Not Working w/ Virtual PC 2004 (Video Issues)

[eibgrad]

Decided to give Freespire (1.0.13) a whirl using Virtual PC 2004. Unfortunately, no matter whether I choose to install or use the Live CD option, my video is always messed up (screenshot). Freespire insists on using some crazy video resolution (SVGA, 1600 x 600 x 8).

Btw, I've had absolutely no problems w/ other Windows installs, other Linux distros (e.g., SimplyMEPIS, Move), FreeBSD, etc., all work just fine w/ VPC2004.

I did try several of the startup options, nothing seemed to help. Even tried forcing VPC2004 to use standard video resolutions, and then the same resolution as my desktop, still no help. I'm no Linux expert, so frankly I have no idea where to go from here.

[chrish36772]

Hey dude, I just solved this on my Mac running Virtual PC 6 (on OS X Tiger)!

It worked fine when I used the Advanced Options and chose the option:

Install with option xdriver=vesa

On the first attempt I said clicked to Install Additions. It didn't work, just froze. Second time didn't try to install additions and it worked perfectly! One reason for that could be that installing the additions mounts a new iso (I'm installing from an iso)

anyways, good luck, hope this solves your problem too.



Let us know if this works for you and then the Freespire guys can add it to their FAQs

[JaceMan]

Originally Posted by chrish36772

It worked fine when I used the Advanced Options and chose the option:

Install with option xdriver=vesa

That is the key!!! That is how my tutorials for Freespire and Linspire were made (not in my documentation of course since I didn't anticipate people building a dual boot computer in Virtual PC 2004) using Virtual PC.

Eib, take Chrish's advice it is right on the money! I can verify, because I've done it.

[chrish36772]

Hey I've also found out since, that the problem is Virtual PC does not support 24 bit color depth which it seems all these modern Linuxes default to.

I've setup Ubuntu today and gotten the same problem so I crashed out of Xwindows (the ctrl-alt-backspace key combo) to the command line and checked xorg.conf and sure enough, it was using 24 bit too.

I couldn't edit it (dunno why) and had to search high and low on the internet to find out how to run a text based configurator, but got there in the end. It then ran perfectly. Albeit very slowly (and the installer has taken about three times longer than Freespire)

Freespire also is running slowly on my Mac (in Virtual PC). I guess it's proof I need to upgrade to a Intel Mac!

[eibgrad]

You guys are the best! The "xdriver=vesa" option made the difference, works perfectly now. I guess this belongs in the FAQ. Thanks again!

[chrish36772]

You're welcome.
Even from my Mac background, Freespire looks pretty good. Be interesting to hear what you think of it with your Windows background.

[johnhwms]

Anybody get the sound to work under Virtual PC after doing this? I have onboard sound.


Thanks.

[johnhwms]

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