[an error occurred while processing this directive] Configuring Dual/Multiboot Systems to Run with VMware Workstation for Linux [an error occurred while processing this directive] [an error occurred while processing this directive]
 
Configuring Dual/Multiboot Systems
to Run with VMware Workstation for Linux

It is possible to install VMware Workstation for Linux to run one or more guest operating systems from raw disk partitions. This is useful for people who already have a dual- or multiboot system and who want to run those operating systems under VMware Workstation. If you don't have a dual-boot system but want to install a guest operating system into an unused partition through a virtual machine please refer to this tech note. For some applications raw disk may also provide better disk I/O performance than using a virtual disk. Just as with virtual disks, VMware Workstation enables a raw disk to be used in persistent, undoable, and nonpersistent modes; see a detailed explanation of these modes.

Caution: Raw disk support is an advanced feature of VMware Workstation and should be enabled by users who are already familiar with the product. To familiarize yourself you should, at minimum, create and configure a virtual machine with a virtual disk and install an operating system. In addition, booting a previously installed operating system within a virtual machine may not work on some existing installations. Your experience may vary depending on the your hardware configuration and guest operating system installation.

Caution: If you have installed Windows 2000 on a computer with ACPI features and then try to set up a VMware Workstation virtual machine running from a raw disk, this can cause serious problems. This problem is most likely to affect laptop computers but may also affect some newer ACPI-capable desktop computers. Before attempting such a setup, read this tech note.

VMware Workstation supports using raw disk partitions only on IDE drives. Booting guest operating systems on raw SCSI drives is experimental. However, if a virtual machine is configured with a virtual disk, instead of a raw disk partition, then its disk (file) can be stored on the Linux file system, regardless of whether the underlying drive(s) containing the file system are IDE or SCSI.

VMware Workstation uses description files to access each raw IDE device on the system. These description files contain access privilege information that controls a virtual machine's access to certain partitions on the disks. This mechanism is used to prevent users from accidentally trying to run the host operating system again as a guest or another guest operating system that the virtual machine was not configured for. The description file also prevents accidental writes to raw disk partitions from badly behaved operating systems or applications.

The VMware Workstation Configuration Wizard is used to configure VMware Workstation to use existing raw disk partitions. The wizard will step the user though creating a configuration for a new virtual machine including configuring the raw disk description files. The wizard is typically rerun to create a separate configuration for each guest operating system installed on a raw partition.

VMware Workstation works with existing boot managers installed on the computer system. The boot manager will run inside VMware Workstation and present the user with the choice of guest operating systems to run. The user has to manually choose the guest operating system that this configuration was intended to run.

Use the following steps to run a guest operating system from a raw device.

Create a separate configuration for each guest operating system. Allow read/write access to the partitions used by that operating system only.

  1. Before starting, if you are running a Windows or Windows NT guest operating system you should read the notes on hardware profiles. VMware recommends booting the guest operating system natively on the computer and creating a hardware profile for the virtual machine before proceeding.

  2. Check operating system partition mounts.
    Be sure the existing raw disk partition(s) which you plan to configure the virtual machine to use are not mounted by Linux.

  3. Set the device group membership or device ownership.
    The master raw disk device(s) needs to be readable and writeable by the user who runs VMware Workstation. On most distributions, the raw devices (such as /dev/hda, /dev/hdb) belong to group-id disk. If this is the case, you can add VMware Workstation users to the disk group. Another option is to change the owner of the device. Please think carefully of security in exploring different options here.

    It is typically a good idea to grant VMware Workstation users access to all /dev/hd[abcd] raw devices that contain operating systems or boot managers and then rely on VMware Workstation's raw disk configuration files to guard access. This helps provide boot managers access to configuration and other files they may need to boot the operating systems. For example, LILO needs to read /boot on a Linux partition to boot a non-Linux operating system that may be on another drive.

  4. If you will be running a second Linux installation from an existing partition as a guest operating system, and your real machine's /etc/lilo.conf has a memory register statement such as Append= "mem....", you may want to adjust the append memory parameter or create a new entry in LILO for running Linux in a virtual machine. Many newer Linux distributions recognize all physical memory in the real machine, whereas many older Linux distributions see only the first 64MB of memory by default. Machines with more than 64MB of memory that run the older distributions may have the Append= "mem=...." parameter added under the Image=.... section of lilo.conf to tell Linux to look for more memory than seen by default. If the amount of memory configured in lilo.conf exceeds the amount of memory assigned to the virtual machine, then when the virtual machine tries to boot the second Linux installation, the guest operating system will most likely panic. You can simply create another entry in lilo.conf for running Linux in a virtual machine by specifying a different amount of memory than what should normally be recognized when Linux boots directly on the real machine.

  5. Run the VMware Workstation Configuration Wizard.

  6. In the Configuration Wizard:

    1. Read the introductory text.

    2. Click Next.

    3. Check the box for the operating system you have on raw disk. This is used to pick some simple defaults for VMware Workstation configuration settings and give default names to configuration files. Most of the default settings can be changed later with the Configuration Editor.

    4. Click Next.

    5. Specify the virtual machine directory. This is where the configuration files are placed. Leaving the default is often a good choice.

    6. Click Next.

    7. Chose Existing Partition from the virtual disk type settings.

    8. Click Next.

    9. Select the read/write option for the disk partition(s) that contain the guest operating system being configured.

      Note: Corruption is possible if you allow the virtual machine to modify a partition that is simultaneously mounted under Linux. Since the virtual machine and guest operating system will be accessing an existing partition while the host continues to run Linux, it is critical that the virtual machine not be allowed to modify any partition mounted under Linux or in use by another virtual machine. To safeguard against this problem, be sure the partition you mark read/write for the virtual machine is not mounted under the Linux host.

      You need to leave the master boot record (MBR) at least read only. Leaving the other partitions read only is recommended. The LILO boot manager will often have to read files from /boot (on a Linux partition) to boot a guest operating system.

    10. Click Next.

    11. Configure CD-ROM device settings as required.

    12. Click Next.

    13. Configure floppy device settings as required.

    14. Click Next.

    15. Configure networking settings as required.

    16. Click Next.

    17. Look through the confirmation page to see what is about to be done.
      Click Back if you need to change settings. Note the location of the configuration file (.cfg). This is the file you will need to specify when you run VMware Workstation.

    18. Click Done

  7. Start VMware Workstation and check the configuration.
    Type vmware <config-file>. Where <config-file> is the path of the configuration file created by the Wizard. These files end in .cfg.

    Open Settings > Configuration Editor and check that your IDE configuration specifies at least one raw disk description file. These files are named <configuration-name>.hda, <configuration-name>.hdb, etc.

    Also modify any configuration options you want to change from the Configuration Wizard's defaults -- for example, you may want to change the amount of memory allocated to the guest operating system.

  8. If you have multiple IDE drives configured on a system, the VMware Workstation BIOS will normally attempt to boot them in this sequence:
    1. Primary Master
    2. Primary Slave
    3. Secondary Master
    4. Secondary Slave

    If you have multiple SCSI drives configured on a system, the VMware Workstation BIOS will normally attempt to boot them in the order of the SCSI device number.

    If you have both SCSI and IDE drives configured, the VMware Workstation BIOS will normally attempt to boot SCSI drives followed by IDE drives, in the order described above.

    The boot sequence can be changed in the Boot menu of the virtual machine's Phoenix BIOS. After powering on VMware Workstation, press F2 during the BIOS boot in VMware Workstation to enter the BIOS setup menu.

  9. Power on the virtual machine
    Press the Power On button. VMware Workstation should start, run the Phoenix BIOS, then boot from the master boot record (MBR).

    Choose the target operating system from the list of options offered by the boot manager.

  10. Remember that your virtual machine hardware environment that the guest operating system is about to run in for the first time probably differs significantly from the real hardware of your machine.

    For Windows guest operating systems, Plug and Play will start reconfiguring Windows. For Windows and Windows NT systems you should set up your virtual hardware profile. See this tech note for more information.

Warning: If you designate your safe raw disk as an undoable disk, you will need to either commit or discard the changes to the undoable disk before you reboot your guest operating system natively. This is because any changes to sectors on the real disk that have been modified on the undoable disk will invalidate the redo file corresponding to the undoable disk. See the section on disk modes for more information on undoable disks and their corresponding redo files.

Note: It is possible to specify using a raw device directly in the VMware Workstation Configuration Editor. This is potentially hazardous and VMware does not support users doing this. In future releases VMware Workstation will detect this situation and refuse to power on.

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