Philippe: Mystery solved. The note I sent you has a false assumption. I said that the VMware package I received had the VMware TOOLs pre-installed. That was a correct statement. That's what VMware said in a note when I opened their package. That's why I did not get any 3.5" diskettes to do the VMware Tools installation with. However, my assumption that (when I Choose Settings > VMware Tools Install from the VMware menu bar) the wizard automatically installed the tools into the CLIENT is false. That step just prepares VMware to substitute a mountable file for /dev/fd0. Now this is where it gets interesting. That standin device for /dev/fd0 already has the 'vmware-linux-tools.tar.gz'. This must be what they meant when they said that the TOOLs came all ready installed with the VMware package. So all it really meant was that I did not have to have a diskette with the file vmware-linux-tools.tar.gz. Nothing more than that. Therefore, it was still necessary to do the following: As root mount the VMware Tools floppy, copy the contents of the floppy to /tmp, and umount the floppy. > cd / > mount -t vfat /dev/fd0 /mnt > cp /mnt/vmware-linux-tools.tar.gz /tmp > umount /dev/fd0 Untar the VMware Tools tarball file into /tmp, and install it. > cd /tmp > tar zxf vmware-linux-tools.tar.gz > cd vmware-linux-tools > ./install.pl Then, start X > startx Up came the KDE graphical environment. All I failed to do was to bring up an X terminal and launch VMware Tools background application which I will do next time in with: > vmware-toolbox & ...which is why I probably got the error "Your X11 Server lacks DPMS support...which will probably go away when I do the above step. Mandrake presents a very colorful KDE desktop. In conclusion, the assumption that pre-instatlled tools implies automatic operation after the menu selection of 'Choose Settings > Vmware Tools Install' was wrong. The above steps are still necessary - just no diskette is required. I found this all very confusing and am glad it is over. Unfortunately, as nice as this product is, Vmware has not been responsive to my email and that is a disappointment. A nice bright yellow page should have been inserted into their package laying this change out and explaining it so there could be no confusion. All they would have to do is say what I said above to exaplain the absence of a 3.5" diskette and the remaining necessity of doing the above steps. Thanks for your interest. I posted this on the list in case anyone else has a similar experience or misunderstanding. Bye-thanks_TED
Philippe Moutarlier wrote: > > Ted Hilts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > > Nico: > > > > Regarding a problem I encountered with VMware you said the following: > > > > Note that inside the VMware virtual machine you are using an emulated > > display > > adapter. i.o.w. for the settings for the display adapter and monitor you > > should > > look at what VMware specifies, not what you physicaly have. > > > > I assume i.o.w. means Information On The Web. I'll go there again. > > Maybe, that's where I saw something on that subject in the first place. > > It does not appear to be in the manual. > > When I was installing Mandrake there was no imbedded options for Vmware > > emulated display so I just gave up and gave the information used for the > > host. > > > > BTW, I've still received no reply from them. > > > > Bye-thanks_TED > > > > > > I think i.o.w means "in other words" ... would be nice to stop using those > abreviations. A new one pops up every couple days ! > > Regarding vmware display, this is in fact pretty well documented at least if you are >using > a windows guest on a Linux host. What is your case ? > > Philippe Philippe: No insult intended. But you'll have to read this carefully. I'm running a SuSE6.4 linux distribution for the HOST. VMware is installed on this HOST. I had no SVGA video problems with 2 VMware so-called pre_installed CLIENTS which I purchased from VMware on a CD-ROM at the same time as I purchased VMware for Linux. I ran into an SVGA video problem when installing a Mandrake Linux distribution CLIENT OS from a CD-ROM. The installation went fine until I got to the part where I had to specify video card and monitor so the Mandrake CLIENT installation process could set the correct X11R6 SVGA Video driver. This happens on any Linux distribution installation and therefore it was not unexpected that it would happen when I was doing the Mandrake Linux installation as a VMware CLIENT on my HOST system (running SuSE6.4 Linux distribution). I would not have had a problem if the installation was a Win95 or NT client. And it appears that most responses on the list were from people that had a Linux HOST system and were installing via VMware a Win95 or NT CLIENT. In my case I have a Linux HOST and was installing via VMware a Linux CLIENT. The CLIENT installation process gave me me the usual X11R6 video driver options and forced me to pick one - so I gave it the information that I provided when installing the X1186 SVGA driver on the SuSE 6.4 HOST. This may have been my mistake. Based on some feedback from others in the list I gather I was supposed to skip this step and after installation was completed (without having selected an X1186 SVGA driver) do something (no one really knew what) with the VMA tools regarding the emulator for the X1186 SVGA. I again checked the VMware web site and did find lots of documentation on setting up a Win95 or NT client but so far did not find anything helpful in doing the same thing for a linux client (Mandrake). Unfortunately, the manual is full of instructions for installing the TOOLS which I don't think apply. When I received the VMware package on CD-ROM it clearly indicated that NOW the VMware TOOLS were pre-installed into the VMWARE package. But the directions in the manual are not written that way so it get's very confusing when reading the manual. I fully realize that the problem is NOT a VMware problem but is a problem in how I installed via VMware the (Mandrake) Linux CLIENT to run in the VMware environment. Again, I know VMware works, as the pre-installed CLIENTS work just fine. (There pre installed clients were for Linux distributions, one was Turbo Linux and the other just happenned to be an earlier version of SuSE (SuSE 6.3). They are running just fine. In fact the VMware manual says: "The quickest way to start working with a virtual machine is to install one from a VMware Ready to Run CD. WMware Ready to Run CDs provide preinstalled virtual machines that can be installed in your host computer in about five minutes. Virtual machines featuring leading Linux distributions are available in this format and are included in the packaged distribution of VMware." The above is entirely true. No problem at all. 5 minutes - close. But when I went to do the manual install of the (Mandrake) linux distribution as a CLIENT that's when I ran into a problem. VMware have not responded to my EMAIL. So I thought I would try the list. Further in the manual: "With the VMware Tools SVGA driver installed, VMware supports up to 32-bit displays and high display resolution, with significantly faster overall graphics performance." As I said previously, the VMware Tools came pre-installed with my VMware distribution, so I did not have to download them or separately load them onto the host. However, the manual indicated that once a CLIENT had been successfully installed then it was necessary to install (from the VMware window environment) VMware tools (into that CLIENT). That was easily done from the menu bar at the top of the window( Choose Settings > VMware Tools Install). I did that after doing a successful (Mandrake) linux CLIENT >installation. The manual VMware tools installation involves using a VMware Tools >Floppy (one did not come with my purchase because the Tools installation was now part >of the VMware package). So I just skipped the multistep Tools installation as the >installation using the menu bar was totally automatic. However, according to the manual procedure when in the VMware Tools Menus: "Click the advanced button. A dialog entitled Standard Display Adapter (VGA) Properties appears. If you are upgrading from a previous version of the VMware drivers, this dialog will be titled VMware SVGA Properties. Click the Adapter tab. Click the Change button. This will ... " But this is for Win95 and the SVGA Video setup in Linux is completely different. However, from this (example) I gather that I should be going back into the Linux installation process after having completed a successful CLIENT installation, and after having installed from the VMware Menu the VMware Tools into that CLIENT (before POWER off button is pressed). Then (I am now guessing) I should select the appropriate SVGA driver by activating the appropriate linux utility - which I will have to checkout for Mandrake. If that is a correct assumption then it means the tools must be installed BEFORE one does the actual CLIENT SVGA installation. Apparently, that is the process for a Win95 or NT installation. First Install the client. Second install VMware Tools from VMware environment into the now installed CLIENT. Third, after VMware tools are installed (into the CLIENT) then install the CLIENT SVGA driver in the manner normal for that client. If my guess (and that's all it is right now) is correct then the manual should have gone through a generic setup, instead they just give Win95 as an example. The section in the manual that deals with this is INSTALL the VMWARE TOOLS IN YOUR GUEST OPERATING SYSTEM. Although they don't say so, it appears that the assumption is that one has successfully installed the CLIENT and now must install the VMware TOOLs into that client. So after the VMware Tools are installed (as I said this does not appear to apply as they came already installed into the VMware package), "Power on the virtual machine." (so there is the assumption of a successful installation). "The following steps all take place inside the virtual machine, not on the host computer",..."Prepare your virtual machine to install the VMware Tools (Choose Settings > VMware Tools Install"...After this it's all Windows type menu operations to bring up the appropriate Windows driver" In SUMMARY: it looks to me that what I have to do is: 1. Power on the VMware virtual machine which I take to mean run VMware and select the installed CLIENT (Linux Mandrake distribution) and press the Power ON button thus causing the client to boot up within the VMware environment. 2. With the client now up (and the VMware Tools installed into VMware package) prepare the virtual machine (which would be Linux OS for the Mandrake distribution) to install the VMware TooLs (within the VMware window using the Choose Settings > VMware Tools Install) which I already did immediately following the installation of the CLIENT. What's confusing in the manual is that all through these steps the old way of installing the VMware tools is discussed which uses a floppy and the floppy drive. That doesn't appear to be necessary with the VMware version that I ordered. But they very nicely did not explain that all the manual procedures would be affected by this change. 3. Using the methods provided in the OS (Linux OS for the Mandrake distirubtion) now install the appropriate SVGA video driver. The thing that I may have done wrong (if the above procedure is correct) was to attempt to install the CLIENT SVGA Video driver BEFORE the TOOLs were installed INTO THE CLIENT. So that's where I'm now at with this problem. I will follow the above 3 point procedure and that should hopefully solve my problem. If not then VMware cannot work with my driver selection. I'll let you know how it goes. Bye-thanks_TED
