[ros-dev] [VMWINST]

[Aleksey Bragin]

-----Original Message----- 
From: caemyr at myopera.com
Sent: Sunday, September 04, 2011 10:50 PM
To: ReactOS Development List
Subject: Re: [ros-dev] [VMWINST]

>Since when vmware is the most common testing platform?:> I also agree, tha 
>Vbox has taken up the first place...
I forgot to put on the ironic tag :) But seriously, it's one of the most 
popular platforms. Vbox has really taken up the first place, I suppose.

>This module is not working properly, due to changes in Vmware 7 (and 
>perhaps even earlier). Sure, you can hack around it, by providing the 
>driver manually... but its not what this module was supposed to do in the 
>first place?

The thing is, yes there is aproblem with autograbbing the modules, but if 
you put them in proper place by yourself, it works flawlessly, and automates 
their installation to the point when I just can choose the necessary 
resolution and color depth at install time and everything else is done 
within 5 seconds.

> What's worse, it is using some ugly methode of detecting Vmware host, by 
> probing one specific pipe. On other hosts, this attempt throws an 
> exception. If we plan to run ROS tests with /FIRSTCHANCE this module needs 
> to disappear.
This is not an ugly or a beautiful method, it is a method to detect presence 
of a VMWare virtual machine described here:
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1009458
It's also smartly wrapped into a VEH which would catch the exception on 
other hardware (that's normal, nothing extraordinary).

Rather, it's possible to hack away all possible first chance exceptions to 
be able to run with /FIRSTCHANCE, but I doubt it's the right way. Are there 
any other cases except vmwinst when an exception happens by design?

> In my opinion, VMWINST should either be fixed to deal with new Vmware, or 
> be sent to its hard-earned retirement.
For me that would mean a substantial increase in a usual testing cycle 
duration, because I would need to install VMWare Tools (do they even work?) 
or cope with default ReactOS VESA driver (which sucks performance-wise 
compared to fast VMWare's one).

WBR,
Aleksey.