Installing Fedora 10 on Virtual PC

[websurfr28]

I am very new at LINUX but not virtual PC. Tonight I tried to install Fedora 10 on Virtual PC using the Live CD from http://fedoraproject.org/en/get-fedora. I have tried both the install directly from the iso from my desktop and from a CD but neither work. It gets hung up about a minute or two after it starts to install. I am stopped at a screen that looks like it reads Automatic Boot in 1 Second. That screen does not go away. What am I doing wrong? For those of you that run other flavors of Linux, I have tried to load Ubuntu as well with similar difficulties. If anyone can help this newbie, I will be very grateful. Thank you.

[chad_work2001]

1. As soon as your Virtual PC boots up from the ISO file or the CD and you see the Welcome to Fedora 10 menu screen, with the highlighted selector on the "Install or upgrade an exsisting system", press the tab key to edit the kernel boot line.

2. Below the menu box this line should appear:
> vmlinuz initrd=initrd.img_

Make it look like this by adding this vga line to it:

> vmlinuz initrd=initrd.img vga=0x32D

3. That's lowercase vga equals zero x 32 & capital D. Then press the enter key to boot.

Otherwise, when I booted normally, I had video problems and couldn't login or see anything to continue.

[websurfr28]

Chad,
I added that vga line multiple times and in multiple places and it didn't make things any better. It made my virtual pc terminal window bigger but stalled after the fedora loader bar went across the bottom of the screen. Before I was able to see a green screen flash then the messed up GUI came up indicating automatic reboot but now I am not seeing the green screen. It just freezes after the loader bar. I have tried to load directly from the live ISO file on my desktop as well as from CD.

fyi: this is a live CD that fedora has on their main page. Is that the right file to be loading? Additionally, I am using my laptop in wireless mode 54Mbps connection should I connect to my ethernet directly?

David

[ShivaS]

The line should be
> vmlinuz initrd=initrd.img vga=0x32D noreplace-paravirt

[websurfr28]

Every other program is closed down with the exception of Virtual PC and now it looks Fedora is loading but it takes about an hour to get to the log in screen and even then I am unable to interact with the login screen. Each phase of the load takes an enormous amount of time. It automatically logs me in and eventually ends up at a black screen that I can not interact with. Like I said at the beginning, I am very new at Linux so this is becoming irritating.

I thought it was possibly the version of Virtual PC (have 2007 SP1 loaded) so I loaded 2004 version and still having the same problem. I have tried to load this live iso while connected over my wireless and my Ethernet connection but same result. The Virtual PC has 512MB of memory allocated but I have also tried 768MB allocation but still no luck.

[ShivaS]

websurfr28: Don't blame Fedora for poor performance in VirtualPC. Microsoft hates competition on OSes market, that's why VPC doesn't support *nix virtual machines.
Btw, I'm receiving error 13 after the F10 login screen. Need to dig on google after a hack

L.E: Getting closer in fixing this
What I did so far:
- added vga=0x32D noreplace-paravirt single when booting F10
- after the message"Could not detect stabilization. Wait 10 seconds", the console shows up

- run #Xorg -configure - this creates the file xorg.conf.new in /
- then copy it over into /etc/X11/ with the command #cp -v xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf
- need to edit it a little:
#vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf
, in Section "Device", changed Driver from fbdev to vesa
, in Section "Screen", added DefaultDepth = 24

- S3 framebuffer module must be blacklisted, in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
so edit the blacklist file #vi /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
and add at the end of the file blacklist s3fb

- edit /boot/grub/grub.conf

So far, the Desktop loads, but with lots and lots of SELinux AVC denial messages.
Changed in /etc/sysconfig/selinux file, SELINUX=disabled
The infamous 13 error now appears before the desktop is loaded. Have to dig through the log files.

even L.E:
The Fedora 10 VM works now, after doing all the above + the following:
- added selinux=0 at the end of kernel boot line in /boot/grub/grub.config
- deleted everything from /tmp folder, using #rm -fr [names of the files/dirs]
- run #/sbin/fixfiles relabel
- #reboot

[SaGS]

What I did to install from the DVD (haven’t tried the live CD) was to add kernel options vesa noreplace-paravirt clocksource=pit psmouse.proto=imps (from memory, I’m not at that computer now). Not very sure, but it seems that in particular noreplace-paravirt cures the random ‘internal VM error(13)’, and clocksource=pit the various and random lockups and delays.

There’s one thing I didn’t sort out: after copying all packages and writing the boot configuration it locks up completely. I think it should display a screen with a reboot button. If I reset the VM and boot in rescue mode to add those kernel options to boot options on the harddisk, then it will boot OK from the virtual hd, show the ‘Welcome’ screen/ etc and finish the configuration. In general I seem to get a functional install, but there are some things not working properly. For example if running gedit as root I cannot change preferences, and I cannot ‘Add/Remove programs’ from the DVD.

[simonhp]

Hi,

I have got Fedora 10 x86_64 running well on my server so time to install the i386 build under Virtual PC on my laptop.

Thanks for the command line tips SaGS. Running on VPC 2007 on a Dell Core Duo with XP SP2, I used vesa noreplace-paravirt single clocksource=pit psmouse.proto=imps and the graphical install came up looking good. I selected Gnome and minimal packages to install.

It ran all the way through to Java VM install and then displayed a VPC "internal error" message box and the virtual machine got killed. Anyone know how to get past this problem?

Thanks.

[simonhp]

Finally got past the VPC Internal Machine Error. It seems to be the tickless kernel that VPC does not like. This can be disabled and I have successfully installed and am running Fedora 10 under VPC using the following kernel options at boot time.

vesa noreplace-paravirt clocksource=pit psmouse.proto=imps nohz=off

[lolson5]

What version of Virtual PC are you using? I'm not having any luck with Ver 7

do it matter where you place your additions in the command line?

[simonhp]

Hi lolson5,

Successfully running Fedora 10 under Virtual PC 2007 (6.0.192.0) (Help/About) on a Dell Latitude D630 laptop (Centrino Duo) 3.20GHz with 2GB RAM with Windows XP Professional SP3.

When the boot process starts, use 'a' to modify the kernel arguments before booting.

The existing kernel args line will end with something like rhgb quiet

add a space and vesa noreplace-paravirt clocksource=pit psmouse.proto=imps nohz=off to the end of that line.

When the system reboots, check to ensure that the kernel args are still there. (There will be moments of video garbage displayed on the screen while X lumbers up). When X is loaded, all is good. Resizing the screen resolution is something I have not mastered yet.

Good luck.

[stoneroberta]

Hi there. Very new to Fedora so I need some help. I am trying to install F10 on VPC 2007. I got around the initial garbled text and mouse issues by using the command
vesa i8042.noloop
(http://blogs.technet.com/seanearp/ar...l-pc-2007.aspx)

I went through the install, and when it was installing 895 of 1084 items, I got the VPC Internal Machine Error. When I reset, and now every time I try to start Fedora, all I get is a blank screen.

I see that above, there is a lot of messages back and forth about commands to use. However, I am not sure if they are VPC commands or F10 commands. Please help!

Thanks!!

[simonhp]

Hi stoneroberta

The arguments I posted previously are all Linux Kernel Boot arguments. I am using no command line parameters for VPC 2007.

The vesa i8042.noloop arguments from Sean on M$ Technet worked well with F9. However with F10 there have been changes made to the kernel (including a tickless kernel) which does not work properly under VPC.

So when initilally loading F10 under VPC, use 'a' to modify the kernel arguments before the kernel is loaded. The kernel args line will end with something like rhgb quiet . Add a space and then type vesa noreplace-paravirt clocksource=pit psmouse.proto=imps nohz=off to the end of that line in the same way as you typed vesa i8042.noloop . You do not need the i8042.noloop.

Hope this helps.

[stoneroberta]

Thanks for your help. But I need to take a few steps back.

When I start a brand new install for F10, I go into VPC, and add a new virtual machine. I then select that new virtual machine from the console and click Start. I then select CD --> Capture ISO Image and select the ISO image for F10 that I downloaded. At what point do I type 'a' for entering the Kernel boot arguments?

Thanks!

[simonhp]

Hi,

OK, the keys are slightly different for a new install. So backing up....

Using Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 SP1 (free download).
From VPC console:

01. Press New... to create a new Virtual Machine. The New Machine Wizard will start.
02. Press Next on the Wizard Welcome Page
03. Select Create a Virtual Machine. Press Next.
04. Name and Location; Enter a name for the new virtual machine. Press Next
05. Operating System; Select 'Other' Press Next
06. Memory; Select Adjusting the RAM, allocate 512MB, Press Next
07. Virtual Hard Disk Options; Select a new Virtual hard disk, Press Next
08. Virtual Hard Disk Location; Set required hard disk size, Press Next
09. Completing the Wizard; Press Finish.
10. Select the new Virtual Machine in the console and Press Settings.
11. Ensure the Networking setting is set to the required adapter, Press OK
12. Select the new Virtual Machine in the console, Press Start.
13. In the VM window, select from the menu: CD / Capture ISO Image.
14. In the Select CD Image to Capture dialog, select the F10 ISO, Press Open.
15. In the VM window, select from the menu: Action / Reset.
16. In the message box, press Reset.
17. When the 'Welcome to Fedora 10!' screen is displayed:

Select 'Install or upgrade an existing system', press Tab to edit options
(before the timer expires)

18. The screen will show something like:

> vmlinuz initrd=initrd.img

19. Add a space and then add to the end of the line:

vesa noreplace-paravirt clocksource=pit psmouse.proto=imps nohz=off

20. Press ENTER
21. At this point the normal Fedora installer starts.

As long as enough memory was allocated, you will get the graphical installer.

Now you can enjoy Fedora 10 running under Virtal PC 2007

Good luck... and enjoy.