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LWD Staff Joined: 15 Feb 2002 Posts: 1300 Location: USA

Is there a way to take a screenshot when you are not in X? Or is the general way of accomplishing this by taking a picture with your camera?

Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2006 10:21 pm Post subject:

If by "not in X" you mean a pure command line console, you could output the stdout output into a text file using the ">" character in your command.

For example:

# ls -a > output.txt

Whatever "ls" would normally echo onto the screen will instead go into a text file.

Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 12:33 am Post subject:

agree, apart from the pretty colour coding of the various file types

Guide Dog Joined: 08 Nov 2003 Posts: 8419 Location: MN

you could also go into x, or ssh in from another machine, and copy paste.

LWD Staff Joined: 15 Feb 2002 Posts: 1300 Location: USA

Here's what i want a picture of (I used a camera for these, and they look bad)

http://www.littlewhitecat.com/linda/setup.JPG
http://www.littlewhitecat.com/linda/grub.JPG

Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 7:56 am Post subject:

Easiest way, (if it is for a howto install linux) is to install it as a virtual pc.... and take a screenshot from your other install...

LWD Staff Joined: 15 Feb 2002 Posts: 1300 Location: USA

You guessed it! Just in case it comes together, I want to get pictures as I go. I don't know about doing it the virtual way though...

Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 10:50 am Post subject:

Grab a copy of VMware (I use VMware Workstation, but VMware Server is free) and install your operating system a virtual machine. You can take screenshots as normal of the virtual machine window.

The virtual machine and it's operating system can be in any state. For example, one wouldn't normally be able to get this screenshot if Windows was installed for real:

Butt Sniffer Joined: 09 Nov 2000 Posts: 1883

I use Microsoft VirtualPC 2004 and it works well.

Windows 98

Knoppix Boot Screen

Knoppix Boot Help Screen

Knoppix Booting

Knoppix Booted

All of this is on an XP MCE host.

LWD Staff Joined: 15 Feb 2002 Posts: 1300 Location: USA

Okay, I did a little reading about Virtualization, and it's got me wondering about a couple of things. Maybe once I try it that'll answer my questions, but I like to know a little about stuff before I jump in...

So, 2 questions: (easy one) My computer isn't a server. Does that matter?

Second question: If it's so easy to run things virtually like this, why do we even bother to install separate Os's? I mean, when I install "virtually" is it really installed? I guess I just don't get it.

Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 2:32 pm Post subject:

Linda wrote:
So, 2 questions: (easy one) My computer isn't a server. Does that matter?

Nope.

Quote:
Second question: If it's so easy to run things virtually like this, why do we even bother to install separate Os's? I mean, when I install "virtually" is it really installed? I guess I just don't get it.

Why bother? because using virtual environments uses a LOT more system resources than booting separately. If you've got programs you want to run well in Windows (har har), you'll have a lot harder time doing so with Linux running, along with all it's programs/resources, and then having a program running the Windows OS, and all the programs that go with that. Doesn't work near as well. But if you want to test something out, it's a lot easier to run a virtual install than it is to go through the repartitioning, etc. involved with installing.

That and it's a whole lot easier to get screenshots in a virtual environment. Wink

Butt Sniffer Joined: 09 Nov 2000 Posts: 1883

Linda wrote:

So, 2 questions: (easy one) My computer isn't a server. Does that matter?

No you don't need a server. All those shots I posted were from my laptop running XP Media Center Edition.

Linda wrote:

Second question: If it's so easy to run things virtually like this, why do we even bother to install separate Os's? I mean, when I install "virtually" is it really installed? I guess I just don't get it.

Virtual PC's use alot of resources because you are physically running two (or more) operating systems at the same time on the same PC. So all your resources are halfed (or more).

Virtualization is good for testing and learning. If you don't have a supply of PC's laying around to install all the various OS's on you can use virtual PC's and just run the one you want to use at that time. Probably the biggest use is software testing. If you work in a mixed OS enviroment and want to test/debug an application before you roll it out you can keep a virtual PC for each OS on your machine and test in said enviroment without blowing anything up.

Yes is is installed on the PC. I've not used VMWare but MS Virtual PC uses a "virtual hard drive". If you want your virtual PC to have a 20Gb hard drive then you create a 20GB Virtual HD and install the OS and everything to it, it boots and runs same as if it was a physical hard drive.

My laptop is a Intel Core-duo 2Ghz with 1Gb of RAM running XP MCE. I can run Knoppix with 256mb of RAM allocated to it, and DOS playing Scorched Earth with 16mb of RAM allocated to it, and still use the host without any major issues.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx

http://www.vmware.com

On a side note.

Yes, Microsoft spent millions of dollars developing Virtual PC just so i could play an 11 year old shareware game.

Thank you Bill.

Now if I could just find my copy of Carmen Sandiego.

LWD Staff Joined: 15 Feb 2002 Posts: 1300 Location: USA

Thanks for both of your answers! That makes lots of sense now. I'll give it a try.