Custom live Linux USB image: Working around locked down ThinkPad

At work we are getting pushed into a hot-desking setup and each member of staff is being moved onto a thin client ThinkPad. Of course a thin client is nothing more than a customised and stripped down Windows 10 build that connects to the firm's virtual desktop infrastructure, via a combination of CiscoConnect and VMWare Horizon client.

Since we're being forced to carry the ThinkPad to and from the hot-desk office, I'm going to use the ThinkPad for my own dev purposes en route. The ThinkPad's BIOS is not locked down so we can get into the boot menu via F12 or the BIOS setup via Enter but setting my own dev environment is not straight forward.

Finally migrating from VMplayer to KVM

I have been running VMware, and in particular VMplayer 12.5.x, on my aging Sandybridge (circa 2010) i7-870 desktop for many years and over many interations of Fedora upgrades there have been fights to get it to continue to work.

New Fedora, new VMplayer startup problems

With older machines we have the risk of unsupported software hitting compatib ility problems with each OS upgrade. A recent example of this is running vmplayer 12.5.9 on Fedora 30 which ran fine on Fedo ra 26 .. 28 albiet needing a couple of tweaks

But what's the new problems on Fedora 30 and what are the workarounds?

VMWare Horizon >4.8 on linux fails to start: undefined symbols

VMWare Horizon 4.8 works well with Fedora but when your service forces you to move to a later version you will find Horizon client 4.9 and above to fail to start. What to do?

VMware Player 12.x with 4.18.x kernels / Fedora 28

A Fedora 26 to Fedora 28 upgrade (with its 4.18.x kernel) broke VMware Player 12.5.7. However upgrading to the newer (14.x or 15.x) versions didn't work so how to fix?

Booting physical Windows 10 installation/partition using VMware

No messing around: setting up VMware to boot a physical Windows 10 installation from a (GPT) partition from Linux.


^{physical installation of Windows 10 running under VMplayer 12.5 on Fedora 24}

Fedora 24 on Asus x202e/s200e-CT216

Recent successes in installing Fedora on a 2010 HP netbook and running virtualised WinXP and iTunes reminded me why I used to be a geek.

Whlist the HP netbook served its original purpose, of being a reasonably portable travel backup system, running applications such as VMware and then MS Word/iTunes on its limited 10"/1024x600 screen size started to be annoying. And during a bored conference call, I wondered if there was something a little bigger for my new requirement.

Yes indeed any recent ultrabook/MacAir would be satisfactory but the price point is ridiculous for something that would supplementary. So again, older machines were considered and the Asus s200/x202e became the front runner.

VM'ing: Copy music to/from IOS from Linux via VMs

Recently I've needed to spend more time using the Fedora installation on my aging 2010 Dell Vostro however I've found various occasions where I wanted to copy music files to my iPhone/IOS 9.x/10.x devices from Linux.

In years gone by Linux's recommended options for IOS music management included gtkpod, banshee and rhythmbox but none of these options work with my iPhone and Fedora. With my current Fedora 24 installation and IOS 9.x/10.x the only option would be to run a virtualised OS that supported iTunes via VMware or VirtualBox.

The End is CNX-Digh

Nikon CNX2's death was announced along with it's underwhelming successor, CNX-D, that offered very little backward compatabilities for NEF files that had been editted and saved by CNX2.

Virtual Nerd'ing

[ non-geeks need to look away - notes about virtualisation on Linux ]



Years before I became a photo nerd, I was already a computer nerd with C/C++ and UNIX being favourite no-girlfriend past-times. Roll forward the years and now I can both.