[KLUG Members] VMware from remote?

[Adam Williams]

>>>>"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.

VMwareWorkstation-3.0.0-1455

Odd, I didn't notice a change.
 
>>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 . . . 

Huh.  I guess I'll run through the config and see if I find anything
that looks related.