$Id: README.txt,v 1.15 1999/03/14 20:40:29 darrylr Exp $
Copyright (C) 1998-99, VMWare, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

Thank you for downloading the VMware for Linux Beta.
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1. INSTALLING VMWARE FOR LINUX BETA

 Please visit http://www.vmware.com/support/easysteps.html for help on
 getting started installing VMware.

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2. GETTING HELP

 Support for VMware for Linux Beta is available free of charge to registered 
 beta users. Please visit http://www.vmware.com/support/support.html for 
 information on VMware support and how to report problems with VMware for 
 Linux Beta.
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3. KNOWN ISSUES WITH VMWARE FOR LINUX BETA

 Please visit http://www.vmware.com/support/releasenotes.html for the 
 latest list of know problems.

 1. Unsupported guest operating systems
 2. Virtual machines within virtual machines
 3. Single stepping and debugger support
 4. Intermittent hanging related to CD-ROM drives
 5. Booting from raw disks - IDE drives only
 6. Multiprocessor system support
 7. Windows NT 4.0 multiprocessor (MPS) HAL incompatibility
 8. PCMCIA/PCCard support
 9. Linux host laptop suspend problem
10. Supported mouse types
11. International keyboard support
12. Non-Ethernet network adapters
13. Poor MS-DOS performance with EMM386 extended memory manager
14. DirectDraw/DirectX graphics support
15. Sound support
16. DirectSound/DirectX not supported
17. Parallel (LPT) ports device support
18. EIDE ATAPI Iomega Zip drive support
19. Windows 95 problems with AMD K6 based systems
20. Pseudocolor (8 bit, 256 color) display issues
21. Intermittent unexpected exit during Windows 95 install
22. CD-ROM drive drawer automatic closing
23. Guest OS serial (COM) and parallel port (LPT) devices
24. Undoable mode disks redo logs -- writeable directory requirements

 1. Unsupported guest operating systems

    The following guest operating systems are known to not work with
    the VMware Beta release --

    - Solaris 7 Intel Edition
    - Windows 2000 Professional Beta (Windows NT 5.0 Beta)
    - BeOS
    - SCO Unix and UnixWare 

    Support for Solaris 7 Intel Edition guest operating systems will be
    available soon. VMware will provide support for both Solaris 7 Intel
    Edition and Windows 2000 Professional Beta in VMware release 1.0.

 2. Virtual machines within virtual machines

    A virtual machine cannot be run within a virtual machine. VMware
    recommends you do not attempt to do this.

 3. Single stepping and debugger support

    Single stepping the processor in a virtual machine is not
    supported. This feature is used, for example, in debuggers to single
    step an application being debugged. Setting breakpoints, however,
    does work.

 4. Intermittent hanging related to CD-ROM drives

    Windows NT, Windows 95 and Windows 98 running in a virtual machine
    can appear to hang periodically as the operating system attempts to
    access the CD-ROM drive while there is no CD-ROM in the drive. If
    this becomes annoying you can disable the CD-ROM in the VMware
    Settings->Removable Devices menu.

 5. Booting from raw disks - IDE drives only

    Booting a virtual disk from raw devices works on IDE disks, booting
    a virtual machine from a raw SCSI disk is not supported. This
    limitation will also be present in VMware release 1.0.  For more
    information on booting a virtual machine from a raw disk partition,
    as you would do on a system already configured to dual or multi-boot
    see http://www.vmware.com/support/rawdevices.html. With VMware Beta,
    booting a virtual machine from raw devices is only recommended for
    expert users.

 6. Multiprocessor system support

    VMware will run on Symmetric Multi-Processor (SMP) systems, also
    technically referred to as Multi-Processor Specification (MPS)
    systems. However the environment provided within each VMware virtual
    machine is a Uni-Processor (UP) system. Multiple concurrent VMware
    virtual machines will make use of the multiple processors in a system.

 7. Windows NT 4.0 multiprocessor (MPS) HAL incompatibility

    Windows NT installed natively on a Multi-Processor Specification
    (MPS) system will not boot and run within the UP (Uni-Processor)
    environment of a VMware virtual machine. This is because during
    installation Windows NT installs a separate UP or MPS HAL (Hardware
    Abstraction Layer), depending on the hardware present. A Windows NT
    MPS HAL will not run on a UP system.

    It is possible to change a Windows NT 4.0 MPS HAL to a UP HAL,
    although this should only be attempted by very experienced Windows
    NT users. It may be easier to install a new separate copy of Windows
    NT within a virtual machine. During this installation Windows NT
    will automatically install a UP HAL.

 8. PCMCIA/PCCard support

    VMware does not provide direct support within a virtual machine
    for PCMCIA or PCCard devices, such as found on laptop and portable
    computers. Special PCMCIA or PCCard drivers or software cannot be used
    within a VMware virtual machine. However, standard Ethernet and Modem
    PCMCIA or PCCard adapters should be usable within a virtual machine,
    and special PCMCIA or PCCard devices or features should continue to
    be accessible from the host operating system while VMware is running.

    - It should be possible to install an Ethernet PCMCIA/PCCard supported
      by the Linux host operating system. The guest operating system will 
      see a virtual AMD PCnet-II PCI Ethernet adapter regardless of what 
      PCMCIA/PCCard is installed in the actual computer.
    - It should be possible to install a modem card supported by the
      Linux host operating system that emulates a standard UART. The
      guest operating system should be able to see the modem mapped as a
      generic COM serial port.
    - Ejecting or installing a PCMCIA/PCCard used by a running virtual 
      machine may cause problems.
      
 9. Linux host laptop suspend problem

    Linux host operating systems, even those that support Advanced Power
    Management (APM), may have problems if a laptop computer suspends
    while virtual machines are running. The virtual machines may hang
    and not restart.

10. Supported mouse types

    VMware supports the following mouse types.

    - PS/2
    - Microsoft serial
    - Mouse Systems
    - Logitech MouseMan serial
    - Microsoft Intellimouse PS/2

    Some mice can be made to work by selecting to closest compatible
    mouse in the VMware Configuration Editor.  Some mice not on this list,
    including the Microsoft Inbus mouse, will not work with VMware.

11. International keyboard support

    VMware maps all keyboards to appear as US English 104 key
    "Windows enhanced" keyboards within a VM. Some intentional language
    keyboards may work with VMware but may require some configuration
    with xmodmap. All key events received in a VMware VM are processed
    through the host X server. If you are having problems configuring your
    keyboard it may be useful to inspect the keyboard mapping on the host
    using xmodmap -pk -pm. You may also want to experiment with setting
    the keyboard type within the guest operating system. Start with
    setting the keyboard type to be the same as the physical keyboard.
    Please report problems with international keyboards to VMware customer
    support. Please include --

    - Details of the keyboard type
    - The output of xmodmap -pk -pm on the host system

12. Non-Ethernet network adapters

    VMware does not support non-Ethernet network adapter cards (including
    token ring, FDDI, CDDI or ATM) in "bridged mode".   VMware installed
    on hosts with non-Ethernet network adapter cards can still use the
    virtual network in host-only mode and can also use the host as a proxy
    to connect to the non-Ethernet networks. See http://www.vmware.com/

13. Poor MS-DOS performance with EMM386 extended memory manager

    Running MS-DOS with EMM386.EXE and other extended memory managers
    may cause significant performance degradation. This will only occur
    when running MS-DOS or when running MS-DOS floppy disk based installs
    such as when installing Windows 95. If you are initially booting a
    VM with an MS-DOS or Windows 95 boot diskette with CD-ROM drivers
    make sure that EMM386.EXE (or other memory managers) are not being
    loaded. HIMEM.SYS and RAMDRIVE.SYS can be loaded and used without
    problems.

14. DirectDraw/DirectX graphics support

    VMware provides support for DirectDraw graphics within a virtual
    machine only via guest operating system DirectDraw emulation.
    Microsoft, Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT provide this support.
    However, the emulation will likely be slow and may be unreliable
    with certain applications.

15. Sound support

    VMware provides basic support for Soundblaster compatible PCM
    (Pulse Code Modulation) audio and can support formats such as .wav
    and .au files. VMware does not provide support for MIDI devices or
    games joysticks.

16. DirectSound/DirectX not supported

    VMware does not support the DirectSound capabilities of DirectX
    within a virtual machine.

17. Parallel (LPT) ports device support

    Virtual parallel port devices are uni-directional only. VMware
    does not provide support for bi-directional parallel ports within
    a VM. Parallel port disk drives such as Iomega Jaz or Zip drives
    cannot be used directly from within a virtual machine. However,
    these can continue to be used on the host operating system and may
    contain VMware virtual disks.

18. EIDE ATAPI Iomega Zip drive support

    Iomega Zip drives that use an EIDE ATAPI interface cannot be used
    within a VMware VM. IDE disk drives within a VM do not support ATAPI
    (although the VM IDE CD-ROM drives do). Iomega EIDE ATAPI Zip drives
    can continue to be used on the host operating system and may contain
    VMware virtual disks.

19. Windows 95 problems with AMD K6 processor based systems

    Windows 95 may not run reliably as a guest operating system on
    systems using the AMD K-6-2 processor. This problem does not occur
    with other guest operating systems including Windows 98 or Windows NT.
    Although related to a known Windows 95 problem on K-6-2 processors,
    the patch for this known problem currently prevents Windows 95 from
    booting within a VMware virtual machine.

    There are known problems in Microsoft Windows 95 that cause it to 
    fail to startup on systems that use the AMD K-6-2 processor (350MHz 
    or faster). See
    http://www.amd.com/products/cpg/k623d/win95_update_k6.html for more 
    information.

    Unfortunately at the present time, this patch has an incompatibility
    with the BIOS included with VMware, and a patched Windows 95 operating
    system will not boot in a VMware virtual machine. VMware recommends
    you do not install this patch, and that you upgrade to Windows 98
    or Windows NT 4.0 if possible.

20. Pseudocolor (8 bit, 256 color) display issues

    VMware does not recommend using a host X display that uses pseudocolor
    (8 bit, 256 color). A host X display that use pseudocolor will
    typically have problems displaying VMware in windowed mode. The
    colors displayed will be dramatically affected depending on whether
    the cursor focus is in a  VMware window or not. This is a standard
    limitation of pseudocolor X servers.

21. Intermittent unexpected exit during Windows 95 install

    An intermittent problem can occur during Windows 95 installations
    in a virtual machine. Shortly after the Windows 95 Setup program is
    started, scandisk runs to completion, and when the Windows 95 Setup
    program normally starts it's graphical user interface the VM returns
    back to a MS-DOS prompt. VMware recommends you reboot the computer
    and rerun Windows 95 Setup.  You will not need to FDISK or FORMAT
    the drive again. If this problem occurs reproducibly please contact
    VMware customer support.

22. CD-ROM drive drawer automatic closing

    VMware can cause rapid automatic closing of a CD-ROM drawers. This
    can be an annoying behavior and if it occurs when a user is loading
    a CD-ROM into the drive it may trap the media or the users fingers
    in the drawer. Please exercise caution when placing media in the
    CD-ROM drive.

23. Guest OS serial (COM) and parallel port (LPT) devices

    Guest operating systems will detect and install device drivers
    for four serial (COM) ports and two parallel (LPT) ports even if
    those devices are not enabled in VMware. These virtual devices do
    consume guest operating system IRQ and I/O address resources and
    appear from within the guest operating system to be present. Leaving
    these devices as is but unconfigured in VMware will not cause any
    problems. To enable a device shut down the guest operating system,
    Power Off VMware and use the Configuration Editor to enable the
    serial or parallel port device.

24. Undoable mode disks redo logs -- writeable directory requirements

    The default behavior of VMware is to place redo logs for undoable and
    nonpersistent mode disks in the same directory as a virtual disk or
    the raw disk definition file. It is possible in the Configuration
    Editor to specify an alternate directory location for disk redo
    logs. However, for undoable mode disks, this does not remove the
    requirement that the directory containing the virtual disk or hard
    disk definition file must be writeable by the user.  For undoable
    mode disks VMware creates symbolic links in this directory to point
    to the actual location of the redo log. This implementation will
    change in a future release.

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