Overview
VMware Fusion 3 includes a number of installation presets for the
populist Linux distributions (Fedora, SUse & Ubuntu). Some generic
presets are also available but may require some tweaking when
installing some particular Linux distribution as the guest operating
system.
The steps outlined in the Method section below describe how to install
Slackware64 13.0 as a guest OS into VMware Fusion, in particular the
changes necessary to successfully install the vmware-tools. It is
assumed that VMware Fusion (3) has already been installed. Please
consult and consider any points in the
Issues section below before
proceeding.
Method
- have an installation DVD inserted or have the equivalent .iso file
available somewhere in the filesystem e.g. in your Downloads folder.
From here onward, we'll be using the
~/Downloads/slackware64-13.0-install-dvd.iso
file to install from
- start VMware Fusion and select
New
from its
File menu. This
brings up the
Create New Virtual
Machine step of the
New
Virtual Machine Assistant wizard
- click the
Continue without disc
button (assuming you're using a .iso file, rather than a real dvd).
This brings up the
Installation Media
step of the wizard
- clicking on the
Use operaitng
system installation disc image file radio button brings up a
file chooser with which to navigate to your
Downloads folder and select the
slackware64-13.0-install-dvd.iso
file. Now click the
Continue
button which brings up the wizard's
Choose
Operating System step
- select
Linux as the
Operating System and select
Other Linux 2.6.x kernel 64-bit as
the
Version. Then click the
Continue button to bring up the
wizard's
Finish step
- click the
Customize Settings
button to change the default settings - this brings up a
Save dialog to save the settings
for the VM about to be created - I suggest a simple and descriptive
name e.g.
Slackware64-13.0.
After clicking the Save button, various VM characteristcs can be
changed via a widget similar to the Mac's
Preferences. In particular, select
the
Hard Discs icon to change
the allocated disc size (from the default 8GB to, say, 20GB) and the
Processors & RAM icon to change
the amount of RAM allocated to the VM (from the default 384MB to, say,
768MB).
- at this point, the new VM is configured but not running. Select
Start Up from the
Virtual Machine menu to open a new
window in which you'll see the familiar Slackware installer running
with its
boot: prompt waiting
for you
- click anywhere in the new window and hit the
Return key to proceed with
installation as usual. Before running
setup,
you'll need to run
cfdisk to
set up some partitions to use (perhaps 1G for swap, the balance for the
system itself). A full installation will use about 8GB of disk space,
hence the suggestion above to initially allocate something much larger
to the new virtual machine.
- at the end of the installation, type
reboot or select
Send Ctrl-Alt-Delete from the
Virtual Machine menu to "reboot"
with Slackware in the new virtual machine.
After the basic installation, you may wish to install the WMware Tools,
especially if you want to run the X windows system at any resolution
greater than 800x600. First, log in as root. Then:
- from the
Virtual Machine
menu, select the
Install VMware Tools
item. This will make a CD/DVD device available, which can be accessed
by the comand:
mount /dev/hdc
/media/dvd0
(after which the VMwareTools tarball will be visible in /media/dvd0)
- now unpack the contents of the VMwareTools tarball with somthing like:
tar xvf
/media/dvd0/VMwareTools-8.2.3-204229.tar.gz
(the actual version may vary).
This creates a directory named
vmware-tools-distrib
- apply
this patch
cat
vmware-config-tools.patch | patch -p0
- create a dummy directory which the installation script expects to
exist:
mkdir -p
/etc/pam.d
- enter the unpacked tools directory and run the installation script:
cd
vmware-tools-distrib
./vmware-install.pl
-d
- when the script has completed, run:
/usr/bin/vmware-user
If you now start up the X window system, the initial login manager
screen will still be at 640x480 size. However after you log in the
screen resolution will change to whatever the physical display is
capable of e.g 1440x900 for a MacBook Pro
Issues
- hardware acceleration does appear to be operative - glxgears runs at
about a tenth of the frame rate in the VM than what it runs natively.
- VMware tools can't be completely installed on Slackware64 13.1 -
firstly kernel headers can't be found (although the kernel source is
available) and, secondly,
vmci
component will not build. These issues are both due to kernel changes
from kernel 2.6.29 to 2.6.33 (standard kernel versions in 13.0 and 13.1
respectively). They can be fixed by adding some symbolic links and then
unpacking the vmci component, patching a file and repacking the
component. The steps to follow are (as root):
- add symbolic links to ensure kernel header files
are found:
cd
/usr/src/linux/include/linux
ln
-s ../generated/autoconf.h .
ln
-s ../generated/utsrelease.h .
- unpack the vmci component (creating a
vmci-only directory:
cd
/tmp
tar
xvf /usr/lib/vmware-tools/modules/source/vmci.tar
- add "
#include
<linux/compat_sched.h" to the includes in the
vmci-only/pgtbl.h file or apply
this
pgtbl.h patch with the
command:
cat
vmware-pgtbl_inc.patch |patch -p0
- repack the component (first making a backup of the
original):
mv
/usr/lib/vmware-tools/modules/source/vmci.tar /usr/lib/vmware-tools/modules/source/vmci.tar.orig
tar
cvf /usr/lib/vmware-tools/modules/source/vmci.tar vmci-only
- cleanup
rm
-rf vmci-only
- now run vmware-config-tools.pl again
Contact
Please send any questions, comments, advice etc.,
to Chris Willing <c.willing _at_ uq.edu.au>
