monline

I've only found instructions on how to compile and install these in /usr, but I wanted to test the latest version before I install it for all users. Here's how to do it.

I've done a little performance test of these two virtualization solutions for Mac OS X using a Windows XP SP3 for the guest OS. My conclusion is that they're pretty close in most aspects ... or at least in the aspects that are relevant to me. And VirtualBox being free for personal use makes it a clear winner for my needs (at home).

I migrated some Windows 2003 guests from Xen virtualization into KVM. Apparently Xen provided virtualized parallel ports to the guest, since starting up the Windows guest in KVM complains about the missing parallel port. The exact error is a popup (appearing before even I logged in) telling me that "at least one service or driver failed during startup". After login I see in Event Viewer the following error: "The Parallel port driver service failed to start due to the following error: The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it."

The solution is documented in the suggested Microsoft KB article. It says it's only for Vista or Win2008 based computers, but the method works for XP, 2003, etc. too. The strange thing is that I've checked a notebook that has Vista Home ed. on it and no parallel ports, and the startup type of the Parport service was set to "3" (as in my Win2003 guest that complained). Thus there must be some other way that Vista knows about not having any parallel ports in the machine and therefore issues no popup error messages. However disabling the Parport service alltogether works too.

Note that on Win2003 (and most probably on XP, Vista, Win7, Win2008, etc. too) you can disable the parallel port driver service with a command too (thus you don't have to dig into the registry ... which has it's risks if you're not careful). Execute the following in a command prompt:

The space between "start=" and "disabled" is important!

I was evaluating various virtual servers and their support for running fully virtualized Windows guests. After having played around with Xen I was about to test VMware Server. Since I already had a fully set up test VM in Xen with a raw disk image file, I simply wanted to reuse this image in a VMware virtual machine. I've done the required prerequisites (updated the IDE controller to the Standard PCI ... one, shut down the vm, converted the raw disk image with qemu-img to the vmdk format and created a vm in VMware Server using this image file). After starting up Windows (2003 Enterprise Edition) it told me that the underlying hardware has changed substantially (sure ... I tested Xen on another server with a different CPU, etc.) and I'm required to reactivate Windows. Now what the hell? During the setup I used a VLK (volume license key) and of course no activation was required. But it seems that even VLK setups require "activation" in case you change some basic hardware. It'd be interesting to find out what hardware change triggers reactivation in this case. The same as in a standard (non-VLK) Windows setup or is there some difference?

I've found that my Command+Tab shortcut for switching between running apps does not work if Parallels Desktop 3.0 is running with an XP in it.

I tried to play a MOV file in Windows Media Player 11 inside a Parallels Desktop virtual machince. DirectX support was enabled, but didn't help much. Once WMP11 started everything went crazy. It looked like WMP tried to switch to full-screen mode, but failed and various windows flashed in and out on the screen. I could somehow stop it and the virtual machine got suspended. It started all over again, when I resumed the vm session. Finally Windows crashed with a BSOD and I was quite thankful that the Mac OS X did not crash too. Parallels Desktop 3.0 definitely needs a lot of polishing til it's "production ready". You should not be fooled by a "final release" ... this is very much a beta, just with a stamp of Parallels' marketing as being the "final", production version. You should wait a couple of bugfix releases before you decide to invest money in this new version.

When it comes to DirectX compatibility you instinctly start dxdiag. In VMware Fusion beta both the DirectDraw and most Direct3D tests were successful, except for the DirectX9 Direct3D test. In Parallels Desktop 3.0 the DirectDraw test failed (no error, just nothing happened) and the Direct3D tests were not synced with the clock ... they were running a way too fast.

Sun's JRE does not work in the new Parallels Desktop release with the DirectX support enabled. It seems the DirectX support is not disabled by accident in the default virtual machine config. Parallels was quite in a hurry bringing out their new release. I suppose the new DirectX features have still quite some bugs. However I'm pretty much disappointed with Sun's JRE. At least the "Control Panel" should work without any DirectX support and if some features of JRE depend on DirectX, then one should have the chance to enable/disable them.

It's not trivial: you need a Windows XP install CD with embedded SP2 to install it into a Parallels virtual machine. A standard Windows XP install CD wont do it, XP will not even boot in the virtual machine (BSOD). With SP2 the install went smoothly and XP is running in the VM just fine. Another problem was that the network did not work in the guest OS (XP). It turned out (after some searching in the support forum of Parallels website) that I have to reboot the Mac to get the new network adapters (used by the VM) working. The reboot did the thing: afterwards the net was working also in the guest OS.