Re: Will wine|win4lin|VMWare save my XP bacon?
On Mon, 3 Apr 2006 15:14:06 -0400 John <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On (03/04/06 09:17), Andrew Sackville-West wrote: > > To: debian-user@lists.debian.org > > From: Andrew Sackville-West <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Subject: Re: Will wine|win4lin|VMWare save my XP bacon? > > Date: Mon, 03 Apr 2006 09:17:44 -0700 > > X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.4 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00,EMPTY_MESSAGE, > > FORGED_RCVD_HELO autolearn=no version=3.1.0 > > > > On Fri, 31 Mar 2006 22:14:41 -0500 > > John <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > > > I do not fully understand what happened. I was NOT using any repair > > > CD; the only XP resources available were those on the partition I had > > > copied via dd to /dev/hdb1 (D:, in Windows talk) from /dev/hda1 > > > > > its really pretty simple, Windows doesn't like to boot off of any > > drive but the first partition of the first hard-drive. Why? who > > knows. but the "map" commands you used in GRUB fool it into thinking > > its the first drive so then it boots just fine. > > > > I can only guess that as part of its boot process it checks for > > certain bits on the disk, but being Windows, it doesn't specify "my" > > disk, but "the first" disk... you know what happens when you assume. > > > > You happened to have XP on BOTH disks and since they were duplicate > > images, your D: windows found what it needed on the C: drive and thus > > booted... until you killed the C: drive. make sense? > > What you say makes sense, but it's not what happened. Let me > recapitulate as simply as I can: > > 1. I copied my whole Windows XP partition to another disk; actual > command: dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/dev/hdb1 bs=$((1*1024*1024)). (Warning: > the partitions must be the same size. > 2. I booted into XP (from the original disk), and it discovered "new > hardware," and recognized both C: and D; > 3. I (foolishly) wiped /dev/hda1, and then copied by Debian root > partition: dd if=/dev/hda3 of=/dev/hda1 bs=$((1*1024*1024)). (Same > warning as 1. above.) > 4. Next I rewrote /boot/grub/menu.lst to reflect the new location of > the XP installation: root (hd1,0) > 5. XP wouldn't boot. I tried various stuff, finally wrote d-u, got the > suggestion to try mapping. > 6. Booted successfully into Windows XP. It's at this point that the > puzzling event occurred: XP reinstalled itself, without asking AT > ALL. It could not possibly have drawn on resources from C: (aka > /dev/hda1), since that location was now occupied by Debian GNU/Linux. > Had the events occured at step 2, your explanation would very likely > be correct. But not at step 6. okay, well that's just plain weird. Where did it re-install itself? back on /dev/hda1? Doesn't that make it a virus? ;) > > [] > > Andrew, thanks for taking a stab at it. Probably this is more detail > than anyone really wanted to have. its all good. I love to learn... A > > -- > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > PGP key 1024D/99421A63 2005-01-05 > EE51 79E9 F244 D734 A012 1CEC 7813 9FE9 9942 1A63 > gpg --keyserver subkeys.pgp.net --recv-keys 99421A63 > pgpfKkgdLJzVs.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Will wine|win4lin|VMWare save my XP bacon?
On (03/04/06 09:17), Andrew Sackville-West wrote: > To: debian-user@lists.debian.org > From: Andrew Sackville-West <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: Will wine|win4lin|VMWare save my XP bacon? > Date: Mon, 03 Apr 2006 09:17:44 -0700 > X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.4 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00,EMPTY_MESSAGE, > FORGED_RCVD_HELO autolearn=no version=3.1.0 > > On Fri, 31 Mar 2006 22:14:41 -0500 > John <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > I do not fully understand what happened. I was NOT using any repair > > CD; the only XP resources available were those on the partition I had > > copied via dd to /dev/hdb1 (D:, in Windows talk) from /dev/hda1 > its really pretty simple, Windows doesn't like to boot off of any > drive but the first partition of the first hard-drive. Why? who > knows. but the "map" commands you used in GRUB fool it into thinking > its the first drive so then it boots just fine. > > I can only guess that as part of its boot process it checks for > certain bits on the disk, but being Windows, it doesn't specify "my" > disk, but "the first" disk... you know what happens when you assume. > > You happened to have XP on BOTH disks and since they were duplicate > images, your D: windows found what it needed on the C: drive and thus > booted... until you killed the C: drive. make sense? What you say makes sense, but it's not what happened. Let me recapitulate as simply as I can: 1. I copied my whole Windows XP partition to another disk; actual command: dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/dev/hdb1 bs=$((1*1024*1024)). (Warning: the partitions must be the same size. 2. I booted into XP (from the original disk), and it discovered "new hardware," and recognized both C: and D; 3. I (foolishly) wiped /dev/hda1, and then copied by Debian root partition: dd if=/dev/hda3 of=/dev/hda1 bs=$((1*1024*1024)). (Same warning as 1. above.) 4. Next I rewrote /boot/grub/menu.lst to reflect the new location of the XP installation: root (hd1,0) 5. XP wouldn't boot. I tried various stuff, finally wrote d-u, got the suggestion to try mapping. 6. Booted successfully into Windows XP. It's at this point that the puzzling event occurred: XP reinstalled itself, without asking AT ALL. It could not possibly have drawn on resources from C: (aka /dev/hda1), since that location was now occupied by Debian GNU/Linux. Had the events occured at step 2, your explanation would very likely be correct. But not at step 6. > in fact, as I go back and read this over, it makes even more > sense. Its probably not that windows "Cares" which partition its one, > but that its hardwired to access the first disk for something during > its boot process and when it isn't the first disk, fails. THe "map" > redirects that access to the proper disk. > > A Andrew, thanks for taking a stab at it. Probably this is more detail than anyone really wanted to have. -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] PGP key 1024D/99421A63 2005-01-05 EE51 79E9 F244 D734 A012 1CEC 7813 9FE9 9942 1A63 gpg --keyserver subkeys.pgp.net --recv-keys 99421A63 signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: Will wine|win4lin|VMWare save my XP bacon?
On Fri, 31 Mar 2006 22:14:41 -0500 John <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I do not fully understand what happened. I was NOT using any repair > CD; the only XP resources available were those on the partition I had > copied via dd to /dev/hdb1 (D:, in Windows talk) from /dev/hda1 > > Remember, after I had copied my XP partition, I edited grub and then > successfully booted into XP. It then found both C: and D:. At that > point, I took back /dev/hda1 for Debian, found myself unable to get > XP to boot, and finally wrote debian-user for help. My best > UNconfident guess is that when I was finally able (thanks to using > grub's "map" optionon your advice), XP sensed something was wrong and > just decided to reinstall itself without asking permission. But just > how that came about is a mystery to me still. > its really pretty simple, Windows doesn't like to boot off of any drive but the first partition of the first hard-drive. Why? who knows. but the "map" commands you used in GRUB fool it into thinking its the first drive so then it boots just fine. I can only guess that as part of its boot process it checks for certain bits on the disk, but being Windows, it doesn't specify "my" disk, but "the first" disk... you know what happens when you assume. You happened to have XP on BOTH disks and since they were duplicate images, your D: windows found what it needed on the C: drive and thus booted... until you killed the C: drive. make sense? in fact, as I go back and read this over, it makes even more sense. Its probably not that windows "Cares" which partition its one, but that its hardwired to access the first disk for something during its boot process and when it isn't the first disk, fails. THe "map" redirects that access to the proper disk. A pgpDuupN10oUV.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Will wine|win4lin|VMWare save my XP bacon?
On Fri, Mar 31, 2006 at 10:14:41PM -0500, John wrote: > > I am the one who owes an apology to debian-user for soliciting > help on the matter. But who else but us would be pushing Windows into dark > unused > corners on our hard-drives? No apologies needed, either for asking how to make Windows and Debian coexist, or for answering. Many many many of us do that. -- hendrik -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Will wine|win4lin|VMWare save my XP bacon?
John wrote: I'd appreciate advice on whether wine, win4lin, VMWare or some other route might get me out of a bind. I'm embarrassed, but here's what I did: At the start, my ThinkPad (A31) was dual booted via grub, Windows XP on /dev/hda1, sid on the rest, 2.6.15-homemade kernel. So I added a second hard drive in the UltraBay. I then copied the XP partition to the new drive -- dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/dev/hdb1 bs=$((1*1024*1024)). I double checked: XP booted and recognized both C: and D: drives. OK, I thought, and wiped Windows off the original drive, and took it all for Debian, with / mounted on hda1. So of course XP doesn't boot from its new location, even though grub finds it via update-grub. Shouldda known! If anyone knows how I might just enable the XP copy on /dev/hdb1, aka D:, I'd be grateful. I've investigated, so far nothing. Another choice would be to forget XP, except that it is on rare occasion (involving proprietary dial-up) handy. Yet another would be to bite the bullet, wipe the drive, repartition, reinstall that Other OS on hda, and then reinstall sid. Ugh, what a chore! Is there a third family of choices? Would wine, win4lin, VMWare or something else be able to run XP where it is? Thanks for any advice, if only to think twice next time! (Wait: I know that now!) I would vote for forgetting about XP dual boot and getting VMware. I use the free beta server and find the program excellent. Of course as was already pointed out, you run an entire os on top of an os, but present hardware is so incredibly fast that it doesn't matter. I run VMware with 1 GB of storage and it never starts swapping. H -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Will wine|win4lin|VMWare save my XP bacon?
On (31/03/06 20:05), Dave Witbrodt wrote: > To: debian-user@lists.debian.org > From: Dave Witbrodt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: Will wine|win4lin|VMWare save my XP bacon? > Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2006 20:05:47 -0500 > X-Spam-Status: No, score=-6.0 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=no > version=3.1.0 > > > >Here's the story, in more detail, for the archives. I rewrote the > >relevant stanza of /boot/grub/menu.lst to read http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/> > > > >Is this a great list, or what?! And particularly, thanks Dave! > > Glad to be of some help. And, _yes_, 'debian-user' is great, even > when it goes OT. (And I don't mean overtime... I mean stuff about > broccoli, etc.) > > I'm glad it worked out for you. I don't really understand what you > did: you said you changed 'menu.lst', rebooted, and found that WinXP > was working. Everything after that sounded a lot like you were doing > repairs using a WinXP CD, though. Is that true? I do not fully understand what happened. I was NOT using any repair CD; the only XP resources available were those on the partition I had copied via dd to /dev/hdb1 (D:, in Windows talk) from /dev/hda1 Remember, after I had copied my XP partition, I edited grub and then successfully booted into XP. It then found both C: and D:. At that point, I took back /dev/hda1 for Debian, found myself unable to get XP to boot, and finally wrote debian-user for help. My best UNconfident guess is that when I was finally able (thanks to using grub's "map" optionon your advice), XP sensed something was wrong and just decided to reinstall itself without asking permission. But just how that came about is a mystery to me still. > I any case, it sounds like you dodged the bullet this time. (Shall > we call you "Neo," or what? :) No, call me "Lucky" to have someone as knowledgeable as you to offer advice. > If you are getting Win XP to offer boot choices AFTER you boot to > Windows with GRUB, then you may get tired of it and want to > reconfigure WinXP so that it doesn't do that any more. I'm getting > off topic for a Debian list, but you are a Debian user so I guess we > can afford to give you some slack. You can go to > > Start -> Control Panel -> Performance and Maintenance -> System > > from there choose > > Advanced -> Startup and Recovery: Settings > > Then look for: > > "To edit the startup options file manually, click edit" > > If you do this you may be in somewhat dangerous territory. I'm not > really sure what has happened with your machine -- it sounds like > Windows moved your previous system to a new "folder" and installed > itself into a fresh one. Normally, this file is used to select > different OSes on different partitions to boot from; it is the WinXP > equivalent of GRUB's 'menu.lst' file. It can also be used to setup > different boot configurations on the same partition. > You probably want to backup this file before you edit it. It is > usually here: > > C:\BOOT.INI > > To get at it you may have to alter its file attributes using ATTRIB > from the command prompt. > Now, if the lines in this file under "[operating systems]" indicate > different values for "rdisk()", then BOOT.INI is actually booting > different versions of WinXP from different partitions. > On the other hand, if the lines seem identical except for the > "folder" at the very end, then you have more than one version of WinXP > installed on the same partition. If that is the case, and you don't > want the choice of booting to your original WinXP and a new, clean > install, you can remove the line to the clean install... and you can > erase the folder that contains the clean install if you boot to your > original version of WinXP. A second install will just waste drive > space, and it may not recognize any of your installed programs anyway. I followed your advice, edited BOOT.INI (after backing it up) to my taste, and all is well. Thanks one more time. > My apologies to the rest of the 'debian-user' community who feel > that offering help regarding a competing OS is inappropriate. I do > not fear Microshaft and it's current near-monopoly over the OS market; > indeed, I have actually begun to feel sorry for it because it's demise > is as inevitable as it is appropriate. I also feel that by helping > newbies to multiboot until they're ready to make a permanent switch to > Debian (or some other Linux... or even joining the Hurd!) it makes > people feel like their welcom
Re: Will wine|win4lin|VMWare save my XP bacon?
Here's the story, in more detail, for the archives. I rewrote the relevant stanza of /boot/grub/menu.lst to read # This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS # on /dev/hdb1, "map" lines added by hand. title Windows XP map (hd0) (hd1) map (hd1) (hd0) root(hd1,0) savedefault chainloader +1 I then rebooted into Windows XP. It went _directly_ to "Windows XP Professional Setup," without asking permission (of course), deleted a slew of files and copied a bunch more to hard disk. While this was going on, I was thinking, Let it do what it wants, since it's really on hdb, thinking its on C:. When it was done, it rebooted into grub! And my sid installation is still there! Hurrah! So I booted back into Windows, and this time was in the regular Windows XP Pro Setup, which claimed "Installing Windows" supposedly "to complete in 39 minutes." It took less than 15. Rebooted again, and found I had choices: back to the installer, or two identical lines reading "Microsoft Windows XP Professional." The first one produces a brand new installation of XP, complete with request to register it with Micro$oft. But the second line provides my whole old installation, even IBM Client Security! Half an hour of checking suggests everything still works. Whew! Is this a great list, or what?! And particularly, thanks Dave! Glad to be of some help. And, _yes_, 'debian-user' is great, even when it goes OT. (And I don't mean overtime... I mean stuff about broccoli, etc.) I'm glad it worked out for you. I don't really understand what you did: you said you changed 'menu.lst', rebooted, and found that WinXP was working. Everything after that sounded a lot like you were doing repairs using a WinXP CD, though. Is that true? I any case, it sounds like you dodged the bullet this time. (Shall we call you "Neo," or what? :) If you are getting Win XP to offer boot choices AFTER you boot to Windows with GRUB, then you may get tired of it and want to reconfigure WinXP so that it doesn't do that any more. I'm getting off topic for a Debian list, but you are a Debian user so I guess we can afford to give you some slack. You can go to Start -> Control Panel -> Performance and Maintenance -> System from there choose Advanced -> Startup and Recovery: Settings Then look for: "To edit the startup options file manually, click edit" If you do this you may be in somewhat dangerous territory. I'm not really sure what has happened with your machine -- it sounds like Windows moved your previous system to a new "folder" and installed itself into a fresh one. Normally, this file is used to select different OSes on different partitions to boot from; it is the WinXP equivalent of GRUB's 'menu.lst' file. It can also be used to setup different boot configurations on the same partition. You probably want to backup this file before you edit it. It is usually here: C:\BOOT.INI To get at it you may have to alter its file attributes using ATTRIB from the command prompt. Now, if the lines in this file under "[operating systems]" indicate different values for "rdisk()", then BOOT.INI is actually booting different versions of WinXP from different partitions. On the other hand, if the lines seem identical except for the "folder" at the very end, then you have more than one version of WinXP installed on the same partition. If that is the case, and you don't want the choice of booting to your original WinXP and a new, clean install, you can remove the line to the clean install... and you can erase the folder that contains the clean install if you boot to your original version of WinXP. A second install will just waste drive space, and it may not recognize any of your installed programs anyway. I offer this FYI, since it reminds me very much of a problem I helped a student with recently who had installed WinXP over top of a pre-existing Win2K partition and ended up with a very similar set of boot choices from XP's boot loader (NTLDR). My apologies to the rest of the 'debian-user' community who feel that offering help regarding a competing OS is inappropriate. I do not fear Microshaft and it's current near-monopoly over the OS market; indeed, I have actually begun to feel sorry for it because it's demise is as inevitable as it is appropriate. I also feel that by helping newbies to multiboot until they're ready to make a permanent switch to Debian (or some other Linux... or even joining the Hurd!) it makes people feel like their welcome to join a community instead of some sort of tribal feud between advocates of alternative bit-collections. Dave W. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Will wine|win4lin|VMWare save my XP bacon?
On (31/03/06 15:59), Paul Johnson wrote: > To: debian-user@lists.debian.org > From: Paul Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: Will wine|win4lin|VMWare save my XP bacon? > Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2006 15:59:49 -0800 > X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.4 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00,EMPTY_MESSAGE, > FORGED_RCVD_HELO autolearn=no version=3.1.0 > > On Friday 31 March 2006 12:11, John wrote: > > I'd appreciate advice on whether wine, win4lin, VMWare or some other > > route might get me out of a bind. I'm embarrassed, but here's what I > > did: > > > > At the start, my ThinkPad (A31) was dual booted via grub, Windows XP > > on /dev/hda1, sid on the rest, 2.6.15-homemade kernel. > > Is power management working on yours? If so, how did you get it to work? I > have an A31 that's just begging to have the Windows zapped out of it. I do not have power management working. I monkeyed around with various suggestions from http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_make_ACPI_work, but with little success. I did manage to put the think to sleep, but had to reboot to wake it up. So I gave up. Until next time. -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] PGP key 1024D/99421A63 2005-01-05 EE51 79E9 F244 D734 A012 1CEC 7813 9FE9 9942 1A63 gpg --keyserver subkeys.pgp.net --recv-keys 99421A63 signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: Will wine|win4lin|VMWare save my XP bacon?
On Friday 31 March 2006 12:11, John wrote: > I'd appreciate advice on whether wine, win4lin, VMWare or some other > route might get me out of a bind. I'm embarrassed, but here's what I > did: > > At the start, my ThinkPad (A31) was dual booted via grub, Windows XP > on /dev/hda1, sid on the rest, 2.6.15-homemade kernel. Is power management working on yours? If so, how did you get it to work? I have an A31 that's just begging to have the Windows zapped out of it. -- Paul Johnson Email and IM (XMPP & Google Talk): [EMAIL PROTECTED] Jabber: Because it's time to move forward http://ursine.ca/Ursine:Jabber pgpZcmZZII1Du.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Will wine|win4lin|VMWare save my XP bacon?
On (31/03/06 15:37), Dave Witbrodt wrote: > To: debian-user@lists.debian.org > From: Dave Witbrodt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: Will wine|win4lin|VMWare save my XP bacon? > Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2006 15:37:52 -0500 > X-Spam-Status: No, score=-6.0 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=no > version=3.1.0 > > > >At the start, my ThinkPad (A31) was dual booted via grub, Windows XP > >on /dev/hda1, sid on the rest, 2.6.15-homemade kernel. So I added a > >second hard drive in the UltraBay. I then copied the XP partition to > >the new drive -- dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/dev/hdb1 bs=$((1*1024*1024)). I > >double checked: XP booted and recognized both C: and D: drives. OK, I > >thought, and wiped Windows off the original drive, and took it all for > >Debian, with / mounted on hda1. > > So, booting the original XP, it was able to see the new XP > partition and read it. At this point I would have run CHKDSK to let > it see if there were file system problems, but let's just assume it > was OK > At this point, BEFORE DESTROYING the working WinXP setup, you > should have modified your /boot/grub/menu.lst to give you the option > of booting the new WinXP partition. You needed to see if the new one > worked before wiping the original. I did. This is when it recognized both C: and D:, but didn't think to CHKDSK. > MS writes its OSes to only boot off of a C: drive. That means the > WinXP partition has to be on the "first" drive. The machine I'm > writing this email on has, at times, had WinXP on the second drive; to > accomplish this trick you need to lie to the BIOS using the 'map' > feature of GRUB. If you only have 2 IDE hard drives, you'd do it > something like this: > > map (hd0) (hd1) > map (hd1) (hd0) > > This trick the BIOS (and WinXP) into thinking its on drive C:. > > You're probably in trouble, so I don't want you to get your hopes > up. But, if you alter your 'menu.lst' to point to the new WinXP > partition, and if you add some 'map' lines, and if the stars are > aligned properly and hell has sufficiently frozen over, then you might > get lucky here. > Dave W. The stars are all in line, and hell is icy! Your suggestion worked! Here's the story, in more detail, for the archives. I rewrote the relevant stanza of /boot/grub/menu.lst to read # This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS # on /dev/hdb1, "map" lines added by hand. title Windows XP map (hd0) (hd1) map (hd1) (hd0) root(hd1,0) savedefault chainloader +1 I then rebooted into Windows XP. It went _directly_ to "Windows XP Professional Setup," without asking permission (of course), deleted a slew of files and copied a bunch more to hard disk. While this was going on, I was thinking, Let it do what it wants, since it's really on hdb, thinking its on C:. When it was done, it rebooted into grub! And my sid installation is still there! Hurrah! So I booted back into Windows, and this time was in the regular Windows XP Pro Setup, which claimed "Installing Windows" supposedly "to complete in 39 minutes." It took less than 15. Rebooted again, and found I had choices: back to the installer, or two identical lines reading "Microsoft Windows XP Professional." The first one produces a brand new installation of XP, complete with request to register it with Micro$oft. But the second line provides my whole old installation, even IBM Client Security! Half an hour of checking suggests everything still works. Whew! Is this a great list, or what?! And particularly, thanks Dave! -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] PGP key 1024D/99421A63 2005-01-05 EE51 79E9 F244 D734 A012 1CEC 7813 9FE9 9942 1A63 gpg --keyserver subkeys.pgp.net --recv-keys 99421A63 signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: Will wine|win4lin|VMWare save my XP bacon?
On Fri, 31 Mar 2006 15:37:52 -0500 Dave Witbrodt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > WinXP partition has to be on the "first" drive. The machine I'm > writing this email on has, at times, had WinXP on the second drive; to > accomplish this trick you need to lie to the BIOS using the 'map' > feature of GRUB. If you only have 2 IDE hard drives, you'd do it > something like this: > > map (hd0) (hd1) > map (hd1) (hd0) > > This trick the BIOS (and WinXP) into thinking its on drive C:. I do this same thing with my XP install on /dev/hdb1 and lilo and it works great. In the event your mapping doesn't work... I recommend you REMOVE your /dev/hda, move the /dev/hdb over to where /dev/hda was, making it /dev/hda. Then get out your windows cd, or recovery disk or whatever malarkey you've got and fix it. There are a couple tools you can use to fix the boot, if its actually broken. Then use the map trick and shuffle you're disks back around and enjoy. A pgp2aIvCNgWZo.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Will wine|win4lin|VMWare save my XP bacon?
I used to dual boot WinXP and Debian on my Thinkpad X31. I found it to be tedious because, for reasons unknown, Windows partitions would often get corrupted. I wasn't messing with repartitioning or beta filesystem support anything wierd - I would just boot from Windows to Linux for 10 minutes to do something, reboot to WIndows, and wammo - Windows would be corrupt to the point of no return (SFC would fail, I couldn't get booted far enough to troubleshoot, and even trying to work from the boot cd would fail). This happened more than once. So I went to an only Debian install, and use VMWare for Windows work. VMWare works fantastic for this purpose. When it goes full screen, you cannot tell Linux is even on the system. I do not game or do any sort of 3D stuff, and I do not do computationally heavy work in VMWare either. But, I run some heavy hitting programs, such as ESRI ArcGIS and Adobe Illustrator. Those both run smoothly without trouble. The only change I made to the laptop once I got serious about VMware was maxing out the RAM (2gb). But if you only use Windows rarely, instead of daily at work like myself, 512mb of RAM should be sufficient. I need 2gb because I usually run 2-3 VMs at the same time, as well as using the Linux base system. If you only one run VM and the Linux base system, you don't need as much RAM. The VMs take up disk space too, obviously. A 60gb virtul hard disk, if full, is 60gb of data. My biggest VM takes up 25gb of data. So I bought an external USB2 disk. VMWare is not any more stable than any commercial application - and it does lock up sometimes. But in the vast majority of cases, only VMWare freezes, so I can just kill it, an restart it and not have to reboot the real computer. Windows runs fairly fast. I think the general number is that VMware runs at %80 of the actual system speed. So my 1.6ghz Penium-M should be running at 1.28ghz in VMWare. Plenty fast for me.The one big problem for me with VMWare is that the Windows machine can have trouble accessing USB devices because Linux often claims them first. Also, even if it does get the USB device, it only has USB1 support right now - and no firewire. I'm not saying VMWare is a lost cause if you need USB support, but you should do further research if USB is important to your Windows usage. -ZOn 3/31/06, John <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: I'd appreciate advice on whether wine, win4lin, VMWare or some otherroute might get me out of a bind. I'm embarrassed, but here's what Idid:At the start, my ThinkPad (A31) was dual booted via grub, Windows XP on /dev/hda1, sid on the rest, 2.6.15-homemade kernel. So I added asecond hard drive in the UltraBay. I then copied the XP partition tothe new drive -- dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/dev/hdb1 bs=$((1*1024*1024)). Idouble checked: XP booted and recognized both C: and D: drives. OK, I thought, and wiped Windows off the original drive, and took it all forDebian, with / mounted on hda1.So of course XP doesn't boot from its new location, even though grubfinds it via update-grub. Shouldda known! If anyone knows how I might just enable the XP copy on /dev/hdb1, aka D:, I'd be grateful. I'veinvestigated, so far nothing.Another choice would be to forget XP, except that it is on rareoccasion (involving proprietary dial-up) handy. Yet another would be to bite the bullet, wipe the drive, repartition, reinstall that OtherOS on hda, and then reinstall sid. Ugh, what a chore!Is there a third family of choices? Would wine, win4lin, VMWare orsomething else be able to run XP where it is? Thanks for any advice, if only to think twice next time! (Wait: I knowthat now!)--[EMAIL PROTECTED] PGP key 1024D/99421A63 2005-01-05EE51 79E9 F244 D734 A012 1CEC 7813 9FE9 9942 1A63gpg --keyserver subkeys.pgp.net --recv-keys 99421A63-BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.4.2.2 (GNU/Linux)iD8DBQFELYzeeBOf6ZlCGmMRAt8mAJ9Dp9d+dmMVgnV25Woyb29P/AiezACfRkYuoM7BHpJYqW6Fn20zUYc3LL4==462w-END PGP SIGNATURE- -- Its been so long,and the groove in my heart is nearly gone,Oh my head's in the clouds,but I'm landing on my feet. - JKwww.falderal.net
Re: Will wine|win4lin|VMWare save my XP bacon?
John wrote: > Is there a third family of choices? Would wine, win4lin, VMWare or > something else be able to run XP where it is? Not sure about your original problem, but as for emulation, it goes like this: Wine allows you to run Windows applications (and games), not drivers and not the operating system itself. In fact, it does not need Windows at all. Many applications run, but some do not. VMWare and Win4Lin run entire operating system in a virtual computer. Most applications will run, but with a more or less significant slowdown, not to mention the fact that you will be running two full blown operating systems at the same time. Not for gaming. Note: there is a free computer emulator called QEMU. None of these will make Windows drivers work on a Linux system. None of these can replace an entire operating system. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Will wine|win4lin|VMWare save my XP bacon?
At the start, my ThinkPad (A31) was dual booted via grub, Windows XP on /dev/hda1, sid on the rest, 2.6.15-homemade kernel. So I added a second hard drive in the UltraBay. I then copied the XP partition to the new drive -- dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/dev/hdb1 bs=$((1*1024*1024)). I double checked: XP booted and recognized both C: and D: drives. OK, I thought, and wiped Windows off the original drive, and took it all for Debian, with / mounted on hda1. So, booting the original XP, it was able to see the new XP partition and read it. At this point I would have run CHKDSK to let it see if there were file system problems, but let's just assume it was OK At this point, BEFORE DESTROYING the working WinXP setup, you should have modified your /boot/grub/menu.lst to give you the option of booting the new WinXP partition. You needed to see if the new one worked before wiping the original. MS writes its OSes to only boot off of a C: drive. That means the WinXP partition has to be on the "first" drive. The machine I'm writing this email on has, at times, had WinXP on the second drive; to accomplish this trick you need to lie to the BIOS using the 'map' feature of GRUB. If you only have 2 IDE hard drives, you'd do it something like this: map (hd0) (hd1) map (hd1) (hd0) This trick the BIOS (and WinXP) into thinking its on drive C:. You're probably in trouble, so I don't want you to get your hopes up. But, if you alter your 'menu.lst' to point to the new WinXP partition, and if you add some 'map' lines, and if the stars are aligned properly and hell has sufficiently frozen over, then you might get lucky here. Another thing is that WinXP sometimes keeps low-level system information at the END of its partition, and it looks like you dd'd only part of the partition. That doesn't bode well, but you won't know until you try. Another choice would be to forget XP, except that it is on rare occasion (involving proprietary dial-up) handy. Yet another would be to bite the bullet, wipe the drive, repartition, reinstall that Other OS on hda, and then reinstall sid. Ugh, what a chore! WAIT!! If 'dd' worked well enough, then maybe you didn't lose all of your data, even if WinXP won't boot. If you can't get it to boot from my advice above, or from help you get from others, then don't erase that partition unless you really had nothing you wanted to save! It's possible, assuming you have a WinXP CD, to try a non-destructive reinstall from the CD. There's probably even a "rescue" feature on the CD that might getting it working. If you can't get the WinXP system booting, you might at least save any files you want to keep by mounting the partition with Linux. If you have trouble doing that, you could reinstall XP to the old location (from your CD) and recover data first... then try moving it again. It seems to me like you have more options that just "wiping" stuff! Dave W. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Will wine|win4lin|VMWare save my XP bacon?
I'd appreciate advice on whether wine, win4lin, VMWare or some other route might get me out of a bind. I'm embarrassed, but here's what I did: At the start, my ThinkPad (A31) was dual booted via grub, Windows XP on /dev/hda1, sid on the rest, 2.6.15-homemade kernel. So I added a second hard drive in the UltraBay. I then copied the XP partition to the new drive -- dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/dev/hdb1 bs=$((1*1024*1024)). I double checked: XP booted and recognized both C: and D: drives. OK, I thought, and wiped Windows off the original drive, and took it all for Debian, with / mounted on hda1. So of course XP doesn't boot from its new location, even though grub finds it via update-grub. Shouldda known! If anyone knows how I might just enable the XP copy on /dev/hdb1, aka D:, I'd be grateful. I've investigated, so far nothing. Another choice would be to forget XP, except that it is on rare occasion (involving proprietary dial-up) handy. Yet another would be to bite the bullet, wipe the drive, repartition, reinstall that Other OS on hda, and then reinstall sid. Ugh, what a chore! Is there a third family of choices? Would wine, win4lin, VMWare or something else be able to run XP where it is? Thanks for any advice, if only to think twice next time! (Wait: I know that now!) -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] PGP key 1024D/99421A63 2005-01-05 EE51 79E9 F244 D734 A012 1CEC 7813 9FE9 9942 1A63 gpg --keyserver subkeys.pgp.net --recv-keys 99421A63 signature.asc Description: Digital signature
