Kategori: vmware

mount.ntfs using 100% cpu with vmware-player on Ubuntu 10.04

I had problems running vmware images from a mounted ntfs filesystem in Ubuntu 10.04. The problem was that the process mount.ntfs used 100% CPU and froze my computer only a few moments after starting the image in wmware-player. I guess the mounting of ntfs filesystems aren’t that good in Ubuntu. At least not when you have an application that is very write-intensive.

The solution was to open the .vmx file and add this row:
workingDir = ”../../../var/vmware”

This is where vmware-player stores ”suspend files and snapshots. The path should be relative to the image-dir and be writable to the user running vmware-player. And of course, don’t change the path to another mounted ntfs-filesystem. You should also be able to edit the workingdir by using the vmware-player GUI as well. Look at screenshot below.

Expanding virtual disks in vmware

Today I ran into trouble when my Windows XP wmvare virtual machine ran out of disk space. I found this really helpful article which guided me. I only followed steps 3b and 4 and managed to enlarge my hard drive quite simple and fast.

Here is a quick and dirty tutorial for enlarging your hard drive:

Step 1 – Make the virtual hard drive grow to 10GB
vmware-vdiskmanager -x 10GB winxp.vmdk

Step 2 – Make a copy of winxp.vmdk to winxp_new.vmdk

Step 3 – Mount winxp_new.vmdk as a second drive in the virtual machine

Step 4 – Start the virtual machine and enter the command line. Run commands:
diskpart
list disks
list volume
select volume=2
extend
list volume

Step 5 – Shut down your virtual machine

Step 6 – Remove all mounted hard drives

Step 7 – Mount winxp_new.vmdk as your primary hard drive

Step 8 – Delete your old virtual hard drive winxp.vmdk

Step 9 – Boot your VM. Now you got 10GB for the C: drive. :D

Enjoy!