Update April 24, 2008 – The newest version of Ubuntu, 8.04 is out. Look for complete install instructions here.
Update April 7 2008 – If you are interested in also playing with the 8.04 BETA, you can read my post here.
Ubuntu version 7.10 was just released. In keeping up with tradition I’d like to describe step by step instructions on how to install and get it running under Virtual PC 2007.
Before I begin though, I’d like to give a word of thanks to all the folks who have commented on my previous postings. It was their findings and efforts that helped to create this work, I owe them a big thanks.
OK, first thing you need is to download the Desktop install ISO from the Ubuntu site (http://www.ubuntu.com). You can skip right to the download mirrors page at http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/downloadmirrors if you want to save a few mouse clicks.
Once you get it downloaded fire up Virtual PC, and create a new machine. If you are not familiar with VPC, see my step by step instructions for creating a machine at https://arcanecode.wordpress.com/2006/09/20/virtual-pc-step-by-step/ Make sure to pick “other” as the OS type. I used 512 meg of ram because my system has 2 gig, but if you have less you can get away with 256 meg of ram for the Ubuntu Virtual machine.
Fire up your new virtual machine, and use the option in the CD menu to “Capture ISO image”. Point the image at the desktop iso you just downloaded.When it starts, immediately press the down arrow, so that “Start Ubuntu in Safe Graphics Mode” is highlighted.
When 7.04 was released, the new kernel had issues with the mouse emulated by Virtual PC. To be blunt, the mouse just didn’t work. However, several work arounds were found. The easiest was brought to my attention via comments on the blog, the i8042.noloop option. That’s what we’ll implement, so we can use the mouse during the “live mode”.
Hit the F6 key, for Options. When the line appears, at the very end type in a space (if there’s not one after the two dashes) then i8042.noloop . Your screen should look something like this:
Press Enter to start the launch process. Be patient, it takes quite a while. Once it’s finally up though, you’ll see this screen:
Double click on the Install icon to begin the install.
On the first screen, below, you are welcomed and asked about a language. Pick your language and hit Forward.
Now pick your time zone, since I’m in the Central zone I picked Chicago as a city in my time zone and clicked Forward.
No it asks about keyboard layout, pick your keyboard if yours isn’t US English, then press Forward.
Ubuntu will crank and grind for a minute, then you’ll see this dialog asking about your disks. Just take the defaults and click Forward.
Time for a little personal info, give your name, a login id, enter the password you want to use, and what you want to name the “computer”. When done click Forward.
OK, you’re almost ready to start the install process. Look this over, if everything looks good just press the Install button and we’re off to the races.
Did I say races? Well, turtle race might be more like it, the install runs pretty slow, so get some coffee, or maybe a second bowl of ice cream if you’re doing a late night install.
I did encounter one error during the install. You may see this as well, but you can go back later and correct this through the normal updates process.
Now Ubuntu will finish, and ask if we want to reboot. Tell it no, then reboot by shutting down by pressing the red shut down icon in the very upper right of the Ubuntu window.
OK, you’ll have to be very quick with this next step. Remember the mouse issue? We’ll still need to fix it. First, boot the new machine, after clicking on CD and releasing the ISO if it’s still held. Now when you see the words “Grub loader” hit the Escape key. If you were fast enough, you’ll see this screen.
With the line you see selected, press the “e” to edit the line. Now a new screen will appear.
Move the highlight down one to the Kernal line, and press “e” to edit that line. When the new screen appears, you’ll need to add two dashes, then the i8042.noloop command. Your screen should look like this:
Press Enter, then when you are returned to the screen with “kernel…” on it, make sure the kernel line is still highlighted and press b to boot.
Once booted, login using your user id and password. When Unbuntu is up, it’s time to fix the mouse issue once and for all. Click on Applications, Accessories, Terminal. When the terminal window appears, type in:
sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst
When you press Enter you’ll be prompted for your password, enter it. An editor should appear. Scroll down to the very bottom of the text and find the line that begins with “kernel”. Add the – i8042.noloop to the end of the line, as I’ve shown below. (Note I have highlighted the line to make it easy to see, yours won’t be normally highlighted in your session.)
Save the file and exit the editor and the terminal window. When you next reboot, you should be able to just login normally, and the mouse should work.
And there you go, Ubuntu 7.10 up and running, complete with mouse, under Virtual PC 2007.
P.S. If you found this post useful, please give it a Digg so others can find the same happiness you did.
Arcane Code 
Very good tutorial! Thanks a bunch, saved me a lot of time!
I had a problem with the network requiring me to tell it it was “wired” every time I started ubuntu. Switching the network to manual configuration and removing the “roaming” attribute has cured this annoying little problem. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToConfigureUbuntuForMicrosoftVirtualPC2004 has some other fixes that may be helpful, like the sound card fix.
john
Very nice guide thanks 🙂
Any chance of getting the virtual tools to install as well?
Great guide. Thank you very much.
I still needed that “nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf” from other tutorials, but other than that really a HUGE time-saver. thx a million
I tried, but the screen showed up huge and part of it was cut off. I can’t see most of the screen. What did I do wrong?
Oh, never mind, I put an extra space in by accident.
Thank you very much! Your instructions saved me a lot of time, since I just decided to give Ubuntu a try today, and within a short time, I was all set up and good to go using this easy to follow guide.
It works, but I can’t get into my network. Is there any way to fix that?
Thanks, this info about getting the mouse to work is truly invaluable.
Now have Ubuntu working, running in VPC 2004 on a Win2k box.
I suppose it did take while to install, but as someone who used to install XP ‘very frequently’ where I work so the time for Ubuntu did not seem excessive. Anyway, I was so busy doing other things on the computer that I was not watching the clock.
Now I have to figure out how to use Linux… so far only been a Windoze and Apple 9.2 user.
Simon
ps, written from within Ubuntu.
great tutorial… ! thanx a lot !
Great guide. But can’t get the internet connection to work. When I prompted the static ip address from my internet provider in Ubuntu a get conflict with windows (not surprising tough, two computer with the same ip address in the network is not so good). Any idea how to solve this?
I wonder if you experienced this, but somehow somebody, include me 🙂 get stuck during the installation. The installation progress stucks at 85 %, or any point people has reported. I googled it and in some forum they said disable network. that doesn’t help any either. Also, people say you can press Alt-Right Arrow to open a console during installation. but I’m not an expert to use it.
Could you help me with this problem ? > <
Basically, if you use live CD, then it’s easier to solve, by Press Skip if a message appears when you disable network. But I’m using Alternate CD. 🙂 so …
Reply me soon… 🙂 email or reply this to my blog so I can notice 🙂
Too bad the networking doesn’t work. Can’t go on the internet and that kinda makes this useless.
GB: I’ve installed it 3 times so far, and Kubuntu twice and haven’t had it hang yet. I did though experience an issue at almost exactly the same point and give the error “Cannot access security updates” you’ll see in the instructions above.
I’m betting what’s happening is your getting that error, but either it’s hidden behind another window or it’s just barfing and not showing it.
You might try checking your networking settings (as I describe to Giuliano below) to make sure you are connected to the internet. Maybe others will have also had this problem and found a resolution, as I have time I’ll play around and see if I can reproduce it.
Giuliano: Check your network settings and make sure the virtual PC is connected to your real network card.
In the VPC menus, click Edit, Settings. Then go down and click on Networking. Make sure Adapter 1 is hooked up to your live network card. For example, I have two in my laptop, one for wireless and one for wired, and I have to make sure to have it connect to which ever I am using at the time.
I got as far as where I’m supposed to click on applications etc. to get to terminal but my mouse will not work at all in the vm window. Any help for this? Thanks. Otherwise everything went as laid out here.
Hi guys,
It took three tries for me to get Ubuntu installed in VPC 2007 :). I am trying to get Free BSD to install under VPC as well.
Thank you!!!! It works to the T. However, I found out that I had to edit the network proxy settings because by default it was in a block list.
System – Preference – Network Proxy – Advanced Configuration:
Remove the following:
localhost
127.0.0.0/8
*.local
After I made the change I was able to update and browse. Thanks again. Oh by the way, I posted this article on the ubuntu forums and linked it to this page and gave you full credit. I’m sorry for not asking for permission. If you search on ubuntu forums it’s under “Installed Ubuntu 7.10 on Virtual PC 2007 & Mouse works”. Thanks again.
Hi its really u useful manuel thnks , i had a problem when installing is tat the resolution of my VPC is so low so i was enable to see all my vpc deskto what should i do and again thanks for you .
Haidar
Helped me.
Thank you.
is there a chance of getting the finished image on bittorrent?
I was able to get it installed with mouse working perfectly. Does anyone know how to get the internet working? I have been messing with the Network in Administration and Network Proxy in Preference but still no progress. Any help?
i found out how to fix the 32bit mode thing. the ‘.vmc’ file is an xml file. just open it with notepad and replace ‘
8’ with ‘
32’. worked for me.
i mean the 32 bit color thing and here it is:
‘
8’
replace with:
‘
32’
GRR. the silly thing wont let me write it! it goes:
video_adapter
vram size type=’integer’32 vram_size
PS: symbols were removed
good stuff! thnks, this helped
For those of you finding yourself with a super-small video resolution that prevents you from seeing all of the Install window, try using Ctrl+Alt+NumPad- and Ctrl+Alt+NumPad+ to go through various resolutions. Not all will work, but you’ll find a nicely workable 1024×768 in there.
Hi Marcus,
For Marcus and others: I also found that after my initial login, I could move the mouse but not click anything. I was able to work around it using Windows “MouseKeys” accessibility option. If you turn on MouseKeys, the keypad numbers will also work inside the Virtual PC. You can move the mouse up to the “Applications” menu then use Keypad-5 to click the mouse, the use the arrow keys to navigate the Applications menu to get to Terminal. From there you should be able to save the grub changes. Hope this helps.
This worked great, thanks!
One problem I can’t figure out is that it installed with 1152×768, 55Hz. I can’t figure out how to change that to something that fits on my 1024×768 screen.
Changing display resolution in Ubuntu either corrupts the display, or it says it has changed the resolution, but there is no change in the display or the resolution settings.
Has anybody else had the same problem?
Can’t access internet no networking and no sound?
Please help
Great post. Loaded up perfectly first time, but I have the same problem as others – no networking or sound.
Thank you for the guide.
How can I change my screen resolution? I’m running XP Pro, and my resolution is at 1024×768 so it would be nice to have my Ubuntu virtual machine at 800×600 if possible.
Any suggestions?
I cant get it to work, after i put in i8042.noloop and press enter there comes a message that says this :
[25257.190446] isapnp: Checksum for device 1 is not valid (0x89)
what does that mean?
Installed successfully but I can’t browse the internet. An operating system without proper networking is obsolete. Does anyone have a fix?
Sniper Wolf: Not sure off top of my head, will have to do some research. Check the forums on Ubuntu’s board, should be straight forward.
Jakob: Never seen it, I wonder if your ISO for Ubuntu is bad?
Omar: Two things. First, make sure the network connection of your virtual PC is mapped to your correct network card. I describe this in my post from Sept 21, 2006 “Using and Tweaking Virtual PC”. See the area on networking.
Second, in Ubuntu itself you have to click on the networking icon in the upper right toolbar and pick “Wired Network” for it to connect to the internet. Ignore the fact you may be using a wireless connection, to VPC it looks wired, so that’s what you should pick.
Arcane
I had to add “clock=pit” before the — to get it to load otherwise the instructions worked. Not being a linux user this was very helpful.
POSSIBLE INTERNET SOLUTION
I used to not be able to connect to the internet through Ubuntu (virtualpc) but here is how i fixed it…
1. go to the virtual pc console (main thing)
2. highlight the system you are using, and click on the settings button to the right (this window runs in host, not in virtual os)
3.go down to networking
4.under adapter1, choose your wireless card/ connection (i have a laptop with a wireless card)
5.now go back into Ubuntu and at the top right of the screen, you see the little network connection thing, click on it and say wired connecton (even if it is really wireless) and that should be it.
please let me know if this worked for you
Has anyone got the display issue sorted out? I have the 1152×768 problem reported by Dirk and others and have not found a way round it yet.
FYI – another useful tutorial for getting the network, mouse and other (but not display!) problems sorted is http://www.woodwardweb.com/programming/000387.html
Arcanecode and Chris:
Thanks for your instructions. They worked I’m now connected to the internet. Turns out that all I had to do was click on the network icon then click on wired. The settings were correct in the Virtual Machine options.
To fix sound:
1. From the desktop, choose Applications – System Tools – Root Terminal
2. Enter your password (or the root password, depending on how you’re set up) when prompted
3. At the prompt, type “gedit” (without the quotes) and press Enter
4. In gedit, open the file /etc/modules
5. Add “snd-sb16” (without the quotes) on a line by itself at the end of the file, followed by a carriage return
6. Save and close the file, close the Root Terminal window, and reboot.
source: ubuntu forums
sorry
my mouse cant work.
how can fix it?
Hey i got a problem
I want to connect to internet with a static ip,
If I chose the Adapter in VirtualPC2007Settings:
i can open the ISP Login website but cant open websites I cant login because they noted my previous Mac address
If I chose NAT option in VirtualPCSettings:
If i chose DHCP now I dont have any Mac problem and again i can open ISP login website but cant open websites
I need to configure Firefox now but dont know how;
Wondering if I can connect using the second method with any additional setting;
Help me!!!Please
k o.O I got everything sorted up till the install icon click bit…
when I click it, it doesn’t load… or it is terribly slow at loading because it hasn’t loaded yet…
and oh yeah… the top toolbar and the bottom task bar aren’t loaded yet either ><“
Perfect! Had this working in no time. Thank you very much!
I have everything working correctly now, but everytime i restart the Virtual PC i have to select the Wired connection again to get a network connection.
Does anyone know how i can change it so that it always selects/enables this by default?
i done eavrything the instructions said but the graphics are still all over the plac can anyone send me a reply to guardian_reaper@hotmail.com if they know an exact way to fix this
thanks
Nice tut!!! only needed 1 try to get ubuntu running in VPC 2007 on my laptop.
Many Thanks
thanks! this method works very good for both ubuntu and knoppix.
for the network problem, try to configure the network adapter of the virtual machine to Shared networking (NAT). and in the virtual os, configure its networking to wired connection and dhcp. it should work for basic internet application, at least web browsing, which is enough for me.
I can never get to the second screen shot it just hangs with a blank screen. Waited for about half hour still nothing. I am running vpc07 with 2048MB ram
Nice tutorial.. Tried out successfully
Well done
Brilliant. Had a few little glitches but it works brilliantly. Many thanks!
Virtual PC sucks for Ubuntu. Check out VirtualBox. Its so much better. Supports sounds. NO I8046.noloop edit. Mouse works without that.
Hey,
I don’t know if anyone else has a problem with the video when they first load up the disc, but I did. Heres how to fix it if you run into it: (these were instructions I found when installin 7.04, but they work in 7.10, they came from http://blogs.msdn.com/mikekol/archive/2007/08/06/making-ubuntu-7-04-work-under-virtual-pc-2007.aspx)
When Ubuntu boots to the Live CD and XWindows loads, the graphics will be… not good. You’re going to need to change the color depth to make it display correctly. To do that:
* Hit CTRL-ALT-F1 to drop to a console.
* Type sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf and press Enter.
* Press CTRL W, type depth and press Enter. You should see a line that says “DefaultDepth 24”. Delete 24 and type 16.
* Press CTRL O, and press Enter to save the file.
* Press CTRL X to exit the nano editor.
* Press CTRL-ALT-F7 to switch back to XWindows – that graphics will still not be right.
* Press CTRL-ALT-Backspace to reload XWindows. The graphics should be good to go now.
Thank you so much. This worked just how you described it. Saved alot of frustration.
Thank you for your very clear instructions on how to fix the mouse problem in Ubuntu when running Virtual PC 2007. I was quite frustrated until I came upon your article. Everything works fine now and once again I have you to thank. I have no idea of course what i8042.noloop means but I dutifully kept entering and in the end it worked.
For Nightgunner5
“I tried, but the screen showed up huge and part of it was cut off. I can’t see most of the screen. What did I do wrong?”
Change your virtual pc display setting, on the virtual pc resizing option choose “only use standard screen resolution”
its work for me
Many thanks! Except for a few glitches, I got Ubuntu working. Most notable of the minor glitches is that after a while, the desktop freezes. Able to move the mouse but can’t click on anything. Weird but my XP doesn’t have accessibility options, so I can’t try mousekeys. Only option is to reset the virtual pc. Any fix or workaround for this?
I’ve tried to install Ubuntu on HP Pavillion tx1000, all (and mouse) worked well until 90% – hardware detection. I closed Virtual PC after 1 hour of waiting. I think this notebook was designed only for Vista, even under Virtual PC ;-). May be I should try another distro? Anyway I’d like to say many thanks for your great work!
Simple, clear, useful, effective. Thank you.
bump
I can only boot to ubuntu using te recovery mode option, I don’t know why?? can someone help me?
I installed 7.10 in VPC 2007 under Vista. I got the mouse fixed. But the network card is not being recognized by Ubuntu. I go into the control panel in Linux and there is no card listed. I have the card selected to be used by the VM. Its an NVIDIA Nforce networking controller. Its an onboard gigabit card in my computer.
System is kind of useless without network, which is upsetting after all the work to get this far.
I get exactly the same as Jakob (Nov 11 ’07)
“I cant get it to work, after i put in i8042.noloop and press enter there comes a message that says this :
[25257.190446] isapnp: Checksum for device 1 is not valid (0×89)
what does that mean?”
Any ideas ??
“[25257.190446] isapnp: Checksum for device 1 is not valid (0×89)”
“[25257.190446] isapnp: Checksum for device 1 is not valid (0×89)”
“[25257.190446] isapnp: Checksum for device 1 is not valid (0×89)”
I am getting the sam as Guy and Jakob, and I am nott getting anywhere with it… the self checks itself and says there are no issues. What on earth is going on?
Wait…. Mine is a little different in just the numbers… mine says:
“[ 8936.795315] isapnp: checksum for device 1 is not valid (0×89)”
I had similar messages on winxp with hardwarevirtualisation turned on, perhaps this is the problem.
for me the booting works (though slow), the mouse reacts, but only now and then. It jumps from one point to another, don’t know what’s the problem here.
Brian and Jakob,
I had the same problem “[xxx.yyy]isapnp:Chceksum for device 1… with different numbers. My hosting operating system was Windows Vista x64 with VPC 2007 (I switch the operating system to Windows XP 32 bits and it worked) so I said to myself it is a problem in the install but when I tried to use the vhd(the disk image) on vista it didn’t work … so after yahoo-ing it (search it) I found that there is a third software for virtualization VirtualBox, beside wmWare and VPC it is free!!! In my case it worked out of the box … without other parameters like — i8042.noloop. So the salvation is Virtual Box … I have to change the resolution now … but I have an operating system to play with…
Hey, when I press F6 and type i8042.noloop the desktop is with some weird colors and very big. I can’t read anything on it. What did I wrong?!
oh, I forgot to select safe graphics mode^^
well, it works perfect, thanks! =)
I did this with Xubuntu 7.10 and am willing to share if someone else can host a torrent or recommend a hosting site that can handle a 680MB RAR file. My ISP’s “unlimited internet” is in name only.
Details:
Method: Created with Virtual PC 2007 (Vista)
OS: Xubuntu 7.10 w/ all updates through 1/5/08
HD: Dynamic Virtual Hard Drive (approx 17GB)
Memory: 256MB
Network: Works but you have to manually select “Wired Connection” each time you boot and make sure that VPC is configured properly per the article.
Sound: Not working. I tried some of the workarounds but can’t figure it out.
Mouse: Works!
Video: Works!
Let me know if you want a copy and can host or recommend a hosting site that can handle the size of the file (680MB).
-Gronne
Try this torrent:
http://www.mininova.org/tor/1088604
PLEASE SEED, I will stop hosting after a few people get this to conserve bandwidth.
User = name
Password = password
After entering: “sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.1st” and then my password the editor window showed menu.1st but the window had no text. I appears that menu.1st is a blank file? I then entered “sudo nano /boot/grub/menu.1st” from the Terminal Window and this editor also showed menu.1st to be a blank file? Can someone plaese make a suggestion?
I agree with Eric: Ubuntu sucks on VPC 2007. It’s way too slow, and won’t let you appreciate all Ubuntu has to offer. Go with VirtualBox for linux emulation (it’s free!).
I was getting the “isapnp: checksum for device 1” error when trying to startup the install with Virtual PC 2007. I then tried to perform an install on VirtualBox (which is also free) and everything works great.
The install took under 15 minutes. I never had to bother with safe graphics mode. My mouse works great with no modifications. Sound works, network works. Everything seems extremely fast.
For those having issues, I suggest trying the install with VirtualBox instead.
If you really want to run Ubuntu in Windows, check VMWare’s site under “Virtual Appliances” and download VMPlayer (free). They didn’t have a recent release of Xubuntu there which is why I created the version above for VPC.
I’ve tried both VirtualBox (I did a post on it) and VMWare. But there’s something about VPC I just find more friendly, easier to use overall. Perhaps it’s because I spend so much time in MS products that I find it to match the way I think, but having used all three products I still prefer Virtual PC over the other two. (Although I do admit the lack of USB support does stick in my craw.)
Great Tutorial!
I was getting really frustrated for a while; I would do what it said and immediately after pressing enter on safe graphics it would just give me a blinking cursor that never went anywhere. Sometimes it would complain about device checksums not agreeing, but always it would get to a point and just seem to freeze.
I was able to get around it by pressing F4 before I did anything else at the boot screen (to get the VGA option menu), and selecting 640x480x32. After that, these instructions worked perfectly; you just have to wait about a minute at a blank black screen before you load into XWindows and continue the rest of the process.
Admittedly, I did turn off a number of devices too (like the network controller) in an attempt to remove other issues; this may have had some effect.
Hopefully it helps someone!
(Actually, that only got me through the installation. Then I had the same problem with attempting to boot from hard drive! Just a blank screen; or if text, really, really, really slow progression (one line every 10 minutes or something). I may be wrong, but I believe I was suffering from the same thing listed in http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?s=e56cce43821513d434fb501ec31a4845&t=636768 . At any rate, updating the boot options to remove instances of “quiet”, “ro” and “splash”, just as arcanecode had us add i8042.noloop, was enough to get me booting.)
The above suggestion did not work. This proves that the said suggestions may not work for some systems.
I have the follwing specs:
1. Fujitsu S6410 – Intel Core 2 Duo
2. 3 GB Ram
3. Windows Vista Business Edition
4. Windows Virtual PC 2007
5. Ubuntu 7.10
It captured the iso successfully and then I selected safe mode and also pressing F6 put a space. After the screen booted , I cannot double click on the install button. Which means I am not in Live mode.
Anyone any ideas???
ok it installed, spelling mistake…..that shows never jump to conclusion. Thanks a lot for such a step by step guide ….
Thanks for the great article. I wrote a similar article at https://arcanecode.wordpress.com/2007/10/18/installing-ubuntu-710-under-virtual-pc-2007/
today that describes my experience with getting Ubuntu 7.10 running on Virtual PC 2007; I ran into a couple of additional issues not described here, so my steps are slightly different.
Whoops – copied and pasted the wrong link in my previous post. My article is at http://codespin.blogspot.com/2008/01/installing-ubuntu-710-on-microsoft.html – sorry about that!
Thanks a lot for this. I was so excited to get Ubuntu running in VPC, and then totally bummed when the mouse wouldn’t work. This guide worked perfectly. Now it’s on to the networking issues!
Hi,
I got most of the problems described and seemed to resolve them all. I am running VPC2007 on a Dell Notebook with Ubuntu 7.10. I got to Install Oracle Express and was at a point to install Appache Tomcat when I shut down my VPC and this morning I am getting a GUI which is very much distorted. I tried the Ctrl+Alt+ Numeric “+” and Numeric “-” but it only increase or decrease my VPC size. I can see the mouse movement (About 6 of them) in the distorted GUI. I tried the setting of Defaultdepth to 16 but then the GUI does not even start. Any ideas??
Thanks for you help
hallo thanks for the tutorial i have a question cant click on applications to fix the mouse problem because the mouse pointer wouldnt move and before when i entered the loop a message said that it had a problem with the loop and beside it it said ignore
has anyone had any success changing your desktop theme. Every time I try to change my visual effects to normal I get an error reading: “Desktop effects could not be enabled”. Have any ideas?
When i’ll go to: Start Ubuntu in Safe Graphics Mode
and its done with loading…. my mouse dossent work?
HELP???
Everything went as stated but when I reboot my pointer wont move, so I can’t complete the last part of the tutorial. Is there any way of getting the applications to open from the keyboard?
Same as xunil’s problem.
Be sure to follow the instructions carefully, if you don’t do the i8042.noloop command then your mouse will not work. You have to enter it three times. First time is on the initial install, second time is after the first reboot, and then once your have rebooted you’ll want to fix it permanently. The fix it permanently is the last few steps in the instructions.
Yes, there is a work around to having no mouse, see my post https://arcanecode.wordpress.com/2007/04/25/ubuntu-704-and-virtual-pc-2007-mouse-issue-workaround-sort-of/
(Ubuntu 7.04 and Virtual PC 2007 Mouse Issue Workaround (sort of)).
Arcane
Hey, it’s work !! Thanks…
Just follow the instruction…
I’m installing but I’ve waited for longtime and there is nothing on screen. Any idea?
thanks
I had great difficulties connecting to the internet. I tried every suggestion mentioned on this site. The Ubuntu session did get an IP address from the ADSL router (DHCP) that differed from the Windows session. However, I was not able to ping to it. I finally found that ZoneAlarm’s Internet security zone set at “med” solved it.
Thanks for the timely information, I have just been installing ubuntu-7.10 on VPC 2007. I did have a lot of trouble adjusting the screen resolution higher than the default setting. After a lot of fiddling I came up with a way to change the screen resolution to 1280×1024.
Use System->Administration->Screens and Graphics to select a different Screen with an appropriate resolution range. My installed default was Custom1 and I picked “LCD Panel 1280×1024”. When you click OK you will be told that you need to log out before the change will take effect.
DON’T LOG OUT YET!
You need to edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf to adjust the color depth settings. VPC can only handle 16-bit color, but the above change automatically sets it to 24-bit. In the section for Screen and Display, you can change the DefaultDepth and Depth fields from 24 to 16. Those lines appear after the screen is changed. Note that selecting a new screen automatically generates a backup copy of xorg.conf (xorg.conf.1).
A couple of places for additional information on ubuntu-7.10 video and VPC:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToConfigureUbuntuForMicrosoftVirtualPC2004
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FixVideoResolutionHowto
hi,
after completion of installation i am unable to login with userid and password
i gave userid : root
password :satyam
can any one please help me
oh!… thanks for arcane. this tutorial is so helpful for novice .
i don’t must about vpc can anyone tell how to share flles from virtual machine to physical machine .
and other thing is my internet speed becomes very slow when i am using in ubuntu
I’m stuck at that “Scanning the mirror” part of the installation………..what is it scanning?????…and i dont see any hdd or cd-rom drive activity either………has it stopped???
Your screenshots with descriptions really helped me a lot, Thank you very much!!!
Great work man ! It’s a piece of cake with such great instructions !
Thanks a lot. Brilliant, clear instructions. Worked perfectly first time.
I have having the same issue that Jakob and Guy:
[25257.190446] isapnp: Checksum for device 1 is not valid (0×89)
I am using Vista 64 as the host operating system. Could this be the issue? Anyone find a fix to this issue?
I’ve followed the VPC install directions and have successfully installed MS 98 with no problem. Each time I attempt UBUNTU 7.10, I get very weird striations of oversize text that won’t fit on my 19″ wide screen. I’ve undated video drivers and monitor drivers.
corrected e-mail address – thanks for your site. Wonderful resource.
Arcane – my apology – I failed to have “start ubuntu in safe graphics mode” highlighted at the start. Your instructions worked flawlessly. Thanks again.
In order to fix the error I had which was actuall:
[ 1605.190446] isapnp: Checksum for device 1 is not valid (0×89)
I had to disable my network card from the settings in VPC 2007. Just in case anyone else has this issue.
Correction:
I also had to delete the quiet splash in the command entry or what ever that is called.
Hi,
Nice guide. I did follow all your steps.
After finishing install, shutdown and remove the iso pointer.
Its just says “Starting up …” and stays there forever…
Doesn’t matter, wheter I start normal.. or “esc.. and edit the kernel line to add i8040.noloop”… it hangs there with the text “Starting up …”
Anyone would pls. tell me, whats going on wrong for me since its hangs there?
Thank you for this tutorial.
Helped out a lot of people like me… cheers.
I also had some problems with resolution. Seems to be able to get the new changes after restart but not in the same session. Also the checksum error… It also hangs up on “Starting up..” Do not know why but if you change the BIOS in VPC …the ACPI or APM settings to new value Ubuntu will boot up!
Now I just save state to avoid rebooting the Ubuntu system and it works.
Took a few tries, but after lowering my firewall settings to allow ubuntu to get the updates, I could then proceed past the hang up at 82% when it scans for updates.
Runs great following the directions above and reading the posts.
Thanks man, really helped a lot, works perfectly.
Thanks 🙂
Hi, get as far as clicking the Red Shut down button and
have my hand pumping the “esc” key immediately after clicking but keep missing the “Grub Loader” section. And each time I am left with a bwon screen. ANy ideas would be very helpful to get around this….thanks in advance
Although i didn’t can give you my Digg i want to thank you very very much for your great help with this Post.
I installed Ubuntu on my very recent experience with Virtual PC 2007 and it’s working very well… soon i want to install the XUbuntu distribution too and i think follow the same instructions for the process… 🙂
I have one interesting question: Is it possible install one VM for MacOS ?, and understand that in Virtual PC is impossible, but, Is it possible install it behind another VM Program from Linux (Ubuntu, per example) ?… and, actually Ubuntu is VM from Virtual PC…
Thank you very much again and i’ll read the others posts from your blog.
Best regards…
I was having problems loading the live disc in Virtual PC 2007, with same issues as ‘James’ above. I.e once safe video mode and i8042.noloop is entered all that happens is I get a blank black screen with a blinking cursor. What James suggested did not fix the problem. After about an hour of frustration, i finally got it loaded.
What I needed to do was before the — is to add clock=pit and delete splash and quiet. After the — type i8042.noloop as suggested. It fixed the problem completely. Hope this helps someone else with the same problem I had.
OK so,
The install takes under an hour if rather than downloading the ISO that uses a live disk you simply download the disk that has no livedisk and runs the install in text mode…
while this sounds more complex (it isn’t) it is also much much faster…
While downloading there is a small check box that says “Check here if you need the alternate desktop CD. This CD does not include the Live CD, instead it uses a text-based installer.” This is under “Start Download”
I recommend using this ISO.
Hi,
I wanna know if virtual effects works with virtual pc. If so, How?
What do you mean by “Virtual Effects”?
Excellent tutorial!
I’ve been a windows user since 3.1, every time i try and install any flavor of linux i just get fed up and go back to windows. Now i can play with linux while I WORK in windows
What about the VM Additions. I want to be able to move my mouse in and out of the virtual window without pressing the tight alt key. Has anyone figired out how to install VMADDITIONS.iso?????
One other thing. Has anyone been able to get a 1280 resolution? 1152 is the highest I can see.
Thanks! The trick to get the mouse working worked fine. And here’s an advice i can give:
If your installation process hangs up or doesn’t start (and that happened also with other linux distibutions i’ve tried: Ubuntu, PLD, Debian), you can try running it with ‘clock=pit’ parameter, because i came across information that ‘tsc’ doesn’t work in Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 or at least causes some major issues (‘clock=pit’ solved the problem perfectly for me).
great tutorial. thanks a million
Excellent tutorial and great help. Way to kick Microsoft in the heimdinger, they certainly deserve it.
I am using windows vista home premium with VPC 2007. I know it is not a supported Operating System for VPC, but do you think it is causing the following issues?
[ 9272.85544] isapnp: checksum for device 1 is not valid (0x89)
[ 9272.86082] isapnp: checksum for device 2 is not valid (0xbe)
If not, what is?
Thanks,
Sean
nevermind i fixed it. it was something with the settings of the network card.
Great job. This made my life so easy.
I saw your web is so useful, almost every problem is solved, but I can’t find right solution, I have a big problem can’t install Ubuntu 7.10 on Virtual PC 2007.
I guess you heard about :
“isapnp: checksum for device 1 is not valid (0x89)”
“isapnp: checksum for device 2 is not valid (0xbe)”
By the way I’v tried F4, Safe Graphic Mode, Net adapter None, 256 till 1024 ram etc.
Still disapointed, tried so hard no result.
With Respect eWin, thank you!
I was running into the problem with several different linux distros of hanging in random places… with some, there was a trace that I could post, others were silent. I finally found the solution of loading the failsafe defaults in the VPC BIOS. It flashes by pretty quickly, so you have to be quick to catch it. After that, I managed to get this working just fine, as described 🙂 (I have a clue it might have been timing issues, but I’m far from sure)
hi,
thank you very much. now the mouse works. but i still have a problem. the mouse laggs very much and the whole performance is bad. i don’t think that this is a matter of the system (pentium m760 2,00ghz, 2 GB RAM, 1,2 for the virtual pc). Can anyone tell me how i can fix the problem?
thanks
Thaks a lot for this tutorial. 😀
Hey, this is what i was looking for.
Installed virtual pc on a vista Home Primium box (Intel Q6600)
And with this tutorial i finnaly get it to work, with Ubuntu 7.1
Very nice, many thanx
Ehh, I forgot to ask
Anybody here got shared folders in Ubuntu while running in virtual pc 2007?
cause i can’t install additions. I think this is imposible but i never harms to ask wright?
that error you got for the security updates is because the live disk doesn’t automatically connect to the network you’re on, you need to manually select it most of the time. other than that, great job. it works well.
What I did to fix the networking issue is that I just entered in a static ip(that was not in use) in the same subnet as my host machine.
Additions is impossible so how on earth are you going to use shared networking on the host machine??
No auto detect networks no wonder people use windows haha
Hey im using virtual box because virtual PC was the SLOWEST THING ON THE PLANET! OMG!!!! Anyway im posting this within virtual box on “Gutsy”. I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE WAT NETWORK ITS ON BUT IT WORKS LOL!!!!
When i load linux it says the following :[Some weird number] ipsum: the checksum for device 1 is not valid (0x89)
Help plz
Thanks for the useful information. Installed Ubuntu 7-1 on virtual pc 7 with vista home.
Thanks for the instructions – Worked like a charm on my machine.
I needed to drop my screen resolution down to 1024×768 because I’m running on a pretty old laptop. I changed the DefaultDepth, and added a Display SubSection to the Screen Section in /etc/X11/xorg.conf as follows:
…
Section “Screen”
Identifier “Default Screen”
Device “Generic Video Card”
Monitor “Generic Monitor”
DefaultDepth 16
SubSection “Display”
Depth 16
Modes “1024×768”
EndSubSection
EndSection
…
Hi, excellent post, it helped me all the way to successfully install ubuntu on VPC. I’ve been searching the internet trying to find a solution to the mouse issue and I found it, all we have to do is add the i8042.noloop parameter to the kernel line int the grub. How to edit this?? =>
http://grumpymole.blogspot.com/2007/05/ubuntu-how-to-edit-grub-boot-parameters.html
according to this we have to add “i8042.noloop” (without “”) to the kernel line in the menu.lst file
This technique worked perfectly for me for about 3 months – until it stopped working. Now this doesn’t seem to have any effect at all. Do you know if there’s something new in either WinDoze or Kubuntu 7.10 in the last month or so that would have caused this to stop working?
Or is there an alternative procedure to the i8042.noloop that might work?
Thanks much!
Additions CAN be installed, it takes a bit of doing and there are no shared folders but it’s very nice to get the timesync and auto handling of the mouse.
It’s been a while so I’m not going into a lot of detail here, but you need the “Virtual Machine Additions for Linux” from microsoft downloads.
You also need build-essentials, the kernel headers, alien, and maybe the kernel source installed on your ubuntu machine (I installed the source but am not sure I really needed it)
You convert the vmadd-full-2.0 rpm package to a .deb package using alien, if you convert the postinstall scripts you need to get a copy of chkconfig in /sbin (I cheated and copied the program off a fedora box, if gives an odd warning, but otherwise works just fine) or if you convert without scripts you’ll have to do the configuration after by hand (use alien -g on the rpm and you can then look at the scripts that would have run)
I’ve now got a mouse then enters and leaves the vm seamlessly, time sync, automatic shutdown available if I close the virtual pc etc.
I have two problems.
1. I am not able to move cursor outside the Ubuntu Desktop window. I cant even click on Action/Edit/CD etc. When Ubuntu comes up it says that my mouse is captured inside the window and I have no option other than to select ‘ok’.
2. I have no sound and the icon next to network shows always as mute. On clicking that, it says “No volume control GStreamer pluggins and/or devices found.”
Any ideas ??
arun – To release the mouse, press the right hand ALT key. Note the left ALT won’t work, you MUST use the RIGHT ALT key. This will release the mouse back to the host.
For you sound, click on Edit, Settings, go down to Sound and make sure it’s enabled.
It worked perfectly. Thank you very much. =)
Hi,
I found this site very useful. I got my Ubuntu installed on virtual pc 2007. It is working fine now.
Thank you very much
Regards,
Srini
I solved my problem with your help. Thank you very much.
I’m using Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit and while installing through Virtual PC, the error occurs
isapnp: Checksum for device 1 is not valid
isapnp: Checksum for device 2 is not valid
What to do now???
In the part where you go to Applications>Accessories>Terminal and type in “sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst”, I can’t type in my password. How can I fix this? I press any key and nothing happens inside that window.
thank you very much you ‘ve done great jobe!!!!
Really nice tutorial, worked beautifully and found all my answers in the Q&A following the tutorial.
Just my 2 cents to this thread, if you are using a T61 then visual effects cannot be enabled. Wait for Ubuntu 8.0 for a fix unless you are ok with some other quirky problems with a fix floating out there.
Hi,
New to Linux always wanted to use it just never moved accross from MS Win. (so glad I finally have).
Had the mouse trouble during install, Googled prob & found this site. Fantastic info, well laid out and easy to follow – well done!!
Thanks……..:))
Anyone having prob’s with the network side of it should config a static address,
example..
IP- 192.168.0.5 (PC/virtual PC address)
GATEWAY- 192.168.0.1 (router address)
DNS- 192.168.0.1 (router/server address, which ever your network uses for DNS)
OR select wired network on the network icon and let DHCP do the rest (if your using it that is) and do either of these before you click the install icon. (this really helps during the install).
I too had to add the clock=pit option. Otherwise, it just hung after the initial screen.
Hello! Thank you for the guide. It helped for the mouse and i fixed the sound from someone’s comment (thanks). But i can’t get the network to work. I set the Automatic DHCP up and all, also the network adapter in the settings of VPC. When i click network information i get a screen and everything (IP, DNS…) is set to 0.0.0.0. And ideas how would i make it to pick the adresses up?
I ran into an issue where it would hang every time on
“squashfs: version 3.2-Ubuntu ”
I fixed it by adding ” noapic acpi=off ” to the kernel options
So instead of just putting in i8042.noloop, put noapic acpi=off — i8042.noloop
Great Tutorial! If I would have followed the directions the first time, it would have worked the first time! Thanks for your help!
I am installing 7.10 using MS Virtual Server on Vista Ultimate. I am installing it on a Lenovo X61 tablet. The installation is going fine but I cannot get the resolution to change to 1024 x 768.
It either changes to a distorted screen or stays at 1152 x 768.
I even tried changing the default depth to 16 from 24 but that doesn’t work either.This even causes the OS not to boot after a restart.
Any ideas?
Thanks
when I try to save gedit/boot/menu.lst, I get an error saying I do not have permission to save the file. I haven’t found anything online about a fix for it, Arcane? Anyone?
** fixed, sudo temp admin. privilege cmd used.
I tried following your instructions, but after I enter the i8042.noloop and hit enter, it doesn’t seem that anything is happenning. Should I be able to see anything, e.g. change in icon, that tells me it is running, but very slowly?
how long will the first step take to load ubuntu? how long will it take to install the whole OS?
Every thing you need from & more
Terrific steps, screen caps, and post in general. I followed this some time ago, but still return now and again to relearn how to fix the no mouse in Ubuntu under VPC2007 issue.
Works like a charm every time but still not sure why I have to repeat now and again.. I rarely shut down my VPC Ubuntu, usu just Suspend/Save.
Really great Site, Lots of info.
I had the same issue as Jakob and a few others where it said [25257.190446] isapnp: Checksum for device 1 is not valid (0×89). i got around the problem by disabling assisted hardware virtualization in VPC2007, the message still shows but it now proceeds to login prompt.
You can re-enable the assisted virtualization once you have fixed the mouse issue in Linux.
Thats what worked for me on my HP Pavillion DV9700z Notebook.
Yeah I keep getting those 2 Errors
isapnp: chechsum for device 1 is not valid (0x89)
isapnp: chechsum for device 2 is not valid (0xbe)
!!!!!!!!!!! Arg
Great tutorial. Thanks a lot for this!
Thanks so much.
I couldnt get 8.04 to work even with your tut, but 7.10 works great and now I will try to upgrade it.
For us poor saps who have to use windows, because of work software like solidworks, having linux at your finger tips to do software development is great.
Thanks so much. Your website has been bookmarked…
how long take the installation of ubuntu on a virtual pc?
I am currently intalling ubuntu 7.10 on a vitrual pc, but it take many time, it reaches 73% and it still there! shoul I stop the installation and restart again or should wait? if I should wait for how many time? since it now around 8hours!
many thanks
I have tried all solutions and am having problems with the “checksum” error
I disabled HV and it just hangs at a black screen with blinking underscore.
well, with HV disabled, I got pased the blank screen now its at a interlaced black and blue screen….
thanks man
————-
http://saadsec.blogspot.com
hi Arcanecode
i have successfully installed 7.10 under virtual pc 2007 using your instructions.
However i cannot locate telnetd and ssh server packages in my synaptic manager. Worst i do not have internet .
Is there any way i can get these packages and install ?
My install cd also do not have them?
Please help..
@Milind: try to install from .deb packages
For reasons that are a mystery to me, this post has become the target of very aggressive spamming lately. Too much for me to reasonably keep up with, even with filters in place. Thus for this one post I am going to have to turn off comments.
If you need to make any, please use the comment section on one of the other Ubuntu posts. I am sorry for any inconvienience.