VMware Virtual Appliances Community
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ChristopheDepre
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

The Browser Appliance 5.0 (featuring Firefox 5.0) is now available. This release is based on the Scientific Linux 6.0 distribution since CentOS 6 has not come out yet.

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zonaguy
Contributor
Contributor

Hey Chris!

Are you the one that made the current browser appliance(Scientific linux with Firefox)? I was wondering why dont you make one with chromium instead of firefox? It would be awesome if you could. I would use it in a heartbeat!

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ChristopheDepre
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

You may download the Chromium package for CentOS from Chris Staite at the University of Birmingham and substitute it to Firefox in the current Browser Appliance. To do so, open the Terminal and use the following commands:

curl http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~cxs548/chrome.tar.gz|tar zxf -;

sudo mv /usr/bin/firefox{,-};

sudo ln -s /home/vmware/chrome/chrome-wrapper /usr/bin/firefox

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zonaguy
Contributor
Contributor

Hey Chris!

Do I use THe original CentOS 5.5 and do I use the terminal with three separate commands to get Chrome instead of firefox? Im new to Linux. I greatly appreciate the help. Thank you!

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DSTAVERT
Immortal
Immortal

You should be able to copy and paste the commands into a terminal screen.

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator
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ChristopheDepre
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Those commands are for the current Browser Appliance (version 5.0 based on Scientific Linux 6.0). Yes, you need to execute the three commands in a sequence (copy paste into the Terminal screen and press "enter").

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ChristopheDepre
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

The Browser Appliance was updated to run Firefox 6 on Scientific Linux 6.0 .

To install the latest Adobe Flash plugin, close Firefox and double-click the "Install Flash Player" icon on the Desktop.

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ChristopheDepre
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Although the Virtual Appliance Marketplace listing has now entered read-only mode, updates to the Browser Appliance (currently Firefox 8) are nonetheless available from the 'download' link.

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SimonHF
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I'm just playing with the latest appliance on VMware Workstation 8. Everything seems to work very well. Latest flash installed and works without problems. Only problem is no sound. Any idea how to fix that?

Another quick question: How can I install Chrome as an alternative browser?

And how can I install the CPU monitor panel app?

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SimonHF
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I discovered that for some reason VMware was considering the sound hardware as a removeable device which is wasn't automatically connecting for some reason. After manually connecting then I could play sound on both guest and host simultaneously. Any help with the other questions would be great. Thanks.

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SimonHF
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Another small problem: How can I change the time which is currently set to east coast / Boston? When I set it to west coast (by clicking on the time on the top right) then it changes back to east coast after a few minutes 😞

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SimonHF
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Another question: How can I upgrade VMware tools so that I can use 'unity mode' with the browser appliance? When I try to re-install VMware tools then it refuses unless I first uninstall the existings tools. What is the correct procedure to uninstall the existing VMware tools?

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ChristopheDepre
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

To install Chrome as an alternative browser, download (and save) the 32 bit .rpm package from Google, then enter the following commands in the Terminal:

sudo yum -y install lsb;

sudo rpm -ivh google-chrome-stable_current_i386.rpm;

Chrome will appear under the Applications/Internet menu.

ChristopheDepre
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

To install the CPU monitor panel app, enter the following command in the Terminal:

sudo yum -y install gnome-applets

then right click on the panel and choose Add to Panel... System Monitor

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KB0815
Contributor
Contributor

Hi,

I have been using the browser appliance with Firefox for a while and I like it. But is has a small problem. After waking-up a suspended VM the network is disabled and cannot be enabled easily. I tried the 'Enable Networking' menu entry of the network manager applet 0.8.1 on top of the desktop, but it doesn't work. The result of 'ifconfig' is:

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback 
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:4 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:4 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:240 (240.0 b)  TX bytes:240 (240.0 b)

It seems that the eth0 interface does not get an IP address automatically. Is there a problem in the eth0 configuration, e.g. DHCP?

Best regards

KB

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rmhibbs
Contributor
Contributor

I have two major problems trying to use the Browser Appliance:

1) The major problem is me!  The last time I worked with a command line system was PC DOS in the mid 80's.  Therefore, I have some idea of using a command line, but absolutely no idea how to proceed with the Browser Applicance.

2) I can't copy/move files from the Appliance to Windows 7.

My host system is Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit.

I have installed VM Player and Browser Applance 8.0 (Browser-Appliance-8.0.7z) and have no problems using FireFox for browsing and using gmail.  However, after downloading an attachment from gmail, I can't get it out to my Win 7 host.

I tried Virtual Machine | Enter Unity    but I get the error message

"The virtual machine cannot enter

Unity mode because:

- Unity is supported on Workstation 6

or later virtual machines only."

I tried "VMware Tools installation" but I don't know enough to follow the instructions at the bottom:

"Mount the virtual CD drive in the guest, launch a Terminal, and use tar to uncompress the installer.  Then, execute vmware-install.pl to install VMware Tools."

I have a DVD icon on the desktop titled "VMware Tools" that has two files:

"manifest.txt" and "VMwareTools-8.8.1-528969.tar.gz"

At this point I am totally lost.  Sorry for being so ignorant.  I would do more research, but I don't even know where to start.

I am curious about the message " ..... support on Workstation 6 or later ...........".  Since the download is dated Nov 10, 2011 I thought I would be relatively current.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Bob

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aquasys
Contributor
Contributor

hi rmhibbs

maybe this will help

the lack of unity facility can be fixed  by converting the browser appliance to vmware 7.xx or later using vmware convertor [or wmware workstation itself ver7.xx or later]

you probably already have the latest tools installed [enable automatic updates of your vmplayer or vmworkstation software]

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ChristopheDepre
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

To copy files to your host system, you don't need to install VMware Tools (since they are already installed).

The trick is to create an "HGFS Shared Folder" by (shutting down the vm &) editing part of the Browser-Appliance.vmx file so that it looks like this:

isolation.tools.hgfs.disable = "FALSE"

sharedFolder.maxNum = "1"
sharedFolder.option = "alwaysEnabled"
sharedFolder0.present = "TRUE"
sharedFolder0.enabled = "TRUE"
sharedFolder0.readAccess = "TRUE"
sharedFolder0.writeAccess = "TRUE"
sharedFolder0.hostPath = "C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\VMshare"
sharedFolder0.guestName = "VMshare"
sharedFolder0.expiration = "never"

After you boot the virtual machine, the Windows folder which you have specified on the hostPath line should appear in Linux under Computer ... Filesystem ... mnt ... hgfs so that you can now browse it from the virtual machine!

Be aware that by doing this, you allow malicious files to be copied to your host machine, which defeats the purpose of an isolated environment in which to browse the Web. This is why this feature was disabled by default.

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vmcome
Contributor
Contributor

this trick doesnt work on nov 10, 2011 appliance . probably hgfs doesnt work inside linux .

how can i  enable hgfs in linux system?

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jftuga
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I was just wondering if there are any plans to keep this appliance updated.  Based on the previous release cycles, it looks like it is just about time for a new release.

Thanks,

-John

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