From LQWiki

VMware allows you to run one or more virtual machines at the same time on one computer.

The company VMware has recently released VMware Player and VMware Server to be used for free.

Caveats

When upgrading versions of VMware, you might break LDAP integration. If this happens, check /etc/pam.d/vmware-authd. By default, it will look like:

#%PAM-1.0
auth       sufficient       /lib/security/pam_unix2.so shadow nullok
auth       required         /lib/security/pam_unix_auth.so shadow nullok
account    sufficient       /lib/security/pam_unix2.so
account    required         /lib/security/pam_unix_acct.so

To get LDAP authentication working again, change it to:

#%PAM-1.0
auth       include      system-auth
account    required     pam_nologin.so
account    include      system-auth
password   include      system-auth
session    optional     pam_keyinit.so force revoke
session    include      system-auth
session    required     pam_loginuid.so

TroubleShooting

• If you get a pop-up saying "Failed to initialize mouse-keyboard-screen control", you have probably tried to start your virtual machine in an nx session. Better use a vnc session.

See also

• turn your physical computer into a virtual one
• VMware Workstation 4.5.2 review (www.extremetech.com)
• VMware on gentoo (escargot.icehouse.net)