Debian testing Etch VMware Appliance with VMware Tools

Debian Etch Testing beta 3 as a VMware Appliance with VMware Tools

This is an old version. Unless you are using VMware Workstation 4.x you probably want the current appliance with more features and the latest Debian!

vmware-debian-etch-20060810.zip (391MB)
md5 of the zip file: 33F21A6F69DC93868409D16A00A1D7F7

The Debian Etch Testing VMware Appliance is a complete but minimal graphical installation of the Debian Linux distribution "Etch testing". Considered by many as the desktop version of the different Debian flavors to use at home or work it offers about 18000 packages for point and click installation along with security updates. I found that having a "virtual machine" or an "appliance" running in VMware in a window of the native operating system is not only good for having a look at a Linux distribution, no it is more, it makes sense to use this tandem in production - whatever that means ;-)

Linux in a window of Windows

So if you want to test or use Debian Linux together with e.g. Windows without the need to resize a partition and install a dual boot system this may be the way to go. You only need the zip file below, the free Player from VMware, at least Windows NT or a newer x86 OS, enough RAM and about 2 GB free space on your hard disk. Debian Linux in its virtual PC (VMware) resides in a few ordinary files that come with the zip file and can be handled with every file manager.

So what exactly is this appliance?

Debian Testing etch beta 3 official snapshot (20060810)
Minimal Gnome system with Synaptic
installed into VMware Workstation 4.5.3
installed VMwareTools 5.5.2
8 GB disc capacity split into files < 2 GB
96MB RAM

Passwords are:

username: root password: root
username: user password: user

Some more details:

language: English
keyboard: US/German (easy to add others)
screen resolution: 1024*768

Features:

Works with Workstation 4.x/5.x and Player 1.x
VMwaretools are fully installed
Access shared folders of the host by the built-in facility of Workstation
Access shared folders of the host with Player, Workstation and Server by virtual networking via SMBFS or CIFS
All files are smaller than 2 GB to be able to make a snapshot by packing them with zip
If the host is online the system is ready for installation of new packages (about 18000). The four main repository addresses for Debian Testing have been added to the sources.list. Just start Desktop->Administration->Synaptic and press reload
For more information start the Epiphany or the Firefox web browser. Both have their homepages pointed to this page so that it is most convenient to get e.g. networking set up (you will have to copy and paste commands)

Thanks to my who makes these many VM downloads uncomplainingly possible.