Wanted - a VM for Win 7 64 bit

I've got VirtualBox in my x86 Vista system and have had great success with it, but AFAIK VB isn't available for 64bit systems yet so what can I use instead - free of course

NB I want to be able to run Linux as well as Windows systems in the VM

 

VMWare Player is excellent, way better, smaller and easier to set up than Workstation. I'm surprised that VBox isn't X64 compat. Hmm, maybe I had it running on W7-X86 and it did not run Ubuntu stably. Anyways, go for Player, I think you'll like it..

 

Well, I'm not 100% sure about VBox and x64 Win 7. There isn't a 64 bit version of VBox but it might still install and run satisfactorily. Can anyone confirm?

 

augie - as you have used both VMware and VBox,which did you find best? Doesn't VMware require preconfigured 'appliances', whereas VBox allows you to install anything you like. Or am I misunderstanding VMware?

 

Sorry man, I guess this is the sweat equity part now. W7 does run X86 apps quite well under compat mode. Try it, either way it's not going to blow up your machine. Try 'Player' too. The learning curve is very low.

 

Nope, VMWare does not need pre-configured apps but can of course use them. I loaded a full vanilla Ubuntu on and it behaves very nicely on my Quad, it acts as if it owned my machine when I'm in there.

 

That's really helpful. As I know VBox inside out I think I'll take this opportunity to learn VMware.

 

Also, you don't have this separation between OS's, no need for ctrl-g and you can C&P stuff between the two. I love it! This pic was made by the W7 Snip-It tool while I was in Windows

 

Heck, this sort of thing used to be a test of your determination and tenacity; now you just sit and watch!

Kubuntu up and running in VMware Player :cool :wave

 

Nice eh? No fuss no muss and absolute VM pleasure! The only complaint that I've seen is that 3.0.1 only sees quads so the i7 folks are not too happy. Anyways, they can grab 3.0.0 if they wish.

I know exactly what you mean about determination and tenacity, been there/done that!:eek

I have to give muchos kudos to the VMWare team/company for providing us with an excellent and free program!:clap There's no black arcane magic needed with this, it just works!

 

Well sort of, except for me it's failing to start its own USB service, so no USB devices available unless I start the service manually before starting the VM. That's too much faff so I'm going to have to try VBox on it.

Pity - looks good otherwise.

 

I have Ubuntu 9.10 installed in VMware Player and just connected a flash drive with VMware Player open and Ubuntu running. Ubuntu automatically recognized the flash drive. So, I think your experience is not the norm, but I don't know what to suggest to resolve the problem.

 

It gives an error at startup reporting that the virtual USB service is not connected and to check its status in Windows. As I said, it works fine providing I start the service in Win 7 manually, but not otherwise.

It doesn't take too long to set it up and create a VM from an iso so I'll try it once more using version 3.0 rather than 3.0.1. If that doesn't work it's back to old faithful - Virtual Box.

 

You have me confused there. I don't understand why you'd need to "start the service in Win 7". Start what service? Do you simply mean you need to have the flash drive connected in Windows before starting VMware Player and your virtual OS? I don't know why that would be necessary. The virtual OS is doing it's own thing once it's running.

By the way, I have version 3.0.1 of VMware Player.

 

If you look in Windows Services you will find one or two related to VMware, and one of those is a USB service, set to start automatically - i.e. when you start your VM. I can't be specific because VMware is uninstalled at present, but that is the service I'm referring to. It's irrelevant whether any USB devices are actually connected or not.

 

Here's a pic of the error when starting the VM. The service is on Automatic but does not state whether it has started or stopped or have any description.

 

Hmm, that's running on my machine automatically.:confused I really don't have an idea. When I first connect a USB device, VMWare installs a USB Virtualization device, I can see it in Windows Device Manager. but you can't even get there without the service being started first.

 

Did you choose the following options? Tools is also needed.

 

Yes, as I'm au fait with VBox and its options I am satisfied that all the Player options were correctly selected, and I did accept the download of the tools. As I said earlier, if I start the service first, before starting the VM, everything is then as it should be USBwise and in every other way.

 

Ooops, missed that.:-o

 

Just curious, does it make a difference when you shut down, if you suspend rather than power down the VM and then power back up from suspended state?

 

So, is that service normally set on Automatic in your system? If so, why would you need to manually "start" it?

 

Because although it is set to Automatic it isn't actually starting when it should, or at all in fact, other than manually.

 

There is no difference, USB remains unavailable either way.

 

The Kubuntu 9.10 ISO I have been using as client OS is the 32bit version. I thought it would be OK to use this as every other 32bit app I have installed has been fine, but I'm now downloading the 64bit version. We'll see if that sorts it - tomorrow

 

Nope - same error using the x64 version. For whatever reason VMware Player isn't happy on this system so I'll revert to Virtual Box which is - on Vista anyway, and hopefully on Win 7 too.

 

Sorted!! Win 7 Services has a Automatic (Delayed Start) option which I don't recollect ever seeing in previous versions. Anyway, that has fixed it and VMware Player is working faultlessly. Thanks for all contributions

 

Great news! I just wonder why you're the only who got that? Not only amongst us, but hundreds of others who run Player just on one folding site.:confused I'll remember this one for sure!

 

Pure speculation but my money is on an issue with this computer's USB subsystem, mainly because it won't boot from USB. It's a Medion MD8818 with added memory and built over 3 years ago. Surprisingly for such an old machine, a new BIOS was published on April 1 - yeah, I know - and I'm toying with the idea of burning it, just to satisfy my curiosity really. But now the VM is sorted I'll probably decide that discretion really is the better part of valour :-D

 

Bwuahahaha! Let's not throw any more sticks in the spokes eh?:-D I agree with you, I wouldn't touch the BIOS either if it didn't address your situation specifically in the changelog.

EDIT: There's not much good being said about their products that I can see.

 

Yeah, I don't recall ever seeing any stated system requirement to have USB-boot capability in the computer's BIOS in order to run a virtual OS in VMware Player and have the virtual OS automatically recognize a USB device.

 

I'm not generally too keen on workarounds so I went ahead and updated the BIOS in the hope it would sort out this issue of the VMware USB Arbitration Service not starting automatically unless set to Automatic (Delayed Start). Bad move, as the service won't now start automatically at all and before using the VM I have to kick it off manually.

Unfortunately I had never kept the old MS7318.exe BIOS file for BIOS version 1.12 (at least I think it was 1.12, though the latest update is 1.14), so I've asked Medion for it. If anyone here has it that would be helpful. It's in several Medions, those having the MS7318 mobo.