How to get Redhat 6.2 Linux Second NIC to Ping

While trying to setup the Redhat Linux machine with two interfaces to install vCloud Director into it, I had some funny problem with my network cards configuration. I have not installed vCloud Director yet at that time, so I was sure it is some Redhat Linux or networking problem rather than vCloud Director in specific. The problem I had, that I was able to ping one of the two NICs IPs from a different subnet, where I could not get the second NIC which I was planning to use for vCloud Director Remote Console to ping. Other machines within the same subnet were able to ping both NICs IPs, while machines from other subnets can only ping the IP of the first NIC.

I checked my network cards configurations and confirmed it had a gateway configured into them, as that seemed to me to be nothing but a routing/default gateway configuration problem. After fuzzing for few hours with this problem and trying every trick that is known to mankind with routing on Linux, I landed on the following post How To Install vCloud Director on RHEL 6.2 – No GUI by Kenny Coleman which explain the solution to the same problem.… Read More

VMware View PCoIP Client on Ubuntu is finally here

If you are an Ubuntu user like I am, a VMware View PCoIP Client for Ubuntu has been long waited for. Unfortunately, officially it still not released by VMware so if you want the official release then you just have to wait. Though if you are looking for a work around then its here, and you don’t need to get stuck with the disastrous RDP protocol. Before I mention anything further, how about watching the below video as a teaser. A real teaser!



Yes, its what you just saw in the video VMware View Client with PCoIP is currently running on my Ubuntu Natty Narwhal 64-bit. It works like a charm. And no I am not leaking a new VMware View Client from VMware, that I can not share with you. I am pretty sure the development team has this kind of client in their mind, but I have no clue when and where it will happen or what it will look like . Till then, this work around can make our life much easier than sticking with RDP. If I have teased you enough, I am sure you are looking on how I have done this and looking at how short this post you probably figured out I am not showing that in here, but I have documented this on the  Linux 2 Aix Blog in details and can be found at:

VMware View PCoIP on Ubuntu How to

I have decided to share the instructions on a Linux blog as I believe its where it should belong and where more Ubuntu users will be searching.… Read More

Redhat announces a change in Virtualization Strategy

Redhat has announced an interesting change in their virtualization strategy. They seems to dump Xen for KVM in their upcoming releases. This will be a happy news for a lot of open source lovers. As Citrix & Microsoft are controlling the way Xen is evolving, they would rather a real open source alternative. Redhat has a good announcement found at Red Hat Sets Its Virtualization Agenda clearing up the confusion of their Virtualization Strategy after they had obtained Qumranet in the last quarter of 2008.

A brief of the planned changes quoted from Redhat annoucement is below:

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux: Red Hat’s strategic direction for the future development of its virtualization product portfolio is based on KVM, making Red Hat the only virtualization vendor leveraging technology that is developed as part of the Linux operating system. Existing Xen-based deployments will continue to be supported for the full lifetime of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, and Red Hat will provide a variety of tools and services to enable customers to migrate from their Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Xen deployment to KVM.
  • Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager for Servers: A new, richly featured virtualization management solution for servers that will be the first open source product in the industry to allow fully integrated management across virtual servers and virtual desktops, featuring Live Migration, High Availability, System Scheduler, Power Manager, Image manager, Snapshots, thin provisioning, monitoring and reporting.
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How to solve installation problems of VMware Server on Ubuntu

The other day, Andres asked Josep Ros a question about Ubuntu and VMware. Since Josep Ros know absolutely nothing about Ubuntu, they asked Albert Mas for help. As the wise man says, knowing everything is not as important as knowing the phone number of someone who does.

“Hello Josep,

I am having trouble with VMware and Ubuntu and am not able to solve the problem myself. I was able to fix some errors but have come across one that I have no idea how to fix. Can you help me? Thanks in advance.

-Andres Lamelas”


This is what Albert Mas suggested, and it worked:

“I tried, unsuccessfully, to reproduce the error several ways. The problem is that you’re using the latest version of VMware Server, Version 1.07, which does not work with new kernels. We therefore have to use some patches from Version 1.06 that can work with both versions.

Thus, we can do two things:

1. Use the patches that are available on this site:
http://lenrek.wordpress.com/2008/08/09/vmware-server-106-for-linux-kernel-2626x/

2. Install VMware again, following the steps outlined in my blog:
http://www.turkil.net/blog/vmware-server-105-a-ubuntu-804/

in section:

If on the contrary, you have no VMware Server installed and we want to install it on Ubuntu 8.04, you will have to do the following …

Remember that where you put VMware 1.05,Read More

Starting VMware from the Ubuntu login

If you don’t have a computer with many resources and you want to use VMware or VMplayer with a Windows XP image (or any other operating system) for a longer period of time (e.g. you must use Word, Excel, Access, etc.), a good solution is to start VMware directly, without downloading GNOME.

To achieve this, you need to create a new account that you can log into from the login screen (GDM). For it, you create the file “/usr/share/xsessions/windows-xp.desktop”:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding = UTF-8
Name = Windows-XP
Exec = /usr/local/bin/startwindowsxp.sh
Icon =
Type = Application

This will execute the file “/usr/local/bin/startwindows.sh”, which you will also have to create with the following content:

#!/bin/bash
cd /mnt/extra/Windows_XP_Professional/
vmplayer –fullscreen /mnt/extra/Windows_XP_Professional/ Windows_XP_Professional.vmx

In this file, you must change the path where you have saved your Windows image. Then, execute:

sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/startwindowsxp.sh
sudo chmod 755 /usr/share/xsessions/windows-xp.desktop

Now, you can log out of the user account and log in to the “Windows-XP” account from GDM. If you are asked if you want to make it your default account, reply no, since you will only be using it occasionally. Once the machine has started, you can bring it into full-screen mode by clicking on the VMware menu and pressing F11.Read More

Screencasts with Ubuntu

Ubuntu disappoints again… although I don’t exactly know who is to blame: Ubuntu, the programmers at Wink, or me.

Today, I was preparing some basic tutorials for VMware Player.
So far, the mini-course, if that’s what you want to call it, consists of four parts:

1) Downloading the VMware Player from the VMware website;
2) Creating a virtual machine with easyvmx.com;
3) Mounting an ISO file directly modifying the definition file of the virtual machine, and
4) Obtaining the VMware Tools for Linux from VMware Server.

The truth is that—more than creating a mini-workshop—I wanted to test whether it could perform screencasts in Linux just like it did in Windows.

The answer is NO.

When searching on Google, I found over and over again the same few options for live screen captures: RecordMyDesktop, Istanbul and XVidCap (for a summary, see the article on Linux.com). Because I am used to doing screencasts with Camtasia, I found it very inconvenient that none of these options allowed me to edit captures. Suppose I captured a video in OGG format, or Theora, how would I edit it? Remember, I am VERY new to Linux,but my needs are simple (e.g. cut out pieces of recording where I made mistakes or where progress bars consume too much time; add some titles, and perhaps make notes on the screen).… Read More

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS – Code Name: The Hardy Heron

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (also called the “Hardy Heron” or the “Robust Heron”) is the eighth version of Ubuntu. The stable version was published on April 24, 2008. It follows Ubuntu 7.10, also known as the “Gutsy Gibbon”, and precedes Ubuntu 8.10, the “Intrepid Ibex”.

Ubuntu 8.04 is the second version that has long-term support. It will be supported for 3 years on workstations (until April 2011) and for 5 years on servers (until April 2013).

Which version of Ubuntu is currently installed on your computer?

Get Ubuntu 8.04 LTS – Click here to download Ubuntu 8.04 LTS

To download or order a free copy of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS for workstations on PC computers, go to the download page of Ubuntu. This page gives you the opportunity to:
– immediately download a free CD image of Ubuntu or one of its variations, which you can burn onto a CD-ROM (+ 700 million);

– order a free Ubuntu CD-ROM or one of its variations through the Ship-It service (delivery takes between 3 to 10 weeks), and
– find other ways to get a copy of Ubuntu (e.g. through the press or computer magazines).

The specialized CD images of the different variations of Ubuntu (Alternate CD and CD-ROM installation server) can be downloaded directly from the Ubuntu download server.Read More

VirtualBox: Is it a Necessity or a Gadget?

In recent days, a small software made its way to the little man in Ubuntu os: it is Virtual Box. Many articles have already been written on this subject and I will not dwell on its installation, or configuration. It is simply a virtual machine software as the famous VMware, except that the Virtual Box free although still proprietary software. But no matter, it is important to note that VirtualBox is much more reactive than its competitor while remaining very easy to configure and use. The writing of this note is to demonstrate – with no guarantee – the usefulness of this software under Ubuntu and Linux in general.

A large majority of Ubunters has already installed Wine to emulate (not really emulation, but it is understood better this way) MS Windows on their workstation. We all know that this software is far from perfect, often slower than a real Windows but not always, it helps to use a small range of software, some of which may not work. These are often software games like FPS or MMORPG, some poker rooms, especially Internet Explorer! Yes, IE! It is the most used browser in the world but also one of the least respectful of web standards, then the poor webmasters and CSS experts who need to verify that this browser will not display anything incorrectly over 80% of the world’s computers.… Read More

Install SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 SP1 & Component Integration for Linux on Hyper-V

In this article, I am planning to cover how to Install SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 on Hyper-V, but what make it different than other articles that I will try to cover how to install the Hyper-V Component Integration for Linux as well Inject the Xen Hyper-Visor into the SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 which is running as a guest OS to try to show how to unleash the claimed performance of Linux on Hyper-V.

The reason behind me writing this article is that I came across many articles who show you how to install Hyper-V. Then many others which show how to install Linux as a guest OS on hyper-V, but I have not seen any that show you how to do the full install of Linux on hyper-V to include the Linux Component Integration for Hyper-V and Xen Hypervisor. In addition, I have came across many other articles which mention that being not easy such as Fedore Core 8 on Hyper-V not so easy as it seems and MS Hyper-V vs VMware VI3 , but they still have not mention how to do it to let us figure out how hard its. So I decided to try it out and post my experience and try to prove the opposite if possible, but If you want to head to the last few lines to find out the conclusion before going over the full article “yes, its not as easy as I thought Microsoft product would run.”… Read More