Install VMWare Fusion on Mac OS/X 10.5

I needed to run an oracle database on a macbook. At the time, Oracle was not supported on Mac OS/X 10.5 . Talking to colleagues, and doing some research led me to VMWare fusion. It's not free. It works great.

Installing VMWare Fusion is a relatively simple process. I downloaded version 2.0.1-12 from the net and purchased a serial number from VMWare. The VMware site has excellent documentation and even supplies videos to walk you through the process. Here's what I did: 

1. Download the .dmg file from vmware. (http://www.vmware.com/vmwarestore/buyfusion.html).
2.  Double click on the .dmg file to mount it. The file will be mounted and displayed in a Finder window.
3. Double click the Fusion Icon. The installation assistant will walk you through the process. 
4.  To Start Fusion, navigate to Applications in Finder, and choose the VMWare Fusion Icon. 

The Fusion window will open, and you can create a new Virtual Machine at this point. Next I installed 2 different virtual machines - a copy of my old pc and a fresh Ubuntu install to house the Oracle Database. 

I followed the conversion guide for bringing my old pc over. The guide that comes with fusion (http://www.vmware.com/pdf/fusion_getting_started_11.pdf) has a link to a flash video that walks you through the process. The process took about 8 hours for the vmware converter to bundle my old pc onto an external disk drive and for me to boot the pc on the mac. It was pretty cool. The problem that I had was that my copy of XP only had 1 license, (it came bundled on the pc when I bought it) , and Windows required a new activation key. So I only had access to my old pc on the mac for 3 days. I would not do this unless you know you have multiple licenses. 

To install Ubuntu, I went to the Ubuntu site (http://www.Ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download) and downloaded the 8.10 version on 32 bit. I chose the 32 bit because the 64 bit has some issues with downloading and installing packages. Once downloaded, simply open the vmware fusion :

1. Choose new 
   
2. Click the continue without disk button. 
   
3. Choose the "Use Operating System Disk image file" option.
   
4. Choose the Ubuntu file you downloaded above from the finder that opens. 
   
5. Click Continue and Finish. The new virtual machine will appear in the Fusion window. 
   
6. Click the start button next to the Ubuntu vm, and fusion will open a window with the Ubuntu installation running within it. 
   

I ran through the installation by specifying users and some configuration. I simply accepted the defaults. 

Sage Advice: 

Install VMWare tools immediately after the Ubuntu installation occurs. Choose Install VMWare tools from the virtual machine menu item on the mac. To do this, move the untarred vmware tools distib to the /tmp directory.  Then run : 

• sudo ./vmware-install.pl

Choose the defaults, and when complete, add the toolbox to the startup of your Ubuntu session: 

1. Preferences>Sessions>StartUp Programs>+Add>
   
2. Specify vmware-toolbox as the command to execute. 
   

Fusion allows you to take snapshots of your vm. DO THIS!!!! . Comment well the snapshot state, so that when you screw something up you can return to a stable state.  As I was installing the various applications to the Ubuntu system , I would stop and take a snapshot along the way after each milestone. This will save you considerable time.