I just posted a HOWTO on http://www.howtoforge.com/ on How to install Slackware on VMware.

If you either dont have the patience to do it or already know it as the back of your hand and just want to get on with your app install NOW.. head to the Download page and grab the result of the HowTo as VMware image.

Cheers!

Slackware Virtual Machine

About Slackware

The Official Release of Slackware Linux by Patrick Volkerding is an advanced Linux operating system, designed with the twin goals of ease of use and stability as top priorities. Including the latest popular software while retaining a sense of tradition, providing simplicity and ease of use alongside flexibility and power, Slackware brings the best of all worlds to the table.

The Slackware Linux Project has remained one of the most “UNIX-like” Linux distribution out there. Slackware complies with the published Linux standards, such as the Linux File System Standard. Slackware Linux Project has always considered simplicity and stability paramount, and as a result Slackware has become one of the most popular, stable, and friendly distributions available.

Slackware Linux is a complete 32-bit multitasking “UNIX-like” system.i It’s currently based around the 2.4 Linux kernel series and the GNU C Library version 2.3.4 (libc6). It contains an easy to use installation program, extensive online documentation, and a menu-driven package system. A full installation gives you the X Window System, C/C++ development environments, Perl, networking utilities, a mail server, a news server, a web server, an ftp server, the GNU Image Manipulation Program, Netscape Communicator, plus many more programs.

Slackware has a cult like following becasue of its compliance to standards and ease of use and an amazing package management. Like Gentoo mentioned earlier in this blog working with Slackware is a great learning experience and one is rewarded with much knowledge and insight into how various parts of Linux come together to work in a way it is supposed to and a wealth of information on minute details of each and every configuration option in the packages.

As always its my hope that this VM would to enable the community use Slackware and decide for themselves what the auro of the Slackware Linux really is.

Now about the VM itself.

Slackware Linux Configuration
Distribution: 10.2
Linux Kernel: 2.4.31
Installation Type: Full
Desktop Environment: XFCE
Networking: DHCP
Root Password: “vmware”

Virtual Machine Configuration
RAM: 256 MB (configurable by editing the slack.vmx file)
Disk: 4.0 GB
Networking: Bridged
VMware Tools: Loaded
Monitor Resolution: 1024×768

Download Information
Available in the Downloads page.

File Size: 768.42MB
Compression: RAR
MD5SUM c1a4b75e6ab47461790bf269defcbec9 *Slackware.rar

Hope ya have fun with this version.

Here is a another VM, this time its a Xen Gentoo VM running inside a VMware Gentoo VM, how abt that

VMware Base Gentoo Linux Configuration
Distribution: 2006.0
Linux Kernel: 2.6-15-r1
Installation Type: Desktop (KDE)
Networking: DHCP
User Name/password – none
Root Password: “optdlvrs”

Gentoo Xen VM inside the Base Gentoo Linux Configuration
Distribution: 2006.0
Linux Kernel: 2.6-15-r1
Installation Type: Desktop (KDE)
Networking: DHCP
User Name/password – none
Root Password: “optdlvrs”

VMware Base Virtual Machine Configuration
RAM: 256 MB (configurable by editing the gentoo.vmx file)
Disk: 10.0 GB (sorry I had to err on the side of plenty)
Networking: Bridged
VMware Tools: Loaded
Monitor Resolution: 1024×768

Gentoo Xen VM Configuration

RAM: 256 MB (configurable by editing the gentoo.vmx file)
Disk: 10.0 GB (sorry I had to err on the side of plenty)
Networking: Bridged
VMware Tools: Not Applicable
Monitor Resolution: 1024×768

Download Information
Available in the Downloads page.

Steps to get the VMs up and running:

Extract the gentoo-xen.tbz2 as follows
tar xjf gentoo-xen.tbz2
This creates the following files
• gentoo-s001.vmdk
• gentoo-s002.vmdk
• gentoo-s003.vmdk
• gentoo-s004.vmdk
• gentoo-s005.vmdk
• gentoo.vmdk
• gentoo.vmx

Optionally edit the vmx file to change the number of cpus. To prepare the
virtual disk which will be used by the Xen VM,
• In the VMware Workstation interface, click on Clone this virtual machine
• Select Clone from current state
• Select Create a full clone
• Name the clone and choose a suitable location for the cloned disk
• When the cloning process completes, Edit the settings of the **original** VM
• Click on Add
• Select Hard disk, Existing disk and browse to the **cloned** disk.
The VM is now ready to boot. Power on the VM as follows
vmware gentoo.vmx

Select the xen image when GRUB loads and login as root (password: optdlvrs)
Start the xend daemon
xend start

The command takes a while to complete so be patient. When you are returned
to the shell prompt , type
xm list

to see a list of running domains. You will see only domain0 running currently.
To start the first unprivileged xen guest domain, use the gentoo-xen-domU file
in the /root directory. This guest will use the cloned virtual disk (sdb to the
xen host) as it’s root disk (sda)
To start the Xen guest
xm create -c gentoo-xen-domU

The (xen) VM appears to hang when setting the hardware clock , wait for a few
minutes and the VM will continue to boot.
That’s it
BTW: This VM and the above test was graciously created by my good friend and colleague dominic. Hope you guys enjoy using it as much we enjoyed creating it.

Thanks!

Hi All,

Thanks to Mark at vr dot org we have a nice fast http download link.

Head to gentoo-vm.vr.org for Downloads!!

Update: Good news is mark recently joined VMware , but the bad news is there is nobody to maintain gentoo-vm host at vr.org. So its dead now

Jay

Hi,

Some versions of the VMware Server and Workstation 5.5.X has a newer version of the tools. To install vmware tools do the following:

This can also be followed if you are doing a fresh install of the vmware tools. Also note that this procedure does not follow the Gentoo way of managing packages. So some purists don’t’ like this. There is an alternate way using the emerge, I will cover that install method shortly.

This pretty much follows the standard Linux tools install procedure, except noted otherwise.

Doc Link, KB Link to related references at VMware.com
Install Procedure:

1. Select the option to install vmware tools on the WKS/GSX UI. Usually VM -> Install VMware Tools

2. Then log into the Gentoo VM as tools and mount the cd-rom drive.

#mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

3. Then untar the vmware tools so some temp location like /tmp

#tar xvzf /mnt/cdrom/*.tar.gz /tmp

4. Create a set of empty rc directories to fool the tools installer

#mkdir /etc/init.d/rc{0,1,2,3,4,5,6}.d

5. Run the vmware-tools installer and go with the defaults

#cd vmware-tools-distrib
#./vmware-install.pl

The above installs the vmware tools startup scripts on the rc directories. So to fix it do the following
6. Add vmware tools to startup

#rc-update add vmware-tools default

vollia ur done.

Please do add ur comments as to what’s ur experience.