This one's for the Ubuntu geeks

[annathepiper]

On a different but also work-related note, for giggles and grins, I've tried to set up a VMWare virtual machine install of Ubuntu's latest build. This is for two reasons: 1) we occasionally get user-reported issues about pages being broken when viewed in Linux, and it's nice to have a way to test these, and 2) I just wanted to look at Ubuntu anyway because I never had before.

So I borrowed a Live CD of the latest build, Hardy Heron, from one of our engineers and set the thing up. Followed the expected install process, got it all up and running...

Only now, the VM won't load unless the Live CD is still in the drive. If I try to run the VM without it, it hangs VMWare hardcore and I can't kill it. I wind up having to reboot the box.

I've Googled around a bit and have seen pages that talk about issues getting Hardy Heron up and running as a Virtual PC VM. However, the advice I saw giving for fixing those issues didn't seem pertinent to my install, possibly because it's a different VM system.

Anybody got any experience with getting Ubuntu running as a VMWare VM and know what sort of problem I may be having here, and if so how to fix it? Thanks in advance.

Comments

[gerimaple.livejournal.com]

Himself and the canid are out & about this moring. I shall pick darthfrog's brain when he gets back.

[gerimaple.livejournal.com]

whoops, sorry, this slipped my mind. I just emailed him.

[darthfrog.livejournal.com]

Off the bat, I've got no suggestions. Can you put the virtual machine up for ftp and I'll try it on my machine? I have VMWare Workstation 6.03 running under Hardy.

[annathepiper]

Thank you for the offer! However, I am pleased to note that I actually got this problem solved earlier today. The solution was to change the VM settings so that it wouldn't automatically connect to a CD drive. I think VMWare got confused because my machine at work actually has two drives!

[annathepiper]

No worries! This actually got figured out a little while ago, thankfully. As he may have just mentioned to you now that I've answered his comment. :)

The solution, in case he hasn't mentioned yet, was to change my VM settings so it didn't automatically connect to a CD drive. I think my box, which has both a CD-ROM drive and a DVD drive in it, was confusing its autodetect.