[HOWTO] VMWare Workstation raw disk with WinXP guest

friism · n00b Joined: 26 Apr 2004 Posts: 22

I've changed the ide-driver as mentioned above, but I'm still getting the ol'e

imporission · n00b Joined: 24 Jan 2006 Posts: 2

You guys don't know how helpful ya'll have been... It has taken me a bit due to the errors but I finally have VMware loading XP through linux...

BUT there still is one issue, that is not even touched on here, and I hope you don't mind me asking....

well I got into windows and everything "works" but man its slow as heck. I own a XPS Gen 2 laptop, so I know it can handle it, and I've given it 512 memory, but particallarially when it is moving windows or opening something in the start menu... its slow.

I would assume this might have to do with the graphics? I have a NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800 Ultra which is a decent card, but well to be honest, this is my first week of linux, and it was one of the primary causes of my conflict from the get go, but since I have installed the drivers from Nvidia's site it SEEMS to be working, though I don't have any 3d things in linux to run lol

So this is like a double ended question, is it VMware causing the conflict and if so, any ideas for remedying it, or is it my graphics card installation, and if so any ideas for remedying it

or how to decipher which it is.

Sorry about that one, thanks though,
C

alet_roux · n00b Joined: 12 Oct 2004 Posts: 54

I want to try this by using only vmplayer. Would somebody mind posting a copy of their .vmx file, please?

Devport · Guru Joined: 15 Dec 2004 Posts: 361

Has anybody gotten it to work with vmware-server and sata ?

jjstickel · n00b Joined: 26 Jul 2004 Posts: 10

jasn

Muschl · n00b Joined: 01 Oct 2006 Posts: 1

Hi,

i would like to run my real Windows XP installation under Ubuntu VMWare Server.
With the help from the following sites you can configure your VMWare Server to boot into raw disks.

http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-246371-highlight-ntfs%20vmware.html
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?s=46db455bc6e67786a2203087e5cd11d3&t=183209

Now the Solution for No Keyboard and Mouse in VMWare.

1. Download the PE HWPnP Tool from Paraglider
http://www.paraglidernc.com/plugins/HWPnP.cab

2. Create the directory C:\fixvm\ on your Windows XP System Disk (C:\)
mkdir /media/hda1/fixvm

2. Extract the Files to the folder C:\fixvm\ on your Windows XP System Disk (C:\)
cabextract -d /media/hda1/fixVM HWPnP.cab
mkdir /tmp/iso
mount -t iso9660 /usr/lib/vmware/isoimages/windows.iso -o loop /tmp/iso
cp -r /tmp/iso/* /media/hda1/fixvm
echo FixVM Stage 1 start > /media/hda1/fixvm/stage1.txt

3. create the C:\fixvm\fixvm.cmd file on your Windows System disk and inject the following content

echo Searching for FixVM Stage
if exist C:\fixvm\stage1.txt (
echo FixVM Stage 1 found
msiexec -i "C:\fixvm\VMware Tools.msi" ADDLOCAL=ALL /qn
del C:\fixvm\stage1.txt
echo Stage 1 finished successfully > C:\fixvm\stage2.txt
shutdown -r -f -t 30
)
if exist C:\fixvm\stage2.txt (
C:\fixVM\HWPnP.exe +all
del C:\fixvm\stage2.txt
echo.
echo Please check the function of your Mouse and Keyboard
echo.
pause
)
end

4. reboot into your real Windows

5. Change the following Registry Keys (start/run/regedit.exe)
\HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
- AutoAdminLogon = 1
- AutoLogonCount = 5

(remember the Administrator must have a Password set)

(i think the next entrys are not needed, use it when you have problems)
- DefaultUser = *your USERNAME*
- DefaultUserName = *your USERNAME*
- DefaultPassword = *your Password*

6. Create fixvm.cmd shortcut in Startmenu/Programs/startup Folder (start/run/cmd)
ln -s C:\fixvm\fixvm.cmd "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\fixvm"

7. configure Windows for automated driver installation (start/run/cmd)
sysdm.cpl
- on tab Hardware klick the Button DriverSigning and set it to Ignore

8. After all this steps reboot into the VMWare Server running OS and start the VMWare raw disk WindowsXP.

- system boot
- autologon
- auto installing VMWare Tools
- reboot
- autologon
- auto Plug and Play Hardware detection

boroshan · l33t Joined: 16 Apr 2003 Posts: 730 Location: upside down

Has anyone tied this with a Grub floppy?

What I'm going to try and do is create a floppy image, and install grub on it with a config file that only boots the windows partitions. Then I won't need to tell vmware about the boot partition, and I can keep all of my Gentoo partitions out of harms way

Anyone know a way to pass a profile as a boot argument for XP? If I could pass that from grub I wouldn't need to worry about booting into the wrong partition either.
_________________
Don't let THEM immanentize the Eschaton!

highvoltag3 · n00b Joined: 20 Jan 2007 Posts: 1

Has anybody fixed the GRUB 99 99 99 99 99 99 ....... boot problem? :cry:

thepickle · n00b Joined: 22 Aug 2007 Posts: 4

Has anyone tried this with the new VMWare 6.0? I have a /dev/sda raw disk that's detected as either buslogic/lsilogic doesn't matter, neither boots, i get that 0x07b error...
When I try to change it to ide, VMWare complains that I have a scsi disk which is present as ide and changes it back to buslogic in the vmx file. Or something like that... I will post my vmx and vmdk files later today, as I'm not home at the moment. Please any feedback would be appreciated in the meantime.

prolific · Apprentice Joined: 19 Apr 2002 Posts: 237

i have physical hdd booting working in v6 of vmware .. here are my vmx and vmdk files ..

#!/opt/vmware/workstation/bin/vmware
config.version = "8"
virtualHW.version = "6"
scsi0.present = "TRUE"
memsize = "512"
MemAllowAutoScaleDown = "FALSE"
ide0:0.present = "TRUE"
ide0:0.fileName = "Windows XP Professional.vmdk"
ide0:0.deviceType = "rawDisk"
ide1:0.present = "TRUE"
ide1:0.autodetect = "TRUE"
ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-raw"
floppy0.startConnected = "FALSE"
floppy0.autodetect = "TRUE"
ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
ethernet0.wakeOnPcktRcv = "FALSE"
usb.present = "TRUE"
ehci.present = "TRUE"
sound.present = "TRUE"
sound.fileName = "-1"
sound.autodetect = "TRUE"
svga.autodetect = "TRUE"
pciBridge0.present = "TRUE"
isolation.tools.hgfs.disable = "TRUE"
displayName = "Windows XP Professional"
guestOS = "winxppro"
nvram = "Windows XP Professional.nvram"
deploymentPlatform = "windows"
virtualHW.productCompatibility = "hosted"
RemoteDisplay.vnc.port = "0"
tools.upgrade.policy = "useGlobal"

floppy0.fileName = "/dev/fd0"

ide1:0.startConnected = "TRUE"
ethernet0.addressType = "generated"
uuid.location = "56 4d af 4f be e9 43 13-12 b6 4d 2b 6f e3 df 88"
uuid.bios = "56 4d af 4f be e9 43 13-12 b6 4d 2b 6f e3 df 88"
ide0:0.redo = ""
pciBridge0.pciSlotNumber = "17"
scsi0.pciSlotNumber = "16"
ethernet0.pciSlotNumber = "32"
sound.pciSlotNumber = "33"
ehci.pciSlotNumber = "34"
ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:12:3d:43:19"
ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"
ide1:0.fileName = "auto detect"
tools.syncTime = "FALSE"

floppy0.present = "FALSE"
ethernet0.connectionType = "custom"
ethernet0.vnet = "/dev/vmnet2"
sound.startConnected = "FALSE"
serial0.present = "TRUE"
serial0.fileName = "/dev/ttyS0"

# Disk DescriptorFile
version=1
CID=88ea212a
parentCID=ffffffff
createType="fullDevice"

# Extent description
RW 390721968 FLAT "/dev/hda" 0

# The Disk Data Base
#DDB

ddb.virtualHWVersion = "6"
ddb.geometry.cylinders = "16383"
ddb.geometry.heads = "16"
ddb.geometry.sectors = "63"
ddb.geometry.biosCylinders = "1024"
ddb.geometry.biosHeads = "255"
ddb.geometry.biosSectors = "63"
ddb.adapterType = "ide"
ddb.toolsVersion = "7238"

dwardo · n00b Joined: 10 Nov 2004 Posts: 48 Location: France

I've upgraded the computer (changed 80% of it) (used to have XP booting from raw on a ide disk flawlessly)

I've managed to get to boot my new raw sata XP install but I encounter 2 problems that I never had before:

1) when I boot up the virtual machine my screen becomes all black... doing CTRL+ALT+F1 followed by CTRL+ALT+F7 I can get the vmware windows back and boot continues without problem...

2) bootup is very very very very slow (So slow I havent' been able to install vmwaretools yet...)

If anyone has encountered 1) or 2) thanks for any feedback

Thanks

dwardo

dwardo · n00b Joined: 10 Nov 2004 Posts: 48 Location: France

Update

princ3 · n00b Joined: 07 Sep 2007 Posts: 1

Ok, i give it up, am i deaf, dumb or blind ? I don't even get that far as you guys, when i create a new custom virtual machine and select the physical disc, after pressing the finish button i get this error:

Error opening virtual machine "/home/dude/vmware/windows/Windows XP Home Edition.vmx": The configuration file for this virtual machine cannot be found. It might be missing from the virtual machine directory, or the path specified to access this virtual machine might be incorrect.

Configuration file: /home/dude/vmware/windows/Windows XP Home Edition.vmx.

This is not the case when i create a typical virtual machine.

What the heck am i missing ?!?

dwardo · n00b Joined: 10 Nov 2004 Posts: 48 Location: France

Solved my second and last problem !!!

splash (splahutils was not working on my machine since the upgrade) seems that the stock gentoo-sources kernel configurations does not support it since I had to add:
[*] Video mode selection support
<*> Framebuffer Console support

To get the Gentoo livecd splash theme to work... [I had already readded Framebuffer support and vesa-tng]

So I recompiled my kernel rebooted (to see the splash theme was back) and then started vmware... AND 1) was solved

Good thing I tried t solve all the problems in parallel not sequentially...

dwardo

hunky · l33t Joined: 19 Nov 2003 Posts: 683 Location: Alaska

my turn begging for some help. Getting WinXP to start booting but bluescreens with the STOP error mentioned on this thread. Frustrating as many moons ago I had this working. I've got a separate sata disk on the local computer and have gone through the exercises in this thread to best of my abilities. The disk has 3 partitions - sda1 with NTFS where WinXp resides, sda2 with VFAT, and sda3 with ext3. I've tried configuring vmware-server with using the whole disk, with just the sda1, and with sda1 and 2.

One thing I didn't understand was how to find the pci string in the *.inf file that ichief talked about here http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-2104789.html#2104789 so I just used the example he gave when editing the registry. Perhaps that could be the problem. I did download the scsi driver from vmware and extract it to the System32/drivers directory.

I went ahead and merged the .reg file in the microsoft help page given a few posts back, though from ichief I probably didn't need to. I tried editing the .vmdk and changing buslogic to ide with no change. Here's the vmdk file:

KD-120RD · Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 5:24 pm Post subject:

Hi

I am trying to run my Win2k (Dual-Boot) with VMware-ws-5.5
I installed vmware, created a vm and tried to run it, but got the lilo/missing-boot-partition error.
I created an boot partition on my box (/boot is now on /dev/hda5, hope that extended partitions are ok).
And now I get this error: "The partition table on the physical disk has changed since the disk was created. Remove the physical disk from the virtual machine, the add it again."

Of course I tried removing and adding the disk. I also removed the whole vm and created a new one. I deleted all the vmware settings i could find on my gentoo box: /etc/vmware, ~/vmware and ~/.vmware. I even reemerged vmware-ws.
Nothing. I can not get rid of this message.

This is very frustrating, any hint would be appreciated.
Thx

taliesin · n00b Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 14

Im about to start trying to get Windows working on VMware and Im juts curious why everyone is so hesitant to use a Partition as a virtual disk and install the Windows Boot Loader onto it?

Is there a bug which prevents this from working?

tschenturs · n00b Joined: 17 Nov 2004 Posts: 12

princ3, I had the same situation that new configurations with Raw devices could not be saved at the end of the wizard.

I use vmware as user, not as root. The permissions of the raw device has been set as follows:

/dev/blackhawk · Guru Joined: 12 Feb 2004 Posts: 380 Location: Germany

urcindalo · Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 8:57 am Post subject:

I'm going to resuscitate this old thread

Up until vmware-workstation-6.5.1.126130 I was able to boot my raw-disk installation of WinXP inside vmware workstation without problems, on my AMD64 box (stable amd64 profile). It's been also a while since I've needed to boot into Windows again. To my surprise, I'm now faced with these issues:

1) If I try to use the virtual machine created with VMware Workstation v6.0 in v6.5.1.126130, the machine boots but get stalled at Grub loading: