VMWare Player, Windows 7 RC

[dibl]

On a dare by Fintan, I found a Win 7 RC ISO file and worked my way through installing it on my VMWare Player. It isn't perfect -- running on Kubuntu, I have sound but no networking, on sidux the same VM has networking but no sound. Go figure ....

Anyway I uploaded a screenshot to the Image Gallery, for anyone who is curious. Here's a link:

http://www.kubuntuforums.net/index.p...o_show&ida=249

8)

[Detonate]

Re: VMWare Player, Windows 7 RC

Dibl, I already have XP running in my VMWare Player, I tried to "upgrade" it with Windows 7 RC, but I don't have enough memory allocated. I would really like to add it to the player as a separate install. Can that be done? Or does the VMware Player only allow one installed guest?

[dibl]

Re: VMWare Player, Windows 7 RC

I made a separate VM for Win 7 -- the RC version release that I downloaded will commit suicide in June, 2010, according to the MS warnings, so I wanted it to die alone and not take anything important with it. There's no problem having multiple VMs, and using a single VMWare Player to play them. Matter of fact, I had both the Win 7 and the Win XP VMs running last night simultaneously, with no ill effects. When you open VMWare Player, each VM appears on a list, and you can pick which one to run.

I set the memory to 2048 MB for the Win 7 VM. I run the Win XP VM with only 1024. I dunno how much is actually needed -- I have the luxury of 4GB on board so I can slop it around very freely.

I got networking running -- apparently other *buntu 9.04 users have noticed the same issue ("bridged network is down" error). You simply stop and then start /etc/init.d/vmware and then run the VM, and it finds the network on the host.

The .vmx file that I started with had a line in the "ethernet =" series that needed to be fixed. I'm away from my system at the moment, but if it doesn't seem to want to network, I can post it tonight.


EDIT: I downloaded this .vmx for Win 7:

http://www.blogsdna.com/wp-content/u...1/windows7.vmx

But the line that reads "ethernet0.virtualdev = "vlance"" need to be changed to read "ethernet0.virtualdev = "e1000"" *

For my Win 7 VM, I used the 10GB blank .vmdk file extracted from the empty virtual disk drive that you can download from here:

http://johnbokma.com/vmware-player/e...isk-files.html

Here is a reasonable guide on how to set up Win 7 on a VM, except for the change in the .vmx file. Note that you need not burn the ISO to a DVD -- just park it in the directory where you put the .vmx and empty .vmdk file, and it will start from there. I wasted a blank DVD.

http://www.blogsdna.com/1918/how-to-...lete-guide.htm


* A little Monday-morning review suggests this edit may be only for 64-bit. Fair warning ....

[Detonate]

Re: VMWare Player, Windows 7 RC

Where I am lost is, I don't know how to create a new Virtual Machine. There is no option to do this in the VM interface. What do I run to create a new Virtual Machine?

[dibl]

Re: VMWare Player, Windows 7 RC

OK, basically you're going to need the 3 pieces referenced in that last blogsdna link:

- empty .vmdk file (get it from the link where you download the .zip that has several .vmdks in it)
- new .vmx file for Win 7
- Win 7 ISO file


Make a new folder somewhere on your system where you keep user data -- call it "Win_7_VM" or something (it doesn't matter what you name it). Put the 3 files in it, then run VMWare Player, and tell it "Open a new machine" and browse it to the folder, and open the .vmx. From there, you might need to click "Device" and indicate "connect to ISO" to get it to start loading the Win 7 ISO. From there, it's the normal drill to install Windows.

[Detonate]

Re: VMWare Player, Windows 7 RC

For some reason, even though I select Device and link to iso file, I get a No Operating System Found message. I downloaded the iso fro MS when the RC frist came out, so I need to get this installed and registered before it expires. It has been frustrating. For some reason it won't install in a separate partition on my second HD. But it will, of course overwrite my Grub while trying to install. > Fixed it.

So I want to go with a VM but I can't get it to install from the iso or from the DVD. I just get a VMWare window, and it sets up DHCP, then it exits with No Operating System found.

[Detonate]

Re: VMWare Player, Windows 7 RC

Got it! Had to edit the vmx file to set the auto detect and autoload on the iso to TRUE.

[dibl]

Re: VMWare Player, Windows 7 RC

Whew -- I'm glad I didn't have a chance to check your progress until just now! My .vmx did not have that problem for some reason -- I guess you were just lucky!

[Detonate]

Re: VMWare Player, Windows 7 RC

Got it installed, but no network. Doesn't find a driver for my network card. Wonder if I can use the XPdriver?

[dibl]

Re: VMWare Player, Windows 7 RC

On mine, first I had to solve the issue of "Bridged network is down ...". That is fixed by issuing

sudo /etc/init.d/vmware stop

sudo /etc/init.d/vmware start

before opening the VM.

The next problem was the one you're having now. Working totally (and not very well) from memory, if you follow the Win 7 network configuration, where you tell it to look for a network interface, you can get to where it offers "broadband connection" with no specified NIC hardware. That's the one you want. Sorry I can't be more specific -- 15 hours and 50 miles separation from the event .... :P


p.s. Oh yeah, and VMWare Tools, if you have it -- I think I did that immediately after installing Win 7 -- not sure if that was a part of getting the networking thing working, or not.

[Detonate]

Re: VMWare Player, Windows 7 RC

I can't get that far. I just get "no network connections available". Nothing to configure.

[dibl]

Re: VMWare Player, Windows 7 RC

I apologize, Floyd, I think I blew past the VMWare tools issue, which may in fact be required.

Here's how I made my CD that has the VMWare tools on it:

http://www.hackernotcracker.com/2007...xtraction.html

I made it over a year ago and hadn't used it until yesterday -- it has the SVGA driver on it and probably NIC drivers as well.

[Detonate]

Re: VMWare Player, Windows 7 RC

I already have vmware tools installed, used it on my xp install, but I really don't know what to do next. I've forgotten how to use it.

[dibl]

Re: VMWare Player, Windows 7 RC

I've forgotten how to use it.

I know, I know -- this aging thing isn't all it was cracked up to be ....

I remember observing the error that Win 7 didn't see a NIC -- I spent some time fiddling with the networking interface, bashing about trying this and that. I recall choosing to "Connect to Internet" and then I think the breakthrough was when I did "OK" on a little dialog that looked like I was supposed to put a user ID and password obtained from my ISP. Just leave it blank and click "OK" and all of sudden you have a "broadband connection" available, but then the goofy thing is you have to choose that, versus a non-functional NIC.

I shoulda had a video camera running over my shoulder, I guess -- I'll never be able to repeat the performance when the Win 7 RC times out next year ..... :P

[Detonate]

Re: VMWare Player, Windows 7 RC

OK, I did not do anything except use my VM Tools CD, ran setup in Windows 7, now my internet is working.