Vmware Workstation

[GT98]

Anyone use WMware's Workstation for creating virtual workstations? I downloaded it the other day to test custom slipstreamed Windows XP ISO's for work, but the one thing that I'm wondering about is does it support network and video drivers? Currently it has me using a virtual AMD NIC driver and I have an exclamation mark saying I don't have video drivers installed, even though I put those drivers on the ISO I created.

[agallag]

Did you install VMWare Tools? That package contains the drivers.

If you just want the driver packages, mount the "windows.iso" image from "C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation" directory, then from within the image, the drivers are in "\program files\VMware\VMware Tools\Drivers\"

Is that where you got the drivers to include in your ISO?

[spadnos]

Anyone use WMware's Workstation for creating virtual workstations? I downloaded it the other day to test custom slipstreamed Windows XP ISO's for work, but the one thing that I'm wondering about is does it support network and video drivers? Currently it has me using a virtual AMD NIC driver and I have an exclamation mark saying I don't have video drivers installed, even though I put those drivers on the ISO I created.

Unfortunately, you need to install the drivers for the virtual hardware, not for whatever the actual hardware is. The VM basically provides a PCI/PnP BIOS that tells windows that there's a PCNet card, a VMVideo card, an IDE or SCSI controller, and whatever memory/hard disk you configured. (video does include accelerated openGL by default, so it's not all too shabby performance-wise)

I have a friend who would love to be able to use a VM under Linux and boot his actual windows partition but I don't think it can be done, and it's a lot like what I think you're looking for.

Hmmm. On second thought, can't you slipstream more than one set of drivers? You should be able to have say NVidia and ATI video drivers on the CD, and have it choose the correct ones during the hardware detection phase of installation. Maybe you should try nLite for slipstreaming - I think there are more options than the "standard" method.

- Steve