Mandrake Linux 10.1

This section contains product support, installation instructions, and known issues for the Mandrake Linux 10.1 operating system.

32-Bit Support

The following VMware products support 32-bit Mandrake Linux 10.1:

•	VMware Workstation

Mandrake Linux 10.1 – Workstation 5.5, 5.5.1, 5.5.2, 5.5.3, 5.5.4, 5.5.5, 5.5.6, 5.5.7, 5.5.8, 5.5.9, 6.0, 6.0.1, 6.0.2, 6.0.3, 6.0.4, 6.0.5, 6.5, 6.5.1, 6.5.2

Additional Support

•	SMP – 2-way experimental support on Workstation 5.5, 5.5.1, 5.5.2, 5.5.3, 5.5.4, 5.5.5, 5.5.6, 5.5.7, 5.5.8, 5.5.9, 6.0, 6.0.1, 6.0.2, 6.0.3, 6.0.4, 6.0.5, 6.5, 6.5.1, 6.5.2

•	VMware ACE

Mandrake Linux 10.1 – ACE 2.0, 2.0.1, 2.0.2, 2.0.3, 2.0.4, 2.0.5, 2.5, 2.5.1, 2.5.2

•	VMware GSX Server

Mandrake Linux 10.1 – GSX Server 3.2, 3.2.1

•	VMware Server

Mandrake Linux 10.1 – VMware Server 1.0, 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.0.3, 1.0.4, 1.0.5, 1.0.6, 1.0.7, 1.0.8, 1.0.9

Additional Support

•	SMP – 2-way experimental support on VMware Server 1.0, 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.0.3, 1.0.4, 1.0.5, 1.0.6, 1.0.7, 1.0.8, 1.0.9

General Installation Notes

Be sure to read General Guidelines for All VMware Products as well as this guide to installing your specific guest operating system.

The easiest method of installing Mandrake Linux 10.1 in a virtual machine is to use the standard Mandrake Linux distribution CD. The notes below describe an installation using the standard distribution CD; however, installing Mandrake Linux 10.1 via the boot floppy/network method is supported as well. If your VMware product supports it, you can also install from a PXE server.

Before installing the operating system, be sure that you have already created and configured a new virtual machine.

 

Note During the Mandrake Linux 10.1 installation, you are offered a choice of XFree86 X servers. You can choose either one, but do not run that X server. Instead, to get an accelerated SVGA X server running inside the virtual machine, you should install the VMware Tools package immediately after installing Mandrake Linux 10.1.

 

Note With many Linux guest operating systems, various problems have been observed when the BusLogic virtual SCSI adapter is used with VMware virtual machines. VMware recommends that you use the LSI Logic virtual SCSI adapter with this guest operating system.

 

Note If you are installing a guest operating system through VMware VirtualCenter or vCenter Server, be sure it is supported under the VMware product—ESX Server or VMware Server—on which you are running the virtual machine.

Installation Steps

1	Insert the Mandrake Linux 10.1 CD in the CD-ROM drive.

2	Power on the virtual machine to start installing Mandrake Linux 10.1.

3	Follow the installation steps as you would for a physical machine. Be sure to make the choices outlined in the following steps.

4	Use the text mode installer. At the opening screen, press F1 for options, and then enter text for text mode.

5	In the partitioning step, unless you have special requirements, it is all right to let Mandrake Linux automatically allocate the space. Select Use free space.

6	When you reach the Summary screen, configure the graphical interface.

Select Graphical Interface, and then click Do. Make the following selections:

•	The resolution and refresh rate you want your guest to use

•	VMware virtual video card

•	No when asked if you want to install updates to the packages

•	No when asked if you want to start X when you reboot

This completes basic installation of the Mandrake Linux 10.1 guest operating system.

VMware Tools

Be sure to install VMware Tools in your guest operating system. For details, see the manual for your VMware product or follow the appropriate link in the knowledge base article at http://kb.vmware.com/kb/340.

IPv6

In many Linux distributions, if IPv6 is enabled, VMware Tools cannot be configured with vmware-config-tools.pl after installation. In this case, VMware Tools is unable to set the network device correctly for the virtual machine, and displays a message similar to

Unloading pcnet32 module

unregister_netdevice: waiting for eth0 to become free

This message repeats continuously until you reboot the virtual machine. To prevent this problem in virtual machines running Linux, disable IPv6 before installing VMware Tools.

To disable IPv6 in a virtual machine running Linux

1	If the file /etc/sysconfig/network contains the line NETWORKING_IPV6=yes, change the line to NETWORKING_IPV6=no.

2	In the file /etc/modules.conf, add the following lines:

alias ipv6 off

alias net-pf-10 off

After you disable IPv6, you should be able to install and configure VMware Tools successfully.

Known Issues

Changing Resolution in the Guest Operating System

To change the display resolution in the guest operating system, as root (-su) rerun the VMware Tools configuration program vmware-config-tools.pl and select the desired resolution from the list this program presents. If you prefer, you can edit the X configuration file directly to make the change.

Getting a DHCP Address in the Guest Operating System

When the guest operating system tries to get a DHCP address, the attempt fails and an error message indicating that the link is down. To work around this problem, become root (su -) and use a text editor to edit the following files in the guest operating system:

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth<n>
/etc/sysconfig/networking/devices/ifcfg-eth<n>

In both cases, <n> is the number of the Ethernet adapter—for example, eth0.

In each of the two files, add the following line: MII_NOT_SUPPORTED=yes

Then run the command ifup eth<n> (where <n> is the number of the Ethernet adapter) or restart the guest operating system.

Configuration Changes Might Be Necessary for Proper Timekeeping Behavior

The default timekeeping configuration for this guest operating system might experience problems. For Linux timekeeping best practices, see the VMware knowledge base article at http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1006427.

Guest Screen Saver

On a Linux host with an XFree86 3.x X server, it is best not to run a screen saver in the guest operating system. Guest screen savers that demand a lot of processing power can cause the X server on the host to freeze.

Migration to a Different Processor

VMware recommends you do not migrate a Linux virtual machine between hosts when one host is running on an AMD processor and the other is running on an Intel processor.

During installation, many distributions of Linux choose a kernel that is optimized for the specific processor on which it is being installed, and some distributions install a generic kernel by default, but provide architecture-specific kernels that the user can choose to install. The kernel might contain instructions that are available only on that processor. These instructions can have adverse effects when run on a host with the wrong type of processor.

Thus, a Linux virtual machine created on a host with an AMD processor might not work if migrated to a host with an Intel processor. The reverse is also true: a Linux virtual machine created on a host with an Intel processor might not work if migrated to a host with an AMD processor.

This problem is not specific to virtual machines and also occurs on physical computers. For example, if you move a hard drive with a Linux installation from an AMD machine to an Intel machine, you are also likely to experience problems trying to boot from that drive.

Display Issues

You might encounter a display issue with the Mandrake Linux 10.1 console. To resolve this issue, you need to comment out the vga=788 line in the lilo.conf file.

1	Log in as root at the command line.

2	Change directories to the etc directory.

3	Use a text editor to comment out the vga-788 line in the lilo.conf file.

label="linux"

root=/dev/sda1

initrd=/boot/initrd.img

append="acpi=ht resume=/dev/sda5 splash=silent"

vga=788

read-only

4	Enter lilo at the command line to run the file.

5	Reboot the guest.

Any display issues should be resolved.