Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

Christopher_G_Lewis — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 17:31:41 GMT

Any suggestion on getting the VM extentions for Linux working with Ubuntu?

[I actually haven't even tried this, because Ubuntu is pretty speedy for me without any modifications (I have a VT-enabled machine). Let me get back to you on this. - mikekol]

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

You Qi — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 22:38:44 GMT

THANKS A MILLION!! WORKS LIKE A CHARM! :D

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

Mark — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 08:32:30 GMT

WOWSOME! Thanks so much.

P.S. You should try Xubuntu.

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

dub — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 07:37:46 GMT

Flawless instructions. Very helpful, thank you much!.

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

Thund3rstruck — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 18:18:35 GMT

Worked great but I the ubuntu VPC has no network connection. I need this to port an application to Linux and cannot use shared networking to test client server operations.

[I've had network issues with Ubuntu as well, and not just in a VM. I'm not sure whether it's by design or not, but I've had to manually tell the machine to connect to the wired network almost every time I turn it on. I've done this my clicking on the network icon in the upper-right hand corner of the screen and choosing 'Wired Network' from the list. As long as you have the Virtual Machine's network adapter set to use the correct physical adapter on your host, I've had it work every time. - mikekol]

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

Rodney Myers — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 00:58:30 GMT

Thunder, I was able to get Ubuntu networking to work by configuring a static IP address and DNS servers.

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

Jacob — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:00:06 GMT

The directions worked great. However, once Ubuntu is booted up it runs very slow. I'm not sure if the VM additions need to be installed, but any suggestions on how to speed it up would be great. I am running Virtual PC 2007 with the host OS as Vista. Thanks...

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

Scott Hanselman — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 08:20:03 GMT

Ubuntu works a lot faster if you have Hardware Virtualization turned on:

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/VirtualPCTipsAndHardwareAssistedVirtualization.aspx

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

Seb — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 03:33:32 GMT

Mike, Great post! Thanks for the info!

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

Vitor Mauricio de N. Silva — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 05:19:45 GMT

Mike, Great ! This works perfectly.

Vitor Mauricio

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

Jono — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 05:15:40 GMT

Great instructions - even for a newbie like me.

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

Dave — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 18:35:00 GMT

Thanks! I found these solutions one and a time and yours are both better and step by step! Nice work and a huge plus to the million plus Virtual PC users out here running the OS we bought with our machines but learning new things... or in my case learning things I knew 15 years ago.

I wanted to contribute to your site here with info on how to go beyond 1024x768 in a Virtual PC window but I have not been able to figure it out despite 2-3 hours of trying. I will keep working on it but any help is welcome. I have tried setting to VESA and VGA and any resolution higher than this causes a GUI crash and leaves me in a terminal box (man I need to add emacs to my machine as vi kills me).

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

Dave — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 19:27:16 GMT

Update: I am a fool. I kept plugging at it and gave up on Google and went to the Ubuntu site and started digging. Here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FixVideoResolutionHowto

From this page I used the "sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg" command and got more resolution. I am only able to get 1280x1024 rather than the 1440x1050 of my screen but this is good enough for me now.

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

Joe — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 01:45:17 GMT

I noticed the suggestion to add i8042.noloop to the end of the line... (in the steps for setup)

does anyone know what file this refers to?

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

haha — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 11:05:07 GMT

Use Vmware workstation. It's a lot better...

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

Dave — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 15:21:02 GMT

I have found that Ubuntu 7.04 under Virtual PC 2007 (running on Vista or XP SP2) starts up with a dead network every time. I created a shell script to run this command "sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart" and this reset correctly picks up the DHCP info from both my office and home DHCP servers and I am all set. Odd that it fails on initial startup as VPC 2007 virtualizes all the hardware before it even processes the bios startup of the machine..

I would use VMWare but it costs a whole lot more than $0 in order to be able to build out and use new VMs. I use it at work and like it but I don't wish to buy it for home.

Dave

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

Alex — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 22:21:45 GMT

Great! Worked on my set (WinXP x64 host / VPC2007) in 1 hour, taking time to read a couple of articles here and there.

It would be great to have a solution to install VM additions to smoothe mouse transitions and so on between the VM and the host, but it already works quite well with the Hardware Virtualization activated.

The DHCP client issue is also something that should find a solution. Dave: how did you exactly run your solution (newbee on Linux!)?

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

ubuntu boy — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 02:29:30 GMT

It's all very well for people to be saying "Use VMWare", but that's not even out for Vista yet.

My new machine came with Vista, so until I can see harware support for everything it comes with, it will be the base OS.

At least Virtual PC runs on Vista I say!

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

Alberto — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 09:34:28 GMT

I also had to include clock=pit

See http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?kbid=918461

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

bond — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 07:28:32 GMT

it worked.. great!

thanks so much..

this was so simple.. :)

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

Corey — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 21:57:16 GMT

I was having some issues related to the gnome settings daemon starting up, and locking up the VM.

I found I had to have a minimum of 256 megs of ram allocated to the VM and that was no longer an issue.

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

Chris — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 23:22:29 GMT

I found this on the i8042.noloop option.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.20/+bug/87262

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

Linux4Ever — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 03:11:10 GMT

I tried Ubuntu Ultimate under VPC2007 and I didnt even have to mod the graphics, but still had to do the mouse-compatibility thing.

(If you like/want Vista Ultimate, try Ubuntu Ultimate!!!!!)

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

John — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 02:41:01 GMT

I had tried getting Ubuntu to run on Windows Vista the other way (booting from CD) but that didn't work and this did the trick. Thanks for the article!

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

Bruno — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 15:22:11 GMT

I got stuck very early on - the xorg.conf file doesn't exist, and naturally I'm not able to create it. Also I've found that the mouse is "stuck" in the VM window (so I use ALT GR + ENTER to get back to XP).

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

Bruno — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 16:02:21 GMT

Ok, upon return to xwindows I can actually see something - although it's black and white, horizontally extended and not pretty :D Figured since I could see things I could install it, and then make the needed changes. But as I get to the location window I can't get further as I can't make the window small enough to see the whole thing - including some kind of "next" button which I don't know how to get to with the keyboard *lol*

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

Bruno — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 19:49:24 GMT

Ok, if anyone runs into the same problem as me, get the alternate CD image - installation is text based, so you can finish the installation, and then follow the instructions here

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

Cadoo — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 21:49:39 GMT

I used the safe graphics mode and it worked just fine.

Thank you for this tip on getting the mouse working.

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

Cadoo — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 21:51:16 GMT

Safe graphics mode did not require editing xorg.conf by the way.

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

erick — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 19:25:50 GMT

Make sure you type Xorg.conf - it won't find the file if you type a lower case x

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

JAIME ESPINOSA — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 17:30:46 GMT

Thanks. I can't figure out what would i do without your post... Thks agains..

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

rik prenen — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 17:37:27 GMT

Worked just fine. Thanks a lot!

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

Godwin — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 04:59:13 GMT

After I typed i8042.noloop and hit enter, I received the followed error:

checksum for device 1 is not valid (0x89)

checksum for device 2 is not valid (0xbe)

Any idea?

[Sorry, no idea. Does it happen every time? Does it prevent Ubuntu from booting? You might want to try an Ubuntu support forum to see if they have any ideas on what to try. - mikekol]

A little assistance?

Ark Rat — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 04:40:13 GMT

Is there a way I could receive the Ubuntu file from you? I can't seem to find the right one. Or even a link to where you got yours? Also.....how do I capture the ISO? I know, I know, stupid question, but it's a necessary idiocy.

[I can't distribute any files like that, sorry. If you're using Virtual PC, start the VM and click the CD menu (I think... I don't have VPC on my machine right now), and click Capture Image. Then you can point it to an ISO file. - mikekol]

re: A little assistance

Ark Rat — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 19:49:09 GMT

Thanks man, I'll try it. But do you have a link to the file? If not, it's cool.

re: A little assistance

Ark Rat — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 19:49:15 GMT

Thanks man, I'll try it. But do you have a link to the file? If not, it's cool.

Error

Ark Rat — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 16:39:27 GMT

Accidentally clicked submit twice. Sorry!

Installing Ubuntu

Newbie — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 15:51:12 GMT

I have fixed the graphics parts. Since the mouse is not working, I'm not able to select the installation option. I've tried all keys on the keyboard, but without any luck. Any hints/tips would be appreciated :)

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

Brian — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:33:56 GMT

I am confused on this part:

On the Ubuntu boot menu, select Start or install Ubuntu and hit F6. Add i8042.noloop to the end of the line, and press Enter. This will make the mouse work in recent versions of the kernel.

Because I hit F6 and it brings up the "Other Options", there is no where to type. Am I missing something here?

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

Brian — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:38:54 GMT

Actually I figured it out, you have to do F7.

So my problem is now that when I try to find the word "depth", it is not found. Any ideas?

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

AJ — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 03:26:54 GMT

First off, I could not get the video fix mentioned here to help with the setup screen running off the window, however F4 did fix it. I did get the mouse thing going and made it through setup to initial boot. Now my problem is that the bootup gets stuck at "* Running local boot scripts (/etc/rc.local)." The hard disk mentions no activity, but the ethernet does. I checked the ISO image integrity and found it to be good. I also upped the VM memory to 256. Any ideas? (Oh, I'm using Server 7.04.)

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

AJ — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 10:07:09 GMT

Update: I found that the system /did/ finish booting, but simply failed to show a prompt until I hit ENTER. Also found out (via Google) that the server edition does not come with a GUI. I know one can be installed, but I don't have the knowledge to accomplish that. I tried some install commands mention on the net, but none worked properly, mostly due to "no package found" type errors. Even the online update feature did not pull a desktop package. Unless someone feels charitable and wants to post a reply on how to load a desktop onto the server edition, I'll keep searching. :)

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

shane — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 09:34:17 GMT

I can not get the second step to work. I end up with a screen with no list for the mouse fix. I then decided to reboot, and release the *.iso, and now when it Xubuntu loads, I get an error stating "Reboot and select proper Boot Device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device" and nothing.

Not sure what has happened here.

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

shane — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 09:53:29 GMT

I realized my mistake! I had not run through the full install. Rather than burn and waste CDs I use a program called Virtual Clone Drive. Saves tonnes of CDs from becoming coasters. Google it.

mouse moves, clicking doesn't click

bronius — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 02:42:51 GMT

Thanks for the super simple steps-- always helps to get things going just knowing someone else has successfully done so before.

Has anyone seen the case where the mouse wiggles and tracks, but clicking isn't recognized? I'm on a Dell Latitude running 32bit Vista, VPC 2007, Ubuntu 7.10.

Update (without having yet posted). What worked for me was holding left-alt while clicking.. go figure..? From now on it seems to be working just fine.

All the best!

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

mattman — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 00:02:47 GMT

The proper way to update the /boot/grub/menu.lst is to edit the two lines defoptions and altoptions -- add the i8042.noloop to those two lines, so they look something like this:

# defoptions=quiet splash i8042.noloop

...

#altoptions=(recovery mode) i8042.noloop single

Then save the file and run

sudo update-grub

to automatically update the two "live" entries you mentioned updating in this article. This will ensure that the change carries through for any kernel image updates so you won't have to keep making the same edits for each new kernel version entry in the menu.lst.

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

Jeff — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 07:48:53 GMT

Thank you so much for posting this excellent solution. I was about to abort my efforts. Now I can test away!

Cheers.

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

khopcus — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 08:34:58 GMT

I was having the same problems as everyone else until I found this webpage. The live cd and the install kept hanging during boot. After playing around with it for awhile I had to add the i8042.noloop and the clock=pit mods and it worked great. Thanks!!!!!

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

Rick — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 06:45:52 GMT

Why not put mattman's method for changing menu.lst, described a few posts before this one, up into the main section? I think that's the better way of going about changing that file.

To enable sound (do not type quotes):

-Hit CTRL-ALT-F1 to drop to a console

-Login

-Type "sudo nano /etc/modules"

-Add "snd-sb16" (as the last line by itself at the end of the file)

-Save and close the file (Ctrl-O, Enter, Ctrl-X)

-CTRL-ALT-F7 to switch back to XWindows

-Reboot (System menu)

re: Making Ubuntu 7.04 Work Under Virtual PC 2007

Apollo-Soyuz 1975 — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 09:32:14 GMT

Thanks very much for posting this how-to article. Has anyone, to your knowledge, experimented with the Folding@Home 64-bit Linux SMP client using Ubuntu in Virtual PC 2007? I'd be interested to learn how to make it work.

Ubuntu 7.10 на VirtualPC 2007

Константин Кичинский — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 19:50:43 GMT

Настройка Ubuntu 7.10 под VirtualPC 2007. Включаем работу мыши и правильную наст