Can't log on to Win XP

[SMQ]

I'm trying to log on to XP for the first time after installing my converted Mac VPC and can't get my administrator password to show up when typingit in... Any ideas?

[WoodyZ]

Are you first mouse clicking in the VM window to set focus to the VM?

[SMQ]

I'm not sure I understand what you mean. When I start the virtual machine I get presented w/ the opportunity to log in. I can't seen to get my keyboard to generate characters to enter my password.

To answer your question diectly, yes I am.

[WoodyZ]

Okay you start off saying "I'm not sure I understand what you mean." and then end up saying "To answer your question diectly, yes I am.", so which is it, you don't understand or you do?

This is one of the reasons people are asked that before they post a question...

From Fusion Forums main page...

If you want to ask a question, read first.

That aside to clarify what I was asking, when you first create a VM you have to take the mouse and move the pointer inside the bounds of the VM's window and click into the window. What this does is move focus from the Host System into the VM in order for the VM to be able to process mouse and keyboard input.

This might sound simple and trivial and you might even wonder why someone would even ask that question. For the simple reason that many people have posted the same question you have and while it may even seem embarrassing none-the-less untill one learns that's the way it can go.

So because I have to look at your reply as non-responsive since you basically did nothing more than contradict yourself, here are my suggestions.

If you are in a position to start the Source VM from the other product I would...

1. Remove the password.

2. Set Windows to boot directly to the Desktop.

3. Reconvert the Source to a Fusion VM and proceed forward and see what happens.

Other than that the only other suggestion I have is for you to read the information at the link provided above and provide additional information so whoever else tries to help they do not have to ask a lot of unnecessary questions to get enough information to continue the troubleshooting process.

[SMQ]

Sorry Woody for the seeminly contradictary response... Not being familiar this communications tool, after I responded I went back and edited my response by adding to it rather than rewriting it, after thinking about what you said and rewatching the course below on VMware Fusion 1.0: Move Windows Systems by Jason Eden...

"VMware Fusion 1.0: Move Windows Systems to Fusion:

If you're moving from Parallels Desktop for Mac, try our beta VMware Importer to bring your Parallels virtual machine to VMware Fusion.

Otherwise, if you have a physical Windows machine or a different kind

of virtual machine, learn from this tutorial how to move it to VMware

Fusion using VMware Converter."

You suggestion is a good one and I'll probably try it. However, I was hoping not to have to go through another long conversion... It took 12 hours on my first successful conversion of my VPC7 Mac system, I'm using an external hard drive w/ a USB 1.0 connection. Feeling my way along I had created the the virtual machine by "allocate all disk space now for better performance", moving the size from the default 15GB to 20GB for the virtual machine upfront vs "allow virtual disk files to grow". I also selected "Installed the VMware tools" during during the Customization step and had the nagging feeling that installing the tools during the conversion may have created the problem of not being able to have the keyboard input displayed in the Administrator log-in dialog box.

Is there anything you can think I might try before going back and reconverting my VPC system? If not, I would really appreciate your thoughts on bumping up the disk allocation and letting files grow vs allocating all the space first...

Thanks,

Steve

[rcardona2k]

Is there anything you can think I might try before going back and reconverting my VPC system? If not, I would really appreciate your thoughts on bumping up the disk allocation and letting files grow vs allocating all the space first...

If you are going back to VPC, the mouse and keyboard could not work for different reasons. Some tips in general are:

1) Uninstall the virtualization tools for the product you're migrating from in the case of Microsoft these are the Microsoft VM Additions. You can't do this after you migrate so if you don't want artifacts around, this step helps a lot.

2) Before importing any VM from other virtualization products, set your Windows VM to auto-login. You don't want to be stuck at login screen troubleshooting without a keyboard and mouse. The easy way to do this is use Start > Run > control userpasswords2 > uncheck "User must use a password to login" and enter a valid user and password. If necessary set a password first.

3) Setup Remote Desktop and run Microsoft SysInternals BgInfo. BgInfo provides a wealth of machine knowledge right on your desktop. Remote Desktop in set XP is in Properties of My Computer (or Control Panel > System > Remote in Vista). Have your VM in bridged networking mode. You will get the current guest IP address from BgInfo you can use (unless it's a 169.x address), use the Microsoft OS X Remote Desktop Client to login from your Mac and fix the keyboard and mouse by installing the VMware Tools or deleting the keyboard/mouse in Device Manager and using Plug-n-Play to fix things.

Note: if after uninstalling the VM additions, the keyboard still isn't working. Make sure you quit all other OS X apps as some may cause conflicts especially software like Checkpoint's VPN client. You know you have a keyboard input confict if your Mac "beeps" when you try to give focus to the virtual machine and use the keyboard.

As for your entirely different issue of the format of the virtual disk, VMware provides a built-in utility to change the format from pre-allocated to dynamically allocated, to grow the virtual disk capacity (not the filesystems within), and/or split the file. Forum user and VMware employee has written a nice wrapper utility for that here:

[SMQ]

Do you think if I try 1 & 2 that might address the keyboard issue? Your comment "You know you have a keyboard input confict if your Mac "beeps" when you try to give focus to the virtual machine and use the keyboard." is exactly what happends. 3 sounds like it will be a bit more involved. Do you think 1 & 2 might get me to the point where I can install VMware tools?

[rcardona2k]

Before trying 1 or 2, check to see if you have any keyboard conflict offenders listed by running this command in Terminal:

ioreg -l -w 0 | grep SecureInput

If this returns nothing, 1 and 2 can be helpful because if you're at an unlocked desktop without a keyboard, then you when you start Virtual Machine > Install VMware Tools... and autorun is active, this will start the process, then you can just click-through with the mouse. It's when the keyboard and mouse don't work that BgInfo and Remote Desktop become indispensable.

[SMQ]

A friend of mine at Apple suggested I might not want to experiment w/ Terminal as there might be unexpected consequenses. I therefore tried 1 & 2 and got a message as it was booting into Windows XP:

"Windows Product Activation

Since Windows was first activated on this computer the hardware on the computer has changed significantly.

Due to these changes, Windows must be reactivated within 3 days.

Do you want to reactivate Windows now?"

What do you recommend??

[rcardona2k]

As to Terminal, there's nothing inherent in running it that is harmful. Apple's knowledge base has many, many instances of using Terminal safely, without so-called "experimenting," like Terminal examples. You may want to ask if using Terminal is experimenting why Apple gives this kind of advise out.

As to Windows activation - that is also normal. You have moved a copy of VPC that Microsoft has not authorized to run on anything other than VPC. Whenever Windows detects that it has been moved, it asks for activation. Since VPC is a OEM copy, it will likely fail to activate and you have to call Microsoft and answer some questions so they can give you the codes necessary to activate Windows. This step is unavoidable and is part of Microsoft's anti-piracy efforts.

[SMQ]

Thank you very much for all your help! After 1 & 2 it worked fine. I got an activation code from Microsoft and I'm in business!!

Not being at all familiar with Terminal, my friend was concerned about my using it...

Now all I have to do is try and figure out how to get my networked AppleTalk Laserwriter to print and I should be in good shape...

[rcardona2k]

What kind of LaserWriter do you have? Did the later models have TCP/IP printing? In Windows you set these up with Control Panel > Printers and Faxes > Local printer attached to this computer (unchecking Plug-n-Play) > Create a new port > Standard TCP/IP port > enter IP address for your printer (may be in the info details page available in most LaserWriters on power on). Pick the exact model from there and you should be set.

OR you can share the printer from OS X and use Bonjour for Windows and try adding it that way.

VMware has video tutorials to set up printing on this page: VMware Fusion Tutorials

Good luck

[SMQ]

What kind of LaserWriter do you have? Apple LaserWriter 16/600 PS.

Did the later models have TCP/IP printing? Yes, I believe this model does.

My environment consists of:

MacBook Pro 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

4GB Memory

Mac OS X v 10.5.1

VMware Fusion Version 1.1 (62573)

OS X experience: User, not comfortable with the command line interface.

Guest virtual machine came from Macintosh VPC7 w/ Windows XP Pro

I have an Epson Stylus C84 connected to a powered USB hub connected to a new AirPort Extreme wireless router. The LaserWriter is directly connected to the AirPort Extreme.

Currently I can print under Mac OS & XP.

I got printing to work fine using Bridged mode and Bonjour. I'd like to use NAT for the firewall protection. What do you think?

The other computer on the network is a G4 iMac running VPC and is able to fully utilize the printers with no problem.

Any ideas?