20 replies to this topic

[ispy]

Hi folks ,

With portability in mind not only can you carry your favourite programs around on a USB2 pen drive or External laptop USB2 HDD why go to all the trouble of trying to make your Pen Drive etc Bootable when you can carry your favourite OS with you in your pocket, Leech off the host OS, surely it cannot be done?

Well have you ever considered a FREEWARE portable virtual machine & here are just a few alternative to help you out, (I don't know how long the links will last so grab em whilst you can)
http://www.portablef...are.com/?id=640
& here: http://www.davereyn.co.uk/download.htm
portable virtualBox 32 bit http://www.file-uplo...-32Bit-.7z.html
Portable 32 & 64 bit http://www.file-uplo...-64Bit-.7z.html
Bochs VM allegedly portable: http://bochs.sourceforge.net/
MokaFive has a freeware version but you will need to sign up for it though see here:
http://www.mokafive....ns-overview.php
One user on a web site wrote:
I have recently discovered a portable version of QEMU available to run on any Windows machine without running an installer (and therefore not requiring admin privileges). If one of these were to be run from a user's machine, how can it be determined what physical machine it's running on? & where can you get it? From Here:
http://www.pendrivel...t-ubuntu-linux/
the file is called QKUB.exe for puppy Linux.
You want a windows version of "Qemu" try here:
[1 further note Make sure to grab a hold of the allinoneqemu.exe file, Complete QEMU executable for Windows]
http://sci.cnb.uam.e...-217 R/?C=N;O=A
& last but not least what about MojoPac they advertise a free version
http://www.pcworld.c...escription.html

Commercial:
http://en.wikipedia..../VMware_ThinApp
& many "others Google is your friend" seek & you shall find!

I found this list of tables for Virtual Machines helpful & informative:
http://en.wikipedia....irtual_machines

Also what about this little gem from Slashdot:
Hey, Incase you don�t read slashdot? You can use QEMU-img.exe to create VMDK(VMare virtual disk files meaning you don�t need to download the browser image. Also I think this will create files that can be used as ide drives.
Quick and easy:
1 Download the the vmplayer
2. create a vmdk disk file like this:
qemu-img.exe create -f vmdk
3.Create a vmx config file. Here are the basic options you need:
config.version = �8″
virtualHW.version = �3″
memsize = �128″
ide0:0.present = �TRUE�
ide0:0.fileName = �DiskFile.vmdk�
��-TO BOOT AN ISO���-
ide1:0.present = �TRUE�
ide1:0.fileName = �c:debian.iso�
ide1:0.deviceType = �cdrom-image�
������������
OR
��-TO BOOT CDROM����
ide1:0.present = �TRUE�
ide1:0.fileName = �auto detect�
ide1:0.deviceType = �cdrom-raw�
�����������
floppy0.fileName = �A:�
ethernet0.present = �TRUE�
ethernet0.connectionType = �nat�
usb.present = �TRUE�
sound.present = �TRUE�
sound.virtualDev = �es1371″
displayName = �Debian 1″
guestOS = �other24xlinux�
nvram = �debian1.nvram�
scsi0:0.redo = ��
ethernet0.addressType = �generated�
uuid.location = �56 4d f3 a5 03 8c cb b9-ed bb 8f 10 a3 de b0 10″
uuid.bios = �56 4d f3 a5 03 8c cb b9-ed bb 8f 10 a3 de b0 10″
ide1:0.autodetect = �TRUE�
ethernet0.generatedAddress = �00:0c:29:de:b0:10″
ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = �0″
checkpoint.vmState = ��
tools.remindInstall = �TRUE�
ide0:0.redo = ��
Now just run up the vmx file in the player. Boot the cdrom/iso and install the os as usual.
EasyAs!

Alternative "Why Not make your OWN VIRTUAL MACHINE, surely I'm joking right! SEE POST #5 below after MokaFive info!

ENJOY!

All the Best,

ispy

[sanbarrow]

The portable VMware version linked here is definetely no Freeware. It is a Thinstall-package and as such it is not free and it also includes a license for Workstation 5. In short - this is warez

[ispy]

Hi sanbarrow ,

The portable VMware version linked here is definetely no Freeware. It is a Thinstall-package and as such it is not free and it also includes a license for Workstation 5. In short - this is warez

Oop's sorry! Amended post & removed link. My appologies!

R&R,

ispy

[sanbarrow]

That guy who made it should have created it without license - then it would still allow creation of VMs with the workstation-GUI- you just would have to run them in VMplayer - which is included in Workstation but needs no license.
The package itself was interesting - I thought thinapps could not handle kernel-drivers ?

Anyway - it is easy to run Workstation 5.5.8 on PE - in latest MOA you can switch from versions 5.5.8 to any of the 6.0.* versions at boot.
I run Workstation 5.5.8 out of a 10 MB wim-archive.

[ispy]

Hi sanbarrow ,

Well I have done a bit more research & maybe able to provide a part replacement freeware to VMWare, here's the details:

MokaFive LivePC Engine makes use of VMware Player as a virtualization platform, but includes additional features such as automatic updates of virtual machines, streaming and caching of virtual machine images, integrated backup, hardware-accelerated 3D graphics support, and zero install when running from a USB drive.

What are the components of MokaFive’s offering?
MokaFive is offering their technology in two ways, a MokaFive Professional Solution and a Free MokaFive Express Solution. Both versions contain the MokaFive Creator and MokaFive Player. Both versions allow the creation and playing of virtual desktops. The Professional Solution goes one step further by providing the tools to create a MokaFive Service that allows an organization to stream MokaFive LivePC’s and administer how those LivePC’s work.

See here: http://www.mokafive....ns-overview.php

Will add it to the list!

Alternative "Why Not make your OWN VIRTUAL MACHINE, surely I'm joking right!

Virtual Machine

I have one program (game) that my daughter loves and will NOT play on XP or Vista. It is Babyz and was released 1n 1999 for 95/98 computers. I have an old 98 computer, but am afraid the hard drive will die and and leave me stranded.......

If your XP computer has at least 512 MB of RAM, there may be a better option than multi-booting. A virtual machine (http://en.wikipedia....Virtual_machine) will allow you to run 98 at the same time as XP.

98 will actually think that it is running on a real computer all by itself. A bonus is that Windows 98 drivers are available for the virtual hardware.

But before setting up a virtual machine, first, find out how much RAM is free for use:

Reboot the computer.
If needed, log in and wait until the hard drive light stops blinking, or the Windows hourglass disappears (we want to give Windows enough time to load all of the programs that are set up to automatically load at startup).
Press [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [Del] keys at the same time.
In the dialog box, click the "Task Manager" button.
Click the "Performance" tab.
In the "Physical Memory" section, note the number for "Available".
According to the minimum system requirements for Babyz is a Pentium 166 MHz or faster, 32 MB of RAM, 300 MB of hard disk space and 800x600 with 256 colors. When your daughter is playing her game, it’s unlikely that anyone else will be using the computer. If the amount of available memory is 128 MB (128,000 K) or more, that will be enough. Anything less might slow the computer down too much.

Next download and install the free VMware Player 2.0:

http://vmware.com/products/player/

VMware provides excellent documentation for installing and using VMware Player, so rather than embarrass myself by trying to explain it, please see the following manuals:

http://vmware.com/pd...e_player200.pdf
http://vmware.com/pd...estOS_guide.pdf

Unlike VMware Workstation (not-free), VMware Player can’t create virtual machines. EasyVMX is a handy web-based tool for creating the necessary configuration file:

http://easyvmx.com/

Take the "Super Simple" wizard and change the default settings to:

operating system: Windows 98
memory size: 96 MB
disk size: 700 MB

You could opt to keep the default disk size of 4.7 GB, but it’s not really necessary unless you need to install more games in addition to Babyz. Keeping the disk size at 700 means it'll be very easy to burn the virtual machine to a CD as a backup.

Once you have the configuration file (it has a .vmx file extension), the rest is pretty easy:

Insert the Windows 98 installation CD.
Double-click the .vmx file for your virtual machine. By default, the virtual machine will boot up and look for a bootable CD.
Follow the Windows 98 setup wizard to format and install 98 to the virtual machine's virtual hard disk.
After Windows 98 is installed. Eject the CD and reboot.
Insert the CD for Babyz to start the installer.
There are some optional steps including installing optimized drivers and add-on tools for VMware (aka. "VMware Tools"), but those are required to get a running virtual machine. VMware Tools is highly recommended though for the best experience. It makes the virtual machine run more efficiently and supports features including copy and paste, time syncing, disk shrinking, etc.

By the way, "THE VIRTUAL MACHINE IS VERY PORTABLE". You can copy/move the virtual machine simply by copying/moving the files. VMware Player is also supported on Windows Vista, Windows 2000, Mac OS X and Linux, so your virtual machine with Babyz can easily be moved to other computers later on.

I think that, skirts around Portable VMware very nicely!

Oh Wee I Luv this stuff, Have Phun!,

or ENJOY!

R&R,

ispy

[sanbarrow]

Hi ispy
I would recommend to use Workstation instead of VMplayer. If you don't want to buy it - run it without license.
Then you can create new VMs much easier as with easyvmx. You can also create and manage snapshots ... and some more things ...

You just can't run the VMs in the Workstation-GUI - but you are able to run them in VMplayer - which is installed already if you have Workstation.

Ulli

By the way - you can run VMs directly from CD/DVD if you prepare this while creating the CD/DVD. If you are interested I will explain in depth

[ispy]

Hi sanbarrow ,

I would recommend to use Workstation instead of VMplayer. If you don't want to buy it - run it without license.
Then you can create new VMs much easier as with easyvmx. You can also create and manage snapshots ... and some more things ...

Sounds like a promising alternative sanbarrow!

The thing is will your proposal facilitate a portable, preferably freeware solution, if not it might be better putting that kind of guide in the "tutorial" section as this is the "Portable forum", do you see what I mean?

I think users would find what you propose, both informative & helpful in my humble view!

Also as a generic question to everyone, which VM alternative do you think is the best in terms of cost, preferably freeware, Most efficient in usage & the least size, &/or overhead in memory consumption etc.

Regards & Best Wishes,

ispy

[sanbarrow]

Hi ispy

(thats the revenge for the additional "?" in my nicname)

Also as a generic question to everyone, which VM alternative do you think is the best in terms of cost, preferably freeware, Most efficient in usage & the least size, &/or overhead in memory consumption etc.

At the moment I would say that Sun xVM is the best freeware VM - followed by VMware Workstation without license. Workstation installs about 650 MB but you can easily rip that down to about 50- 100 Mb.

Have you seen my post about Sun xVM ?
http://www.boot-land...?showtopic=5214

I think with another batch to clean up after use - you could handle Sun xVM as if it were a portable app.


Ulli

[ispy]

Hi sanbarrow ,

Mr Sanbarrow! my appologies LOL! Point taken!

I think with another batch to clean up after use - you could handle Sun xVM as if it were a portable app.

Snapshot before & after cleanup routine why do you like Sun xVM?

R&R,

ispy

[sanbarrow]

Hi ispy

why I like Sun xVM ? - I like all apps that can be used on PE without needing a plugin or .script

Knulli

[ispy]

Hi sanbarrow ,

Sun xVM is actually "Virtual Box software" in several varieties OpenxVM, (consisting of Virtual box & virtual server), Virtual Box, virtual server, sun VDI & Sun xVM ops center. Questions - Can it be made portable Yes/No or partly & what is its system requirements or overheads? How do you set it up?

From post #1 are these the same that you use or are they a totally different product?
portable virtualBox 32 bit http://www.file-uplo...-32Bit-.7z.html
Portable virtual box 32 & 64 bit http://www.file-uplo...-64Bit-.7z.html

R&R,

ispy

[sanbarrow]

How do you set it up?

I just take current download - formerly known as the artist named ... oops - wrong story - formerly known as VirtualBox and install it once.
Once I got the files together I ignore all that is copied to system32 and all registry.
I just run the batch from the post I linked before in this thread.
Really simple.
In MOA I don't have any missing dependancies - not sure how this would look in one of the naked winbuilder projects ?



Ulli

[ispy]

Hi folks ,

@ sanbarrow tried Virtualbox would not even install just crashed my system?

Can someone answer this very basic question for me please, slightly off topic I know!

Why is it that Vmware "Workstation" is payware & yet Vmware Server is, "with signing in" free to download & keys are issued liberally? Will Vmware Server only install on a server cuz it just seems like a superior product I'm confused?

Regards,

ispy

[sanbarrow]

@ sanbarrow tried Virtualbox would not even install just crashed my system?

? - can you explain ? Are you talking about installing on top of a PE ?

Why is it that Vmware "Workstation" is payware & yet Vmware Server is, "with signing in" free to download & keys are issued liberally? Will Vmware Server only install on a server cuz it just seems like a superior product I'm confused?

Yep - that looks queer at first sight.
Actually VMserver was the reaction of VMware when MS appeared with Virtual Server and Virtual PC. At that time they thought they had to give a tool away for free for competition with MS.
So they ripped their server product which was at that time named VMware GSX and relabeled it as VMserver.
Former GSX was something like a Workstation PRO - it included all Workstation features and it allowed remote control. It was priced about 2000 dollar if I remember right.

Now VMserver is something like a stripped Workstation with additional remote control features that are missing in Workstation. Yep - queer

And no - VMserver is not for Servers only - VMserver 1.* installs on almost any recent box - VMserver 2 needs some more resources.

Its a pity that VMserver 1 doesn't run on top of PE - I tried for more than a year and gave up.

[Galapo]

Its a pity that VMserver 1 doesn't run on top of PE - I tried for more than a year and gave up.

It really is a shame. I've tried off and on as well, and could never get a local host connection.

I use VMWare server all the time for testing PE images etc. I prefer it as a free alternative to Player for the convenience of not having to use Player + VMXBuilder for creation and editing.

But there is one downside I've found: vmware services make a huge impact on boot time, with fully-booted system taking ages. So I set teh services to manual and start them only as needed with the following:

start_vmware_service.cmd

net start VMAuthdService

net start VMnetDHCP

net start "VMware NAT Service"

net start vmount2

net start vmserverdWin32

devcon enable @*vmware*

Regards,
Galapo.

[ispy]

Hi folks ,

@ sanbarrow tried Virtualbox would not even install just crashed my system?

No sorry, not on a PE system this was on a Full XP+SP2 system, shame too because it looked like it had a nice clean interface. However, if it crashes at the first hurdle, so to speak, its not compatable with my set up therefore I would rather leave it alone, thanks for the mention though, if you do not try these things you will never know.

I am now currently looking at Vmware, there is currently circulating around the WWW. a hack that makes VMPlayer more functional. however if Vmware Workstation is payware & VMWare Server is free, then I might go for VMServer, they gave me 10 sets of keys for it.

And no - VMserver is not for Servers only - VMserver 1.* installs on almost any recent box - VMserver 2 needs some more resources.

Can you elaborate a little more about particularly the - "VMserver 2 needs some more resources",

My version of VMware Server appears to be 1.0.1 build 91891

ispy

[sanbarrow]

Hi ispy
http://download3.vmw....0.7-108231.exe
is a download of about 150 MB.

Next major version of VMserver 2 (still in beta right now) is about twice or thrice that size.

Current VMserver1 comes with a buildin console to run VMs whereas the next version must be managed through a very heavy (bloated) Java-Tomcat server and a webinterface.
You can also manage it via a dotnet2 interface.
Anyway - if you want something lean you don't want VMserver 2 though it has better virtual hardware - like USB 2 ...

I can't follow VMware's product policy - VMplayer2 can't create VMs, VMserver1 doesn't have USB2 so they have no current product that compares to VirtualBox.
Thats why I recommend to use latest Workstation without license - it allows to create VMs with the GUI - you just must run them through VMplayer.

Last night I made some more tests with VirtualBOX and found out that the last version that runs nicely on top of PE is 1.6.4

Ulli

Ispy - I asked about running Workstation without license - see
http://communities.v...169788?tstart=0

[Rex2010]

i think now prayaya V3 is even better chocice. it allows you to directly install almost any software.

[MedEvil]

Do you have any idea how prayaya internally works?

[Rex2010]

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY INTERNAL WORK? you mean how it works? sorry i dont know. in a view of a customer, i think it is very cool.

[Zoso]

hi everyone,

thanks for the helpful info here. Im new to the virtual machine game and a bit overwhelmed with it all right now so this topic has really helped me.

my goal is to run a VM from a U3 so that I can just plug it in a host computer and run my system in VM on the host computer without changes to the host or even rebooting.

if anyone has suggestions on how to accomplish this I am all ears and have started a topic about it here:

http://www.boot-land...mp;#entry106947

anyway, thanks again for the portable VM info!