Emulate Windows with Q
I just
downloaded and installed Q on my iMac Core Duo. I tried
importing my Windows 2000 Virtual PC 7 image from an old backup disk, and it imported, but keeps crashing at startup.
However, this discussion over at Accelerate Your Macintosh
has me hopeful that Q just may be the future of free Windows emulation on the Mac. According to the Q site, "Run
Windows, Linux and a lot more Systems on your Mac. Q is a feature packed cocoa port of QEMU: Switch fast between guest
PCs. Save and restart guest PCs at any stage. Easily exchange Files between Host and Guest. Q makes use of OS X most
advanced technologies like openGL and coreaudio to accelerate your experience with your guest PC."This program is still in development, but they have a Universal Binary. Later on today, when I have some free hours (ha!), I think I'll try to build an image from scratch and install XP. I'll report back after the weekend with my findings.
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I just downloaded and installed Q on my iMac Core Duo. I tried importing my Windows 2000 Virtual PC 7 image from an old backup disk, and it...
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I think what everyone wants to see here are instructions on how people got windows running under Q. Anyone got anything for us? I have just been trying since last night and have gotten some stuff working, but it is still a bit tricky. If I get anything I will see what I can do to create instructions for everyone. But if anyone gots any ideas, share with the community.
February 20 2006 at 2:37 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI am stuck at login windows of W2K, i can't type Crtl Alt Del, as Crtl-Alt get the mouse out of the virtual machine.
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You can't press Ctrl-Alt-Del as the Alt key is in a different position on a PC keyboard. It is the one next to the spacebar (Command) which acts as the Alt key on Windows. If you press Alt (Option), it is the equivalent of pressing the Windows key on a PC keyboard, which merely displays the Start menu (when logged in).
Doh. Found it.
It is located in the Documents folder under QEMU and gets the custom name of the guest pc with .qvm extension. Not Harddisk_1.qvoc. ( And at 850MB it skipped spotlight, 2 days, >1GB. )
No immediate other ideas, as I wouldn't know how you create a Win floppy image on a recent Mac without floppy drive. Through the network?
Did spot that you can import VPC images via the tools menu. Not sure if that might help, if you had a boot floppy image in VPC?
--> Does somebody know where the Q harddisks for the virtual machines are located? I created a 2GB one for XP, but it runs reeaaalllyyyy slow on DP G5 2.5 w 2.5 GB RAM. I wish to delete that disk image ... but can't find it on my system and of course neither does spotlight.
Feedback to developers:
Overal I'm pretty impressed with the ease of use etc.
Few points I want to bring up:
- Recognition of USB keyboards plugged into the monitor hub? Apple's keyboard cords are too short to plug into my machine under my desk ... so I can't keep my keyboard on my desk when using Q.
- Screen size larger then 800x600?
- Please do not use CTRL + ALT to release the mouse. As noted earlier here, it prevents from using CTRL + ALT + DEL and thus functionality you can quickly reach that way
- I have redraw issues where Window boxes first appear as being filled with ~~~~ then later they may switch to regular grey ... or not.
Depending upon your 2000 disk (some are not bootable except via a floppy boot disk) you may have to create a floppy boot image to start the whole process. wheeeeeeee windoze is fun!
February 18 2006 at 9:57 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Replyicerabbit: still didn't work. Selected Boot from CD-ROM but no installation occured. I'm using the Win 2000 install disk. Any other ideas?
February 18 2006 at 1:14 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply#12. Doing the same here on DP G5. Insert your installation disk. Create you Guest PC. Select Boot From CD and you'll be good to go.
February 17 2006 at 9:28 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyAs I understand it, Q is still emulating an x86 not virtualizing one. There is another component to QEMU which enables virtualization, but it is not finished for intel macs yet. So, if Q is already quick on intel macs, hold on to you hat because it is going to get a lot quicker over the next few months.
February 17 2006 at 8:39 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyCan it be installed completely on a USB Fat32 formatted drive? I would kind of like to be able to do it just for the h#ll of it but I don't have the internal HD space to do it.
February 17 2006 at 5:21 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI guess I need a set of step-by-step instructions. I'm trying to install it on a G5-dual processor system. It hangs when trying to create a GuestPC from VPC7 and I haven't figured out how to install from my Win2000 and WinXP disks. Does QEMU have to be installed along with Q? Any help would be appreciated.
February 17 2006 at 5:03 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyHot Apps on TUAW
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