[plug] Request for Comment - need suggestions and clue-bats

Tue Feb 28 12:02:59 AWST 2017

Hey Onno,

Just confirming Steve's comment.

I've been running Linux (currently Ubuntu 16.10) as primary OS forever and
much of this time been using VMware Workstation to run all sorts of guest
OSes for work purposes (Windows, Solaris x86, other Linux distros etc...).

I sometimes regret this but it's mainly due to:

   - constant problems with suspend / resume (this is a desktop but it's
   the bane of my linux experience, about the only thing that ever worked
   reliably was my Thinkpad 240X back in 1999)
   - regular problems with graphics drivers - usually this is OK if I don't
   update things but I like to stay up-to-date with releases.
   - when updating to a new release finding that VMware Workstation no
   longer works because the kernel modules don't compile. Usually this sort of
   things gets sorted out by the community pretty quickly, but now I upgrade a
   non-primary system first and try things out there before my main desktop.

My main system has 64GB of RAM too but I noticed some really weird extended
pauses/lockups due to transparent hugepage support and running VM
instances. I'm not sure if that's fixed in the latest kernels with ubuntu
but it was a massive PITA to work it out and how to fix it (disable this
feature basically).

On Mon, Feb 27, 2017 at 1:59 PM, Onno Benschop <onno at itmaze.com.au> wrote:

> Hi Steve, thank you for your thoughts. How would I run VMware in this
> scenario?
>
> On 27 February 2017 at 13:54, steve boak <sboak at westnet.com.au> wrote:
>
>> Hi Onno
>>
>> I think Linux has changed a bit since your early experiences :-)
>>
>> I've been running Debian on everything from a Raspberry Pi to several
>> different desktop systems for years and can't remember the last time I had
>> stability issues. There were some early glitches with skylake on my current
>> Asrock B150M Pro4 motherboard, but that was only to do with slow booting
>> and after a firmware update they have 'gone away' now.
>>
>> I'd recommend you give Linux a go on new hardware, especially if you can
>> get your hands on a system to do a test run for a while.
>>
>> I'm sure others will have recommendations of laptop / desktop hardware
>> that is proven to work.
>>
>> Steve
>>
>> On 27/02/17 13:31, Onno Benschop wrote:
>>
>> As a Linux user for many years - debian potato anyone? I've had my fair
>> share of "fun" in relation to making a stable environment. In 2009 after
>> too many crashes I bit the bullet and virtualised my Linux experience. I
>> bought a 17" MacBook Pro, installed VMware Fusion on it and ran my Linux
>> desktop inside VMware. I still do. Best business decision I ever made.
>>
>> Based on that track record, I'm reluctant to depreciate my use of VMware
>> on a Mac, but my last 8 months have been less than optimal. I purchased a
>> late 2015 27" Retina iMac and loaded it up with 64Gb of RAM. It's currently
>> running El Capitain.
>>
>> It crashes an awful lot. OWC have swapped out the RAM and tell me that
>> there is nothing wrong. Apple told me that they don't support 64Gb of RAM,
>> OWC says othewise. VMware tells me that the microcode on the SkyLake
>> processor is out of date, Intel agrees and Apple waves its hands in the air
>> in the hope I won't notice that they're not actually doing anything.
>>
>> I'm loathe to run Windows as my Host OS, and it's unclear if the boot
>> process would load a microcode update for the processor, so I could
>> actually see if that made a difference. Similarly, I'm not keen to go to a
>> Linux Host, since prior to 2009, that resulted in countless days and weeks
>> of downtime when <insert random hardware> stopped being supported or wasn't
>> quite compatible with my hardware and again I'm not sure I'll get a
>> boot-level microcode update via that mechanism.
>>
>> I'm at a loss what to do next and I'm looking for suggestions.
>>
>> Functionality I use daily:
>>
>>    - Linux as my Desktop
>>    - VMware snapshots to test new software / test updates
>>    - VMware machines for different clients
>>
>> I'm seriously contemplating selling my near new iMac and starting again,
>> but I'm not at all sure what that might look like. I have work to do and my
>> current set-up just isn't helping.
>>
>> Is there something I should investigate, some aspect of what I'm doing
>> that is in need of review?
>>
>> From a troubleshooting perspective, I've swapped out RAM until I was blue
>> in the face. So far I can make Memtest86 pass if I turn off all but one CPU
>> core. I can reliably make my machine crash by running OSX Photos and
>> exporting a 1080p slideshow and VMware randomly crashes with spurious
>> errors - sometimes killing VMware, sometimes the login session, sometimes
>> the kernel.
>> --
>> Onno Benschop
>>
>> ()/)/)()        ..ASCII for Onno..
>> |>>?            ..EBCDIC for Onno..
>> --- -. -. ---   ..Morse for Onno..
>>
>> If you need to know: "What computer should I buy?" http://goo.gl/spsb66
>>
>> ITmaze   -   ABN: 56 178 057 063   -  ph: 04 1219 8888   -
>> onno at itmaze.com.au
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> PLUG discussion list: plug at plug.org.auhttp://lists.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug
>> Committee e-mail: committee at plug.org.au
>> PLUG Membership: http://www.plug.org.au/membership
>>
>>
>> --
>> Steve Boak, VK6HSB, 0411 255 789, P.O. Box 240, Nannup, WA 6275
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> PLUG discussion list: plug at plug.org.au
>> http://lists.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug
>> Committee e-mail: committee at plug.org.au
>> PLUG Membership: http://www.plug.org.au/membership
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Onno Benschop
>
> ()/)/)()        ..ASCII for Onno..
> |>>?            ..EBCDIC for Onno..
> --- -. -. ---   ..Morse for Onno..
>
> If you need to know: "What computer should I buy?" http://goo.gl/spsb66
>
> ITmaze   -   ABN: 56 178 057 063   -  ph: 04 1219 8888   -
> onno at itmaze.com.au
>
> _______________________________________________
> PLUG discussion list: plug at plug.org.au
> http://lists.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug
> Committee e-mail: committee at plug.org.au
> PLUG Membership: http://www.plug.org.au/membership
>

-- 
Jason Nicholls
jason at mindsocket.com.au
0430 314 857
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