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I can now confirm that the Windows Vista MSDN x86 ISO is fully installable using Virtual PC 2007 Beta on Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit.
Even though these are both MSDN images, neither of them was activated, nor did I enter a serial number during the install. Just click next when they ask you for a serial, and make sure to confirm that you do not wish to enter a serial number by pressing the “no” button.
(click on thumbnails for 1600×1200 images - the virtual machine is running at 1280×1024)
The installation took some time, even with 1GB of RAM allocated to the Virtual PC 2007 virtual machine, but after about 30 90 minutes or so, Vista Ultimate x86 virtualized on Vista Ultimate x64 using Virtual PC 2007 is a definite go-ahead-and-try-it install.
Follow normal VPC installation procedure, select Vista as the guest operating system, and chug along as the install proceeds.
Coming up next: full installation instructions.
Note: Unfortunately Virtual PC 2007 is beta, and I don’t see any plans for adding 64bit virtualization any time soon. If you have info that states otherwise, please let me know is this appears to be the only viable option for Vista VMs at the moment.
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Since installing bbPress on the forum.blandname.com subdomain, I’ve become addicted to the rapid posting workflow: add topic, title, description and post! It’s 4 steps and is over so quick I’ve been thinking about making a bookmarklet that will automate the task for me. Here’s the latest smaller posts I sent there, but should some day expand upon here (I’ll use blandname for longer posts from now on):
- vTiger CRM Virtual Machine
- RDP Manager for your Windows System Tray
- HOWTO TrixBox - VoIP Virtual Machine
- Online Virtual Machine Builder
- Microsoft Distributes Demo Software via VHD
- FREE Terminal Server Monitoring Tool
- VMware Workstation 6 Feature List
- Multi monitor support for RDP 6
- Add Reflections to bbPress Images
- Google PageRank and Alexa in Your Firefox 2
- Display Digg in WordPress - Digg Dugg Plugin
- Google Analytics Plugn for bbPress
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I haven’t been getting much feedback on the latest poll, and it’s probably my fault because it’s positioned under the adverts… oh well.
As a lazy developer and software-lover, my only choice is to implement ALL of the solutions, one at a time.
So that’s how we got here with our second real announcement, after the Digg plugin for Pandion (thanks to 43things for reminding me once weekly that I needed to start an open-source project).
I’ve opened a forum for all to use - you can feel free to post tech support questions, links you have found, or just general chit-chat if need be. I’ve set up a pretty good spam filtering system, but we’ll see how it works. I honestly have a hard time believing anything could work as well as Dr. Dave’s Spam Karma 2 plugin for WordPress.
So head on over to the blandname forum and check it out!
I’ve set up BBPress there, and to be honest it was a cinch. I’ll post a how to later, but it’s not so involved. I was able to get modrewrite going right away - which in my opinion is an absolute necessity for proper SEO. I will be attempting to integrate the themes and users via MySQL shortly, so if you’ve registered with blandname, you’ll have access to the forums as well.
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Currently the only way to get Vista on Vista virtualization running is to either use Virtual Server 2005 with some tweaks, or if you are part of the Virtual PC 2007 beta you can install Virtual PC 2007 (VPC 2K7) on Vista with no tweaks or hacks needed whatsoever. Unfortunately neither of these solutions can virtualize a 64bit operating system, but VMware Server should be Vista compliant soon - so I’m holding me breath until then.
Following my friend’s guide to setting up Virtual PC 2007 on Windows Vista found over at WebandRaptors, I was able to get VPC 2k7 set up quickly and without pain.
Next came the Windows Vista install, which was pretty straightforward. Something to note: you don’t actually need to use a CD key during installation, you can simply click the “next” button and the installer will inform you that a CD key will be needed later, I think it’s about 30days before it becomes necessary.
Once Vista is installed and configured for remote access from within VPC, all you need to do to get Aero Glass running is to connect to the virtual machine using the Remote Desktop Connection (RDP 6) client. If your host, or physical, machine supports Aero Glass, the virtual machine will allow you to take advantage of it, giving you transparent blurred windows, mouse-over taskbar previews, and cool windows+tab animation!
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VMWare announced that they will be opening the Virtual Lab Manager to the public today, and the software is now available for download (ESX 3.0.1 too!)
Virtual Lab Manager is a product for managing virtual machines running on ESX 3 or VMWare Infrastructure servers, and allows you to do nifty things like save SIDs, MAC and IP addresses, and deploy groups of configurations to multiple machines.
Here’s a full rundown of the features from the datasheet:
Multi-Machine Configurations
• Create multi-machine configurations in seconds using machine templates - no limit on machine count, no manual adjustments
• View configurations in use with thumbnail console views, public-private scoping and list filtering
• Act on machines in a configuration as a unit: suspend, multi-snapshot, revert to, shutdown, turn on, turn off, suspend, reset, deploy, undeploy, clone, capture to library, and modify properties
• Share templates and multi-machine configurations between users
• Share captured, live configurations via URL-based “LiveLink” capability
• Interact with all configuration consoles side-by-side on a single browser page
• Setup machines in a configuration to boot in controlled sequence
Configuration Library
• Near-instantaneous check out of configurations with memory and CPU state preserved
• Simultaneous use of library configurations by multiple users without changing MAC and IP addresses or SID, using
VMware network fencing
• Efficient storage compression algorithms maximize library entries per storage server
• Public and private library entries
• Public-private scoping and list filtering of library
Media Library
• Central repository for all development and test media
• Tag media with descriptive attributes
• Upload media from the browser or directly to the file share
• Easily make media available to VMware-managed virtual machines
• Public-private scoping and list filtering of media library
Deployment
• Browser- or Web service-initiated deployment
• Copy from or execute from storage server
• Configuration or machine deployment granularity
• Automatic load balancing of machines deployed on host servers
• Side-by-side execution of cloned configurations across physical server boundaries, even when IP addresses are duplicated on a subnet
• Selectable provisioning heuristic – enabling rapid startup and maximum performance when deploying configurations
Machine Templates
• Instant creation of new machines from templates with distinct personalization-automated assignment of MAC and IP addresses, and SID (for Windows systems)
• New template creation via cloning and modification of existing templates
• Import pre-existing virtual machine images for use as templates
• Automated installation of mouse and keyboard enhancements for virtual machines
• Optional physical-to-virtual (P2V) capability for storage and management of existing machines
• Public-private scoping and list filtering of templates
Resource Management
• Automated tracking and issuance of IP addresses
• Storage server management: add, delete, refresh and modify properties
• Managed server management: add, delete, refresh, agent upgrade, remove from service and modify properties
Monitoring
• Active unified “in motion” view of server pool and virtual machine operations
• Drill-down on server, configuration and machine details
• All deployed machines view
• Comprehensive event and job log viewer
Web Services and Command Line Interface (Automation API)
• Full programmatic control of capture-and-restore operations
• Out-of-the-box automation with leading test automation tools
• Standards-based interface (SOAP, WSDL, HTTP)
• Sample .NET and Java code illustrating use of APIs
Administration and Security
• User, permission and quota management
• Out-of-the-box support for LDAP
• Administrator role assignment to multiple users
• User self-managed preferences
• Context-sensitive on-screen help
Installation
• Standard Windows setup.exe installer for all components
• Automated addition of managed servers to deployment pool
Supported Managed Server Environments
• VMware Infrastructure 3
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I’ve been using OS X for a while now, and one thing that really irks me, especially on larger DMG files like a Leopard image, is that OS X automatically tries to verify the checksum of the DMG image file, which could take hours.
There are a few applications out there that will disable this for you, but if you want the quick and dirty method, and don’t mind using the Terminal once in a while, use this one-liner to disable the verification easily:
defaults write com.apple.frameworks.diskimages skip-verify true
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This will be a quick howto as it’s mostly a settings issue, but here goes:
Macs have come with a Remote Desktop server for quite some time now, and it’s great for using macs to manage macs remotely, though maybe not as nice as an NX or XMing solution.
When trying to manage an Apple computer using a Windows or Linux computer it’s a different story. When you attempt to open the connection the authorization works, but the window will close very quickly, with no apparent error.
The problem lies in the actual implementation of VNC in Apple’s Remote Desktop server (not to be confused with RDP - it’s MUCH slower). Apple has decided to only support one type of tiling, whereas most VNC clients will attempt to find the best solution in order to connect. Specifically, Apple uses HexTile, and if you specify this in the options or properties of your connection, it will work with no problems whatsoever.
If you’d like to make a .VNC configuration file in order to connect to your Mac server using a Windows VNC client (RealVNC used here), just take the following code and save it as a *.VNC configuration file, being careful to change the host from (null) to the remote Apple Remote Desktop server’s IP address (for example: 10.10.10.10).
[Connection]
Host=(null)
[Options]
UseLocalCursor=1
UseDesktopResize=1
FullScreen=0
FullColour=1
LowColourLevel=1
PreferredEncoding=hextile
AutoSelect=0
Shared=0
SendPtrEvents=1
SendKeyEvents=1
SendCutText=1
AcceptCutText=1
DisableWinKeys=1
Emulate3=0
PointerEventInterval=0
Monitor=
MenuKey=F8
AutoReconnect=1
I have tested this method on many Windows and Linux machines, using RealVNC, TightVNC, UltraVNC and even Chicken of the VNC for Mac OS X. It works fine, though I’d like to pound home again that I would really like to have the option to either tunnel application over SSH, or have some type of locally-accelerated RDP-compliant protocol (heck why not use LTSP 5.0?)
One can only dream…
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Up until a few years ago I was getting fed up trying to show Japanese friends that linux was a viable option to Windows XP SP2, because the input method that Linux used at the time quite truthfully stank. The conclusion was that with an English keyboard, Windows was the way to go because of the (then) fancy Japanese input method applet.
Later on, I found out about Berry Linux, a Japanese LiveCD distro based on RedHat/Fedora that can easily show off Linux and allow users to do things like compose email that Japanese people can actually read (common problem on Windows), and surf the web in Japanese by default, instead of having to manually choose codepages and the like, which frustrates must computer users (if they haven’t already given up).
Berry Linux got an update today (to version 0.75), and now supports fancy-pants XGL - which I’m sure you’ll agree kicks Aero’s behind quite handily (footily?). If you’re trying to run Berry Linux Mini as a virtual machine you’ll get a console instead of X and you’ll lose the XGL capabilities, so I’d recommend testing it on a physical machine instead of a virtual machine - it’s a LiveCD so it’s quite safe to do so.
Here’s a feature rundown taken from the Berry Linux site’s English page (corrected a few typos):
- Common Features:
- Support for Kernel-2.6. ALSA, ACPI, selinux.
- Overlay Filesystem Support.
- XGL, 3D Desktop, support.
- Berry Linux is not necessary to install. (Root partition is in the RAMdisk using initrd, all commands are operated by being transfered from CD-ROM)
- It can install on Windows without parting partitions to use Setup.exe or install.bat. (Using squashfs/cloop/loopback device)
- It can install to your hard disk on Linux. (Use Berry Linux Installer or Copy under /BERRY/, and set up LILO or grub)
- Berry Linux can boot from USB-HDD/memory.
- Berry Linux uses WHIZ, a very sharp Kana-Kanji conversion system. (WHIZ Project)
- If you push the windows key, and show the K-Menu.
- Automatically recognizes USB storage, and show icons.
- Berry Linux uses free Japanese True Type Fonts.
- Berry Linux uses bootsplash when booting.
- Berry Linux uses DHCP to connect the Network. (If you’d like to use PPPoE, you should setting up it on the Terminal)
- It’s possible to save personal setting.
- Red Hat Fedora compatible.
- Using new technologies.
- Berry Linux’s Features:
- You can listen to mp3 using BMP/XMMS, and play DVD/DivX using MPlayer, XINE and Kaffeine.
- You can edit files of Microsoft Word, Excel by OpenOffice(TM).
- Berry Linux Mini’s Features:
- Minimum Linux environment is available by using Berry Linux Mini.
- Its file size is very small. (148.0MB)
- It’s light. Because of the Window Manager is Fluxbox.
- You can enjoy comfortable Linux environment.
- Berry Linux Server’s Features: (Published Berry Linux Mini as alpha version)
- Build the Linux Server easily.
- Minimum Server Linux enviroment is available by using Berry Linux Server.
- Its file size is very small. (161.3MB)
- It’s light. Because of the Window Manager is WindowMaker.
- You can enjoy comfortable Linux enviroment.
- To do:
- Support Software Suspend.
- Support Captive NTFS.
- Known Bugs: (Please help me!)
- Kernel panic on boot after realtek RTL-8139 ethernet intialization. (Kernel Bugs)
- Using cloop with kernel-2.4.22-pre7 to 2.4.23-pre2 sometimes stops in boot. (pre5 is OK)
- Sometimes gcc 3.3 is not good ! (Berry Linux 0.19 only)
- krb5.h isn’t in krb5-devel-1.2.8-4. (Berry Linux 0.19, 0.20 only)
You can grab Berry Linux from the SourceForge page or the Berry Linux main page - but I’d recomend using SourceForge if you are in North America as it is much faster.
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In the coming weeks I will be working more on Microsoft’s Windows Vista as it ramps up to release to manufacture (RTM) status.
Although you can currently run Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 in 32 bit mode on a Windows Vista physical machine, I’ve learned that I was recently accepted into the Virtual PC 2007 beta tester program, and that Virtual PC 2007 can run on 64bit Vista.
If you are interested in joining the Virtual PC 2007 beta program, I highly suggest you sign up, then play some fantastic Rod Stewart albums until you are accepted.
By the way, this does in fact mean you can run Vista on Vista reliably now. VMWare Workstation and Server still don’t work at this point, but it’s on the way, just stay tuned.
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