[Xastir] problems with Xastir-Hardy VM and vmware tools?

[Tom Russo]

On Sat, Mar 07, 2009 at 11:11:57AM -0600, we recorded a bogon-computron collision of the <lee.bengston at gmail.com> flavor, containing:
> On Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 9:57 AM, Jason KG4WSV <kg4wsv at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I grabbed Xastir-Hardy_080729.zip, and ran the vmware-tools-config
> > script in order to resize the display for a wide screen laptop.  It
> > wanted to build kernel modules, I let it.  Now xastir keeps bombing on
> > me.  Sorry, I don't have the error.  (bad user! no biscuit.)
> >
> > I'm currently building my VM (with my custom maps) again, but was
> > wondering if anyone else has experienced this?
> >
> > -Jason
> > kg4wsv
> 
> On Hardy in the summer of '08, I recall that out of the box, VMware
> Tools wouldn't compile properly without modification using open vmware
> tools as instructed at
> http://peterc.org/2008/62-how-to-install-vmware-tools-on-ubuntu-hardy-804-under-vmware-fusion.html.
>  Tom Russo used the above method to get VMware Tools from his VMware
> Workstation to work in the Hardy virtual machine.  

Since that date, I have upgraded VMware Workstation to version 6.5.1, and I
just tried it on the unmodified Xastir-Hardy virtual machine that is available
for download.

The version of VMware tools that comes with this version of workstation does 
work with the version of the linux kernel in the Xastir-Hardy, providing
proper auto-fitting for the virtual machine.

I am now running the updates to the system, and will check that it continues
to work with the latest kernel.  If it does, I'll bundle up the new VM and
pass it off to someone who cares to distribute it.  I've mostly lost interest
in maintaining this stuff, which is why I've kept out of so much of the 
discussion.

It's a bit annoying that the vmplayer doesn't auto-update the tools.  It is no
longer necessary to use the instructions on that link above, as it only took
VMware a little while to get their tools working with the new version of Ubuntu.
The paid version of vmware is pretty good about auto-updating the vmware tools
in the guest OS as needed.  Perhaps Server and Player simply don't do that.

VMware Workstation was a good deal for the money I paid, and I'm happy with it.
The support is quite good and they keep it up to date as new linux systems
spring up.  If you're gonna use VMware a lot, it seems to me that it's worth
the money to go with the paid product over the free products. 

-- 
Tom Russo    KM5VY   SAR502   DM64ux          http://www.swcp.com/~russo/
Tijeras, NM  QRPL#1592 K2#398  SOC#236        http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?DDTNM
  In some cultures what I do would be considered normal. 
                                  -- Ineffective daily affirmation