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Running Linux in a VM

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  Running Linux in a VM John Holt <me@foo.net> - 2013-11-27 17:15 -0500
    Re: Running Linux in a VM Paul Sture <nospam@sture.ch> - 2013-12-01 09:03 +0100
      Re: Running Linux in a VM dcohenspam@talktalk.net (Daniel Cohen) - 2013-12-01 22:38 +0000
    Re: Running Linux in a VM Alan Browne <alan.browne@FreelunchVideotron.ca> - 2013-12-01 10:51 -0500
    Re: Running Linux in a VM Paul Sture <nospam@sture.ch> - 2013-12-03 16:04 +0100

#19659 — Running Linux in a VM

I have been using VBox, but there are some problems with VBox under 
Mavericks.  It may be my use of Host Only networking, at least that 
looks to be a common thread in the VBox forum.  The major complaint is 
that it frequently prevents Mac OS X from shutting down (shutdown -h 
now does work) in the normal manner.

The minor complaint is that I cannot get the seamless window mode to 
work, so I am stuck with some fixed size windows.

Maybe now is the time to buy Parallels or Fusion.

One thing that I would like is a way to reserve addresses.  The VBox 
DHCP will assign them 1 up, which means that I need to bring my virtual 
cluster up node by node in the correct order.

Does anyone in this group simulate a cluster with either Parallels or 
Fusion?  Do you have preferences?


Thanks in advance,




-- 
John Holt

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#19772

John Holt wrote:

>
> I have been using VBox, but there are some problems with VBox under 
> Mavericks.  It may be my use of Host Only networking, at least that 
> looks to be a common thread in the VBox forum.  

I was running everything with Bridged networking, which is broken under
Mavericks.  NAT works, but I have already moved most of my VMs over to
VMware Fusion, so it's not a big deal for me.

> The major complaint is that it frequently prevents Mac OS X from
> shutting down (shutdown -h now does work) in the normal manner.

Yes I see that here, but 

a) I don't use VBox on OS X much any more
b) I rarely do a reboot of my OS X system

> The minor complaint is that I cannot get the seamless window mode to 
> work, so I am stuck with some fixed size windows.

You don't mention which clients you are using.

> Maybe now is the time to buy Parallels or Fusion.
>
> One thing that I would like is a way to reserve addresses.  The VBox 
> DHCP will assign them 1 up, which means that I need to bring my virtual 
> cluster up node by node in the correct order.

I have been running a "cluster" of VMs since 2010 with VBox and lately
with Fusion.  As I said above I am using Bridged networking, so
effectively each VM looks like a physical box connected to my router.

I started with a WIndows system running VBox and it was sitting on the
network at work, so used Host Only networking to make sure my network
traffic didn't interfere with work's network.  I would periodically
grant the VM clients outside access to get patches, but for normal use,
Host Only was the way to go.

I initially used fixed IP addresses fort every client rather than DHCP
so I had full control of which client was on which address.  I then
graduated to running a DHCP server dishing out fixed addresses to each
client, and a DNS server with entries to match those names and
addresses. This way it doesn't matter what order you bring the
clients up in.  I was using Mountain Lion Server on a physical system to
do that until the Mavericks upgrade disabled it.

I am now running  OS X ML Server as a Fusion client to do the same
thing.  I was sufficiently  unhappy with ML Server that I am not
inclined to upgrade it to Mavericks Server, so am looking at doing the
DHCP and DNS stuff in a Linux virtual machine client.  It would have
been nice if I could have kept that as a VBox client, because you can
shift VBox clients around OS X, WIndows and Linux hosts quite
painlessly.  Well, you could before Mavericks broke VBox networking...

> Does anyone in this group simulate a cluster with either Parallels or 
> Fusion?  Do you have preferences?

I picked Fusion over Parallels because at the time

o - Parallels' pushy marketing annoyed the hell out of me
o - Parallels slapped stuff all over my system which took a lot of
    cleaning up after the trial period ended
o - Paralllels was 50% more expensive than Fusion at the time

Mind you, I bought VMware Fusion just before the latest version came
out, and I am not particularly happy about the price hike for that. 
They do offer what looks like a good deal on upgrading to their latest
Pro version, but unfortunately don't seem willing to tell me what
advantages that brings except that "it's better".

-- 
Paul Sture

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#19781

Paul Sture <nospam@sture.ch> wrote:

> I picked Fusion over Parallels because at the time
> 
> o - Parallels' pushy marketing annoyed the hell out of me
> o - Parallels slapped stuff all over my system which took a lot of
>     cleaning up after the trial period ended
> o - Paralllels was 50% more expensive than Fusion at the time

Worth noting that the Parallels license is for one machine, the Fusion
licens is for one user. This could make a big difference for some users.
-- 
<http://www.decohen.com>
The Labyrinth of the Heart: Changed Myths for Changing Lives 
book and e-book <http://www.decohen.com/labyrinth>
Send e-mail to the Reply-To address, not the From address.

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#19775

On 2013.11.27, 17:15 , John Holt wrote:
>
> I have been using VBox, but there are some problems with VBox under
> Mavericks.  It may be my use of Host Only networking, at least that
> looks to be a common thread in the VBox forum.  The major complaint is
> that it frequently prevents Mac OS X from shutting down (shutdown -h now
> does work) in the normal manner.
>
> The minor complaint is that I cannot get the seamless window mode to
> work, so I am stuck with some fixed size windows.
>
> Maybe now is the time to buy Parallels or Fusion.
>
> One thing that I would like is a way to reserve addresses.  The VBox
> DHCP will assign them 1 up, which means that I need to bring my virtual
> cluster up node by node in the correct order.
>
> Does anyone in this group simulate a cluster with either Parallels or
> Fusion?  Do you have preferences?

My once every few years trial of linux is underway under Fusion.
(Ubuntu 13 distro).

I can run it in a full window, drag and drop from OS X to Linux and v-v 
(copy/paste as well).  I can make the linux window into a smaller window 
and drag that around.  (This meant installing VMWare Tools in Linux 
which was a mild pita requiring sudo).

Some files won't drag over, however from within the Linux session (eg:" 
see a Mac folder from the Linux side, but can't drag files or folders 
reliably).  Whether this is a network issue or what, I haven't figured 
out... OTOH, if I drag from  a Mac finder window into the Linux env. and 
into a folder - no problem.

I can't seem to even see the 2nd display from Fusion, never mind getting 
Linux to see it. (Same issue with Windows XP).

As to clusters I can't help you.  I can access my mac (same machine) and 
my SO's mac via the network - though there are copy issues (above). 
There are several network "adaptors" in Fusion (NAT, Bridged, etc.). 
This doesn't work smoothly - sometimes the connection simply won't work 
and I get errors.  (Still playing with the config and eventually should 
work).

Can't get ufraw to pass a file to the Gimp either.

-- 
"The radio was once expected to promote international understanding and 
co-operation;
it has turned out to be a means of insulating one nation from another."
                                                  -George Orwell, 1945

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#19789

John Holt wrote:

>
> I have been using VBox, but there are some problems with VBox under 
> Mavericks.  It may be my use of Host Only networking, at least that 
> looks to be a common thread in the VBox forum.  The major complaint is 
> that it frequently prevents Mac OS X from shutting down (shutdown -h 
> now does work) in the normal manner.
>
> The minor complaint is that I cannot get the seamless window mode to 
> work, so I am stuck with some fixed size windows.
>
> Maybe now is the time to buy Parallels or Fusion.

A new version of VirtualBox arrived for me today and it has certainly
fixed my networking issues.  The Change Log also claims to have
addressed OS X shutdown problems.

<https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Changelog>

-- 
Paul Sture

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