[KLUG Members] VMware from remote?

[Bruce Smith]

> >>On the workstation I can 
> >>"vmware -X /usr/local/vmware/win32/NT4/3/winNT.cfg" and the instance boots 
> >>and runs in full screen mode without any fuss,  I only have to look at the 
> >>VMware window for a couple of seconds.  Then Ctrl-Alt-F3 is WinNT and 
> >>Ctrl-Alt-F4 is GNOME (Ctrl-Alt-F1/F2 are console screens).  I have the 
> >>best of all worlds.  (And occasionally Ctrl-Alt-F5 is a web server, and 
> >>Ctrl-Alt-F6 is a middle tier server, while Ctrl-Alt-F7 is a database 
> >>server.  This is great stuff,  Hey, where did all the RAM go!!!).
> >>Anyway the "problem" is that one has to have a $DISPLAY for all this work.  
> >>I'd like to logout of the NT instance and out of GNOME while leaving the 
> >>NT instance (or others) running.  Especially since I can access the NT 
> >>instance via VNC.  Ideally I'd like to be able to ssh into the workstation 
> >>and start an instance.
> >>I anyone has an ideas how to whack VMware's UI or simply fake-it-out,  I'm 
> >>all ears.
> >I have an idea or two, but I'm a little confused on what you're doing
> >now.  When I start vmware in full screen mode with the "-X", just
> >pressing CTRL-ALT brings it out of full screen mode, back to a window. 
> 
> Hmm, I've never done that.  Running full screen the guest OS just takes
> the next available VC,  and the next, the next, etc...  You Ctrl-Alt-Fn
> between them just like between "normal" VCs.  I didn't "do" anything, 
> not that I recall anyway.  I pretty much assumed it worked that way, 
> and it does,  so I got lucky for once.

What version of VMware are you running?  The keystrokes to switch out of
full screen mode and releasing the mouse have changed from ver 2 to 3.

> I find the OS in a window a little annoying, with mouse focus, etc...  I
> like to have all my guests on seperate VCs.  I can always telnet/ssh/vnc
> to them from my GNOME session using native GNOMEy applications.

If you're running ver 2, upgrade.  Mouse focus works much better in V3.

> >How do you get in the "Fn" key to switch to a different console/X-screen
> >and keep vmware in full screen mode?
> 
> It just happened (I think).
> 
> >Also, can you be more specific on exactly how your starting vmware?
> >(setting the display, starting another occurrence of X, ...)
> 
> I'm stating the vmware instance from within GNOME using a task bar
> icon.  Each guest has it's own icon.  So DISPLAY is already set, etc...
> 
> What I want to do is start an instance without having to create and/or
> maintain an X/DISPLAY session.  Once it is full-screen I don't think the
> instance needs X anymore,  but the VMware control thingy seems to.

It doesn't seem to do that for me in V3 . . . 

--------------------------------------------
Bruce Smith                bruce@armintl.com
System Administrator / Network Administrator
Armstrong International, Inc.
Three Rivers, Michigan  49093  USA
http://www.armstrong-intl.com/
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