Ubuntu 7.10 as the host - does it work?

On the official System Requirements for Parallels, Ubuntu is not listed as a supported Primary O/S, however I searched the forums and I see that people are asking questions with regard to Ubuntu.

So back to basics, does Parallels work under Ubuntu?

Thanks, sorry about the basic question. I am going to experiment with Linux and I like the look of Ubuntu, and see Parallels as my safety net for all the things I need to do in Windows!

David

 

Hello,

Ubuntu 7.10 is not listed in official documents yet because it's not tested thoroughly, but generally it should work so give it a try.

Best regards,
Alicia.

 

Causes host kernel crash for me

With a laptop with an NVidia card and 802.11 by broadcomm operating via ndiswrapper, parallels consistently crashes the host OS when I run with Ubuntu 7.10. It was fine with Fiesty (where I was not using ndiswrapper, though I have no idea if this is related). I reported problems months ago, but never heard a reply.

 

Yes I have this same problem in Gutsy. Not only is Parallels incompatible with Compiz (if enabled, Parallels becomes transparent) but the OS will completely freeze periodically, requiring a hard reset. I'm running on a Dell Latitude D830 with the NVidia Quadro 140M and Intel 3945 abg card. It's kind of a dead horse at this point but it's still pretty sad that Parallels Workstation has not been updated in over a year. I've been using VMware Workstation 6 on Gutsy since the beta with absolutely no problems. Now with the rumors of Unity being included in VMware Workstation 6.5 I'm just waiting for the announcement that Parallels has completely abandoned any non-Mac development.

 

solution (for now) to compiz problem

#! /bin/sh
XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1 /usr/bin/parallels "$@"

Of course, it doesn't help the problem of crashing the host OS. I wonder if nvidia is involved?

 

It does not work well for me.

I upgraded to Ubuntu 7.10 (kernel 2.6.22-14-generic) once it was released and I installed PW 2.2.2204. I can use parallels for about 10 minutes before my system locks up and requires a hard boot. On a side note, I attempted the same setup using an OpenSuse10.3 host (kernel 2.6.22.5.31-default) and it too freezes. I can ping the workstation but I cannot ssh into the box, nor can I switch to a text console to kill apps. Both machines have 2GB RAM with 512MB dedicated to one W2k Pro guest OS.

P.S. I have not enabled any desktop effects (compiz) due to the video cards. Both are ATI cards for what its worth.

 

Ubuntu 7.10 can work

We are having success with Parallels 2.2.2204 on Ubuntu 7.10. Learnings thus far include:

1) xfs filesystem has an oops in 7.10, so it was necessary to switch to ext3.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/179238

2) Though the system we are mostly testing on has a PNY Vetro 6200 256MB AGP board installed, using Envy ( http://albertomilone.com/nvidia_scripts1.html ) to install the latest binary drivers with it causes the terminals and also Parallels while displaying console to allow the Gnome background color (I do not have a wallpaper set up) to bleed through into the window. In other words, when the binary drivers are installed, console windows or Parallels displaying text mode OS's has a blue background rather than black. So I am running with what ever driver Ubuntu installed by default when it detected the board. 1600 x 1200 works, so I'll not complain.

(Seems there was a solution for this... "Ubuntu 7.04 and Window Transparency" http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=13302 worked for me!)

3) XP Pro SP2 seems to install / run fine.

4) Vista Business is short a working NIC driver currently. ( http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=18801 )

So far no other issues running Vista.

5) Randomly Parallels I think crashes... as it just goes away and is no where to be found.

6) I am also trying to vistualize my old IBM 300PL image of eCS 1.2R. The boot process is not reliable with that image... Locks up and does not start PMShell.exe. I am wondering if I will need to reinstall in the Parallels environment and abandon the image from the 300PL.