use in windows.

This is an obsolete arrangement dating back to Kubuntu Edgy. There is now a program called ntfs-3g which allows you to both read and write to ntfs partitions, so the little VFAT partition is no longer needed.

I have no idea whether this will work in VMWare. If I were you I"d bite the bullet and install Kubuntu permanently.

[alpinist]

Re: Kubuntu Running on VMWare - Can I access Host OS?

With Kubuntu in a VM, it is just like another machine on your local network. The easiest way to share files is to simply set up a shared network folder in windows. Then from Kubuntu you should be able to browse to it by going to "Remote Places" and "Samba Shares".

If you have VMware Workstation instead of VMware Player then it has a folder sharing option but I would recommend the shared network folder approach anyway.

Using fat32 to share folders on a dual boot machine between windows and linux works well but won't work with a VM as the VM is like a separate machine on the network and can't directly access the drives.

[dibl]

Re: Kubuntu Running on VMWare - Can I access Host OS?

I run a Win XP VM in VMWare Player on Kubuntu 8.04. For file sharing, an 8GB USB stick is the simplest method and suits my purposes just fine -- I only need to get a data backup off the Win XP VM when the data changes.

At one time, wanting a more elegant method, I used Samba to set up a "network" on the single platform that had both Kubuntu (host) and Win XP (VM guest). Setting up Samba is a non-trivial undertaking. As I recall, I seemed to always end up with a one-way sharing capability -- either I could only write files from the Win XP side of it to the Linux filesystem, or only from the Linux side of it to the Win XP filesystem, but I never got it going both ways. Here's some of the "tricks" I recall:

- the Win XP system must use a login and user password
- about 3 different Win XP firewall settings have to be found and disabled
- on the Win XP side, you have to use NetBIOS (or NetBEUI -- I can never remember)
- Samba uses the cifs filesystem
- you can Google for decent examples of the smb.conf file, which is the key to success

HTH

[askrieger]

Re: Kubuntu Running on VMWare - Can I access Host OS?

Can someone please explain to me the advantages, if any, of running WinXP in a virtual machine compared to dual booting and communicating between the two by writing files into a disk partition readable by both operating systems, (especially, with ntfs-3g). That strikes me as simpler than using Samba to communicate with another partition on the same machine.

Personally, I couldn't work in both systems simultaneously without getting confused in any event.

[alpinist]

Re: Kubuntu Running on VMWare - Can I access Host OS?

Can someone please explain to me the advantages, if any, of running WinXP in a virtual machine compared to dual booting

Well, for my purposes I find dual booting to be more of a hassle. With a dual boot I can only have linux running or only windows running and it takes about 5 minutes to switch between the two. With a VM I can run linux all the time and have all my linux software available to me and if there is a piece of software I want to run that requires windows then I just pop up a VM and run that software.

Wine is getting a lot better these days but there is still a lot of software that runs flakey in wine. In a VM software is actually running on windows so it works as it is supposed to work. The only limitation of using a VM is that software that needs direct access to the hardware won't run. (Usually only graphics intensive games and those often will run in wine)

In my experience using a VM makes the transition to linux easier as I have all the software I need available to me and I never have to boot into anything except Kubuntu. I have a few games that will only run in windows so I dual boot on rare occasion when I want to run one of those but that is happening less and less frequently. Eventually I expect I will remove my windows boot partition and free the Hard drive space back up.

The other main reason to use a VM is to test software before you install it on a physical partition. Both for windows and kubuntu there is software that I'm not sure I actually want installed on my machine or if it will mess up other things so I try it on a VM to see if I like it and whether it conflicts with other things before I install it on a bootable partition. Windows especially, but both linux and windows sometimes will not completely uninstall a piece of software if you decide you don't like it and try to remove it. I don't want a bunch of junk on my HD and in my OS so I use VMs to test.

As far as dibl's concern about getting two way samba sharing going, I just create one share on the host machine and use that share for access by all the machines. That way there is just one point of contact for all my VMs for trading files. But you do have to get samba working and that is a weakness of kubuntu/ubuntu, it's not as easy as it should be. The USB stick is also a good idea though sometimes I get weird behavior trying to get a VM to access a USB drive.

[dibl]

Re: Kubuntu Running on VMWare - Can I access Host OS?

Can someone please explain to me the advantages, if any, of running WinXP in a virtual machine compared to dual booting and communicating between the two by writing files into a disk partition readable by both operating systems

I don't know whether it's an "advantage" in my case, or a necessity. Mr. Gates' license only permits 2 hard drives in your computer. I have 5, even though I don't need to access more than one with Win XP. I've had the distinct misery of having the Windows hardware configuration detector blow up my installation and force me to call India for permission to re-install. It's no fun -- the last time I had to do that was 2 years ago, and motivated my conversion to linux. No more Windows installations on this PC! 8)

[askrieger]

Re: Kubuntu Running on VMWare - Can I access Host OS?

@Alpinist: Personally, I've been using Linux long enough (about 7 years) that there is very little, if any windows software that I still need. Among other things, the only time I play games is while I wait for things to download and Frozen Bubble is fine for wasting time. I also used to use Forte Agent as my Usenet News downloader, but recent editions of Pan are now fine for that purpose. I'm forced to conclude that my only reason for keeping a windows partition on my laptop is so that I don't run into trouble with security guards at airports who think Linux is a terrorist tool. BTW try Cedega as a winclone for gaming. So the (in my case) two or three minutes it takes to switch OS is infrequent enough to be a minimal bother.

@dibl: Mr. Gates, or (now) Mr. Ballmer, is entitled to write any license terms his lawyers advise. On the other hand, you are entitled to remove his software, if you find those terms to be objectionable. I know you've been around here long enough to know that you can do very close to everything you need to do in Linux without windows. Aside from gaming, the only area, I can think of where windows is, in fact still well ahead of Linux is in accessibility assistance. There is still nothing that's comparable to "Naturally Speaking", and I suspect that text-to speech is pretty much in the same state, so I would think that aside from people who need that type of program, most Linux users could probably arrange to go Winfree with only minor inconvenience.

[dibl]

Re: Kubuntu Running on VMWare - Can I access Host OS?

Yep, I agree Al.

There's a grand total of one (1) Windows application that my life requires -- a very high-quality genealogy database built on MS Visual FoxPro. There's simply nothing like it for Linux, and it won't run correctly in wine. So .....

If I were seriously into gaming, then I'm sure I'd want a native Windows installation, so I could have the high-performance graphics and the best drivers available. But I'm not. Everything else I need runs great in Linux -- office apps, multimedia, browsers, graphics editor, etc.

So, I keep my 100% legal and paid-for Win XP licensed OS on it's VMware Player VM, in a window on Kubuntu, and both Mr. Ballmer and I are happy campers.

Well, I am, anyway ....