Lab 6 Preparation

You are about to create a few virtual machines (VMs) to use for a small private network. In order to begin, you will need:

Create or otherwise make available a partition of at least 40 GB in size, with permissions that will allow you to read, write, and access it from the Linux Lab (a=rwx or 0777 is probably best). Remember that your uid and gid in the lab are not under your control, nor is it possible to use root on the lab systems. Make sure the partition is suitably formatted (I use Linux ext3) and contains no files.

You can either use a DVD with Fedora 10 on it as a .iso image or use the lab copy of it. A DVD might give you a faster install, since the lab copy is on the file server which you will access across an NFS connection.

You may also need to install the Device Notifier widget so you can manage the connection and disconnection of USB devices. Right click on your panel bar and select Panel Options. From there, select Add Widgets. In the Add Widgets scrollable display, scroll down to Device Notifier ("Notifications and access for new devices"). Select it by clicking on the star beside it and then press the Add Widget button at the bottom. The Device Notifier icon will appear on your panel bar. It may look something like this.




You may also wish to locate and test the VMware tools that you will use in the lab, or install a licensed copy on your own laptop (or home desktop).

In the Linux Lab:

You will now be able to see an entry for VMware Workstation and the Vmware Player (ignore the VMware network tool for now). Launch VMware Workstation if you wish to inspect it, but see the Lab 6 document about how to create your first VM and install Fedora 10.

On your personal system:

You can, if you wish, install VMware Workstation 6 under either Linux (preferred) or Windows. The license keys, which will expire in March 2010, are:

Do not install either of these on your external drive.