openSUSE Linux VM Log Book (CMPSC 210)
( dazzle )
Quick links to some highlights in this log:
2011-02-02
- Began this log today (02 Feb 2011) although I installed
this VM several days ago on 13 Jan.
- Therefore, beginning this log with these back-entry
details about the installation, which may admittedly be sketchy.
(I'll fill in details little by little as I remember or
re-discover things that I've done so far):
- 2011-01-13
- Hostname: dazzle
- Static IP address will be: 192.168.0.20 (Mask 255.255.255.0)
- Added this to frazzle:/etc/hosts (frazzle is the VM host mochine).
- Downloading from ftp.belnet.be (193.190.67.15):
openSUSE-11.3-NET-i586.iso
- MD5 checksum: a0dc 5f51 32b0 .... 37d4 fc1a Okay.
- First regular user account: jay / Password: xdr5******
- root password: The same: xdr5******
- VM files location: /home/jay/vmware/dazzle
- Virtual memory: 796 MB (maximum recommended to avoid swapping)
- Network connection: NAT [but quickly changed to Bridged after install].
- I/O controller: SCSI LSI Logic (as recommended)
- Virtual hard disk: 10 GB, split into multiple pieces
Virtual file name: dazzle.vmdk (et seq.)
- Beginning SUSE installer in the VM.
- Linuxrc v3.4.14 (kernel 2.6.34-12-default)
- Network installing from 193.190.67.15 a.k.a. hydra.belnet.be
The correct piece of the ftp address that the installer wants is:
/mirror/ftp.opensuse.org/distribution/11.3/repo
- Machine booted up with IP address 172.16.111.128 -- Oops. It's supposed to have a 192.168.0.x address.
Changed VM network connection from NAT to Bridged, rebooted.
That's better. Came up with 192.168.0.3 or something like that, as I recall.
- I want it to be 192.168.0.20 -- Will set that up RSN.
- Attempting to set static IP address in /etc/network/interfaces
Oops -- No such file! What have the SUSE folks done with it?
- Okay, have it your way. Setting static IP to 192.168.0.20 with YaST.
So much for doing things with command-line interfaces.
- Reboot. Successful pings in and out.
- At some point, I downloaded and installed GNOME, which
wasn't installed by default, and began using that
instead of KDE. At first glance, it looks cleaner.
- Edit /etc/samba/smb.conf -- Set workgroup = DRAGONET
- Observation: Host name is in a file /etc/hostname by itself on frazzle (the Ubuntu host machine)
and drizzle (the Debian machine), but in SUSE machine it's in /etc/HOSTNAME
- Edit ~jay/.bashrc -- Set PS1 to my
liking (note the command prompt, including text in title
bar of the xterm window.)
Defined safe aliases for rm, cp, and mv.
- Shutdown.
2011-02-06
- openSUSE VM (dazzle) started.
- Taking some screen shots, as assigned.
- Would like to mount shared directory from the host machine,
but I see that sshfs isn't installed here.
- Installing with: sudo zypper install sshfs
- However, cannot connect to host machine. I think that's
because ssh protocol either not running or not configured
on host machine. Deal with that another day.
- But I can still get to the shared folder via File Browser,
which I presume uses the smb protocol instead. So I can
transfer files that way.
- There is a "minor" problem with this VM that makes it
majorly unusable: Every so often (but very
often), it "loses" the left mouse button. Everything else
works just fine (moving mouse and clicking right button),
but the left button goes dead. Sometimes this happens while
the left button is down, and especially seems to happen
while dragging something, so it gets "stuck" in that mode.
This system is so heavily dependent on having a working mouse,
that it is then essentially unusable.
- Re-booted and re-tried getting some screen shots repeatedly.
I got a few done after many tries, but typically it gets
stuck before I can complete all the steps. I won't be
able to get through a whole semester this way.
- Note, btw, that I can't use Ctrl-Alt-2 to go to a
plain-text mode, much as I might prefer to work that way,
because the host machine intercepts that and I get a
plain-text screen there instead. Besides, I will need
to use the GUI for at least some things here.
- Shutdown.
2011-02-11
- openSUSE Linux VM (dazzle) started.
- Run for three hours (mostly doing mindless
web-surfing with Firefox). Left mouse button
hasn't died once. Has this install somehow
"matured" all by itself?
- Shutdown.
2011-02-19
- Having already created a new virtual disk in the Debian
VM, now want to see if same can be used in the
other two (openSUSE and Fedora) VM.
- Installed existing new virtual disk into openSUSE VM.
(This is done with VMWare Add Hardware wizard, with
the VM NOT running.)
- Chose “Use existing virtual disk” instead
of “Create new virtual disk”.
- For name of virtual disk file, browsed to existing
file .../vmware/com-disk-2/com-disk-2.vmdk
- openSUSE Linux VM (dazzle) started.
- Investigated the visibility and usability of the
new virtual disk here. Ran fdisk -l, created /mnt/sdb2
mount point, mounted /dev/sdb2 there, ran df, verified
that already existing files are visible and readable,
created new file, etc. Conclusion: Everything
works! — I'm not going to bother editing up
and posting the complete transcript because it's substantially
the same as the transcript
for creating the disk in the Debian machine, with just
a few differences:
- Skip running fdisk to create the partitions,
- Skip running mkfs.ext3 to create the file system,
since those steps should not be repeated.
- Did NOT add new disk to /etc/fstab here (yet). May do that
someday, when/if I decide I want that.
- Shutdown.
Note, BTW, that although this shared virtual disk gives me a way
to share files among the three Linux VM's, it's not the best
solution for doing that, since I can't (that I know of) also
share files with the host machine. Instead, I have a shared
folder in the host machine, which all of the VM's can mount
and use, for that purpose (and which my Windows machines can
also use).
Watch this space for further developments.