Virtual Machine

Technologic · May 28, 2009

Is anyone familiar with Virtual Machines? and setting them up?

I have no trouble setting them up on my computer on either hard drive I have. But I want to install one on a Flash drive or my old iPod Photo. So far I have tried just creating the VM right onto both the FD/ipod but with varying results. The times it made it past the format and file copying it would error out during the installation of windows. I have tried creating it onto my hd then moving the files to the fd/ipod and doing that it couldn't find the files it needed even when I browsed and told it where they were. I have tried making the VM hd different sizes and swapped back and forth between pre allocating and not allocating space until it was needed. So far the closest I have gotten was I made it 99% through windows install but then kept getting errors that it couldn't get files from the "disc" (ISO image of disc). I told it to retry a few times then said continue without and it said corrupt hd when I tried to boot the computer. Because the flash drive and my iPod are considered removable media, I am limited to split 2gig hd files.

Anyone have any idea if it is possible to install a VM on a flash drive or iPod. If it is any one know how? Or does anyone know how to fake my computer into thinking an iPod is not removable but in fact a standard hd? Thanks for any help, even if its a link to another website. I attempted to search but found minimal stuff. Then again it was late at night so I'll probably look again also.

Wegs · May 28, 2009

I doubt you could do it on an I pod, but you probably could on a big enough flash drive. They have an entire wiki on VMs.

Sawaa · May 29, 2009

Well..most VM packages use Disk Images to store the VM. Why not just create the VM and then move the configuration file and disk image file to your preferred storage medium?

h3g3l · May 29, 2009

Sawaa said:
Well..most VM packages use Disk Images to store the VM. Why not just create the VM and then move the configuration file and disk image file to your preferred storage medium?

Yup.

However, I'd advise against doing this on flash media, as the swap-space / temp-files will create disk thrashing. Flash media have a limited number of write cycles.

Technologic · May 29, 2009

I've tried just creating it on my computer and transfering the files over to my iPod but when i try and run it from my ipod it cant find the proper file, Even when i direct it where it is.

Does anyone know 100% that it is in fact possible?

chevre · May 29, 2009

If it's usable as a normal disk drive, then sure it's possible. What virtualization software are you using? Are you sure you copied all the files it created?

Technologic · May 29, 2009

I am using VMware-workstation-6.0.4-93057. and its an old iPod Photo that is enabled for disk use. As far as I know its all of the files, I will try later tonight creating a VM on my hd then moving it somewhere else on my hd and trying to run it to see if it is truly all of the files.

Technologic · May 30, 2009

K well I kind of got it working. Before I was creating the VM then putting it onto my iPod then trying to install windows. I decided to install windows then move it and it works for the most part. But now after a short period of time,I keep getting Write delay error messages. It is having trouble writing to the VM log file on the iPod, and in doing this it really messes with everything since I cant do anything else while it complains. And if I kill power to the VM it corrupts it. I looked to see if I could tell it not to write to log but haven't had much luck finding out how. Tomorrow when I get a chance after work I'm gonna try and see if I can at least have it write the log file on the host computer so it wont error out. Anyone have any solutions? If you happen to be familiar with this VM or you are just bored and wanna try and look something up.
Thanks.

chevre · May 30, 2009

I happen to have a bit of experience tweaking VMWare and its various files. You'll find the .vmx file it creates is simply a text configuration file. Open it in your favorite text editor and you'll see a section like

Code:

# Logging
# This config activates logging, and keeps last log
logging = "TRUE"
log.fileName = "Virtual_Server.log"
log.append = "TRUE"
log.keepOld = "3"

You could probably pass an absolute path for the log file, or just disable logging entirely by setting 'logging = "FALSE"'.

Technologic · May 30, 2009

I checked my config file and it didn't have that so I just added it in and set logging to false. It seems to have worked fine. No longer complaining about delayed write failure so just hoping I don't run into any more problems. Thanks for the help, chevre and everyone else.