What's the best way to virtualize Linux Mint 19 under W10 Pro?

muchomurka · 09 Jul 2018

Kari said:

To run Hyper-V, system hypervisor must be present and turned on before Windows kernel is loaded. That makes it a genuine type 1 hypervisor.

This is one point of view but not comprehensive. Yes, hyper-v starts before parent partiton OS and takes control over part of (but not all) HW resources. But for disk & network i/o, hyper-v relies on device drivers etc in parent partition OS, they perform i/o operations. Afaik the best description is: hyper-v is type 1 hv regarding processor/interrupts/memory management and type 2 regarding i/o operations, it cannot run without (is dependent on) Windows in parent partition.

Compumind said:

Will it work under the free VMware product?

Yes, it will. But forget snapshotting.

cereberus said:

I meant vmware, virtualbox etc.

They are hypervisors, not emulators.

jimbo45 · 09 Jul 2018

Hi there
all these popular Linux distros run easily under vmware -- ensure that at the guest OS install time you add the options you need such as a GUI (some distros install as a command line server unless you choose a GUI).

Ensure also that any special graphics drivers you need are also installed on the HOST. In general though provided you install VMWARE-TOOLS on the GUEST at first boot (or these days on Linux Guests open-vmtools is now the package vmware supplies for Linux guests) problems of sound, video and mouse usually are fixed.

On VBOX I think the equivalent is VM Additions - I don't use VBOX but there is a similar facility.

Note also for some distros to read / write native NTFS HDD's e.g external Windows formatted USB's connected to the VM you will need to install the ntfs-3g package. This isn't necessary for internal HDD's shared via SAMBA but there's nothing wrong in installing the package anyway.

Cheers
jimbo

Compumind · 10 Jul 2018

Hi jimbo -

I'm going with Linux Mint, and VMware Workstation, so I don't anticipate any real problems.
I'm a bit unfamiliar with VMware, so what exactly do you mean by VMware tools on the Guest?

Everything should be separate from W10 Pro, no?

Thanks,

Compumind

roy111 · 10 Jul 2018

You can surely use Vmware workstation player for free.
You just need to install open-vm-tools in the guest OS (Linux Mint) like this:

Code:

apt install open-vm-tools
apt install open-vm-tools-desktop

reboot and you're done.

Everything should be separate from W10 Pro, no?

What you mean is not clear, but in general i would say no, you are running a win 10 host so it cannot be separated, of course.

Eagle51 · 10 Jul 2018

I prefer VirtualBox and the learning curve isn't bad at all :) ... I run Win10 Pro and Linux Mint 19 Cinnamon guest on a Win10 Home host :)

RickC · 10 Jul 2018

Compumind said:

I'm going with Linux Mint, and VMware Workstation, so I don't anticipate any real problems.
I'm a bit unfamiliar with VMware, so what exactly do you mean by VMware tools on the Guest?

Everything should be separate from W10 Pro, no?

VMware tools are 'helpers' to make the VM more efficient. For example, the tools add a virtual print redirector, shared folder use, improved clipboard handling, USB3 support and graphic tweaks. As such, they aren't strictly necessary but are a very useful addition. In some respects they act as 'connectors' to the Win 10 Pro host, providing additional hooks to the host device's resources.

VMware Workstation doesn't have a template for Linux Mint so use the Ubuntu one (the Ubuntu x64 template if you're installing a 64-bit version of Linux Mint) and change the VM name. You'll see the following bar appear at the bottom of the Workstation installation window:

What's the best way to virtualize Linux Mint 19 under W10 Pro?-mint-19-install-01.png

Wait until the installation has finished and opened the Linux Mint Start page then click on the I Finished Installing button to dismiss it.

If you're using VMware Workstation (with snapshotting, etc) - as opposed to Workstation Player - then you can use this VMware guide to install the tools.

Hope this helps...

cereberus · 10 Jul 2018

muchomurka said:

This is one point of view but not comprehensive. Yes, hyper-v starts before parent partiton OS and takes control over part of (but not all) HW resources. But for disk & network i/o, hyper-v relies on device drivers etc in parent partition OS, they perform i/o operations. Afaik the best description is: hyper-v is type 1 hv regarding processor/interrupts/memory management and type 2 regarding i/o operations, it cannot run without (is dependent on) Windows in parent partition.

Yes, it will. But forget snapshotting.

They are hypervisors, not emulators.

Just wrote wrong term. Actually life is more subtle. Android emulators will not run with the hyper-v hypervisor running either.

Compumind · 10 Jul 2018

@RickC - @roy111 -

Thanks for the clarification! Now it all makes sense to me.
Bit surprised that VMware doesn't have a custom template for Mint, but that's OK.

Good information here!

jimbo45 · 11 Jul 2018

Hi there
@Compumind

remember also that to switch (in vmware) from full screen (and back again) to windowed press ctrl-alt-enter.

There's no need for templates either -- the .iso file is the OS guest install and you can use "Easy install" to create a "typical VM". I'd go for BRIDGED rather than NAT for the networking and remember to set the USB option to USB3 if you want USB3/ USB3.1 support.

Depending on what you what to do with the VM ensure your /HOME allocation is sufficient if the LINUX install gives you the option of manually setting partition sizes,

For Linux distros (pretty well all of them) if you set partitions manually you will need at least these

/ (root and system)
/home (your data files)
/boot (kernel and boot).
swap (swap area - should be same size as the amount of virtual memory given to the VM)

For networking and file sharing you will need to install samba
For RAID you will need to install mdadm
For NTFS read / write (direct windows access such as from external HDD's etc) you will need to install ntfs-3g.
For DVD playing install VLC.

Note that some or all of these might be installed by default - check via your package manager after guest install is complete.

To start samba : from a linux console in super user mode (root) either su / sudo : service smb(d) start and service nmb(d) start. Some distros the service is nmb/smb while others its smbd/nmbd. These services might be started automatically -- check at start up. The configuration file is in /etc/samba/samba.conf.

You will have to google as explaining how this should be configured is well beyond the scope of this post (especially on a Windows Forum).

For accessing sites that are blocked in so called "democratic" countries --think UK for example blocks more sites than either China or "The democratic republic of the Congo" combined - download tor -- 100% legal - actually invented by US military!!!.

For decent bit torrent client download deluge.

For decent video in the vm config set the 3d option / graphics hardware acceleration on. These will ensure decent multi-media playback e.g Netflix, Kodi, DVD playing (VLC)

The above packages should give you a pretty useful Linux installation.

You can copy the vm files to any disk you like so backup isn't a problem and with Linux it's free software so no activation problems.

Cheers
jimbo

muchomurka · 11 Jul 2018

Compumind said:

Bit surprised that VMware doesn't have a custom template for Mint, but that's OK.

Mint is derived from Ubuntu so use Ubuntu 64-bit template & modify settings according your needs.

jimbo45 said:

For Linux distros (pretty well all of them) if you set partitions manually you will need at least these

/ (root and system)
/home (your data files)
/boot (kernel and boot).
swap (swap area - should be same size as the amount of virtual memory given to the VM)

By default, Mint 19 uses swap file, not partition. And for testing purposes, default disk configuration (as made by installer) which uses single (root) partition is sufficient.