kernel switch on VMware?

[Lascolb]

Hi I have a question about VMware.
I use 4 different OS's on VMware that take a little time to load and shut down that I think it would be nice if I could start one up as the other is shutting down,
Only the OS's are actually only a bit staring because I wonted to try different kernels out on a distributions that gave the option to pick the kernel you wont before building the ISO on one of thous build your own Linux sights.

OK so it gets even more strange because I decided to setup a Grub bootloader with the 4 kernels and only one filesystem so I could choose the kernel to use fore the day without using up extra disk space in having multiple OS's.

I should say that it didn't work as a bootable distro,
But with some work it ran on VMware.

So my question is if a program or command could be setup to...
1. save all my work and login info,
2. start the other kernel,
3. shut down the currently running kernel,
4. and last but not least start the applications I had running to the place I left off?

O and if any one has any idea as to how to get my distribution that I concocted to run without VMware as an alternative OS I would much appreciate the help.

[bmvbab]

Originally Posted by Lascolb

Hi I have a question about VMware.
So my question is if a program or command could be setup to...
1. save all my work and login info,
2. start the other kernel,
3. shut down the currently running kernel,
4. and last but not least start the applications I had running to the place I left off?

O and if any one has any idea as to how to get my distribution that I concocted to run without VMware as an alternative OS I would much appreciate the help.

1. Saving the current session would make sure you get the apps state when u relogin into a different kernel, login info saving can be achieved by configuring auto login on ur system
2. Starting the other kernel can be ensured by writing a script that would modify the menu.lst/grub.conf file to set the new target kernel as the default, a shell or perl script could do that
3. u know how to do this
4. this is done by 1.

[sej7278]

i'd have thought you'd have to use vmware workstation, which unlike server, supports multiple rollback snapshots - i.e. you boot one kernel, then press the snapshot button to save it, then boot another kernel, snapshot that and so on.

they start instantly too - its a bit like software suspend on a laptop.

you could also probably script it using vmware_cmd.

[Lascolb]

Thanks I got it.