Can LinuxMint 17.2 Cinnamon run in WS7

[BobAgi]

I am still running WS7 even though I have bout upgrades to both 8 and 9 because it seems one can only have a single WS loaded on the PC.

And it appears that after a higher version has been used one is not allowed to install the earlier version...

Now I have run into difficulties when installing a Linux Mint 17.2 x64 Cinnamon on my WS7. I told it I was installing Ubuntu, since Mint is a derivative of Ubuntu.

Once done installing it insists on showing the desktop full screen and it has divided the screen into 3 areas all with the same duplicated content.

I know it is a problem with certain things until the Tools have been installed, but the graphics jumble makes that impossible to do because any window created, for example by asking for a terminal window etc, gets overwritten by the desktop background...

Is there some way I can install the tools in this situation?

Can I edit the vmx file to bring the screen to a sensible size like 1600x900 or thereabouts?

Or will the vm still maximize the screen size?

Any help appreciated.

[wila]

Hi,

What kernel version is this Linux Mint guest running?

I've seen something similar on an older version of ubuntu, a kernel upgrade did fix it for me.

--

Wil

[BobAgi]

Mint 17.2 Cinnamon seems to run on kernel 3.13

Since the windows do not show up properly (Terminal for example) I cannot start the vmware tools installation and therefore not get a proper driver for the virtual graphics card...

As I said the desktop is duplicated sideways in 3 parts and every program that starts up is hidden (overwritten by the desktop).

[wila]

Hi,

Can you not get into terminal only mode using Ctrl+Alt+F1 (or  F2 ... or similar function key) ?

Otherwise boot into either safe mode or single user mode.

--

Wil

[BobAgi]

I don't know how to do that...

Is there a specific timing involved when the keypresses are supposed to be made?

I am not very Linux savvy, but I need a Linux platform for FreePascal programming with cross-compile for the ARM7 platform.

[wila]

Switching to terminal desktop using ctrl+alt+F# (#=1...6) does not require a specific time, if the desktop has booted completely then it should work.

However there is indeed a tidbit more. Workstation itself uses by default the Ctrl+Alt keys to give the focus back to the host.

So if your keypress is unlucky you might ended up with Ctrl+Alt+F2 at the host OS instead of sending it to the guest OS.

Just had a look at what linux Mint version you are trying to run and it appears to be the latest one. At the wikipedia page it mentions it should be using kernel 3.16.

Anyways.. with VMware Workstation 7 I'm afraid you'll end up with more issues as the VMware Tools from Workstation 7 is likely not going to work in a current version of Linux.

One thing you could try instead is to use a Linux version that is closer to your workstation version. Ubuntu 12.04 comes to mind, it has maintenance support until 2017

http://www.ubuntu.com/info/release-end-of-life

As Mint is ubuntu based any steps that are outlined in articles for Mint will be similar (or even the same) on ubuntu.

http://releases.ubuntu.com/12.04/

Perhaps even the 14.04 version would still work

PS: FreePascal for ARM programming sounds great! (I occasionally use Delphi XE with firemonkey myself)

--

Wil

[BobAgi]

Thanks,

I had to go away on a trip for a number of days, hence the muteness...

Anyway I grabbed myself WS12PRO in the Black Friday sale so now I am in a position as follows:

- I have a number of Windows (XP and 7) WS7 guests with development tools loaded

- I also have an assortment of Linux WS7 guests, mainly used briefly as test platforms for web development

- I have WorkStation 7 (latest version) installed on my PC

- I have a newly bought WS12PRO ready to be installed

I guess that if I switch to WS12 on my PC I can install Mint 17.2 without these problems, but will my old guests still work properly?

Specifically, can I leave them as they are in suspended states and expect them to be possible to start in WS12?

And finally, will WS7 be automatically upgraded if I run the SW12 installer or must I uninstall WS7 prior to installing WS12?

[wila]

Hi,

It is best to shut down any suspended guests while in Workstation 7.

All your old guests should continue to work.

You can then just run the WS12 installer and it will see that WS7  was installed and uninstall that on your behalf.

--

Wil