[cobalt-users] RE: VMWare [Was something else] [longish]

["Colin J. Raven" <cjraven@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

>At 4/10/01 08:53 AM -0400, you wrote:
>> >2. I'm gonna try to put RedHat 7 on my notebook and use
>VMware to run
>> >virtual Windows. Hope I make it work; if I do, I'll let you
>> >know how things go.
>>
>>I hope you have SCADS of RAM Rodolfo!!!
>>VMWare requires beaucoup m.e.m.o.r.y to run decently.
>>I tried the exact exercise on a seriously high-end laptop with really
>>significant resources, and I was disappointed with the results.
>>Not that it didn't "run" oh yes, it ran. I was disappointed with the
>>performance however.
>
>P3/450, 192MB, 6GB, 13.3" XGA screen? You think it'll be OK?
>If not, would
>you feel better with Win4Lin? I wasn't going to try the full
>VMware, but
>rather the Express version. Please do share what you've
>learned... save me
>a few hours of grief maybe.

Well, one of the reasons my install wasn't so clippy was because I did
the full install, not the Express version.
I can't compare with Win4Lin, I haven't tried it. "Network Computing"
magazine (I think) did a shoot-out of the 2 side-by-side, and it
*seemed* as though they were saying Win4Lin was faster. I don't have the
article any longer, so I can't refer back to it. The install took (me)
almost 3 weeks of blundering around, before I could make the damn thing
play nice. I use the word "blundering" advisedly, since that's what my
efforts consisted of for the most part. Getting RH7 onto the laptop was
2 weeks of work, (blundering) and VMWare the entire 3rd week. I felt as
though I'd run a marathon by the end, seriously stressed out, grumpy,
not my usual silly self. Others will doubtless have a better experience
than I.

Shimi said his VMWare install went beautifully on a 450 w/128MB of 66MHZ
RAM. I am guided by that, since it sounds close to your 'config....
I have 512MB ram, and an 850 P3 on that laptop, my impression was that
everything would simply scream. It didn't (doesn't) and I'm still not
sure why.
VMWare docs suggest a 266 or better, 96MB RAM min, 128 recommended.
Also the docs make mention of
<quote>Enough memory to run the Linux host operating system plus memory
required for each guest operating system and applications on the host
and guest</quote>

*One* possible reason I got the dopey response *might* be the fact that
VMWare (apparently) doesn't appear to have been tested on RH7, only as
far up as 6.2. Maybe that's changed, I don't really know.

*Another* reason it didn't play nice initially, is that for some reason
I didn't have the real time clock function compiled into the
kernel....fixed after a day of cursing.

Each night I tweak stuff and it seems to be getting slightly better.

HTH,
Regards,
-Colin