Running VMs on Boot Camp

[BlueCockatoo]

Hi All,

I have a new MacBook on which I put Boot Camp on it so that I can run Windows. I installed VMWare Workstation 5 and am trying to run a VM that I used VMWare Converter to make out of a physical machine I have (it's on another domain and I want to keep it separate from the new machine...).

It runs but it runs REALLY REALLY SLOW. To the point of taking about 10 minutes to fully boot to the point where I can do anything else to it.

The new VM is only 15GB, and I've used VMs that big and bigger (23GB+) before on my Windows laptop with Workstation with hardly any noticible performance hit, and this hardware is better than my old laptop so I'm not sure why this one is running so poorly.

Could it be because of Boot Camp? Has anyone else tried to run Workstation on the Boot Camped Windows?

I would love to get this working so I only have to lug one laptop with me on business trips.

Any advice or insight is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Lindsay

[KevinG]

Hi Lindsay,

Can you create a new virtual machine using an install CD or ISO image to see if it's just something unique with the P2V virtual machine.

There are many free ISO images of Linux distributions you could try to install if you do not have a Windows CD

[BlueCockatoo]

Hi Kevin,

I just tried running a VM I have that's just basically an install of Windows with not much else on it. It seems to have no problems booting and responds well...

So that leads me to think that there is a problem with my P2Ved VM.

Do you have any suggestions there? This was my first attempt to try to do the P2V conversion with the VMWare Converter tool. I have done it successfully before using a decidedly more manual approach of creating a backup of the physical machine, creating a fresh VM and then restoring the backup into it, but I was hoping to save myself the trouble this time!

Any more advice to share??

Thanks much,

Lindsay

[KevinG]

Hi Lindsay,

Can you post the .vmx file from this P2V VM

If you look at device manger under "Computer" was does it report for the HAL?

You may also want to run "msconfig" to disable any unnecessary services, drivers, startup programs..etc.

With this program you can configure Windows to start with just the basic services to see if that has any effect.

Did you install the VMware Tools in this P2V VM?

[BlueCockatoo]

Hi Kevin,

I wasn't sure how to post the .vmx so I put it here: http://ftp.donaghe.com/share/XP-Lindsayd.vmx

The HAL is ACPI Uniprocessor PC.

I looked at the msconfig services, but I have to admit, I'm not sure which ones to disable ... that's the first time I've looked at that utility! I took off a couple that I knew weren't essential but the next time I booted it told me I was in diagnostic mode and that I had to change it back to Normal mode, so I did what it told me to... :S

I installed VMWare tools on the VM and I also moved it to an external harddrive (thought maybe disk contention might have been a problem). And I defragmented the virtual harddrive.

It seems to reboot faster now (about 4 minutes vs 10) and it's responding better in the sense that the cursor actually moves around in real time now, but apps are still taking a significantly longer time to load, and right clicking context menus takes a long time for them to display, so it's still very sluggish and not very usable.

I had to restart it from the VMWare toolbar restart button once and I got an error I hadn't seen before (here's the end of it): "XP does not support the BusLogic SCSI adapter that VMWare Workstation currently uses for it's virtual SCSI devices. If you have not done so already, you will need to install our driver in the virtual machine. You can download the driver at 'http://www.vmware.com/info?id=43'"

But that URL takes me to the general downloads page and I don't see the specific driver they're talking about. Maybe you can tell me where to get it?

Not sure what's going on with this thing but maybe you'll have a clue!!

Thanks again for the help!

Lindsay

[BlueCockatoo]

My VMX link is not working... I changed it to txt:

http://donaghe.com/share/XP-Lindsayd.vmx.txt

[KevinG]

With the VM powered off, rename your original .vmx file and copy /paste this one giving it the same file name as your original .vmx file

Please test and see if the performance is better.

config.version = "8"

virtualHW.version = "4"

memsize = "512"

MemAllowAutoScaleDown = "FALSE"

MemTrimRate = "-1"

displayName = "XP-LindsayD"

guestOS = "winxppro"

\# SCSI Disks

scsi0.present = "TRUE"

scsi0:0.present = "TRUE"

scsi0:0.fileName = "XP-LindsayD.vmdk"

scsi0.virtualDev = "buslogic"

scsi0:0.redo = ""

\# IDE

ide0:0.present = "FALSE"

ide0:0.autodetect = "TRUE"

ide0:0.filename = "auto detect"

ide0:0.deviceType = "atapi-cdrom"

ide0:1.present = "FALSE"

ide0:1.autodetect = "TRUE"

ide0:1.filename = "auto detect"

ide0:1.deviceType = "atapi-cdrom"

ide0:0.startConnected = "FALSE"

\# Floppy

floppy0.fileName = "A:"

\# Sound

sound.present = "FALSE"

sound.virtualDev = "sb16"

sound.filename = "-1"

sound.autodetect = "TRUE"

sound.deviceNr = "-1"

sound.device = "/dev/dsp"

\# Ethernet

ethernet0.present = "TRUE"

ethernet0.addressType = "generated"

ethernet0.connectionType = "bridged"

ethernet1.present = "TRUE"

ethernet1.addressType = "generated"

ethernet1.connectionType = "bridged"

ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:98:2e:88"

ethernet1.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:98:2e:92"

ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"

ethernet1.generatedAddressOffset = "10"

\# USB

usb.present = "FALSE"

\# UUID

uuid.location = "56 4d 0e 4f 68 c7 9c a9-d0 33 ff dd 68 8b df 58"

uuid.bios = "56 4d 04 95 b7 60 f3 22-9b 61 e3 57 4e 98 2e 88"

\# Tools

tools.remindInstall = "FALSE"

tools.syncTime = "FALSE"

[BlueCockatoo]

Hi Kevin,

That seems to run MUCH better!! Thank you so much. You're my VM Guru Hero now!

So just two more little wrinkles to smooth out and I think I will be completely good to go.

1) Is there somewhere to get the SCSI driver download I mentioned earlier It is asking for that each time I boot the VM now, so I'd like to make it happy.

2) Is there some driver out there for supporting wide-screen format monitors? My laptop is widescreen, as is the secondary monitor that I use with it, and I'm being forced to run the VM at a lower rez than either of those can support. If VMWare doesn't have some tool for that, can you recommend a 3rd party?

Thank you again for all your help!! It is MUCH MUCH appreciated!

Lindsay

[RDPetruska]

The SCSI driver disk download is available on the Workstation Download page - Drivers and Tools tab.

As far as the screen resolution - have you installed the VMware Tools in the guest yet? If so, you should be able to use the View-->Fit options (autofit window or autofit guest). Also, you may have luck adding custom video modes to the guest following knowledgebase article 1003.

[BlueCockatoo]

Thanks for the info... fit to guest works great!

I did find the driver, but how do I install it? It's a file time that's not recognized.

Thanks again!

Lindsay

[RDPetruska]

>I did find the driver, but how do I install it?

Device Manager. Open the "Unknown SCSI" device. There should be a button for "Install Driver" or "Update Driver". In the wizard, select to search a specific path, point to the guest's A:\ drive (assuming you first connected the floppy image to the guest's floppy drive), and just follow the rest of the wizard.