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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hi Guys.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Bit of an odd one this:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I've got a 64bit AMD Windoze XP PC, with 2 IDE
harddisks, each partitioned into 2. Partitions 0,2,3 are all used, and
partition 1 is full of data that I don't mind getting rid of. The data that
I don't mind getting rid of WindowsXP 64 trial ;) The boot loader on the machine
is configured to show XP (partition 0) and XP64 (partition 1).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I've also got VMWare and some Debian ISOs (i686).
What I'd like to do is use VMWare to map it's primary harddisk to parition
1, install Debian onto this partition (with some kind of Window manager, XGL
would be nice but any will be OK - see later). And then, still having my
original bootloader pointing to partition 1, have a dual boot with XP and
Debian.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Here's a quote from the VMWare help about the kind
of disk configuration that I plan to use in VMWare:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Raw Disk </DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=Body><A name=1008366></A>A raw disk directly accesses an existing local
disk or partition. You can use raw disks if you want VMware Workstation to run
one or more guest operating systems from existing disk partitions. Raw disks may
be set up on both IDE and SCSI devices. </P></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>One concern is that VMWare will make Debian
think that all my hardware had changed when/if it boots on the main box. But, as
far as I'm aware, VMWare virtualises the hardware so it should be OK. I would
not install the Desktop in VMWare, I would install this when it's runnin on the
main box. Doing an lspci shows up some hardware properly (network cards etc),
but the video card shows as VMWare SVGA II PCI card (apparently).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Another concern is that the whole 32/64 bit thing
will mess things up. Though my machine is an AMD64, I run 32bit
Windows XP. In this runs 32bit VMWare, which will no doubt be
emulating/virtualising 32bit hardware. Will 32bit Debian run ok when it's run on
the 64bit hardware?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I can hear you ask "but why?!". Well, I don't have
a CDROM drive in the machine, and I don't have access to a CD burner (well,
they're both complete lies, but I'd like to know if it's possible to add an OS
in this way) :D</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Your thoughts gentlemen!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>(And please excuse my spelling, either that or
accept 'partion' as the new word for partition)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Kind regards,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Richard Hayes<BR>DomainArena<BR><A
href="mailto:ricky@domainarena.net">ricky@domainarena.net</A></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>