vmware & breezy

[chris dunn]

Steve wrote:

> On 10/27/05, chris dunn <chris at tropictc.com> wrote:
> 
>>Thanks for the inputs.
>>
>>You lucky guys with adequate memory. I only have 256mb on a reasonably
>>fast cpu but unfortunately the box is a Dell one. VMware and WXP did
>>used to run happily (if fairly slowly) under Slackware though, so it
>>seems unlikely to be the box alone that is creating the problem.
>>
>>If it is a memory problem I suspect video memory more than cpu. The
>>screen takes for ever to redraw, and when WXP is running under VMware,
>>any operation in X, such as a simple change of desktop takes forever. So
>>when VMware is trying to run WXP I'm completely unable to work.
>>
>>The video memory is a cheap onboard Intel 845 chip.
>>
>>Any suggestions would be welcome.
>>
>>
>>Chris Dunn
> 
> 
> Chris,
> 
> You didn't mention if you were able to install VMware Tools in the
> Guest OS... they say that helps video performance. Also there is a
> VMware preference or option setting called something like "Disable
> Video Acceleration in Guest OS" that they also say will help
> performance.
> 
> I will assume now that you are allocating something like 128MB RAM for
> the Guest OS (1/2 your memory). You can try to tinker with that a
> bit... see if 160MB is better (hoping your Host doesn't get squeezed
> too much!)... that's about all I can suggest, as I've never had
> performance problems like you are having! :-(
> 
> Another thing to check is to make sure your hard drive is not too full
> or badly fragmented. During the excruciating slowdowns is you hard
> drive CONSTANTLY spinning? Even though you will undoubtably experience
> pagefile swapping due to your low memory situation, the drive should
> not have to spin for several minutes every you click something.
> 
> If the slowdowns for you are not due to hard drive activity, then it
> may very well be your video card and/or CPU (compounded by relatively
> low RAM). (ie. during your very slow screen refreshes if the drive is
> not going berserk...)
> 
> You'll want to make sure of what the real problems are before you
> decide to upgrade a part... RAM, Video, CPU.
> 
> Tonight I may try to run my XP virtual machine with different memory
> settings (lower than my current 192MB... 160, 128, 96) to try to
> reproduce what you're experiencing. I'll let you know if I can
> discover any ways to make performance improvements.
> 
> -Steve.
> --
> Ubuntu :: Linux for Human Beings :: ubuntulinux.org
> 

Steve,

Thanks for all of this. Yes, VMware Tools is installed, at least VMware 
seems to believe it is. I'll give all your other suggestions a try and 
post any useful results. However given the current state of the system 
this might be several weeks away.

As a somewhat off-topic cooment for anyone interested, in my frustration 
I decided to give Crossover Office a try again. There has just been a 
new release.

Wonderful. It installed without any hassle, followed by Quickbooks Pro, 
which updated itself with a hefty download with no problem. I can now 
run QB Pro directly under Ubuntu which has not (I believe) been possible 
previously. I'll happily part with the small purchase cost if it deals 
with a couple of other essential WXP apps just as well.

Still prefer VMware for its extra flexibility though, if only I can get 
the speed problem resolved.

Chris Dunn