Member Avatar for franktardif

I'm having trouble running RH9 on VMWare. My host is Windows XP pro. I can install RH9, but I can't get it to run X window. VMWare doesn't give much help. I'm a newbie, and I'd appreciate it if someone could give me a fairly detailed, easy walkthrough on how to do this.

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A concise, practical checklist that fills gaps in the thread (for readers landing here later): common RH9-on-VMware-4 failures break into two areas — X configuration (no GUI) and networking (DHCP/bridged problems). described the GUI failure and pointed to X; and saw the networking/dhcp pain; the items below focus on concrete checks and fixes you can apply immediately.

Check and fix X first: inspect the X log for the exact error and driver complaints (look in /var/log/XFree86.0.log). If the VM’s SVGA driver won’t load, force a conservative fallback (use the generic vesa driver and a low resolution/depth) so you at least get a usable display. Install VMware Tools after ensuring you have matching kernel headers/sources and a working compiler — Tools supplies the improved SVGA/X driver. Useful commands to run inside the guest:

uname -r
rpm -q kernel kernel-devel kernel-source
gcc --version
tail -n 80 /var/log/XFree86.0.log

If vmware-config-tools.pl fails, the usual cause is a version mismatch between the running kernel and the installed kernel-devel/source package.

Networking checklist (bridged vs NAT, DHCP failures): first confirm the guest actually sees a NIC and its MAC address with ifconfig -a. On RH9 the interface startup often uses an HWADDR value stored in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0; if that MAC doesn’t match the NIC the init scripts will not bring the device up — update or remove the HWADDR line and set ONBOOT=yes and BOOTPROTO=dhcp. If the host is using a wireless adapter, bridging is frequently unreliable; use NAT or bridge to a wired adapter instead. Also check the host firewall and the VMware virtual-network configuration to ensure the bridged adapter maps to the intended physical NIC.

Final tips: for install problems that look like disk read loops, verify the VM’s virtual CD/DVD and controller type and try mounting/installing from an ISO; for best GUI and network performance get VMware Tools built against the exact kernel you have. Remember RH9 and VMware 4 are antiquated — if feasible, a newer guest or a modern hypervisor will save a lot of low-level driver hassle.

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Member Avatar for Dani

What happens when you type "startx" in the terminal. Does the X server fail?

If you just can't run X but you can run console, it's most likely related to your XFree86 setup as opposed to a VMWare problem.

Check vmware.com to see the specs for the video card that is emulated.

Member Avatar for Dani

Any luck getting it working?

Member Avatar for franktardif

yup, its up and running. Now I just have to find a way to get internet running. i tried using bridged networking, and pretty much all the other options, but for some reason, it can't use my ethernet card

Member Avatar for Dani

What problem with your nic card is there? I was having a problem with VMWare 3 and my network card because it's actually a linksys gigabit but vmware emulates it as a regular 10mbit connection only. VMWare 4 fixed the problem.

In addition, an old problem I used to have was I used bridged networking with a Linux host and Win2K vm, with no problems. However, when I put WinMe in a virtual machine, same host, same networking setup, it would work for the first two minutes, and then I'd lose internet access permanently until I restarted the virtual machine.

Member Avatar for 1ns4nity

Lol glad to hear it works for ya! I thought RH9 wouldent work so I installed Mandrake 8 instead. Dont really know whats the diff though since both run the same desktop shelll? I'll go try to look for answers now and come back with the results!

Member Avatar for 1ns4nity

How did you manage to get Red Hat 9 working on VMware 4? Could you install VM tools? i couldent so the Xwindows performance was terrible. So i decided to use Mandrake 8.0 which is supported and it runs very nicely. However, I too have NO CLUE as to how to set up the networking to work in linux :( I desperately need to do this as I want to be able to xterm into a remote host to do work. ANyone has any ideas?

* weird thing is that during the linux boot sequence, it says that it FAILED to start up "eth 0" does that happen to you too?

Member Avatar for kandir

I'm not sure this is related to your problem, but Vmware seems a bit funky when it comes to dhcp, at least that's my experience with VM4 and redhat 9.0. If you are also trying to use dhcp to no avail, then do a search on VMware.com's knowledgebase, and you will pull up an article that will give you help.

That's one of the main (albeit few) problems I've seen with using vmware; you never know if a quarky guest problem is contributed solely to the OS/hardware, or if its a vmware thing. This holds especially true when it comes to networking, since vmware networking is a mystery to me (take a hard look at NAT and advanced networks sometime and you will see my point).

Member Avatar for 1ns4nity

Im just almost completely lost as to where to start looking to fix the network troubles.

Member Avatar for kandir

Trying to use dhcp to get an ipaddress? VMware4 + redhat9 (not supported atm btw) has a problem with that, which is why you have to do some fiddling with a few network files to make it work. Go to vmware.com, support, then do search for "dhcp" and you will get the instructions...i promise. Also, I assume you are using bridged networking...

Give us details about your setup, and we can perhaps narrow down the problem :)

Regarding the tools problem, its also something that is been high discussed in the vmware news groups...check the linux newsgroup (forget the address, check on the vmware site) for details on that. Has something to do with installing the source file for your present kernal. At least thats the problem I had!

Sheesh, makes me realize what a pain-in-the-ass vm4 + RH9 was to get set up! on the bright side, its been working great since then :D

Member Avatar for distrax

i am have tried this as well and have not been successful.
i can not even get the red hat to install, it gets to about 90% of disk 2 and falls over, keeps prompting me to insert the disk again and again requesting the same file which works fine as i installed it on a seperate machine, so it is something with vmware.

any ideas ???

Member Avatar for drknebula

To resolve the CD reading issue, you just first image the 2nd Red Hat CD to an ISO image, then mount that ISO image as the D: drive. That did it for me.

Member Avatar for jaywave

Quote:Has something to do with installing the source file for your present kernal.

I have the same prob using Linux 9 as VM that couldn't detect the dhcp. CAn any1 tell me how to resolve the prob related to the source file. I have checked the support of the VMware , but not working....

Many thanks
Jay

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