Forays into Linux on VMware

For years I've been using an old Athlon 700 PC with Windows 2000 installed which served me well, but finally this year I decided to buy a new machine and opted for a laptop (a Dell XPS M1530)...with Vista installed...and wished I hadn't. And only having suffered Vista for a short while, I'm now considering switching over to Linux (paying £80 for a service pack, a.k.a Windows 7, is a hard pill to swallow). But before I take the leap and trash my Vista installation, I thought the prudent step would be to see how I get on with Linux first.

One option would be to do a dual boot installation, but I've read this sometimes causes issues with Vista and requires hard drive re-partitioning, so I opted for a less invasive approach which was to use VMware instead. For this trial I've chosen to use Debian (version 5.03) as it requires less hand holding than say Ubuntu and I'd like to believe that I'm fairly technically minded. It's also considered to be very stable, though the software installed with the distribution may lag behind some of the more bleeding edge distros.

If you're not sure what flavour of Linux is right for you, then DistroWatch gives a good run down of how the major distributions compare. The rest of this post describes how to get Debian up and running and the steps I followed.

First of all, download the Debian CD or DVD images (.iso files) from the Debian download page. For 32bit Windows you'll need the i386 version, for 64bit, the ia64 version. You only need to download the first CD/DVD image unless you know there are packages (software/applications) on the other ones that you require (refer here to find out which CD/DVD contains which package), though these can be downloaded using Debian's package manager (apt), once the installation is complete.

Next download and install VMware Server (I'm using version 2.01). This software is free but you'll need to register to get a license key. Once installed, open the VMware Server application. This will open in your browser and require you to log in using your Vista username and password.

Once open, click on the Create Virtual Machine link which will display a wizard that will take you through the following steps:

1. Name and Location - Give your VM a name and select the location (usually somewhere on your C: drive) where it should be created.
2. Guest Operating System - choose Linux and select "Debian GNU/Linux 4 (32 bit)
3. Memory and Processors - choose what is most suitable for the hardware your running on
4. Hard Disk - click on Create a New Virtual Disk and choose a capacity that is most suitable for the size of your hard drive
5. Network Adapter - click on Add a Network Adapter and select either:
   
   • Bridged - guest looks like just another PC on your network and is visible to other machines
   • NAT - guest is hidden from other PCs on your network, but can get out to the network (and others can reach specific services on your guest via port forwarding)
   • Host-Only - host and guest connected over a private network where the guest has no connection to the rest of the network, and no other PCs can reach your guest (internet access requires further configuration)
     
6. CD/DVD Drive - click on Use an ISO Image then click Browse to select the first ISO downloaded previously (this will need to reside in the C:/Virtual Machines directory created during the install process)
   
7. Floppy Drive  - this option is fairly redundant in today's world
8. USB Controller - click Add a USB Controller
9. Click Finish
   

Here's how my configuration looked:

Now the next stage is to install Debian onto the VM. First of all, make sure your new VM is selected in the Inventory navigation panel and then click the Console tab. You should see a big play icon which when clicked will power on your VM. Once powered on, click the screen again to open up the console in a new window and you should be presented with the Debian Installer Boot Menu:

Click on the console window with your mouse, then select the Graphical install using your keyboard arrow keys and hit Enter (note: to exit out of the console back to Vista, you need to press Ctrl and Alt together).

Follow the installation process which is fairly self-explanatory. Be sure to configure the package manager to use a network mirror as this will enable you to download the latest software packages from the internet using apt. Once the installation is complete and the system has booted you should be presented with the login screen. Enter the username and password that you created during the install (not the root user) and then all being well, the GNOME desktop environment should start up and you should see the following:

At this point it's wise to take a snapshot of your newly created VM. Within VMware Server, click on the Virtual Machine menu option, then select Take Snapshot. Snapshots enable you to save the state of your virtual system before you make risky changes like installing applications, adding a new patch, or making a configuration change, though unfortunately, VMware Server only lets you take one snapshot per guest (on my to do list is to check out VirtualBox, Sun's free virtualisation product, which allows multiple snapshots to be taken).

Now the first thing I noticed on my installation was that the screen resolution needed a bit of tinkering as it's set to 800x600 and my laptops default resolution is 1280x800. There also appeared to be an issue with the sound control, but the good news was that I connected wirelessly to the Internet without a hitch using Iceweasel (Firefox rebranded for Debian).

In future posts I let you know how my dalliance with Linux progresses and what (if any) hurdles I had to overcome.