Re: [tlug] xen and windows

[Evan Monroig <evan.monroig@example.com>]

Darren Cook <darren@example.com> writes:

>> I know that it isn't in your spec, but I am using vmware server (the
>> free version) under gentoo and I have installed a windows XP as a
>> virtual machine.  It was fairly straightforward, install vmware, set
>> up the virtual machine, boot it with XP CD, and install like you would
>> a normal computer. ...
>
> Thanks; I didn't realize vmware had a free version that did anything
> useful. I've just done a bit of study and in this Sep 26th 2007
> discussion [1] someone says: "Yes, for ease of use and functionality,
> VMWare is still the better choice [over xen]"
>
> http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/fedora-35/xen-vs.-vmware-free-server-and-fc6-503951/?s=6d28f61323d1aa4040920fb0b5c15f24
>
> The pages I've looked at seem to talk about installing Windows. Does
> that mean I cannot buy a machine with windows pre-installed, then
> install linux, and then run linux as the host OS and windows as the
> guest OS?  (I know how to repartition disks and install linux on a
> machine with windows pre-installed; what I'm not clear on is if the
> guest OS has to be installed through vmware (or xen) or if an already
> installed OS can be a guest OS.)

Actually I tried just that.  Set up vmware to boot the windows partition
in the guest OS.  At the first boot windows told me that there were lots
of hardware changes.  It then seemed to work ok.  But after a few days I
had to reformat that partition because I had to re-activate the windows
and I could do that only over internet and unfortunately I had disabled
the virtual ethernet card in the virtual machine (because I just wanted
to use it locally).

Now can windows be re-activated in the virtual machine, I don't know :).

Evan