Kylix Under VMware

Background
Mandrake
Red Hat
SuSE
Debian

How to Burn CDs from ISO Files

Background
VMware Workstation 3.2 is virtual machine (VM) software that  lets you run multiple versions of operating systems -- including Windows and Linux -- simultaneously on a single computer.  A Dell Inspiron 7500 notebook running Windows 2000 is the primary PC I use to create projects for efg's Computer Lab.  Most existing projects have used Delphi under Windows, but I'm experimenting using Kylix (Delphi for Linux) on many new projects.  I need to run both Windows and Linux on this one machine, but duel booting is usually too much of a pain.

Delphi under Windows Virtual Machines.  On my Windows 2000 PC, I built several Windows virtual machines:  Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows XP.  I run Delphi 1 and 2 under the Windows 95 virtual machine, and Delphi 3, 4 and 5 under Windows 98.  (I run Delphi 6 and 7 natively under Windows 2000).  At present I don't do any serious work under Windows XP, but the Windows XP virtual machine allows compatibility testing.

Kylix under Linux Virtual Machines.  In less than two years there have been three versions of Kylix.  I only tried a few projects with Kylix 1, and I skipped Kylix 2 except for a few experiments with K2 Open Edition.  While running into certain problems under Kylix 3 that were not present in Kylix 1, having separate virtual Linux boxes has been useful to evaluate differences.  

Most of my Kylix work to date has been with Red Hat Linux virtual machines running under VMware.  Even with "standard" Red Hat distributions, I have spent more time than I wanted in building and configuring Red Hat and other kinds of Linux boxes.  While I enjoy learning about the internals of Linux, I find myself spending too much time configuring a Linux box instead of working on the solution of "interesting" problems.  I collected the notes on this page to help save time in building a new Linux virtual machine and getting Kylix running on it.  Various Linux distributions are fairly easy to install, but even fairly simple administration tasks seem to take far too much time, especially some that are done infrequently.  

If Kylix performance under Red Hat 8.0 were acceptable, I likely would never have tested other Linux distributions.  Kylix performance under Red Hat 7.0 was acceptable, so I'm not sure what changed by version 8.0.  The Kylix 3 "startdelphi" is somewhat slow under VMware with Red Hat 7.2, but is totally unacceptable with Red Hat 8.0, compared with other alternatives.

Linux Flavor

Kylix 3 VMware
"startdelphi" times 
[seconds]

 Comments
650 MHz Pentium 3
384 MB real memory		 1 GHz Pentium 4
512 MB real memory
SuSE 7.1 49.3 +/- 0.6 N/A KDE 2.  Minor 
Problems with
VMware video.
RedHat 7.2 59.3 +/- 0.6 53.5 +/- 0.6
Note 1		 KDE 2.
Mandrake 9.0 62.3 +/- 0.6 44.6 +/- 0.6 KDE 3
SuSE 8.0 64.3 +/- 0.6 50.6 +/- 0.6 KDE 3
Red Hat 8.0 208 +/- 10 134 +/ 6
Note 2		 KDE 3
Debian (Woody) TBD TBD? Kylix install
not yet working

TBD = To be determined; N/A = Not available (i.e., I can't be bothered to get this number <g>).

Notes:

1.  While usually quite consistent, two very long Red Hat 7.2 start times were noted with an unknown  "gawk" process was also active.  These times were 81 and 127 seconds.

2.  The best Red Hat 8.0 "startdelphi" time running natively (not using VMware) on a 2 GHz machine is about 37 seconds.  This is unacceptably slow.  Comparable times from other versions of Linux running natively are not available.

The times above are the averages of at least three trials.  The +/- figure is the standard deviation.  The Red Hat 8 times were not only the longest by far, but were the only ones to show considerable variability. The tests were run with no other known Windows tasks running, and no other Linux tasks running in a 160 MB virtual machine and 1+ GB free space disk space for swap.

Summary of VMware Linux Test Machines for Kylix 3

Linux Flavor Comments
Mandrake 9.0 Installation of Mandrake 9.0 went very easily and performance seems good.  I plan to switch from Red Hat to Mandrake as my Linux of choice.
Red Hat 8.0 Installation went easily (not quite as nicely as Mandrake 9.0).  Unfortunately, KDE 3.0 seems to slow Kylix 3 down too much and performance is sluggish.
Red Hat 7.2 Installation went easily.  Performance of Kylix 3 is acceptable in this version of RedHat.  Default fonts don't seem to be the same from the purchased version from the version that can be downloaded.  Purchased defaults fonts seem better.
Red Hat 7.0 The version of Red Hat I first tested.  Performance acceptable under VMware.
SuSE Linux 8.0 Professional Linux installation worked nicely, but the selections to get networking weren't as obvious as with Mandrake or Redhat.   Installation process was very good. Samba installation not automatic like Mandrake and Red Hat?  Must purchase SuSE CDs -- complete installation CD set not possible from downloaded files.
SuSE Linux 7.1 Professional Installation process was very good, however, except for networking.  SuSE 7.1 only works in full-screen mode under VMware.  I could not figure out how to restrict the maximum size of the VMware window with SuSE 7.1.  Must purchase SuSE CDs -- complete installation CD set not possible from downloaded files.
Debian (Woody) Could not get the X-server to work in first attempt.  This will be revisited.  Debian's popularity among some "die hards" is a mystery to me.  Debian's approach seems to be a very crude (e.g., as compared to Mandrake or Red Hat or SuSE), especially for beginners.

Building Mandrake Linux Virtual Machine Using VMware
I have not purchased the commercial Mandrake CD set.  I experimented only with the ISO files that could be downloaded from the Internet.  (See notes below about how to burn CDs from ISO files)

Mandrake 9.0 Installation Directly from ISO Files Under VMware 3.2 
(32 pages, 1.70 MB)

  1. Download ISO Files from Mandrake Mirror Site
  2. Create Mandrake 9.0 Virtual Machine from ISO Files
  3. Boot Mandrake VMware Linux Box
  4. Install VMware Tools Package in Virtural Machine
  5. Modify XF86Config-4 To Control Max Window Size of Virtual Machine
  6. Mandrake Linux Virtual Machine Under Windows 2000
  7. Installing Kylix 3
  8. Simple Samba

Building Red Hat Linux Virtual Machines Using VMware
Purchase the Red Hat CDs.  The easiest way to get started is to buy a prepackaged Red Hat distribution set of CDs -- the most recent version is Red Hat 8.0.  Or, buy buy a book that includes a set of Red Hat CDs, such as Red Hat Linux 7.2 Weekend Crash Course.  [I bought the earlier version of this book, and while I found the book useful, you can spend a whole weekend stuck on a single problem -- there is just too much about Linux/Unix that is too cryptic.]  Instead of purchasing the Red Hat distribution, you can find the files online, which is described next.

Download Red Hat ISO Files.  If you have a reasonably fast Internet connection (you don't want to try this on a dialup line), you can download the Red Hat "ISO" CD files and burn the CDs.  Read these instructions from Red Hat:  How to Download Red Hat Linux as a helpful guide.
Red Hat Installations in Virtual Machine.  Red Hat can be installed in a VMware virtual machine either using the ISO files directly, or from the CDs burned from the ISO files.  The following documents, each of which are more than 40 pages long, give the step-by-step details of installing Red Hat in VMware virtual machines, including the original configuration of the virtual machines:
  1. Download ISO Files from Red Hat Mirror Site
  2. Create Red Hat 7.2 Virtual Machines from ISO Files
  3. Boot Red hat VMware Linux Box
  4. Install VMware Tools Package in Virtual Machine
  5. Modify XF86Config-4 To Control Max Window Size of Virtual Machine
  6. Switch from Gnome to KDE Desktop (if necessary)
  7. Configure KDE
  8. Red Hat Linux Virtual Machine Hosted by Windows 2000
  1. Create Red Hat 8.0 Virtual Machine
  2. Install Red Hat 8.0 from CDs
  3. Boot New Red Hat 8.0 Virtual Machine
  4. Install VMware Tools Package in Virtual Machine
  5. Modify XF86Config-4 to Control Max Windows Size of Virtual Machine
  6. VMware Files
  7. Adding Sound to Virtual Machine
  8. Using FTP to Transfer Files from Old Virtual Linux Box Via Network
  9. Installing Kylix 3
  10. Simple Samba

One concept I was slow to understand while installing Linux in a VMware virtual machine involved what video drivers to use.  As shown in the above documents, with Red Hat select "Skip X Configuration" and install the VMware Tools Package, which contains VMware video drivers.  

I always create virtual machines with VMware "bridged" networking.  This allows each virtual machine to get its own IP address via DHCP -- which works well both on my home and work network environments.  You can even have a virtual network of virtual machines!

Building SuSE Virtual Machines Using VMware
  1. Create SuSE 8.0 Virtual Machine
  2. Install SuSE 8.0 from CDs
  3. Boot New SuSE 8.0 Virtual Machine
  4. Install VMware Tools package in Virtual Machine
  5. Modify XF86Config-4 To Control Max Window Size
  6. Installing Kylix 3

Building Debian Virtual Machines Using VMware

I eventually intend to explore Debian Linux and Kylix.  Early attempts have resulted in huge time sinks but no working Debian system to install Kylix.

Burn CDs from ISO Files

The exact instructions on how to burn a CD from an ISO file varies with your CD hardware and software.  The following PDF files will guide you through three ways of burning a CD from an ISO file:

This document may also be useful:  How to burn an ISO image

 

Updated 11 Dec 2002


since 17 Nov  2002