Parallels Desktop for Mac build 3036 Beta is available for download.

Auto open and auto exit error

Tony-Bologne and BillInSoBe reported a problem back on December 3rd, and I haven't seen anyone post a resolution for it yet, so I'm recapping and adding my observations.

The problem is that all my machines are stuck in an auto open/auto exit loop. That means the machine starts automatically whenever I open the .pvs file, and shuts down Parallels automatically whenever it is stopped. This works until you need to admin your virtual hardware or change machine settings. Tony apparently is fast enough to click one of the properties just before his machine actually starts up, but I've tried and I haven't been able to do it.

The problem is that this is not a VM-specific error--it's internal to the beta. I've checked all of my .pvs files, and they all appear to have these flags disabled:

Start auto = 0
AutoShutdown = 0

In a related issue, whenever I start Parallels from the App icon it immediately launches the new VM wizard. If I stop that process, Parallels shuts down. This can be worked around if I continue through the new VM wizard and then shut it down after it tries to boot. But that's a kludge and pretty user hostile, and still doesn't allow me to edit my existing VMs--it only gets Parallels running in a state that I can view Parallel's preferences, play with the new dummy machine's settings, etc. If you're having this same issue and try this workaround, I recommend choosing a Linux OS so that you avoid the need to enter a Windows product key for what amounts to a temporary VM.

The reason I can't edit existing VM's from this point is that the "Open..." option in the File menu doesn't give me a file browser: it starts the new VM wizard again. So I have to open my existing VMs from the file system.

To repeat, I never chose the auto start or auto exit options for any of my machines, and they don't appear to have these settings enabled in their settings files--this is an error internal to the Parallels beta. Editing the .pvs files with a text editor does not alter this behavior

So if my VM config files aren't set to auto start or auto exit, why are they behaving as if they are, and how can I make it stop?

 

Linux, tri-booting?

Howdy..

I have read a few vague statements that only XP Home or Pro installed with Boot Camp will work with this beta. I've noticed that I do not have the "Boot Camp" option after manually partitioning for tri-boot with XP and GNU/Linux.

Is this planned to be supported? It's very important to me. I can't seem to even use Parallels for my Boot-camp created XP partition after having partitioned manually - the "Boot Camp" option is simply greyed out when creating a VM.

Should I submit a proper bug on this? Is there a plan to address this in a future beta or the final release? I'm trying to follow these instructions, roughly, adapting by creating a 5G XP partition at the end of the drive using Boot Camp Assistant:

http://sharealike.org/index.php?m=200605

 

ME TOO! this is EXACTLY the same problem i have had. i even converted to ntfs and it still isnt working.

I am using a macbook 2ghz with 1gig ram and running 10.4.6 clean installed.
PLEASE unlock it or give us some sort of secret super special way of forcing it to let us select a partition we created ourselves

 

My Bootcamp partition sometimes Unmount after I quit

Hi everybody,

Sometimes after I quit Parallels, my BootCamp partition Unmount without any advise.

Wht happen I dont know, and the first times tht happen, I loose my partition icon and name. But Parallel opne without any problem after I remount the partition.

 

Can't start Windows Vista on 3036

Hi, for some reason my virtual machine freezes when booting Windows Vista, the only way I can run it is in safe mode without networking. Was working perfectly with build 1940.

Any ideas, Thanks.

 

Some clarification, please....

I just got hold of this Beta, primarily for Coherence, which sounds amazing.

But scanning through this thread has raised a question in my mind. I abandoned Boot Camp because I couldn't test local websites and the pain was having to reboot to access Windows, and switched to Parallels. Been delighted ever since.

This had a big advantage - I was able to access Virtual Hosts in OSX from within Windows and hence test development websites in IE6 and IE7, which was pretty much the only reason I was prepared to insult OSX by putting Windows on it.

So now I am intrigued, and may also be being a little slow on the uptake, but why would I want to use Boot Camp over my current setup? Indeed, is there any reason, given that I don't need 3D acceleration in Windows?

And, assuming that there is an advantage and I go down the boot camp route, does Parallels see the partition exactly as it does for a VM located in the OSX set-up. My bottom line is this - will my Virtual Host set up still work if I did this?

Any insight/clarification much appreciated.

 

BUG: Build 3036

Not sure if this is the right place but here goes:

Since upgrading to build 3036, an anoying bug has appeared.

Usually I use Apple-H to quickly hide Parallels and get back to my Mac desktop. This works fine, but since upgrading to this beta build, when I come back into Parallels it has passed through the initial press of the Apple key but not the release of it.

Net effect: Windows still thinks i've got my Apple (Windows) key held down and when I start typing, all my keypresses are like Windows-<key>. I have to tap the Apple key (and then close the start menu) to get Windows to recognise it's correct (unpressed) state.

This did not occur in the previous release build and as you can imagine is INCREDIBLY annoying. Would really appreciate a quick fix or work-around for this.

Thanks for listening and oh by the way... a truely awsome product - well done

 

Hi - How do I download and install ParallelsTRS-2.0.XXXX-Win.exe to a remote computer. Haven't been able to find any references to TRS on the Parallels web site.

 

Bugs

I'm also not sure if this is where you report bugs but I'm sure the Parallels developers will read this.

I've been using the 3036 beta for a couple of weeks now and think it's going to be a great release. I do have a few little bugs with it though.

1. When opening a 'Command Prompt' in Windows XP in Coherence mode the window will never appear unless it is over another window?!?!?
2. When using the bridging network option the connection is lost quite a few times a day, using Shared networking the problem seems to go away.
3. If you select to auto start and also auto close a virtual machine you can't then change any settings. I had to use TextEdit to change an auto-load parameter.

Cheers, and keep up the good work.

 

Any fix to the Windows Activation problem yet

Hi Everyone

Has anyone figured out a solution yet to the windows activation issue that occurs when booting via Boot Camp and Parallels?

Thanks

--Jason

 

Well, I decided to reformat my boot camp partition and start fresh, this time using a larger partition. The install worked great for a few days in boot camp and parallels - come today though, and I'm getting page faults again in Parallels.

I think I'm just going to stick to using separate installs, since I really only use boot camp for gaming. Any chance of getting Coherence vista-ready?

 

Hello,
First I want to say excellent work to the Parallels team, this is an amazing app. But I have one problem:
My biggest reason for using Parallels is to run a 2D Game, darkages, which is Windows only. It runs great in Parallels, but I'm looking for a good way to keep it on a virtual desktop.
Here's my options:
-VirtueDesktop works great, but if I run the game fullscreen (which switches the OS X resolution to 640x480) and then go to a different desktop, Mac OS X is still in 640x480.
-Parallels' Fullscreen mode: Seems to make the game turn black, and when I go back to my other desktop, all the windows are resized and moved due to the 640x480 switch.
-Coherence Mode: This, so far has been my best bet. It allows me to run the program (mostly) full screen, but my only problem with it is it makes it a very narrow image between the menubar and dock. For normal apps this is fine, but I would really like it if the Coherence working area could be adjusted or bound to ratios (like 4:3). The other problem Coherence creates is it makes the screen near the mouse "wobble," it just kind of ripples under the mouse cursor. This seems to be because the OS X cursor is still present in Coherence mode, which I assume is due to the mouse syncing. Also, it uses nearest-neighbor filtering. Bilinear filtering would rock.
Alternatively, it it was possible to run in OS Window mode and resize the screen, this would work the best. That is, I could run the OS at 640x480 and stretch the display to my liking.
I don't know the likelyhood of any of that being implemented, but it would be really cool if it's possible.
Thanks, and keep up the great work!

 

Strange bug. When I tried to switch back to booting into my Boot Camp partition, and then restarted into OSX, my Camino Bookmarks always disappear...

 

USB Support

Just installed the Beta 3036. On the previous production version, when I connected my Stiletto 100 (Portable Satelite radio), it would connect to the virtual machine but when I attempted to access it via the it's software, it would give me the BSOD on the virtual machine with a USB driver error and reboot. Now with the new beta software it won't even connect to the virtual machine, it continously tells me that some other process has it and to wait 5-10 seconds and try again (I thought this was supposed to be eliminated with the beta).
I know of no other process on the MacOS side that looks at the device, since they don't provide any support/software to use it.

 

I'm actually really surprised that support hasn't chimed in on this yet. They seem to keep up so well with all of these problems people are posting, but no response on this. I would at least like to know that they are working on the problem. As soon as this bug is fixed, I will buy my copy that day!

Mt problem is that I still use my HFS partition for installing apps and storage for my Windows side since I limited the partition size for Windows to 15GB. So, with Paralells Tools installed I can't access those apps or information.

This is the first time I've been REALLY interested in using Paralells since it has BootCamp support. Seems like an awesome tool. If you guys could just get 3D virtualization going on it, it would be the most amazing piece of software ever created.

Jeff

 

3036 looks good so far

Just learned about this beta, and moved from 1970 (with a few lingering problems) to 3036. While only about 24 hrs trial so far, it seems solid, and most of all Coherence mode freaking rocks!!! I'll test more of the new features, including the Transporter soon, but for now ... Well Done to the Parallels team.

 

Build 3036

I finally got around to installing Boot Camp after installing Build 3036 a couple of weeks ago. My bubble was burst when I couldn't get a VM with Boot Camp to run. Now, after reviewing this forum, I see that this problem was known day 1. Build 3036 is an otherwise terrific product!

My assumption is that you can use a VM with Boot Camp IF you format the partition with NTFS and not FAT. While this would take the ability to read/write to the Windows partition from OS X (I can't really do this my other VM running Windows), this capability is a BIG convenience!

I haven't invested much time to configure and install all the software I need for Boot Camp, so now I'm in a holding pattern trying to decide if I should re-install Windows with a NTFS partition or wait for the fix for FAT. I'd be interested in opinions on this....

Also, does Windows perform better under Parallels when using Boot Camp vs. a normal VM?

Rowland

 

From my perspective, I prefer running Parallels from the boot camp partition because it allows me to run OSX daily, and have quick ready access to Visio, MS Project etc. However for 3D gaming I can easily boot the boot camp partition and have the ability to have a Windows with 100% compatibility.

Paralllels is great running as a vm on OSX, but being able to boot natively into Windows through boot camp solves the issue with certain apps that just don'e run well in a VM. Typically apps that require serious video performance. If Parallels gets DirectX working and 3D gaming in a VM, then boot camp really would not be necessary.

 

Work-around for Windows activation issue

Check out this message in thread " 3036: Win-XP Home Re-Activation issue/problem" - there seems to be a promising work-around for the reactivation problem.

 

You can convert your Windows FAT partition to NTFS via bootcamp. Check out: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/214579 for instructions.

I mainly use in coherence mode but there is not much speed difference between bootcamp and Parallels. Certainly not enough to be noticable in office type of applications.