From demeler at biochem.uthscsa.edu Sun Mar 20 12:14:57 2005 From: demeler at biochem.uthscsa.edu (Borries Demeler) Date: Sun Mar 20 12:15:03 2005 Subject: [HSC-Unix] vmware Message-ID: <200503201814.j2KIEvo1019040@biochem.uthscsa.edu> I would like to follow up on Randy's note about RefWorks and direct your attention to one of my favorite software products. So I have written a short review for a product I would rank as one of the best software products I have come across in a long time: VMWare (www.vmware.com, I think it is less than $120 academic pricing) I just would like to share with everyone some experience I have had with VMWare - a product that allows you to run different operating systems under Linux, all at the same time on the same computer, in a graphical window on your desktop. I primarily use this product to run Windows 2000 or Windows XP under Linux, when I need windows-only applications, or have to compile my software for the win32 platform. With this product you can access the Linux file system and share files between windows and linux in a transparent fashion (everything shows up under Windows explorer). In addition to Windows (right now I have win95, 98, 2000, and XP installed), you can run also run DOS, Solaris, Free/Net/Openbsd, and various other flavors of Linux - all under your main Linux installation, and all at the same time. You can suspend each operating system's state while booted to an image file, and restore it in seconds like a suspended laptop, avoiding totally the need for rebooting. And here is something I just figured out today - since each operating system is stored as a file on your linux file system, you can *copy* each operating system to a different linux installation and run it there under VMWare, and restart the *booted* image on a different computer - exactly the way you left it on the original computer, so each operating system becomes entirely portable. So I was able to start the suspended Win2K install I have on my dual Xeon desktop on my laptop by simply copying the image file across. Since each operating system is installed as a file under Linux, it is also extremely easy to back up - just copy the file to a backup device (DVD or backup drive). This beats by a long shot the trouble I went through trying to reinstall a Windows backup on a new harddrive I needed to get for my laptop. You could even easily maintain different versions of installs (like before upgrading to the next service pack, which may ruin your system) and revert to an older version in a flash. Downsides: While installation is very easy, configuration is not entirely straightforward, and the configuration script, while it does the right job, doesn't always work as expected. Your system may need some tweaking of other system components before everything works the way it should. I hope someone finds this information useful. It may make migration to Linux a little bit easier for those of you who still depend on Windows. If anyone else has some special software they really like, I would like to hear about it as well. Next time, I'll write about rsync, a very powerful multi-purpose unix application. -Borries From glickman at uthscsa.edu Mon Mar 21 18:09:58 2005 From: glickman at uthscsa.edu (Randolph D. Glickman) Date: Mon Mar 21 18:10:19 2005 Subject: [HSC-Unix] vmware In-Reply-To: <200503201814.j2KIEvo1019040@biochem.uthscsa.edu> Message-ID: <5.1.1.6.0.20050321180443.02759aa8@129.111.26.121> Borries: Thanks for the detailed look at VMWare. This was very informative - I didn't realize all of the capabilities of VMWare. I thought it was mainly a utility for running individual Windows programs under Linux, but now I see that it can do a lot more. Using it to run other operating systems is an intriguing approach - as opposed to setting up dual- or multi-boot systems, which can be difficult to maintain. I will have to look into using this as a way to implement non-Windows platforms in the lab, while maintaining the ability to run critical Windows apps. Thanks again, Borries! --Randy Randolph D. Glickman, Ph.D. Senderoff Professor of Vision Research Department of Ophthalmology University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio 7703 Floyd Curl Drive, San Antonio, Texas 78229-3900 Tel: 210-567-8420 Fax: 210-567-8413 e-mail: glickman@uthscsa.edu From jeremy at biochem.uthscsa.edu Mon Mar 21 18:30:11 2005 From: jeremy at biochem.uthscsa.edu (Jeremy Mann) Date: Mon Mar 21 18:30:20 2005 Subject: [HSC-Unix] vmware In-Reply-To: <5.1.1.6.0.20050321180443.02759aa8@129.111.26.121> References: <200503201814.j2KIEvo1019040@biochem.uthscsa.edu> <5.1.1.6.0.20050321180443.02759aa8@129.111.26.121> Message-ID: <45650.66.69.86.170.1111451411.squirrel@biochem.uthscsa.edu> Randolph D. Glickman said: > Borries: > > Thanks for the detailed look at VMWare. This was very informative - I > didn't realize all of the capabilities of VMWare. I thought it was mainly > a utility for running individual Windows programs under Linux, but now I > see that it can do a lot more. Using it to run other operating systems is > an intriguing approach - as opposed to setting up dual- or multi-boot > systems, which can be difficult to maintain. I will have to look into > using this as a way to implement non-Windows platforms in the lab, while > maintaining the ability to run critical Windows apps. Dr. Glickman, we currently have on Borries' machine Solaris 10, Solaris 9, FreeBSD, OpenBSD and Windows 95 to 2000. Each works excellent so far. Also, if interested, I recently ordered VMware with Academic discount through Programmer's Paradise for $112 and change, this is quite cheaper than the $189 normal price. The only things we haven't tried are serial/parallel port operation for acquisition instruments. If this *does* work, then most instruments needing Windows can be replaced with a virtual installation of Windows. However, instruments that have a dedicated capture/control card will probably not work. The only problems I had were with Solaris 10. I had to install a different XFree86 server that had the vmware display driver. All the others included the vmware driver for X11 from the stock installation. -- Jeremy Mann jeremy@biochem.uthscsa.edu University of Texas Health Science Center Bioinformatics Core Facility http://www.bioinformatics.uthscsa.edu Phone: (210) 567-2672 From glickman at uthscsa.edu Mon Mar 21 18:40:48 2005 From: glickman at uthscsa.edu (Randolph D. Glickman) Date: Mon Mar 21 18:40:50 2005 Subject: [HSC-Unix] vmware In-Reply-To: <45650.66.69.86.170.1111451411.squirrel@biochem.uthscsa.edu> References: <5.1.1.6.0.20050321180443.02759aa8@129.111.26.121> <200503201814.j2KIEvo1019040@biochem.uthscsa.edu> <5.1.1.6.0.20050321180443.02759aa8@129.111.26.121> Message-ID: <5.1.1.6.0.20050321183801.0279fd78@129.111.26.121> Hi Jeremy: I might very well be interested in trying to run some of my scientific instrumentation software under VMWare. It would be quite something if I could run my HPLC workstation controller from this platform. However, based on your comment about dedicated controller cards, I suspect that it probably wouldn't work. Ah well, sometime when I have a lot of free time (yeah, sure) maybe I'll give this a try. Thanks for the info. --Randy At 06:30 PM 3/21/2005 -0600, you wrote: >Randolph D. Glickman said: > > Borries: > > > > Thanks for the detailed look at VMWare. This was very informative - I > > didn't realize all of the capabilities of VMWare. I thought it was mainly > > a utility for running individual Windows programs under Linux, but now I > > see that it can do a lot more. Using it to run other operating systems is > > an intriguing approach - as opposed to setting up dual- or multi-boot > > systems, which can be difficult to maintain. I will have to look into > > using this as a way to implement non-Windows platforms in the lab, while > > maintaining the ability to run critical Windows apps. > >Dr. Glickman, we currently have on Borries' machine Solaris 10, Solaris 9, >FreeBSD, OpenBSD and Windows 95 to 2000. Each works excellent so far. > >Also, if interested, I recently ordered VMware with Academic discount >through Programmer's Paradise for $112 and change, this is quite cheaper >than the $189 normal price. > >The only things we haven't tried are serial/parallel port operation for >acquisition instruments. If this *does* work, then most instruments >needing Windows can be replaced with a virtual installation of Windows. >However, instruments that have a dedicated capture/control card will >probably not work. > >The only problems I had were with Solaris 10. I had to install a different >XFree86 server that had the vmware display driver. All the others included >the vmware driver for X11 from the stock installation. > > > >-- >Jeremy Mann >jeremy@biochem.uthscsa.edu > >University of Texas Health Science Center >Bioinformatics Core Facility >http://www.bioinformatics.uthscsa.edu >Phone: (210) 567-2672 > >_______________________________________________ >HSC-Unix mailing list >HSC-Unix@biochem.uthscsa.edu >http://biochem.uthscsa.edu/mailman/listinfo/hsc-unix Randolph D. Glickman, Ph.D. Senderoff Professor of Vision Research Department of Ophthalmology University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio 7703 Floyd Curl Drive, San Antonio, Texas 78229-3900 Tel: 210-567-8420 Fax: 210-567-8413 e-mail: glickman@uthscsa.edu From jeremy at biochem.uthscsa.edu Mon Mar 21 18:47:58 2005 From: jeremy at biochem.uthscsa.edu (Jeremy Mann) Date: Mon Mar 21 18:48:10 2005 Subject: [HSC-Unix] vmware In-Reply-To: <5.1.1.6.0.20050321183801.0279fd78@129.111.26.121> References: <5.1.1.6.0.20050321180443.02759aa8@129.111.26.121><200503201814.j2KIEvo1019040@biochem.uthscsa.edu><5.1.1.6.0.20050321180443.02759aa8@129.111.26.121> <5.1.1.6.0.20050321183801.0279fd78@129.111.26.121> Message-ID: <45710.66.69.86.170.1111452478.squirrel@biochem.uthscsa.edu> Randolph D. Glickman said: > Hi Jeremy: > > I might very well be interested in trying to run some of my scientific > instrumentation software under VMWare. It would be quite something if I > could run my HPLC workstation controller from this platform. However, > based on your comment about dedicated controller cards, I suspect that it > probably wouldn't work. Ah well, sometime when I have a lot of free time > (yeah, sure) maybe I'll give this a try. > > Thanks for the info. You can always download VMware. Once you register, they give you a 30 day license which then you can try it out. As for my comment about dedicated controller cards, I just don't really know if they will work since I don't have anything to try it with. Maybe they emulated the ISA/PCI buses so you can use Windows drivers for the controller cards. The only way of knowing is to try. -- Jeremy Mann jeremy@biochem.uthscsa.edu University of Texas Health Science Center Bioinformatics Core Facility http://www.bioinformatics.uthscsa.edu Phone: (210) 567-2672 From demeler at biochem.uthscsa.edu Mon Mar 21 19:13:14 2005 From: demeler at biochem.uthscsa.edu (Borries Demeler) Date: Mon Mar 21 19:13:20 2005 Subject: [HSC-Unix] vmware In-Reply-To: <5.1.1.6.0.20050321180443.02759aa8@129.111.26.121> Message-ID: <200503220113.j2M1DEMh011064@biochem.uthscsa.edu> Hi Randy, let me know if you need more information - I can really recommend the application. Cheers, -Borries > > Borries: > > Thanks for the detailed look at VMWare. This was very informative - I > didn't realize all of the capabilities of VMWare. I thought it was mainly > a utility for running individual Windows programs under Linux, but now I > see that it can do a lot more. Using it to run other operating systems is > an intriguing approach - as opposed to setting up dual- or multi-boot > systems, which can be difficult to maintain. I will have to look into > using this as a way to implement non-Windows platforms in the lab, while > maintaining the ability to run critical Windows apps. > > Thanks again, Borries! > > --Randy > > > > Randolph D. Glickman, Ph.D. > Senderoff Professor of Vision Research > Department of Ophthalmology > University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio > 7703 Floyd Curl Drive, San Antonio, Texas 78229-3900 > Tel: 210-567-8420 Fax: 210-567-8413 e-mail: glickman@uthscsa.edu > _______________________________________________ > HSC-Unix mailing list > HSC-Unix@biochem.uthscsa.edu > http://biochem.uthscsa.edu/mailman/listinfo/hsc-unix >