RC2 + VS2005 Install, still borked :(

Discussion in 'Parallels Desktop for Mac' started by dcsmrgun, Jun 1, 2006.

  1. dcsmrgun

    dcsmrgun Bit poster

    Messages:
    9
    Hey guys,

    As a followup to my previous thread, I just upgraded to RC2 hoping that this would make my install of 2005 a little bit easier, but unfortunately I'm still seeing the same problem.

    Certain portions of the install work relatively well and quickly, but other portions crank up to 100% cpu utilization and take hours and hours to complete. I tried to check the pegged process using sysinternals process explorer, but that caused the iMac to suffer its first ever kernel panic.

    To date I've tried setting acceleration to "normal", disabling VT-x, all leadnig to no discernable effect. I think I've allocated 384MB or 512MB, I forgot which off the top of my head, but either/both ought to be enough to at least preform an install of the application.

    During the problem periods, it looks as if all that happens is one disk read/write every second or two, where installing on a regular machine I ought to see a lot more disk activity.

    I'm not sure whether there is anything I can do to help you guys debug this situation, but if there is feel free to let me know.

    Alternately, has anyone else tried to set up Visual Studio 2005 on a Windows 2003 Server (SP1+updates) host from scratch? I have another disk image which was created with Beta1 which has VS2005 and 2003 Server, but its a little polluted so I was hoping to do a clean install.

    I'll try to start an install tonight and leave it running all night to see if it finishes completely.

    Anyway, looking forward to working with Parallels to resolve the issue, since this is pretty much all I need Windows for. I've put in my preorder so I'm anxiously looking forward to getting everything working so I can finally have some justification to get a Mac at work ;)
     
    Last edited: Jun 1, 2006
  2. schmidp

    schmidp Member

    Messages:
    49
    hi, i have visual studio 2005 on a windows server 2003 but i didn't recognize any problem while installing, i think it took the same time as on a native machine.

    my installation dates back to beta1, so maybe this problem was introduced in a later beta.
     
  3. tacit_one

    tacit_one Pro

    Messages:
    434
    I did VS8 installation on RC2 without any problem...
    Maybe there are some configuration problems on the windows side (can you try to reinstall / reconfigure your windows image)? I also have eVC and VS6 - all of them seem to work correctly ...
     
  4. maverick808

    maverick808 Hunter

    Messages:
    167
    I have installed VS2005 from scratch on Beta5, RC1 and RC2 and not had any slow or broken installation problems at all. My VMs RAM has been set to 512MB each time.
     
  5. akac

    akac Hunter

    Messages:
    144
    I did an install of VS 2005 on top of XP in RC1 without any issues. Also runs decently in RC2.
     
  6. dcsmrgun

    dcsmrgun Bit poster

    Messages:
    9
    Are you guys installing from CD images or CDs? For what its worth, I'm installing VS2005 from two MSDN CDs.

    Since I'm just installing, I won't really lose anything if I start from scratch. I will try tonight and report back.

    Thanks!
     
  7. schmidp

    schmidp Member

    Messages:
    49
    i used an image
     
  8. dcsmrgun

    dcsmrgun Bit poster

    Messages:
    9
    Well, I *THINK* I found the problem.

    I began to reinstall Windows 2003, and I nearly tore my hair out when it also began to experience the same slowdown during install. This was even after I had popped in an extra GB of RAM to make it 2GB.

    It turns out that while I had allocated 768MB to the Windows2003 image, I had only set the Max memory allocation to 384MB in the Parallels preferences.

    Now I just launched the 2003 install and it is down to 6 minutes whereas it would hang at 22 minutes consistently.

    If I could make a recommendation, it would be nice if the application did a sanity check, wherein if you try to allocate more memory to any one VM than you have set in the preference window you would be prompted to confirm your decision, possibly warned about the somewhat dire consequences of your actions ;)

    In any event, once this copy of 2003 installs I'll give VS2005 a try, but I'm fairly confident that I've found the issue. If I recall correctly, the first time I installed 2003 I had only allocated the VM 384MB which is in line with what the preferences say.

    Edit: YES, that was DEFINITELY the problem. Everything installed properly. Words can't describe how happy I am right now.
     
    Last edited: Jun 1, 2006

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