Running windows programs under Linux

[Robert Heller]

At Thu, 28 Aug 2014 22:48:58 -0400 "Ubuntu user technical support,  not for general discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com> wrote:

> 
> 
> On 08/28/2014 10:09 PM, Robert Heller wrote:
> > At Thu, 28 Aug 2014 20:40:38 -0400 "Ubuntu user technical support,  not for general discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com> wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> On 08/28/2014 02:51 PM, NoOp wrote:
> >>> On 08/25/2014 03:59 AM, BONNET, Frank wrote:
> >>>> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KVM
> >>>>
> >>> Perhaps you might be forgetting something?
> >>> <https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KVM/Installation#Pre-installation_checklist>
> >>>
> >>> Not all processors support vmx/svm:
> >>> $ egrep -c '(vmx|svm)' /proc/cpuinfo
> >>> 0
> >>>
> >>> You're sending an Ubuntu newbie off to kvm without checking to see if
> >>> his machine will even run kvm...
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >> Been reading this thread for a while. My distro doesn't provide
> >> KVM. Is there a source of this in rpm format? And where would
> > Well, it is part of CentOS 6 (64-bit only):
> >
> > sauron.deepsoft.com% dir /centos64*/*/*/*kvm*
> > /centos64x86_64/1/Packages/qemu-kvm-0.12.1.2-2.355.el6.x86_64.rpm
> > /centos64x86_64/1/Packages/qemu-kvm-tools-0.12.1.2-2.355.el6.x86_64.rpm
> >
> > I would guess it is in 64-bit Fedora and there probably srpms available that
> > could be rpmbuild to suit.
> >
> >> I find a list of processors that can use it?
> > I suspect that most (all?) modern multi-core 64-processors would support KVM,
> > but I don't know for sure:
> >
> > sauron.deepsoft.com% egrep -c '(vmx|svm)' /proc/cpuinfo
> > 4
> > sauron.deepsoft.com% head /proc/cpuinfo
> > processor       : 0
> > vendor_id       : AuthenticAMD
> > cpu family      : 16
> > model           : 4
> > model name      : AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 945 Processor
> > stepping        : 3
> > cpu MHz         : 3348.594
> > cache size      : 512 KB
> > physical id     : 0
> > siblings        : 1
> >
> > newserver.wendellfreelibrary.org%  egrep -c '(vmx|svm)' /proc/cpuinfo
> > 2
> > newserver.wendellfreelibrary.org% head /proc/cpuinfo
> > processor       : 0
> > vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
> > cpu family      : 6
> > model           : 60
> > model name      : Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU G3220 @ 3.00GHz
> > stepping        : 3
> > cpu MHz         : 800.000
> > cache size      : 3072 KB
> > physical id     : 0
> > siblings        : 2
> >
> > sauron.deepsoft.com is running CentOS 5 and xen,
> > newserver.wendellfreelibrary.org is running CentOS 6 and kvm.  Both systems
> > have at least one Ubuntu VM installed.  The Ubuntu VM running on newserver
> > runs 24/7 and is a server itself (tftp and nfs).  The Ubuntu VMs on
> > sauron.deepsoft.com are only used as build boxes and are only run on an
> > as-needed basis (eg when I need build something for Ubuntu).
> >
> > I suspect that when I upgrade sauron to CentOS 6 (I am in no hurry to do so),
> > it will happily run KVM.  (Or by that time I may have upgraded to newer
> > hardware -- the future is so hard to predict...)
> >
> >
> Question: If I were to obtain kvm and install it on my 64-bit pclos-kde,
> would a 32-bit (only) Windows XP program run on it? The reason I
> want to do this is because I have an old copy of AutoCAD-LT, which
> I would like to run. It only runs on 32-bit Windows--could I install
> 32-bit XP onto kvm-64-bit? I no longer have a real 32-bit XP
> installed anywhere, and I can run the program in Win 7-64 via
> the XP emulator that's built-in to that, but frankly, that option
> is a pain. Also, that's set up on a laptop, which is not exactly
> ideal for a drafting program!

Basically, what KVM gives you is a 'virtual' 64-bit x86-ish computer. ALL
64-bit x86-ish computers can run 32-bit x86-ish (eg i686) operating systems,
since x86_64 processors are proper supersets of i686 processors. So yes, you
can install a 32-bit (only) Windows XP operating system on such a VM. Of
course, there would be no point in giving such a VM more than about 4 gig a
RAM, since a 32-bit x86-ish (eg i686) operating system cannot use more than
4gig, unless it also uses PAE (does 32-bit (only) Windows XP support PAE?).


(In theory, you could also run a 16-bit OS, like MS-DOS if you wanted too, 
since i686's are proper subsets of the 80286 and 8086/8088, but that gets kind 
of silly.)


> 
> Thanx for you inputs--doug
> 

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
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