Yellow Bricks

by Duncan Epping

Desktop

DIY Patch for VMware Workstation 6.5.1 on Linux 2.6.29 kernel

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I’m running OpenSuse as my primary OS at the moment. One of the problems I had was getting VMware Workstation to work in a normal way. The problem was that the kernel modules weren’t compiled correctly. It’s been bugging me ever since, but due to the fact that it’s the end of the quarter I never had the time to actually look in to it. Luckily VMTN user Krellan did have some extra time on his hands and managed to fix the problem, Thanks!!

Fixing your broken installation is fairly easy:

To use this patch, download it from the attachment, gunzip it, then go to your /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source directory. Untar all of the files. Apply the patch with “patch -p1”. After the patch has applied, re-tar all the files. Then, run “vmware-modconfig –console –install-all” again, under Linux 2.6.29, and it should now work.

Go to the VMTN Forums and download the patch if you are having trouble getting the VMware Workstation kernel modules compiled correctly!

ThinApp Deployment Guide

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I just noticed this excellent guide on deploying ThinApp. I would suggest that anyone that wants to start using ThinApp looks into this guide, I guess it could be considered as a “mini-course” on howto ThinApp an application:

This document provides guidance for customers seeking to package and deploy applications efficiently with VMware ThinApp. It addresses most relevant deployment considerations but does not provide comprehensive detail. Please see the VMware ThinApp User’s Manual for the specifics of implementation and further explanation.

VMware View Open Client

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I’ve been using the VMware View Open Client for a while now. One of the things that the VMware View Open Client is still lacking is USB redirection. I just received a cool workaround for this “problem” from Attila Bognár.

In short: VMware View Open Client calls rdesktop, if you add a script with the name rdesktop to your path you can add several commandline options:

  1. Create a script called /usr/local/bin/rdesktop
  2. The script needs to contain the following:
    #!/bin/bash
    /usr/bin/rdesktop -r ‘disk:media=/media’ “$@”
  3. Add “/usr/local/bin/” to the PATH variable and make sure it’s inserted before the original location of the rdesktop(usually /usr/bin) binary.

The -r option adds USB redirection, but you could use any of the other rdesktop commandline options to achieve the desired functionality.

XenApp on ESX or XenServer

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There has been a lot of talk about Project VRC:

Project Virtual Reality Check (VRC) is a joint venture of Log•in Consultants and PQR, who have researched the optimal configuration for the different available hypervisors (hardware virtualization layers). The project arises from the growing demand for a founded advice on how to virtualise Terminal Server and Virtual Desktop (VDI) workloads. Through a number of researches, Log•in Consultants and PQR show you the scaling possibilities for Terminal Server environments as well as Virtual Desktops.

Most of the talk about VRC was of course on the results. (You need to login to be able to download the pdf’s.) In short: VMware ESX beats Citrix Xenserver on VDI deployments and Citrix Xenserver beats VMware ESX on XenApp deployments. I’ve heard a lot of people argue about the fact if the used test methodology was correct and if the used optimization for ESX was necessary or not. (Mem.ShareScanGhz and Mem.AllocHighThreshold, unnecessary in my opinion.) But VRC will start testing again without the “optimization” to see if these effected the results or not.

A week after the VRC published there findings Team VROOM, VMware’s Performance Team, also published a blog article on XenApp performance. They also used ESX 3.5 and Xenserver 5. But the results they harvested from their test had a different conclusion. Of course their test methodology and tools were different from Project VRC’s so it’s hard, and in my opinion impossible, to compare them. I guess both test show that you CAN virtualize a XenApp environment with little extra overhead, that’s the most important thing to remember.

Please visit both VROOM and Project VRC and start reading these excellent articles. Both have put a lot of time in testing and writing and definitely deserve your full attention, and feedback/comments!

Windows 7 on a Mac!

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Most people will agree that Apple products have certain kind of coolness. Most people will also agree that VMware Fusion has a certain kind of coolness, especially the Unity feature. Combine this coolness with the Windows 7 beta and you’ve got one hell of a combo.

I can imagine you don’t want to spent a lot of time on figuring out how to install Windows 7 within a Fusion VM, lucky you…. Team Fusion wrote an extensive blog article on how to install Windows 7 within a VM, and not only text and screenshots but also a video. Team Fusion is definitely one of the most active bloggers Team within VMware, keep up the excellent work guys! Now, check out the full article, even if you don’t own a Mac! And while you’re there Digg It!

Windows 7 on a Mac