How to Install Ubuntu Linux on Windows XP using VMware Server
Ubuntu linux installation is painless as explained in this document. Ubuntu is a valuable and completely free distribution of Linux. It is open-source and software libre meaning that it's free of any limitations that GPL or LGPL may pose. Like other Linux distributions, Ubuntu will enable you to text your applications in Linux.
Challenge
The common challenge for many users is that fact that one must either configure dual-boot into windows or Ubuntu Linux, or set-aside a PC for use with this operating system. Often, especially for smaller companies and consultancies that may not have the resources, it is not possible to set-aside a PC system just for testing or learning Linux if that is not the popular platform within the organisation. Also, it may sometimes be necessary to switch between several operating system during development or testing, and this may not be possible in dual-boot environments, or if you are away from the office (in a situation where it's not possible to have your multiple systems).
Solution
To enable to simultaneously use of multiple operating systems on on computer, there are a number of low-level applications in the market; especially for Apple Computers to run Windows (More of these will be added especially now that Apple is using Intel Chips and shipping Microsoft Windows bundled with their new systems). Besides the fact that it costs money to enable Windows to run on a Mac, this feature did not exist on Windows Systems to enable them to run other OS for free until VMware started distributing it's Server.
Installation Procedure
- Download and install the VMWare Server (You will be required to create an account in order to receive a registration key - necessary to run the software)
- Install the server software (this will take a long time and also ask you to close common applications such as Mozilla, Outlook, OpenOffice)
- Enter the product registration key when requested
- You are not equipped with the VMWare server and you are ready to install operating systems
- Start the VMWare Server and from the home menu, select 'New Virtual Machine' and follow the instructions that follow to install a CD of Ubuntu Linux (If the CD auto-launches within Windows, cancel it and DO NOT install it in Windows lest you erase your physical disk)
- Make sure that you allocate enough disk space for the Ubuntu Linux installation partitions without compromising the other windows applications on your system (make the decision based on how much idle disk-space you have).
- Whenever Ubuntu 'talks' of formating the drive and erasing all information, do not be scared, it's only taking about the space allocated to it within the VMWare virtual machine environment
- The Ubuntu Linux installation will take some time to complete, and it's not any different or complex compared to installing Windows XP
- Make choices for screen-resolution, networking and RAM usage based on the resources that your system has, how often you will be using Ubuntu Linux Compared to your Windows applications, and your network setup
- When done, Ubuntu will restart the machine (all within the VMWare virtual machine without restarting your physical PC) and you should have a nice working installation of Ubuntu Linux within your Windows O
- The VMWare Server allows you to break free from the Ubuntu Linux or any other Virtual machine you may be using (to use your physical Windows machine) by pressing CONTROL + ALT
Comments
Ubuntu on Windows XP with VMware
I did exactly what was written on your website, and now I have ubuntu running on vmware which runs on my Windows XP. But a lot of the hardware components were not recognized by ubuntu, such as the CD/DVD-RAM the Sound card, the wireless card etc...
although I tried to install the driver for my Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG found on the Intel site for linux. I ran into some problems I had to install the ieee80211 drivers first, but it says it does not find a "build" folder in there. so I was unsuccessful.
Could you please direct me to some helpful hints? thx a lot
Me
In the network options of
In the network options of the virtual machine you are using, select the "share nat" option, if you check this, it will share the same network connection that your host machine uses, so you dont need to install drivers for any network hardware.
greets, ryke
Successfully Installed 5.1 and 7.0.4 on Wired / Wireless Network
I have been able to successfully install Ubuntu 7.04 on a dell desktop with wired networking, and Ubuntu 5.1 on a Dell Inspiron 2650 Laptop with wireless networking (NetGear G PCMCIA card) and they were both without incident.
The installation on the dell required me to manually input the SSID of the network, they WPA key. It failed to get DHCP acceptance until I expressedly declared the IP address of the DHCP host (the IP address of the router - commonly 192.168.0.1). It worked after that.
NB: I decided to install 5.1 on the laptop because when I tried to install 7.x on it (it comes on a single CD for both Live and Install uses), I got an error message
BusyBox v1.1.3 (Debian 1:1.1.3-2ubuntu3) Built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.
/bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
(initramfs)
which as explained in the Ubuntu forums is often caused by running the Live CD on some systems (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=292533) since Ubuntu 5.1 has the installer and the Live version on two different disks, I decided to install 5.1 first, and then run 7.0 on top of it as a walk-around the issue.
installing Ubuntu on VM with XP
Have system running XP with SP2 Downloaded and installed VM Server Console 1.0.3 However when I start it it asks me for Local or Remote host. I chose Local host, after a while I get three choices, the first being to set up a new virtual machine, I took that one. It goes thru' a few items to get started for the setup and then tells me it is creating the disk.
What am I supposed to do after this? I have a Ubuntu (7.0.4) live CD
I rebooted the computer and it started loading asked me where to install and I gave it the location that the VM had created above
It all installed but I end up with a "dual boot" machine, not what I wanted.
My understanding was that I would start in XP and could just go to Ubuntu and back to XP without rebooting. Is this not true. I am pretty new with Linux also so any help or pointers will be appreciated
Thanks for the help
You rebooted into a real installation of Ubuntu vs a virtual one
In my understanding, what happened is that when you rebooted, you were prompted to install Ubuntu on your Hard drive (not the virtual machine drives), and so it installed Ubuntu on the real drive; hence your current situation of having to boot either into Windows, or Linux. This does not hurt as Ubuntu can read FAT partitions, and so it will be able to share data/files with your Windows XP boot (which is using NTFS if I am not mistaken). If you want to undo what happened, you can use a low-level disk management utility like fdisk (WARNING: Be very sure you know what you are doing, otherwise you could wipe out all the data on your machine without any chance for recovery). Using fdisk, you can delete the partition where you installed Ubuntu, and that will change things so that booting automatically loads XP.
As for the VMWare install, when a virtual machine 'restarts', it should be able to do so within VMWare without restarting the parent/real OS (Windows XP in your case).
Alternatively, you can do a Ubuntu live setup which will enable you to boot into Ubuntu from the CR-ROM without changing anything on your hard drive. This will give you an opportunity to try and learn the many features of Ubuntu, and once you are familiar with it, you might end up making it your main computing environment.
NB: If you have other questions or comments, post them and someone will comment or answer your questions
No luck installing ubuntu on vmware
Hi, I have done every step but i always get the same problem. About the 65% of the installation the progress bar window closes and nothing else happens. I waited for about an hour and nothing. I restarted the virtual machine and ubuntu doesn't start, i guess the operating system is not complete.
After that I downloaded a virtual machine with ubuntu 7.04 server, i start the virtual machine but hangs at startup. I don't know what can be causing this. I'm using vmware server 1.0.2, i don't know if it has issues with feisty fawn. Any ideas?
Ubuntu on XP
I tried running ubuntu on vmware in XP and i get all the way through but then i get a GNOME desktop error saying that things won't work properly then i just get an orange screen forever and it won't stop ..
hi there, i want to know, if
md5sum
change the drive for VM.