LITTLEBLACKDOG.COM

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 3:36 pm Post subject: Hybrid Linux/Windows

Softpedia has a write up on it.

someone at work was using it too, dunno why.

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 4:19 pm Post subject:

to freak people out that have a clue? Twisted Evil

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 5:15 am Post subject:

Thats pretty slick, not some magic voodo that combines windows and linux but windows running as a vitrual machine on top of linux minus the full windows desktop. However its still a neat idea. Very Happy

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 11:33 am Post subject:

I think I've seen that done at the UKMO. They're pretty hot on virtualisation.

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 12:15 pm Post subject:

Nice, that's a similar setup to what I was running for a while with Windows running in VMWare.

Unfortunately you can't use a virtual Windows to run "relatively newer" Games in. It just doesn't work with the video, so I had to go back to Dual Boot.

This seems like it could be interesting for a system running X, and testing on Virtual Machine copies of production Windows servers, since you can clone off running windows servers in VMWare.

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 12:49 pm Post subject:

I have an XP development virtual machine on this box so I thought I'd give it a try and I'm just realising how really fucking useful this is...

No more ctrl+alt and ctrl+alt+enter to switch between host and guest desktops for me, thank you very much! Cool

I can't believe I've never done this before, thanks for posting...

Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 7:33 pm Post subject:

ok... I'm at a loss... how the hell do you get the start bar to be just that and not cover up the entire linux desktop with the big Xterm (rdesktop) window?

I did figure out the borderless setup... just dunno how to get it to not take up everything.

also... the responsiveness of the vm session sux... is there any way to help with that other than running this on a multi-core rig? (I doubt it, but anything would probably help)

and any clue on how to get direct-anything to work with sound output?

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 4:12 am Post subject:

Slymer wrote:
ok... I'm at a loss... how the hell do you get the start bar to be just that and not cover up the entire linux desktop with the big Xterm (rdesktop) window?

I did figure out the borderless setup... just dunno how to get it to not take up everything.

also... the responsiveness of the vm session sux... is there any way to help with that other than running this on a multi-core rig? (I doubt it, but anything would probably help)

and any clue on how to get direct-anything to work with sound output?

for the sound check your .vmx file. look for these settings and comments out as needed

sound.present = "TRUE"
sound.virtualDev = "es1371"
sound.filename = "-1"
sound.autodetect = "TRUE"

Keep in mind my setup is an ubuntu 7.10 host w/ XP as the guest.

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 4:43 am Post subject:

Slymer wrote:
ok... I'm at a loss... how the hell do you get the start bar to be just that and not cover up the entire linux desktop with the big Xterm (rdesktop) window?

Well, that's a little ambiguous; let me have a stab at what I think you might be seeing...

If you are talking about an actual xterm (terminal emulator) window from which you are running rdesktop, you can add an ampersand to the end of the command line to disconnect it from the terminal session, or create a shortcut for your Gnome/KDE programs menu and run it from there (use alacarte to create a shortcut for Gnome).

If you are actually talking about an X window (rdesktop spawns windows using X to display remote windows locally), are you sure you have performed the registry modification on the Windows guest correctly, as in the instructions from the original link?

Slymer wrote:
also... the responsiveness of the vm session sux... is there any way to help with that other than running this on a multi-core rig? (I doubt it, but anything would probably help)

If your modus operandi is to simply to run Windows apps on your Linux box, you don't have to be running Windows in a VM. You can use this same technique to connect to any remote Windows box, so for best performance you could use a second machine.

However, I imagine most people would require the additional constraint of on the same machine, in which case the answer is no, the responsiveness of an emulated computer is always going to be on the slow side of adequate. Be aware that running Windows in a VM is NOT a substitute for dual booting.

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 4:57 am Post subject:

Quote:
However, I imagine most people would require the additional constraint of on the same machine, in which case the answer is no, the responsiveness of an emulated computer is always going to be on the slow side. Be aware that running Windows in a VM is NOT a substitute for dual booting.

agreed but slymer seems to be running new hardware, aka dual / quad core. If enough memory is thrown at the virtual PC general slowness should be non-existent.

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 6:38 am Post subject:

running older hardware... single core pentium M 1.5GHz with gig of ram (ddr2) dell inspiron 6000 with 1920x1200 screen Very Happy

yes... the nodesktop is put in the registry... which is why I can't see any of the icons in the desktop folder (aka recycle bin) but the rdesktop window still takes up the whole desktop.

and I figured as much about the performance. I'm still running a dual boot on the laptop for just that reason... and trying to set up a VM for ubuntu as well for the dual stuffs in windows too Very Happy

I'll check out the sound stuff when I get home from work later today. system beeps work ok, but if I try to run say media player classic or winamp, no sound works.

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 7:37 am Post subject:

fear_nothing wrote:

agreed but slymer seems to be running new hardware, aka dual / quad core. If enough memory is thrown at the virtual PC general slowness should be non-existent.

This is what I have found. I set this up last night on my Core 2 Quad with 2GB of RAM. Windows is actually pretty responsive in the VM.

I have to say, this setup rocks. It's much handier than running a straight VM.

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 8:11 am Post subject:

Slymer wrote:
yes... the nodesktop is put in the registry... which is why I can't see any of the icons in the desktop folder (aka recycle bin) but the rdesktop window still takes up the whole desktop.

I don't get any kind of window at all. How are you starting rdesktop? You got a screenshot of the problem?

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 4:12 pm Post subject:

I'm using Kubuntu 7.10

Link to Application command line:
rdesktop -A -s 'c:\seamlessrdp\seamlessrdpshell.exe c:\windows\explorer.exe' 192.168.165.128 -u <user> -p <pass>

<user> and <pass> of course have the real user and password replaced in the actual link.

screenshot:

FYI: my backgrounds are black... and I should have an Autobot logo as my linux desktop wallpaper

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 5:20 pm Post subject:

fear_nothing wrote:

for the sound check your .vmx file. look for these settings and comments out as needed

sound.present = "TRUE"
sound.virtualDev = "es1371"
sound.filename = "-1"
sound.autodetect = "TRUE"

Keep in mind my setup is an ubuntu 7.10 host w/ XP as the guest.

so you're saying I should comment those out?

I have all of those lines, but winamp and mediaplayer (or anything else that makes sounds besides the system) won't work. codecs are there... device manager says it has sound... even the sound control panel says it has sound (though it says it's Microsoft RDP Sound driver)