Tuesday, August 27, 2013

How to use VMware and HyperV alternately in Windows Server 2012

VMware workstation can not be installed nor executed in Windows Server if HyperV is running, so to do it HyperV should be deactivated at boot time.

By following these steps you'll change the boot menu to offer 2 options: boot with HyperV support and boot withOUT HyperV support (so you can run VMware).

(The reason why I want to run VMware sometimes is to virtualize USB devices without third party solutions like USB over Network).

Execute in a command line as Administrator:


  • BCDEDIT /COPY {DEFAULT} /D "No HyperV support"It copies the current boot entry into a new one called "No HyperV support". (Remember to retype the double-quotes if you copy and paste the command)
  • BCDEDIT /SET {COPYHERETHEIDTHEPREVIOUSCOMMANDRETURNED} HYPERVISORLAUNCHTYPE OFFIt deactivates the HyperV support for the boot entry we just created.
  • BCDEDIT /DEFAULT {COPYHERETHEIDTHEFIRSTCOMMANDRETURNED}It sets the new boot entry as default.
  • BCDEDIT /ENUM /VChecks if the new entry is correctly set up.

Friday, August 23, 2013

Installing VMware 9 in Debian Jessie with 3.10 kernel

Today I reinstalled Linux and some software in my HP Pavillion laptop. I installed Debian Linux Testing (currently called Jessie) and upgraded the kernel to 3.10-2-amd64.

After that, I successfully installed VMware 9.0.2, but when I tried to open it for the first time...the compilation of kernel modules failed.

I did some googling and found that "The call create_proc_entry() has been dropped from 3.10 in favor of proc_create(). This requires patching of the vmblock and vmnet modules that use them."

So, to solved the compilation problem you just have to patch some files following the instructions listed in Archlinux Wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/VMware#3.10_kernels
Patches for older kernels are also provided in that site.

3.10 kernelsThe call create_proc_entry() has been dropped from 3.10 in favor of proc_create(). This requires patching of the vmblock and vmnet modules that use them.
The patches (including the optional fuse patch) can be found here and here:
$ cd /tmp
$ curl -O http://pkgbuild.com/git/aur-mirror.git/plain/vmware-patch/vmblock-9.0.2-5.0.2-3.10.patch$ curl -O http://pkgbuild.com/git/aur-mirror.git/plain/vmware-patch/vmnet-9.0.2-5.0.2-3.10.patch$ cd /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source
# tar -xvf vmblock.tar
# tar -xvf vmnet.tar
# patch -p0 -i /tmp/vmblock-9.0.2-5.0.2-3.10.patch
# patch -p0 -i /tmp/vmnet-9.0.2-5.0.2-3.10.patch
# tar -cf vmblock.tar vmblock-only
# tar -cf vmnet.tar vmnet-only
# rm -r vmblock-only
# rm -r vmnet-only
# vmware-modconfig --console --install-all
(Remember: commands preceded by "#" should be executed as root)

If you have problems trying to enter your serial number through the UI, give the command line a try:
/usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmx --new-sn XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXX-XXX-XXXXX