VMWare Player 3.0 announced

[dibl]

http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/player_pubs.html

I have not had a chance to install it and see how it works -- I wonder if the keyboard/mouse focus issue, in the guest OS, is sorted. I'll find out tonight and post back.

[Snowhog]

Re: VMWare Player 3.0 announced

I'll be very interested in how it goes. In my Debian sid OS, running a custom .31 kernel, the mouse 'grabing' issue is a really problem. If 3.0 fixes it, that would be great.

[MoonRise]

Re: VMWare Player 3.0 announced

Have either of you tried VirtualBox? I've never had issues except with USB which has been fixed since around II. I have XP, Win98, and Dream Linux all running beautifully. The only thing it lacks is the ability to correctly run some high end MS Windows based games.

[dibl]

Re: VMWare Player 3.0 announced

Well, it is 9:03 p.m. and I am still waiting for the promised e-mail link that I asked for, and registered for 2 hours ago. Hmmmm. VMware seems to be getting more complicated .....



>

[Snowhog]

Re: VMWare Player 3.0 announced

Have either of you tried VirtualBox?

Nope. Not going to either. VMware Player works, and works well. Integration with all my host resources is seamless. I've read that VirtualBox can be problematic.

[Fintan]

Re: VMWare Player 3.0 announced

Finally got my email/download notice (after 7hrs waiting)

Neat new stuff.

You can install / edit guest machines (haven't tried that)

You can have various guests running and flip between them from the vmplayer bar (haven't tried that either)

Sound seems to work on boot

vmware tools update nicely and then the keyboard (delete, ctrl+v, etc) works again.

[MoonRise]

Re: VMWare Player 3.0 announced

Have either of you tried VirtualBox?

Nope. Not going to either. VMware Player works, and works well. Integration with all my host resources is seamless. I've read that VirtualBox can be problematic.

The only issues I had at one time was USB. Now I can say that you should install the full version from VirtualBox and not the Repos. The repos version is the stripped down version. But each his own. Great thing about choice. You all keep posting your experience here for VMware. I do like to know about other solutions.

[dibl]

Re: VMWare Player 3.0 announced

Yes, what Fintan said. My e-mail with the download link arrived sometime during the night. This morning it was no problem to use it and download one each of the 32-bit and 64-bit bundle packages for Linux. I only had time to install the 32-bit package on my netbook.

The installation went fine, but it has couple of new features:

- When you browse to your existing VM and open it, it opens in powered-off mode
- When I powered on my Win XP VM, VMware immediately asked to download "VMware Tools for Win 2000 and later" (I don't know why it needed to do this as I had already installed them on that VM). I said OK, it downloaded and installed the tools automatically, and everyone was happy
- It automatically decided that "chkdsk C:" on my NTFS "partition" needed to run, so I was happy to see that sight from long ago (probably it's been 4 or 5 years since I saw that happen). It did appear to find and correct some indexing errors and minor file allocation issues -- maybe it was just to impress me, or maybe there were some issues on that well-used VM.

So, then Windows XP came up sloooowwwwlllllly, like it normally does the first time, and behaved properly as far as I can tell in 5 minutes of fiddling with the desktop size. I think I'm happy with VMware Player 3.0. Tonight I'll try it on my 64-bit desktop, on which I already have 2.5.3 installed, and a copy of the same VM.

[Fintan]

Re: VMWare Player 3.0 announced

VMware immediately asked to download "VMware Tools for Win 2000 and later" (I don't know why it needed to do this as I had already installed them on that VM). I said OK, it downloaded and installed the tools automatically

YEah, I saw that as well and was happy as the new vmwtools are really different, more advanced.

I'll try installing arch with vmplayer 3.0 and see how it goes

[dibl]

Re: VMWare Player 3.0 announced

I'll try installing arch with vmplayer 3.0 and see how it goes

I didn't know you were playing with Arch. I tried it last year, and found it very interesting, but it really became a big time sink when little things like the timezone setting became major hurdles for me. It did teach me how to make a fancy conky, so I guess there was some value retained from the project.


EDIT: Tonight I installed the 64-bit VMware ver. 3.0 bundle on my desktop. I deliberately did not attempt to remove the prior 2.5.3 package. I exited X and went to init 3 in the CLI to run the installer. The first thing it did was the uninstallation of the prior version. Then it installed ver. 3.0 and reported that it was successful. When I started X and ran VMware Player, it offered me my Win XP VM, as a folder icon. Same as the 32-bit, it announced that it needed to download the VMware Tools package, and I let it. When it was done, it opened my Win XP VM -- there was no mandatory "Chkdsk C:" on the 64-bit installation. So, after Win XP was open, I went in to "C:" via "My Computer" and scheduled a chkdsk, and restarted it to let it run. It is the same 8GB virtual disk as on the netbook, so again it took awhile to complete the chkdsk, but there were no errors reported as a result of the process. So, I'm declaring ....

Success!

[Snowhog]

Re: VMWare Player 3.0 announced

Running Karmic 9.10 32-bit. Downloaded and installed VMware Player 3.0.0 today. It notified me that an update to VMware Tools was available. I opted to download it. When it was downloaded, it began to install. It prompted me for my root password. I typed it in, but it reported it as incorrect! What's with that? I'm assuming it requires my Linux root password, but that appears not to be the case. I don't have a root password in the Windows XP VM - I can access the Admin directly - so what is going on? How do I install the updated VMware Tools?

[dibl]

Re: VMWare Player 3.0 announced

That's odd. Did you just accept the prompt, regarding download of the updated tools? That's all I did. I do not remember getting a password prompt, but then again I barely remember what happened yesterday, much less two months ago. :P

[Snowhog]

Re: VMWare Player 3.0 announced

Yup. Even tried three separate times. Even added an Administrator user password in Windoze. Didn't make any difference. The download finishes and starts to install and I'm asked for the root password. So, it has to be my Kubuntu root password, and I type it in and am told it is incorrect!

Trying something. I'm copying the VM machine folder/files over to my Karmic /home/paul directory. I've been running VMware Player in each OS, but accessing the actual VM from a single location. When I'm not in that OS, then I have to navigate to the other /home/paul folder that contains the VM. Of course, I'm asked if I copied it or moved it. I always take the recommended 'I copied it' and all is good.

I'll see, once the folder is here in Karmic, if I'm prompted for a password for the update to Tools.

[Snowhog]

Re: VMWare Player 3.0 announced

No go. Still asked for my root password, and when typed in, says it is incorrect! See attached screen shot.

[dibl]

Re: VMWare Player 3.0 announced

Rats.

Well, I had no such problem, on Kubuntu Karmic or sidux. I guess you're running Hardy or Jaunty? I would not think that problem is related to the Kubuntu version.

The only thing you might try is getting a root prompt with "sudo su" and then trying from the beginning -- first installing VMware Player and then following through with the tools download and installation. If that doesn't work ..... :P