Archive for January, 2006
VMWare Player, or Thank You VMWare!
Posted by Biffster in Debian/Linux, Windows on January 16th, 2006
This entry will require a little bit of backstory to catch you up to speed. Way back around December 2003, I decided that I needed to purchase a copy of VMWare for Windows to run Debian inside a virtual machine in Windows for a class I was taking. So I paid around $130 for an academic license for VMWare. And my plan worked, the virtual Debian ran fantastically, and I got an A in the class that I was taking.
But I also ended up with a license for VMWare for Windows, which didn’t do me a lot of good, since my main operating system is Linux (Debian Sarge then, Ubuntu Breezy now). So my license for VMWare just sat around, being buried under virtual dust. I thought of selling it at one point, but something made me decide to hold on it for a while.
Anyway, fast-forward to the year 2006. VMWare released the free VMWare player a couple of months ago: VMWare Player can run virtual machines created using VMWare Workstation. Even cooler, VMWare Player has a native Linux version! So, after a few weeks of thinking about it, I decided to create a Windows 2000 vm in VMWare under Windows, then boot back into Ubuntu and run the Win2k vm in the free VMWare Player.
Well, turns out it wasn’t that easy. The VMWare player wants to build a kernel module, and Ubuntu isn’t set up to allow building of most anything very easily. Fortunately, though, there’s an excellent HOWTO for installing the VMWare Player in Breezy! The best bit of information was linked from another source:
Installing the player itself involves some patience. Get the Linux tar from this page. Most of my instructions will be shamelessly ripped from this lovely tutorial. Fire up a root terminal and do:
apt-get install build-essential
uname -r
apt-get install linux-headers-’kernel version’
apt-get install gcc-3.4
apt-get install g -3.4
After installing the packages, the VMWare Player installs fairly easily (though VMWare went a little overboard on prompts). And then, the moment of truth. I opened up a terminal and typed:
vmplayer win2k.vmx
Up popped the VMWare Player window, and up popped a couple of error messages (e.g.: Path to floppy drive A: not valid. Would you like to replace this with /dev/fd0?). I allowed VMWare Player to make the appropriate changes. And then up popped the VMWare BIOS loading screen.
And then up popped the Windows 2000 boot screen!
SUCCESS!
I knew it was a good idea to keep that VMWare license. Now I wanna figure out where I put the install CDs for OS/2 4.0, and make a virtual machine for that.
It’s ALL good!
Doctor Who comes to SciFi!
Here’s the best once-sentence blurb I’ve heard in a long, long time:
SCI FI Channel and BBC Worldwide Americas announced today a major licensing deal for the first series of the latest Doctor Who adventures.
Hooray! I think I’ll still nab new episodes from bittorrent, so I’m not 6 months behind on new episodes. But it’ll be great to watch Dr. Who on my big tv instead of the computer monitor.
Xfce gets some lovin’
Posted by Biffster in Debian/Linux on January 11th, 2006
All about Linux has a nice, glowing review of my favorite desktop environment, Xfce:
But what sets Xfce apart from the more popular heavy weights like Gnome and KDE is its very low memory foot print. In fact, in the developer’s own words, the aim of Xfce is to be a simple, light and efficient environment which is easy to use and configure, stable, fast and at the same time visually appealing. And not to speak of a clean desktop. In fact, I found out that the desktop is a separate utility which goes by the name xfdesktop and the user has the option of not running it in Xfce if he chose to.
As I’ve said here many times, XFCE is awesome. I use it as my main desktop environment, and would only change to something else if I were forced to. I am not nearly that enamored with Rox, though.
Holy crap! Grisoft introduces AVG Free for Linux
Posted by Biffster in Debian/Linux on January 9th, 2006
Well, I’ll be damned: Grisofthas released a Linux version of AVG Free!
AVG Free for Linux is a natural progression of Grisoft’s commitment to security and a natural evolution of its product line, according to Lipa. “It brings together AVG Free, our product designed for free home use by individual users, and AVG for Linux, our commercial product designed to protect Linux servers in a enterprise environment.”
Although Linux systems are among the most resistant to virus attacks, experts agree that all computer users should take precautionary measures by installing an anti-virus program to address potential threats.
AVG Free for Linux can be used on a single computer and is intended for private, non-commercial use only.
I’m a big fan of AVG Free. I’ve been using it in Windows forever, and have set up all of the computers I install for friends/family with AVG Free. It’s great that I can now use this in Linux!
apt-get install – new URL!
I’ve been doing some work on the back-end here at apt-get install. The newest change? a new URL! That’s right, from now on, access this page at http://apt-get.biffster.org. The old address should auto-redirect you to this URL, but please update your bookmarks just to be sure.
Those of you using an RSS feed, please update the feed source to:
http://apt-get.biffster.org/feed/
