VMWare server on Ubuntu

I recently allowed my Ubuntu 8.04 desktop machine to do some upgrades, including some kernel updates. Everything went fine, except that my VMWare server would no longer run, it would start, I'd see the "Starting VMWare Server" block on the panel, but then it'd disappear.

It turns out that VMWare server installations are coupled quite closely with a particular kernel. This sounds sensible, after the fact, but all it really does is point out how shallow my *nix knowledge is in some areas.

Anyway, this fixed things just right, accepting all of the default options along the way:

sudo vmware-config.pl

Edited to fix spelling, and add that I had to repeat this exercise again after another Kernel upgrade 15/08/2008. Trivial after the last time, although still somewhat annoying.

Windows XP Service Pack 3

I've just completed my first trial run with XP service pack 3. I installed it on top of a fresh copy of windows XP Professional, installed i a VMWare virtual machine. It installed without a hitch, seemed faster than the SP2 installation.

I've since run a Windows update check, and there were only 3 "high priority" updates. Not perfect, but much better than the several hundred MB of downloads and several reboots required after an SP2 installation.

My plan is to install a few basics and keep a copy of this VM for use as a base for various tasks. The first one will be a Visual Studio 2008 VM. 8 GB will probably be just enough* for this, but if I can keep it to 8 GB I can burn copies to DVD. My intention is to have task specific VM's, rather than one do-everything machine.

It will require a little more discipline, but I think it will serve me better in the long run, especially as I do more and more on Linux. Launching a Windows VM on demand should be more convenient than dual booting, except perhaps for gaming. However, my computer gaming time is pretty much non-existent these days, so it's not really much of a sacrifice.

* As it turns out, 8 GB really insn't enough for Visual Studio 8. Actually, the install was OK, but I removed C#, leaving me with less than 1GB. This, unfortunately, is unsufficient to install any of the docoumentation and reference material. I'll see how this goes, I can almost certainly have the doco on a second monitor / machine in most instances. Otherwise it'll be a 10-12 GB build.