The Perfect Desktop - OpenSUSE 10.3 (GNOME) - Page 6

13 VMware Server

With VMware Server you can let your old Windows desktop (that you previously converted into a VMware virtual machine with VMware Converter, as described in this tutorial: https://www.howtoforge.com/vmware_converter_windows_linux) run under your OpenSUSE desktop. This can be useful if you depend on some applications that exist for Windows only, or if you want to switch to Linux slowly.

To download VMware Server, go to http://www.vmware.com/download/server/ and click on Download Now:

Accept the license agreement by clicking on Yes:

Then download the VMware Server for Linux .tar.gz file (not the .rpm file!), e.g. to /home/falko/Desktop:

To get the serial number you need to run VMware Server, go to http://register.vmware.com/content/registration.html. Fill in your personal details. Afterwards you will get a page with a serial number for VMware Server. Write it down or print it out:

To install VMware Server, open a terminal and become root:

su

Then go to the location where you saved the VMware Server .tar.gz file, e.g. /home/falko/Desktop (replace falko with your own username!):

cd /home/falko/Desktop

Then find out about your current kernel:

uname -r

The output I got was 2.6.22.5-31-default.

Unpack the VMware Server .tar.gz file and run the installer:

tar xvfz VMware-server-*.tar.gz
cd vmware-server-distrib
./vmware-install.pl

The installer will ask you a lot of questions. You can always accept the default values simply by hitting <ENTER>.

When you see this...

You must read and accept the End User License Agreement to continue.
Press enter to display it.

... press <ENTER>. Read through the license until the end, then press

q

to leave the license. Then accept the license:

Do you accept? (yes/no) <-- yes

If the VMware installer doesn't find your kernel header files automatically, i.e. if you see this question:

What is the location of the directory of C header files that match your running
kernel? [/usr/src/linux/include]

and press <ENTER>, and the same question comes up again, you have to type in the correct path manually:

<-- /lib/modules/<yourkernel>/build/include

where <yourkernel> must be replaced with the kernel that the uname -r command returned. So I type in:

<-- /lib/modules/2.6.22.5-31-default/build/include

The installation goes on. The installer will try to detect free subnets. If you get a screen like this:

. vmnet1 is a host-only network on private subnet 192.168.222.0.

lines 1-2/2 (END)

and you wonder why the installation doesn't go on: you must press

q

(just like with the license before).

When the installer asks you

In which directory do you want to keep your virtual machine files?
[/var/lib/vmware/Virtual Machines]

you can either accept the default value or specify a location that has enough free space to store your virtual machines.

At the end of the installation, you will be asked to enter a serial number:

Please enter your 20-character serial number.

Type XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX or 'Enter' to cancel:

Fill in your serial number for VMware Server.

If everything goes well, the end of the installer's output should look like this:

Starting VMware services:
   Virtual machine monitor                                             done
   Virtual ethernet                                                    done
   Bridged networking on /dev/vmnet0                                   done
   Host-only networking on /dev/vmnet1 (background)                    done
   Host-only networking on /dev/vmnet8 (background)                    done
   NAT service on /dev/vmnet8                                          done

The configuration of VMware Server 1.0.4 build-56528 for Linux for this running
kernel completed successfully.

After the successful installation, you can delete the VMware Server download file and the installation directory:

cd /home/falko/Desktop
rm -fr vmware-server-distrib
rm -f VMware-server-*.tar.gz

You will now find VMware Server under Comouter > More Applications:

When you start it, select Local host:

Afterwards, you can create virtual machines (or import your virtual Windows machine that you created with VMware Converter):

14 Inventory (IV)

We have now all wanted applications installed:

Graphics:
[x] Gimp
[x] F-Spot
[x] Picasa

Internet:
[x] Firefox
[x] Opera
[x] Flash Player
[x] gFTP
[x] Thunderbird
[x] Evolution
[x] aMule
[x] Azureus
[x] Bittorrent
[x] Pidgin
[x] Skype
[x] Google Earth
[x] Xchat IRC

Office:
[x] OpenOffice Writer
[x] OpenOffice Calc
[x] Adobe Reader
[x] GnuCash
[x] Scribus

Sound & Video:
[x] Amarok
[x] Audacity
[x] Banshee
[x] MPlayer
[x] Rhythmbox Music Player
[x] gtkPod
[x] XMMS
[x] dvd::rip
[x] Sound Juicer CD Extractor
[x] VLC Media Player
[x] Real Player
[x] Totem
[x] Xine
[x] Brasero
[x] GnomeBaker
[x] K3B
[x] Multimedia-Codecs

Programming:
[x] NVU
[x] Quanta Plus

Other:
[x] VMware Server
[x] TrueType Fonts
[x] Java
[x] Read/Write Support for NTFS Partitions

15 Links

• OpenSUSE: http://www.opensuse.org