SUSE Linux 9.0 – Workstation 4.5, 4.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.5.3, 5.0, 5.5, 5.5.1, 5.5.2, 5.5.3, 5.5.4, 5.5.5, 5.5.6, 5.5.7, 5.5.8, 5.5.9, 6.0, 6.0.1, 6.0.2, 6.0.3, 6.0.4, 6.0.5, 6.5
SUSE Linux 9.0 – ACE 1.0, 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.0.3, 1.0.4, 1.0.5, 1.0.6, 1.0.7, 1.0.8, 2.0, 2.0.1, 2.0.2, 2.0.3, 2.0.4, 2.0.5, 2.5
SUSE Linux 9.0 – GSX Server 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.2.1
SUSE Linux 9.0 – VMware Server 1.0, 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.0.3, 1.0.4, 1.0.5, 1.0.6, 1.0.7, 1.0.8, 2.0
SUSE Linux 9.0 – ESX 2.1, 2.1.1, 2.1.2, 2.5, 2.5.1, 2.5.2, 2.5.3, 2.5.4, 2.5.5
Be sure to read General Guidelines for All VMware Products as well as this guide to installing your specific guest operating system.
The easiest method of installing SUSE Linux 9.0 in a virtual machine is to use the standard SUSE Linux distribution CDs. The notes below describe an installation using the standard distribution CD; however, installing SUSE Linux 9.0 via the boot floppy/network method is supported as well. If your VMware product supports it, you can also install from a PXE server.
In many Linux distributions, if IPv6 is enabled, VMware Tools cannot be configured with vmware-config-tools.pl after installation. In this case, VMware Tools is unable to set the network device correctly for the virtual machine, and displays a message similar to
After you have installed VMware Tools, but before you start the X server, as the root user, run the SaX2 configuration utility to configure your X server. At a command prompt, type
SaX2 and use the wizard to configure your X server. If you intend to connect to this virtual machine with the VMware Virtual Machine Console, configure the color resolution for 65536 (16-bit) colors or less.
On some host systems, the SUSE Linux 9.0 installer attempts to use a kernel that is incompatible with the ACPI features of the virtual hardware. To work around this problem, open the virtual machine’s configuration file in a text editor and add the following line:
Replace /dev/hdc with the appropriate device name if your CD-ROM device is not the master device on the second IDE channel.
If you change the screen resolution in the SUSE Linux 9.0 guest operating system, be sure you also set a color bit depth greater than 16 colors (4 bit). If you attempt to use a setting of 16 colors (4 bit), it can cause a fatal error in the X server.
ESX Server 2.5.x: Although ESX Server 2.5.x virtual machines are compatible with Physical Address Extension (PAE), they are not optimized for it. As a result, guest operating systems with PAE enabled might experience poor performance. For best performance, VMware recommends that you disable PAE in guest operating systems. For more information and instructions on disabling PAE, see the knowledge base article at
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2020.
VMware Workstation or VMware GSX Server: On a Linux host with an XFree86 3.x X server, it is best not to run a screen saver in the guest operating system. Guest screen savers that demand a lot of processing power can cause the X server on the host to freeze.
During installation, many distributions of Linux choose a kernel that is optimized for the specific processor on which it is being installed, and some distributions install a generic kernel by default, but provide architecture-specific kernels that the user can choose to install. The kernel might contain instructions that are available only on that processor. These instructions can have adverse effects when run on a host with the wrong type of processor.
Thus, a Linux virtual machine created on a host with an AMD processor might not work if migrated to a host with an Intel processor. The reverse is also true: a Linux virtual machine created on a host with an Intel processor might not work if migrated to a host with an AMD processor.
This problem is not specific to virtual machines and also occurs on physical computers. For example, if you move a hard drive with a Linux installation from an AMD machine to an Intel machine, you are also likely to experience problems trying to boot from that drive.
