VMware in ubuntu? (noobie)

[jh13]

Is there an easy way to install VMware onto my ubuntu os? Will it be the same VMware used on apple pc's to have several operating systems on it? My friend has VMWare on his apple and has ubuntu and windows vista installed in his VMWare and i am hoping that i could do the same. Open to all ideas and i have a dell inspiron 1520 that i am using and it is dual booted, ubuntu 1.9 and vista. but also have a dell optiplex gx 270 which i will be using as a tester.

[DaddyX3]

I smell a nice How-To comming on .... hint, hint, hint
We need some VMware knowledge posted in here somewhere.

[tuxsax]

I'm with Nick on that one, I've tried running VMWare Windows within Linux, Linux within Windows, VMWare Server, VMWare Workstation, VMWare Player, etc, etc. They all work fine, but it's a bit "heavy" and it has sometimes weird things happening when switching from window to full screen and back, switching from guest OS to host OS, the hardware support is kinda sloppy and limited, and the virtual machines seem to load and work a bit slow.
But I used it until I tried Qemu, it took me about 15 minutes to understand Qemu is even worse.
Then I've found by mistake this VirtualBox, tried it, loved it, seems to be built based on what VMWare knows to do well, but with some improvements.
Please use the version downloaded from the website, no the one in the repositories!

I think Nick and I already wrote about this before. Let me check...

Here it is!


Let me show you how this works like magic with Compiz, is like having two computers for real, on the same screen!

Win XP inside VirtualBox

WinXP inside VirtualBox on Desktop 1, World of Warcraft on Desktop 2

Cool, isn't it?

Ziv

[DaddyX3]

I think Nick and I already wrote about this before. Let me check...

[url=http://forumubuntusoftware.info/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=1882&hilit=+virtualbox&
sid=9a896e7e97b657d987d922a288fbfaf0#p19449]Here it is![/url]

My point was that nobody has actually posted it in the How-To area, or even made a tutorial specifically for that section. I even posted a suggestion about this in the area you just made a broken link to ... HERE. I just thought maybe the writer would do this at his own discretion. Just a suggestion, since many people do not know how to do this and both this post and the other will get lost over time (rather quickly I may add). For example, something that might be added is exact instructions on how Windows XP or VIST gets mounted inside VB ... do you have to install XP or VISTA somewhere ? (<-- this may seem obvious to you or I, but not to someone stepping into the *nix world with all the big,bad scary stories of command line floating around) How does this all take place? I for one would not know how to do this, even with this post explaining to me how to install VB and set it up for USB ... thats fine, but where does Windows come into play?
Just some thoughts about things that might be added and posted in the How-To section, thats all.

[tuxsax]

What broken link are you talking about???

I guess' you're right about posting something from A to Z in the howtos, I'll have to put some work into this, and right now I don't have time, I wouldn't mind if Nick wants to do it himself too.
Anyway, I wouldn't recommend installing Vista on VirtualBox anyway, unless you have lots of RAM (4GB) and want to give Vista half of it, also a lot of disk space, which isn't a problem nowadays, but in any case, Vista won't run as it's supposed to run natively on a PC, the hardware support on VirtualBox is limited, no support for full 3D which may be one of the reasons people may want vista for. If all you need is Vista for testing purposes, then it's ok, but not for trying to enjoy the full featured OS. This is right for all OSes running inside a virtual box, by the way...

Ziv

[jh13]

First of all, Thank you all for your replies. I'm new to ubuntu and I am loving it. Its a kool ass os. Secondly, the reason i asked this question is because i want to remove the partition where vista is installed and just have ubuntu. I have some software that runs on vista and i am more comfortable using vista with that software so i was hoping that i could just have VMware-like software , ( planning to look into VirtualBox) and have vista on that software so i can just open it up and run that software if i need to. The software is more school related which is why i don't want to try it on ubuntu yet.

[tuxsax]

First of all, Thank you all for your replies. I'm new to ubuntu and I am loving it. Its a kool ass os. Secondly, the reason i asked this question is because i want to remove the partition where vista is installed and just have ubuntu. I have some software that runs on vista and i am more comfortable using vista with that software so i was hoping that i could just have VMware-like software , ( planning to look into VirtualBox) and have vista on that software so i can just open it up and run that software if i need to. The software is more school related which is why i don't want to try it on ubuntu yet.

In this case, perhaps you could use VMWare Converter to convert your current Vista installation to a virtual machine and then install VMWare server on your linux and just import the Vista VM you just created to run within your Linux. I'm not aware of a similar solution using VirtualBox for the moment, I wish it was possible too. There is a way to convert VMWare machine to a VirtualBox one, but it's too complicated and I don't find it suitable even for expert users, here it is anyway: VMWare to VirtualBox

In any case you try, please make sure to backup all your important data before!!!

Ziv

[jh13]

Does anyone know how to make a virtualbox image from a bootable cd?

[ixnod]

Does anyone know how to make a virtualbox image from a bootable cd?

are you wanting to know how to make a live "bootable" version of virtualbox?
or, a live installable version from an iso to install onto the Operating system?

[jh13]

well, i have virtualbox installed on my desktop. I wanna install vista in my virtualbox but i somehow can't do it with the bootable cd i have on me, so i wanna try and make it into a virtualbox image.