vmware gives wrong feedback “unable to open xxx.vmdk …” in case it it not able to access the phyical harddrive.

environment:

• ubuntu 8.04
• vmware workstation 6.xx
• using physical installation of a windows partition on /dev/sda (in this case)

Here the problem could solved easily:
just add the group “disk” to the user who is starting vmware:

• open control panel / user management
• switch to administrator mode
• select tab groups and add “disk” to the user

Here is a short description on the Installation of ubuntu 8.04 on my Dell Inspiron 9400.
Alle experiences will be updated during the next couple of weeks.

ubuntu 8.04 on Dell Inspiron 9400

The update itself works fine so far.

Attention there are some rpm-update failures: simply click ignore otherwise the
update process may fail (according to some other experiences)

The main aspect of the update is: Sound is working now.
(The article on the Inspiron 9400 is updated

Problems:
- Java installation breaks: the following links in /etc/alternatives are wrong:

jce_1.4.2_sun_local_policy -> /usr/lib/jvm-private/java-1.4.2-sun/jce/vanilla/local_policy.jar
jce_1.4.2_sun_us_export_policy -> /usr/lib/jvm-private/java-1.4.2-sun/jce/vanilla/US_export_policy.jar

replace them by (in my case):

jce_1.4.2_sun_us_export_policy -> /usr/lib/jvm-private/java-1_4_2-sun/jce/vanilla/US_export_policy.jar
jce_1.4.2_sun_local_policy -> /usr/lib/jvm-private/java-1_4_2-sun/jce/vanilla/local_policy.jar

This is the first post. This page is going to handle news and opinions about the world, linux and some more important stuff.

Right now I do not have an appropriate theme at hand. to come soon.