Configuring a Virtual Machine

Choosing a Virtual Machine Player

We have successfully tested VerifyThus with the following products:
  • VMware Player (free, Windows or Linux), or alternatively Workstation (commercial, Windows/Linux) or Fusion (commercial, Mac). This option offers the best experience and sees the largest amount of testing and support from us.
  • VirtualBox is a Free software available for Windows, Linux, and Mac. This option sees a medium amount of testing and support.
  • Parallels is a commercial product popular on the Mac. Currently, this option is limited to a low screen resolution and has not seen much testing.

The Virtual Machine Image

The virtual machine image is a compressed .tar.gz file, which contains a .vmx and a .vmdk file. For the latest version of the VM, you can also download these files uncompressed. The .vmx file is a small text file containing the machine description and metadata. The .vmdk file is the disk image containing the data.

Opening the Virtual Machine in VMware

  1. Select File > Open from the menu.
  2. Select the .vmx file you have downloaded as part of VerifyThus.
  3. Set the network connection type to NAT under VM>Settings>Network Adapter>Network Connection.

Opening the Virtual Machine in VirtualBox

  1. Select Machine > New from the menu.
  2. Name the machine and select as OS Type Linux and then Linux 2.6.
  3. Adjust the RAM size of the machine as desired.
  4. Under Virtual Hard Disk select Use Existing Hard Disk and select the .vmdk file you have downloaded as part of VerifyThus.

Opening the Virtual Machine in Parallels

Step 1: Convert the disk image
  1. Start Parallels Transporter.
  2. Select express mode; virtual machine; entire virtual machine.
  3. Load the .vmx file you have downloaded as part of VerifyThus. 
  4. Receive the warning message: "No operating system is installed on virtual disk(s), or Parallels Transporter is unable to make it bootable. You can migrate the disk(s) as data disk(s)."
  5. Convert the image as data disk (an .hdd file will be produced). You can remove the original .vmdk file now.
Step 2: Create virtual machine
  1. Start Parallels Desktop. 
  2. Select File > New Virtual Machine from the menu. 
  3. Click "Skip Detection" and select Linux and then Other Linux Kernel 2.6. 
  4. Select Custom installation. 
  5. Adjust CPU and RAM as needed. 
  6. Under "Hard Disk Options" select "Existing Image File" and select the converted .hdd disk image from step 1. 
  7. Select network type (shared). 
  8. Under "Prepare to install" click "Done".
To enable screen resolutions beyond 800x600 it is necessary to install Parallels Tools for Linux. Required is at least Parallels Desktop 6, as previous versions do not support openSuSE 11.3. The Parallels Tools installer will automatically download a compiler and kernel sources to compile the kernel modules. We have not tested this process.
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