[Live-demo] Any insights into running VMWare Server?

[Hamish]

Cameron wrote:
> For some reason, the VMWare server I
> set up on ubuntu 9.10, on camilla.ardec.com (and now also on
> my personal computer) does not run. Either now allowing log
> in, or once logged in, not allowing loading of our
> arramagong image.

(no idea)

does it give any error messages we can track?

> I'm not sure what has changed. Maybe one of the ubuntu
> security updates? Maybe something in the arramagong install
> process has effected the underlying VM?

shot in the dark based on Alex's X troubles: it could be that the VMWare
binary is not compatible with a security package update (of the kernel),
and if so you'd have to wait for VMWare to come out with an updated
release to match. If this were the case I'd expect a web search would
come up with lots and lots of hits, as both Karmic and VMWare are
rather popular. I'm not sure how ubuntu does it, but AFAIU Debian
security updates change the package name if ABI compatibility will be
broken by the update. That way the old version doesn't get replaced.

e.g. (Deb/Lenny amd64)

linux-image-2.6.26-1-amd64 - Linux 2.6.26 image on AMD64
linux-image-2.6.26-1-openvz-amd64 - Linux 2.6.26 image on AMD64, OpenVZ support
linux-image-2.6.26-1-vserver-amd64 - Linux 2.6.26 image on AMD64, Linux-VServer support
linux-image-2.6.26-1-xen-amd64 - Linux 2.6.26 image on AMD64, oldstyle Xen support
linux-image-2.6.26-2-amd64 - Linux 2.6.26 image on AMD64
linux-image-2.6.26-2-openvz-amd64 - Linux 2.6.26 image on AMD64, OpenVZ support
linux-image-2.6.26-2-vserver-amd64 - Linux 2.6.26 image on AMD64, Linux-VServer support
linux-image-2.6.26-2-xen-amd64 - Linux 2.6.26 image on AMD64, oldstyle Xen support


(2.6.26-1, 2.6.26-2, 2.6.26-n, ...)



> Would rolling back to Ubuntu 9.04 for the host operating
> system help?

In that case you might as well send the 2.0 master to the printers.
The packages dependencies have changed enough that going back would
be a serious amount of work.

it's a pain, but is the VM critical to the short term build plans?

If you start off with a fresh Xubuntu disc, as Alex suggested a while
back you can tell apt to skip the kernel when doing the automatic
security upgrades. That is something worth exploring.

# Put <package> on hold (command line method)
echo "<package> hold" | dpkg --set-selections


(I'm sure there's a apt.conf method too)



Hamish