George Olson wrote:

...

Hello all, I have heard that there is a way to run a "windows shell" or something like that. As I slowly migrate from windows to Linux, there are still some critical program I need to access that run only on windows. Is there a way to open a "windows shell" and run those programs without having to shut down Linux and reboot to windows? If so, can someone help me figure out how to get something like that started?

You might want to take a look at virtualbox. You can install it from Yast (you may have to add the Virtualbox community repository to get the latest version though). It lets you run windows in a virtual environment without having to shut down linux. Jeffrey L. Taylor wrote:

If it is just a single, mainstream program that is not rewritten frequently (e.g. Quicken qualifies, TurboTax does not), it may run under Wine. If you have Windows installation CDs, you can install it in an virtual machine (VM). There are several VM packages: KVM, Xen, QEMU, VirtualBox, VMware. A temporary solution is to run the Windows 7 Release Candidate in a VM until it expires next summer. Audio and real-time games don't run well in a VM. Nor often anything requiring hardware acceleration for the video (there are exceptions, but it requires luck AND work).

HTH, Jeffrey

Virtualbox and vmware have supported decent graphical acceleration since middle or end of last year. Games made for directx9 and lower should work with few hiccups. Directx10 games are iffy at best. Nkoli -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Sunday 09 August 2009 13:17:10 George Olson wrote:

[...] Ok, I installed Virtualbox, through YaST, but now when I try to run it, the cursor just bounces up and down for a couple of minutes, and then nothing happens. Is there a way I can figure out how to make the interface come up?

Thanks George Olson

I had the same thing with VirtualBox OSE installed from Yast. I downloaded the generic installer from Sun and installed it that way and it works fine. Caveat - you need to have the kernel devel package for your current running kernel installed and the source prepped before running the installer as it compiles the necessary kernel modules during installation (hence the need for prepped kernel sources). I'm currently running Windows 7 RC under VirtualBox 3.0.4 with the only problem so far getting it to join my Samba domain (but that might be a Samba configuration thing...). HTH. Rodney. -- =================================================== Rodney Baker VK5ZTV rodney.baker@iinet.net.au =================================================== -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Monday 10 August 2009 01:53:37 Anders Johansson wrote:

On Sunday 09 August 2009 17:34:32 Rodney Baker wrote:

...

I had the same thing with VirtualBox OSE installed from Yast. I downloaded the generic installer from Sun and installed it that way and it works fine.

No need for that, the rpms work fine, you just need to remember to start the runlevel script, which loads the virtualbox kernel modules.

Anders

Not for me, Anders. The kernel module was loaded and started but it still wouldn't run. Must be something peculiar to my setup here (maybe some incompatible library version installed that conflicts with the rpm versions), after all, I do tend to run factory/kde factory and then play with it in places I probably shouldn't...;-). -- =================================================== Rodney Baker VK5ZTV rodney.baker@iinet.net.au =================================================== -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Sunday 09 August 2009 05:47:10 George Olson wrote:

Ok, I installed Virtualbox, through YaST, but now when I try to run it, the cursor just bounces up and down for a couple of minutes, and then nothing happens. Is there a way I can figure out how to make the interface come up?

Don't forget to load the kernel module with /etc/init.d/vboxdrv start as root. You probably want to set this to start on boot with insserv vboxdrv These two commands must be run as root. Afterwards, you can start VirtualBox as your regular user Anders -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

George Olson pecked at the keyboard and wrote:

Anders Johansson wrote:

...

On Sunday 09 August 2009 05:47:10 George Olson wrote:

...

Ok, I installed Virtualbox, through YaST, but now when I try to run it, the cursor just bounces up and down for a couple of minutes, and then nothing happens. Is there a way I can figure out how to make the interface come up?

Don't forget to load the kernel module with

/etc/init.d/vboxdrv start

as root. You probably want to set this to start on boot with

insserv vboxdrv

These two commands must be run as root. Afterwards, you can start VirtualBox as your regular user

Anders

Ok, question. I got virtualbox up and running (have to run from root even after doing the above).

Add the user to the vboxusers group and you will be able to start as non-root user.

I created a virtual disk image (expanding type), but it won't boot up.

It is like any "real" harddrive, you need to install an OS for it to boot.

Can I get it to point to my existing windows xp installation? Or do I have to install windows XP on my virtual machine, and then go ahead and reinstall any other windows program I want to use on that same machine?

I would rather, if possible, somehow get my virtual machine to use the existing Windows XP I already have installed, though I don't know if that will be possible.

Any help would be appreciated.

George Olson

It is possible although I have not tried it. According to the docs: (go to the help system from the Vbox manager window for all of the info) 9.10.2. Access to individual physical hard disk partitions This "raw partition support" is quite similar to the "full hard disk" access described above. However, in this case, any partitioning information will be stored inside the VMDK image, so you can e.g. install a different boot loader in the virtual hard disk without affecting the host's partitioning information. While the guest will be able to see all partitions that exist on the physical disk, access will be filtered in that reading from partitions for which no access is allowed the partitions will only yield zeroes, and all writes to them are ignored. To create a special image for raw partition support (which will contain a small amount of data, as already mentioned), on a Linux host, use the command VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename /path/to/file.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sda -partitions 1,5 -- Ken Schneider SuSe since Version 5.2, June 1998 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Wednesday, 2009-08-12 at 21:00 +0800, George Olson wrote:

Here is another question. As I look at it, it seems like I am going to have to install windows XP on my virtual machine. Is it possible to make the primary master on my virtual machine an external hard drive plugged in by USB?

The virtual disk is a real file(s) in the host filesystem, so it can be anywhere. But placing it on a USB disk... that will be real slow. - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAkqCv4YACgkQtTMYHG2NR9W1JQCgkFzp/+yLp6GeQ2dTs7LopNHZ kiwAoIuWE/86rVIIQmsb96KutLVbPFKL =xHot -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org