DSL Ideas and Suggestions :: QEMU is ok, but VMWare is much faster (And Free?)



I like DSL and I love using it.  I've used Qemu before, but it is 2 to 5 times slower than an actual computer (due to its processor emulation technology).
Since VMWare is has a better processing technology, it's much easier to work in than QEMU.
Here's how you can do it free and legal:
1. Download and install VMWare's free player from http://www.vmware.com/products/player/
2. Copy the dsl iso into a new directory (I put it under program files\DSL Linux).
3. Create a new file named BlahBlahBlah.vmx
4. Edit the new vmx file with the following information:
  # VM Machine info
  guestOS = "linux"
  displayName = "MYLINUXBOX"
  config.version = "7"
  memsize = "256"

  # CDROM INfo
  ide1:0.present = "TRUE"
  ide1:0.fileName = "dsl-2.0RC1.iso"
  ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-image"
  # Host CD-Rom Drive
  #ide1:0.fileName = "auto detect"
  #ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-raw"

  #Ethernet
  Ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
  ethernet0.addressType = "generated"

  # Audio Settings
  sound.present = "TRUE"
  sound.autodetect = "TRUE"

  # Host USB
  usb.present = "TRUE"
Thanks, this is excellent :=) QEMU was unusable on my p3 - it just locked the machine up.  But dsl on VMPlayer on this machine is altogether usable. Posting from there now.

I doubled the default ram allocation (256MB) in the VmPlayer settings and it seems better again. Not sure if enabling dma and booting toram makes any difference, but seems to proceed as for a normal boot - I think it enables dma on the virtual  drive that load the iso.  Performance is ok  Not as lightning fast as a dma toram boot from livecd on the same pc, but ok.

Moving files between host and guest OSs is easy since you can mount a usb stick in either OS (not at the same time) after toggling a button on vmplayer's toolbar (or can ftp/ssh between systems as for qemu).

As handy as qemu is (don't have to install on the host), it's just *not* in the race compared to this.

In the vmware forums I read that they hope people will distribute more virtual machines for use on vmplayer. Here is one they can use out of the box, just add that .vmx file.  However, they also labor under the delusion that you have to buy their VMWare Workstation $ product to make a virtual machine ....

Red Hat and Suse etc have virtual machines downloadable from the vmware site.  The "Browser Appliance" virtual machine - for surfing the net - is built from ubuntu and firefox and is a 210MB download!   I suppose dsl run this way would outperform these. Another way to win converts to dsl ....?
i love the idea, i also love the facted that it can restore the ram. so, u don`t have to load the whole OS ever time just the ram, but it's TO big. qemu is less then a floppy disk but vmware is more then 25 MB. i will use this to test my live CD/DVDs, i won`t use it on the road. and 99.9% of the time when i use DSL in the inside another OS it is on the road.
It's not very portable - requires admin logon to install on win.  But i look forward to trying it on a p4 ; on a p3 ~800Mhz it runs noticeably faster than qemu on a p4 pc 1600Mhz+.

It's great.
As long as its free its ok

I didnt know they had a "free" player...thanks for the info!!!

Brian
AwPhuch
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