SUSE LINUX 9.1

Support

This guest operating system is supported on the following VMware products:

General Installation Notes

Be sure to read General Guidelines for All VMware Productsas well as this guide to installing your specific guest operating system. The easiest method of installing SUSE LINUX 9.1 in a virtual machine is to use the standard SUSE LINUX distribution CDs. The notes below describe an installation using the standard distribution CD; however, installing SUSE LINUX 9.1 via the boot floppy/network method is supported as well. If your VMware product supports it, you may also install from a PXE server.

Before installing the operating system, be sure that you have already created and configured a new virtual machine.

Installation Steps

  1. Insert the SUSE LINUX 9.1 installation CD in the CD-ROM drive.
  2. Power on the virtual machine to start installing SUSE LINUX 9.1.
  3. Follow the installation steps as you would for a physical machine. This completes basic installation of the SUSE LINUX 9.0 guest operating system.

VMware Tools

Be sure to install VMware Tools in your guest operating system. For details, see the manual for your VMware product or follow the appropriate link in the knowledge base article at www.vmware.com/support/kb/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=340.

Enabling Sound After Installing SUSE LINUX 9.1

VMware GSX Server: The sound device is disabled by default and must be enabled with the virtual machine control panel (VM > Settings) after the operating system has been installed. To set up the virtual machine to play sound, see Configuring Sound in the GSX Server documentation.

Known Issues

Virtual Machine May Hang during Guest Operating System Installation

On some host systems, the SUSE LINUX 9.1 installer attempts to use a kernel that is incompatible with the ACPI features of the virtual hardware. To work around this problem, open the virtual machine's configuration file in a text editor and add the following line:

acpi.present = FALSE

You should then be able to install and run a SUSE LINUX 9.1 guest operating system.

Installation from DVD May Stop with an Error Message

Installation from a DVD may stop at the Software item under Installation Settings with the following error message: No base selection available. ERROR: No proposal. SUSE has seen this problem on both physical and virtual machines. To work around the problem inside a virtual machine, type the following at the boot prompt as you begin the installation:

linux cdromdevice=/dev/hdc

Replace /dev/hdc with the appropriate device name if your CD-ROM device is not the master device on the second IDE channel. The installation should then proceed normally.

Guest Screen Saver

VMware Workstation or VMware GSX Server: On a Linux host with an XFree86 3.x X server, it is best not to run a screen saver in the guest operating system. Guest screen savers that demand a lot of processing power can cause the X server on the host to freeze.

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