Multiple questions regarding VPC 6

[blackangel]

Hi,

I have a few questions I'd like to ask.

Machine spec G4 MDD dual 1.25Gz with 2GB RAM. 9.2.2/10.2.8. Run most of the
time in 9.2.2.
I haven't installed VPC yet. Currently I have VPC 6 and all updates (Package
came with XP home but I'd like other OS's).

I'd like to know the following:

- Can I dedicate INT/EXT HDs for the use in running various MS dedicated
OS's, eg. I currently have 4x500GB HD's (ATA 133 raid) and 2xEXT 120GB HD's
(firewire) and 8x76GB (SCSI160 raid). I'd like to make the 2 EXT
FAT/FAT32/NTFS or later to run DOS 5.5 - Win2000 - Window2003 Server. Is this
possible? Would I get better performance? What would be the best way to set
up VPC not to be on any Mac partitions, and to have it boot naturally,
preferably without the MacOS Finder. This could be done as a AppleScript or
put in the startup folder or via background programming process which
switches between the two via quick keys... etc?

- I have 2 GCs, ATI 9200 128 PCI, ATI 9000 Pro 64Mb AGP. I'd like to know if
replacing the AGP card with a later say PC centric card like the PowerColor
ATI Radeon cards improve Graphic performance ONLY on the VPC end? The 9200
will only be dedicated for MacOS 9.2.2. I have three monitors 2x23" Apple HD
Displays and 1xSony19" Trinitron CRT. I'd like to also share the screen via
some form of switch if the Mac won't be able to understand the PC Agp card
eg.(KVM). Is this possible or is the generic driver that is put in place with
VPC override this?

- I have a APD-39160 Adaptec PowerDomain 39160 Ultra160 MAC SCSI Controller
card running the raid box mentioned above... I will be planing to get the
ATTO U4D 320 card later on with another JBOD jukebox, but in the mean time,
the Ultra160 will do. Firstly, would any of the MS Windows installed within
VPC take full advantage of the speed? Secondly, juts like the GC example,
would it be possible to install a PC centric controller SCSI/SATAIII
PCI/PCI-X card for windows to exploit.

- I've read that VPC 6 doesn't exploit the MDD built in 1GB Ethernet
interface. Is this correct? How do I get around this problem so to utilise
full GB? And again, would it be possible to slot newer Cards eg, 10GB when
they come out and have both MacOS and Windows OS variant see it and utilise
fully?

- Like with the questions above, can items such as Serial/Parallel Cards be
used? Serial/Parallel for use in embedded programming be used exclusively for
VPC, seeing drivers for items such as PC Serial/Parallel for Mac don't exist.

- What are the limitations of installing DOS 5.0 - 6.2.2 under VPC? How to
improve DOS speed?

- Can the same principles be applied to say Linux i386 installs under VPC?

- One last question... If I wanted to host home based web site but require
Windows programming Frameworks to function, is VPC Windows server
NT/2000/2003 capable? It needs both DNS/Email Service and SQL Server either
2000/2005. What would be the best setup if applicable? How would I port
forward it to the VPC Windows Server process? Currently have Siemens Gigaset
SE551 dsl/ cable - Wireless router. If this is possbile, can VPC be forced to
run in the background without GUI for serving needs? (The site isn't big)



BTW (I don't need/want a PC box, I only wish to use the G4 MDD)

thanks guys

[Michael Vilain]

Post by blackangel
Hi,
I have a few questions I'd like to ask.
Machine spec G4 MDD dual 1.25Gz with 2GB RAM. 9.2.2/10.2.8. Run most of the
time in 9.2.2.
I haven't installed VPC yet. Currently I have VPC 6 and all updates (Package
came with XP home but I'd like other OS's).
- Can I dedicate INT/EXT HDs for the use in running various MS dedicated
OS's, eg. I currently have 4x500GB HD's (ATA 133 raid) and 2xEXT 120GB HD's
(firewire) and 8x76GB (SCSI160 raid). I'd like to make the 2 EXT
FAT/FAT32/NTFS or later to run DOS 5.5 - Win2000 - Window2003 Server. Is this
possible? Would I get better performance? What would be the best way to set
up VPC not to be on any Mac partitions, and to have it boot naturally,
preferably without the MacOS Finder. This could be done as a AppleScript or
put in the startup folder or via background programming process which
switches between the two via quick keys... etc?

You could do this, but the guest OS is stored on a virtual disk. You
don't install the OS on a disk per se, but in a container file. You
could create soft links from the VPC directories to this disk.

Post by blackangel
- I have 2 GCs, ATI 9200 128 PCI, ATI 9000 Pro 64Mb AGP. I'd like to know if
replacing the AGP card with a later say PC centric card like the PowerColor
ATI Radeon cards improve Graphic performance ONLY on the VPC end? The 9200
will only be dedicated for MacOS 9.2.2. I have three monitors 2x23" Apple HD
Displays and 1xSony19" Trinitron CRT. I'd like to also share the screen via
some form of switch if the Mac won't be able to understand the PC Agp card
eg.(KVM). Is this possible or is the generic driver that is put in place with
VPC override this?

No amount of hardware you add to your PPC will affect VPC's emulation of
the hardware they use. That's what emulation is.

Post by blackangel
- I have a APD-39160 Adaptec PowerDomain 39160 Ultra160 MAC SCSI Controller
card running the raid box mentioned above... I will be planing to get the
ATTO U4D 320 card later on with another JBOD jukebox, but in the mean time,
the Ultra160 will do. Firstly, would any of the MS Windows installed within
VPC take full advantage of the speed? Secondly, juts like the GC example,
would it be possible to install a PC centric controller SCSI/SATAIII
PCI/PCI-X card for windows to exploit.

Probably not. VPC will be using emulated interfaces which it doesn't
change for the hosting OS.

Post by blackangel
- I've read that VPC 6 doesn't exploit the MDD built in 1GB Ethernet
interface. Is this correct? How do I get around this problem so to utilise
full GB? And again, would it be possible to slot newer Cards eg, 10GB when
they come out and have both MacOS and Windows OS variant see it and utilise
fully?

AFAIK, you'll get an 10BaseT ethernet "card" in the guest OS because
that's what's emulated by VPC.

Post by blackangel
- Like with the questions above, can items such as Serial/Parallel Cards be
used? Serial/Parallel for use in embedded programming be used exclusively for
VPC, seeing drivers for items such as PC Serial/Parallel for Mac don't exist.
- What are the limitations of installing DOS 5.0 - 6.2.2 under VPC? How to
improve DOS speed?

What problem are you trying solve here? If you install DOS 5.0 or
6.2.2, you'll get that version with those features. DOS will run as
fast as it can under emulation. If you want it to run faster, run it on
an Intel Macintosh as a virtual machine rather than in emulation on the
PPC.

Post by blackangel
- Can the same principles be applied to say Linux i386 installs under VPC?
- One last question... If I wanted to host home based web site but require
Windows programming Frameworks to function, is VPC Windows server
NT/2000/2003 capable? It needs both DNS/Email Service and SQL Server either
2000/2005. What would be the best setup if applicable? How would I port
forward it to the VPC Windows Server process? Currently have Siemens Gigaset
SE551 dsl/ cable - Wireless router. If this is possbile, can VPC be forced to
run in the background without GUI for serving needs? (The site isn't big)
BTW (I don't need/want a PC box, I only wish to use the G4 MDD)
thanks guys

I think you've "hit the wall" when it comes to performance with VPC on a
PPC. It's slow, but useable for Windows 2000. Almost useable for XP.
You want faster, buy an Intel Mac and run it under Bootcamp, Parallels
or Fusion. And you'll have to buy the full commercial version of XP,
Win2K, etc. as the OEM'ed version on VPC won't install.

[Steve Jain [MVP]]

On Wed, 12 Aug 2009 04:58:01 -0700, blackangel

Post by blackangel
Hi,
I have a few questions I'd like to ask.
Machine spec G4 MDD dual 1.25Gz with 2GB RAM. 9.2.2/10.2.8. Run most of the
time in 9.2.2.
I haven't installed VPC yet. Currently I have VPC 6 and all updates (Package
came with XP home but I'd like other OS's).
- Can I dedicate INT/EXT HDs for the use in running various MS dedicated
OS's, eg. I currently have 4x500GB HD's (ATA 133 raid) and 2xEXT 120GB HD's
(firewire) and 8x76GB (SCSI160 raid). I'd like to make the 2 EXT
FAT/FAT32/NTFS or later to run DOS 5.5 - Win2000 - Window2003 Server. Is this
possible? Would I get better performance?

The VMs "hard drive" is just a file that sits on a hard drive. You
don't format the full hard drive for it. Moving the file off the OS X
boot drive will improve performance.

Post by blackangel
What would be the best way to set
up VPC not to be on any Mac partitions, and to have it boot naturally,
preferably without the MacOS Finder.

VPC is an app, it requires OS X. you need to be running OS X before
you can launch the VPC app to run your virtual machines.

Post by blackangel
This could be done as a AppleScript or
put in the startup folder or via background programming process which
switches between the two via quick keys... etc?

it's just an app, you could switch between like any other app.

Post by blackangel
- I have 2 GCs, ATI 9200 128 PCI, ATI 9000 Pro 64Mb AGP. I'd like to know if
replacing the AGP card with a later say PC centric card like the PowerColor
ATI Radeon cards improve Graphic performance ONLY on the VPC end?

No, VPC will not see any PC hardware on the Mac. The video card is
emulated by the CPU, a faster video card won't make a significant
difference.

Post by blackangel
The 9200
will only be dedicated for MacOS 9.2.2. I have three monitors 2x23" Apple HD
Displays and 1xSony19" Trinitron CRT. I'd like to also share the screen via
some form of switch if the Mac won't be able to understand the PC Agp card
eg.(KVM). Is this possible or is the generic driver that is put in place with
VPC override this?

No, I think you have big misconception of what VPC does/can do. VPC
will run in a window or fullscreen (just like Word, Excel, Safari,
etc)

Post by blackangel
- I have a APD-39160 Adaptec PowerDomain 39160 Ultra160 MAC SCSI Controller
card running the raid box mentioned above... I will be planing to get the
ATTO U4D 320 card later on with another JBOD jukebox, but in the mean time,
the Ultra160 will do. Firstly, would any of the MS Windows installed within
VPC take full advantage of the speed? Secondly, juts like the GC example,
would it be possible to install a PC centric controller SCSI/SATAIII
PCI/PCI-X card for windows to exploit.

No, all the hardware is emulated by the CPU. VPC cannot see PC or Mac
specific hardware like you're mentioning.

Post by blackangel
- I've read that VPC 6 doesn't exploit the MDD built in 1GB Ethernet
interface. Is this correct? How do I get around this problem so to utilise
full GB?

The NIC is an emulated 10Mbps. You can get speeds based on the
overall network speed and cpu speed minus the overhead of emulation.
You can get over 10Mbps but you'll never see 1GB on an emulated
system. On Windows PCs you can get 50-60% of a 1GB NICs bandwidth.

Post by blackangel
And again, would it be possible to slot newer Cards eg, 10GB when
they come out and have both MacOS and Windows OS variant see it and utilise
fully?

No, VPC for PPC Mac is end-of-life, it's not being updated.

Post by blackangel
- Like with the questions above, can items such as Serial/Parallel Cards be
used? Serial/Parallel for use in embedded programming be used exclusively for
VPC, seeing drivers for items such as PC Serial/Parallel for Mac don't exist.

No, same reason as above.

Post by blackangel
- What are the limitations of installing DOS 5.0 - 6.2.2 under VPC? How to
improve DOS speed?

There are no VM Additions, you get a basic VM that will run most x86
Intel based OSes. You just get DOS, no mouse, etc.

Post by blackangel
- Can the same principles be applied to say Linux i386 installs under VPC?

Linux will run, but poorly. There are no VM Additions to improve
performance or allow for increased usability (free mouse movement
between host/vm, drag and drop, shared folders, etc)

Post by blackangel
- One last question... If I wanted to host home based web site but require
Windows programming Frameworks to function, is VPC Windows server
NT/2000/2003 capable?

There is no "VPC Windows server" product for Mac. If you want to run
the Windows version of VPC or Virtual Server you must have a Windows
machine.

Post by blackangel
It needs both DNS/Email Service and SQL Server either
2000/2005. What would be the best setup if applicable?

A Windows PC.

Post by blackangel
How would I port
forward it to the VPC Windows Server process?

Not really applicable on a Mac.

Post by blackangel
Currently have Siemens Gigaset
SE551 dsl/ cable - Wireless router. If this is possbile, can VPC be forced to
run in the background without GUI for serving needs? (The site isn't big)

No, you must run with a GUI.

Post by blackangel
BTW (I don't need/want a PC box, I only wish to use the G4 MDD)
thanks guys