Download OpenSUSE 11.4 and Install on VMware with Working VMware Tools

OpenSUSE is another great Linux flavor that you can install and play around. The latest version is having excellent new features, appearance and working environment. This small guide shows how to download OpenSUSE 11.4 and install on VMware with working VMware tools by ‘Easy Install’ method, so you can adjust the screen resolutions and get more more options in virtual machine.

If I can shift my all programs and drivers to OpenSUSE 11.4 from Windows OS, then definitely I will think to move on. The latest version really looks great and works smoothly. I think it is having major changes from earlier version 11.3.

How to Install OpenSUSE 11.3 on VirtualBox with working guest additions

Install OpenSUSE 11.3 on  MS VirtualPC

The latest VMware products support 11.4, so it is a straightforward installation. Since it can be done by VMware easy install which is like ‘unattended’ installation, the all installation steps will be done automatically including VMware tools. Successful VMware tools installation on OpenSUSE 11.4 will enable us to change the screen resolutions, working sound, network, full screen mode and unity mode to easily work with guest and host Operating Systems.

1) Download OpenSUSE 11.4 from official site here.

Select the appropriate download method and correct 64 bit or 32 bit to suite your physical computer processor.

2) Create a new virtual machine in VMware workstation or VMPlayer.

3) Mount the downloaded Opensuse ISO file, VMware will detect the OS type automatically, this indicates the possible Easy Install method.

4) Next screen to enter the user details which will be used by ‘Easy Install’ to create user account inside guest OS.

5) Modify the virtual machine name and location if you like. You can change the default hardware option in next screen. I started the installation with default options.  Press ‘Customize Hardware’ if you like to modify the hardware settings.

6) As expected, installation will start automatically, you do not need to do anything during the installation.

7) Give enough of time to restart automatically and install VMware tools. Guest OS will be waiting for the password to enter which you created in earlier step –4.

8.) That’s it, installation is done. Network, sound and more screen resolutions are working well inside OpenSUSE 11.4 virtual machine. Also Unity mode works fine which allows to access Linux guest OS from Windows host computer’s desktop.

Enjoy and play with the latest Linux release with working most of the options inside virtual machine. I will try the same with Oracle VirtualBox and update this blog in coming days.

Have fun

Hackintosh 10.6.7 – Snow Leopard on VirtualBox 4 with Working Sound

We have published several guides on installing Mac OS X in normal PC with desktop virtualization software. You can find out all guides related to this topic here. Each guide is having several issues and drawbacks. Therefore I decided to publish another revamped complete guide on hackintosh 10.6.7 Snow Leopard on VirtualBox 4 with working sound.

Before continue the installation steps, let me summarize important issues fixed in this guide.

This works with original (vanilla kernel) retail DVD or ISO file. No need to download any hacked OS X distributions.Third party boot loaders are not required to load the original Snow Leopard DVD or ISO file.Shutdown and Restart of Virtual machine works without crashing.‘About the Mac’ option works without crashing and properly reading processor and memory (Intel Core2duo is in my case)Can be updated to latest 10.6.7.USB keyboard and mouse issue fixed after 10.6.7 update.USB storage (Flash disk or external hard disk) access crashing issue fixed.Sound is working inside Virtual machine, Bravoo…… 5 Screen resolution sizes can be adjustedShared folders between Mac OS X guest and Windows host for data sharing

1) Snow Leopard retail DVD – More information available on how to Rip the DVD to ISO format if you face any issues.

2) Hardware Virtualization Technology (VT) Enabled Computer in BIOS – Read this guide how to enable Virtualization Technology (VT) in BIOS and Confirm.

3) Latest VirtualBox and Its extension pack, as of today VirtualBox 4.0.4 is the latest. Read more here about extension pack installation and download

4) Bit patient to read this full guide and other several guides I point out.

Intel Core2Duo 2.66GHz, 3GB RAM, Intel P35 chipset with Windows 7 32Bit Host OS.

Since I don’t have other processor computers, I can’t guarantee this guide for all types of processors, but I’m sure this will work on most of the Intel processor computers, AMD users must be lucky with this method, but it’s possible too.

1) Create a new virtual machine with Operating System type – Mac OS X and Version Mac OS X Server.

2) Configure RAM size (Minimum 1GB, Recommended 2GB) and Create new hard disk (20GB will be enough, but you can assign more).

3) Go to the newly created virtual machine’s settings and adjust the System settings as shown below.

The things you must check here,

Floppy drive removed.Chipset selected to ‘ICH9’ (New chipset supported from VirtualBox 4 versions)Enable IO APIC, Enable EFI (This is the built in Boot loader for Mac OS X)

4) You can go to Display and adjust the maximum settings. To be honest, I don’t know how this will improve the video performance inside Mac VM, just hoping…..

5) Go to storage option and mount the ISO file or select the host DVD drive here.

If you want to install with Snow Leopard original retail DVD (Get it here) by inserting into host drive, select the Host drive option and make sure Passthrough is enabled as shown below.

6) Go to USB options and make sure ‘Enable USB Controller’ and ‘Enable USB 2.0 (EHCI) Controller’ selected.

Check the sound option and confirm ‘Windows DirectSound’ and ‘Intel HD Audio’ options are selected. Intel HD Audio is the new virtual audio controller added with VirtualBox 4 and later versions, this driver works inside Snow Leopard virtual machine.

7) Check the installed VirtualBox extension pack on host computer. Extension pack should be installed to support USB2.0 in Snow Leopard VM, if not you will get crashing screen while trying to access USB storage.

Here is the guide about USB crashing problem

Check this guide how to install VirtualBox VM Extension Package

8.) Now go to virtual machine’s folder ( C:\Users\User-Name\VirtualBox VMs\Virtual-Machine-Name) and open the .vbox file in word processing software like MS WordPad.

9) Enter the following string in the location mentioned in example file.

Here is the example file of working Snow Leopard in VirtualBox 4.

The above extra string helps in several ways to install Snow Leopard in VirtualBox 4.

Original Vanilla kernel installation with original retail DVDVirtualBox built in EFI boot loader works here. So, you do not need any third party boot loaders.Shutdown and restart of VM works (no hanging screen)‘About the Mac’ screen works inside snow leopard virtual machine.

10) Power on the virtual machine now. Installation must start normally without any issues. Follow more installation steps and how to create partition during the installation in this guide.

Complete the initial setups and configurations. I’m sure you will land on working Snow Leopard desktop in VirtualBox 4.

1) Network, USB Access inside virtual machine

NAT and Bridged networking modes worked straightaway inside virtual machine.

USB storage access such as Flash disk and external hard disk worked fine without any issues.

Important Note – You must install VirtualBox Extension Pack before access USB

2) Sound

That’s a really great news for hackintosh users in Oracle VirtualBox. New VirtualBox 4 and latest versions’ new motherboard and sound chipset support sound in Snow Leopard. I can hear 90% clear and unbreakable sound from VM.

Double check the main chipset type under System was set to ICH9 and Audio Controller set to Intel HD Audio as shown above. I’m not sure how this will work in AMD based computers.

3) Screen Resolution Sizes

Since we do not have proper VirtualBox guest additions tools for Mac OS X, we have to use manual methods to modify screen resolution size to 5 options.

Check the below guide and user comments to find out the correct working method for you.

Increase Mac OS X Snow Leopard Screen Resolution Size in VirtualBox

4) Latest 10.6.7 Update

It worked fine. Because of this is purely running from original vanilla kernel without any hacked versions, the update (software or manual) to 10.6.7 installed well.

Just check this guide where to download combo and separate Snow Leopard 10.6.7 update and run the installation.

Take a snapshot before run the update.

5) Shared Folders in Snow Leopard Virtual machine and Windows 7 host

Though, VirtualBox shared folders can’t be used here without guest additions tools, we can use normal file sharing between Mac OS X and Windows by setting up network. You can share large amount of data by this step.

More information available here to setup shared folders in Mac OS X and Windows 7

I hope this guide will be useful in running latest Hackintosh 10.6.7 Mac OS X Snow Leopard on VirtualBox 4 for testing and learning purposes.

You can’t expect the all full features as running on physical Apple hardware, but still its useful for experiment purpose with your normal PC.

You can download free eBook from Sysprobs for more useful installation methods, tips and tricks on Hackintosh on desktop virtualization software VMware and VirtualBox.

Feel free to drop some comments, success and failure installation attempts, I will be happy to help you.

Have fun.

Tutorial Working with SQL Profiler

This tutorial complements the article “Tracing ArcSDE Queries with SQL Profiler,” by Shannon Shields and Joseph Buckles which appeared in the January-March 2002 issue of ArcUser … magazine. It provides an introduction to tracing queries with SQL Profiler and using SQL Query Analyzer and will teach you how to create a trace template to capture events passed from ArcMap and ArcSDE to Microsoft SQL Server. You will also learn how toÜ Choose events and data columnsÜ Set filters in SQL ProfilerÜ Evaluate query statements …

SQL Profiler and SQL Query Analyzer are performance monitoring tools that are included with SQL Server. These tools can be used by a database administrator to diagnose problems and optimize performance. This tutorial introduces only a small portion of the functionality available with SQL Profiler and SQL Query Analyzer. More information on both tools can be found in the HTML Help file, SQL Server Books Online, available from the Microsoft Web site (www.microsoft.com/sql/techinfo/ productdoc/2000/). To learn more about administering SQL Server with ArcSDE, enroll in ArcSDE Administration for SQL Server, a five-day instructor-led course offered by ESRI. Visit the ESRI Web site (www.esri.com) for information about this course and other resources. Data for This Tutorial The data for this tutorial, based on a dataset containing land-use parcels for Wilson County, North Carolina, consists of a personal geodatabase feature class containing parcel data. Download the archived data file, Parcels.zip, from the ArcUser Online Web site. Important: After downloading and unzipping Parcels.zip, open the parcels personal geodatabase. Copy or import the parcels feature class into ArcSDE. If you do not have permission to load data into ArcSDE, get your ArcSDE administrator to copy the data and grant you SELECT privileges for the feature class. Tutorial Overview Before beginning this tutorial, verify that the ArcSDE server is running and that your Working with SQL Profiler HTML Help file, SQL Server Books Online, available from the Microsoft Web site provides, information on SQL Profiler and SQL Querry Analyzer login to SQL Server has appropriate permissions to view the data. In this tutorial you will Ü Create a SQL Profiler trace template Ü Connect to ArcSDE from ArcMap Ü Perform an attribute query Ü View the results of the query in SQL Profiler Ü Copy the traced query to SQL Query Analyzer Ü View query statistics Ü Create a column index in ArcCatalog Ü View query statistics using the new index Step 1: Create a SQL Profiler trace template This step defines a new trace definition in SQL Profiler by specifying which events to trace and what type of information to record for each event. A trace template must be created first to store the trace definition. 1. From the Start menu, choose Programs > Microsoft SQL Server > Profiler to start SQL Profiler. 2. From the SQL Profiler menu, choose File > New > Trace Template. 3. Click Save As to save the trace template. 4. Save the Template as tutorial.tdb in the default directory for SQL Server. 5. In the Trace Properties dialog box, click the Events tab. 6. In the Available Event Classes list, expand the Stored Procedures event category by clicking on the plus sign (+) next to it. 7. Select SP:StmtCompleted. 8. Click the Add button to add it to the Selected Event Classes list. 9. Click the Data Columns tab. 10. From the Unselected Data column, add the TextData, Duration, and Reads columns to the Selected data list. 11. Click Save to create the template but do not close SQL Profiler. Step 2: Connect to ArcSDE from ArcMap In this step you will query the Parcels feature class using ArcMap to find Railway right-of-way features. During this step a trace running in SQL Profiler will capture the…….