RedHat/CentOS under Parallels?

On 4/6/07, David Emery <emerygrebyn.com> wrote:
> Has anyone installed RedHat 4 or CentOS 4 (they're supposed to be
> "identical") under Parallels? If so, can you tell me how you did it? I
> got everything to install, but the Linux kernel seems to hang on boot
> after the install. I'm wondering if I installed some wrong
> package/flavor...

I'm not happy with Parallels for running Linux. They still don't have
their tools for Linux (mouse synchronization, clock synchronization,
video & network drivers, etc) and don't seem too interested in
supporting Linux. The latest Ubuntu beta won't even boot in Parallels.

VMWare seems to support Linux much better. I've been able to install
the same Ubuntu beta successfully in VMWare, plus they have tools for
Linux which let you move the mouse freely in and out of the VM window
instead of capturing the mouse as Parallels does.

Parallels still has some advantages for running Windows such as
Coherence mode, but unless they drastically improve their Linux
support I'm switching to VMWare.

On 4/6/07 at 11:14 AM, David Emery <emerygrebyn.com> wrote:

> Has anyone installed RedHat 4 or CentOS 4 (they're supposed to be
> "identical") under Parallels? If so, can you tell me how you did
> it? I got everything to install, but the Linux kernel seems to
> hang on boot after the install. I'm wondering if I installed some
> wrong package/flavor...

I haven't tried it myself, but I have read of Linux-in-VM situations
where an SMP kernel (multiprocessor/multicore) is installed by default,
but doesn't successfully boot because Parallels (or other VM host
technology) doesn't actually "supply" multiple cores to the guest OS.
Try booting with a single-core kernel and see what happens.

Here's a sample discussion of the issue:

<http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/96509133/m/
410002904831>

- Todd

On Apr 6, 2007, at 11:14 AM, David Emery wrote:

> Has anyone installed RedHat 4 or CentOS 4 (they're supposed to be
> "identical") under Parallels? If so, can you tell me how you did
> it? I
> got everything to install, but the Linux kernel seems to hang on boot
> after the install. I'm wondering if I installed some wrong
> package/flavor...

I haven't personally--I know several people who have (CentOS-4,
Fedora betas, etc) successfully and without a lot of fuss. One of
these weekends, I'll take the time to do it.

Make sure you installed the 32-bit form (since that is the machine
that Parallels presents to its guests).

   --John

At 3:26 PM -0700 4/6/07, Mike Cohen wrote:
>On 4/6/07, David Emery <emerygrebyn.com> wrote:
>>Has anyone installed RedHat 4 or CentOS 4 (they're supposed to be
>>"identical") under Parallels? If so, can you tell me how you did it? I
>>got everything to install, but the Linux kernel seems to hang on boot
>>after the install. I'm wondering if I installed some wrong
>>package/flavor...
>
>I'm not happy with Parallels for running Linux. They still don't have
>their tools for Linux (mouse synchronization, clock synchronization,
>video & network drivers, etc) and don't seem too interested in
>supporting Linux. The latest Ubuntu beta won't even boot in Parallels.
>
>VMWare seems to support Linux much better. I've been able to install
>the same Ubuntu beta successfully in VMWare, plus they have tools for
>Linux which let you move the mouse freely in and out of the VM window
>instead of capturing the mouse as Parallels does.
>
>Parallels still has some advantages for running Windows such as
>Coherence mode, but unless they drastically improve their Linux
>support I'm switching to VMWare.

Parallels was first to market - beating even Apple's own Boot Camp.
The application has apparently won the hearts and minds of many,
perhaps most, Apple desktop users.

In the data centers though, VMware is the tried and true application
for virtualizing Windows and Linux. It works and works well, and is
well understood. I've seen a lot of linux sysadmins (and even some
Windows sysadmins) adopting Intel-based Macs and running Windows in
Parallels (in parallel with OSX), but as soon as VMware issues a
release product I think the pros will move to that. Parallels is a
consumer grade application and is apparently good and very successful
at that. VMware is king of the data center.

Additionally, VMware comes from EMC. Love the company or hate them,
they are an enterprise-grade software vendor. Parallels comes from a
company owned by a company based in a country which the US Government
does not trust, and there is speculation that the USG may look
unfavorably on the application running on government-owned computers,
regardless of whether the computers are handling sensitive data or
not.

(Datapoint: the USG is not happy about Goole Desktop for Windows
either, and that is an American company.)

Parallels comes from a company owned by a company based in a country which the US Government does not trust, ...

Herndon, Virginia? <http://www.swsoft.com/en/contact/>

As a lifelong resident of Maryland, I have some mistrust of Virginia too (although I'd better get over it -- I start work in Reston next week), but given the number of US Government facilities already located there (such as, say, the Pentagon), I don't think the USG shares your misapprehension.

</tongue_in_cheek>

(I know the technology behind Parallels is developed in Russia, but is that a country the US government distrusts these days, either?)

I have cent os 4.4 and 4.3 running in parallels no problems During the install make sure the disk image size is 32gb (not fixed) and set memory to 512mb do the install then adjust the memory as necessary.. works like a champ i even have asterisk running this way.

On Apr 23, 2007, at 12:00 PM, Mike Hjorleifsson wrote:

> I have cent os 4.4 and 4.3 running in parallels no problems During
> the install make sure the disk image size is 32gb (not fixed) and
> set memory to 512mb do the install then adjust the memory as
> necessary.. works like a champ i even have asterisk running this way.

I'm finding that in CentOS-5 (recently-released final), the Linux
system clock (despite its name, it is interrupt-driven in software)
is running significantly (roughly 50%) fast. I haven't tracked it
down yet.

Other than that, no problems so far (the installation is less than 24
hours old).

   --John (who is getting "5 minute" updates on the progress of the
second Tacoma Narrows expansion joint slightly more often than most
people ;-))

I've just tried installing CentOS 4.4 under Parallels on my Mac and hit the same problem as the original poster: it installs OK, but hangs during the boot. However, I found a way around it. It looks like it's trying to boot the SMP (multi processor) version of the kernel. If you hit escape at the grub menu you can select the second, "up" (uni processor?) version and it boots fine. You'll probably also want to edit /boot/grub/menu.lst so this kernel boots by default.