Running Groove on Linux

buxtonp
Posts: 12
 Posted:

Is there an easy way to access the Groove workspace from a GNU/linux OS?

Don't know about easy but I have it running on my Linux Laptop. To do this you will need:

1. VMWare Server (free download). You will also need to register with them to get a licence number.

2. A Windows installation disk from Win98 onwards

3. A duster

Instructions:
1. Install VMWare server using instructions from VMWare website. This was a reasonably straightforward installation (need to be root) using a single file. Some possible permissions issues but no major dramas.

2. Find a Windows installation disk (I found a Win98 disk buried deep in a cupboard at home).

3. Use duster to clean this artefact of cyber-archaeology.

4. Create Virtual machine on VMWare server (easy). I set virtual machine to use NAT as this means it uses the host IP on the network and is one less thing to worry about. I got away with a 1GB virtual machine but a bit more would probably be better.

5. Make sure installation is fully 'patched up' and that IE is up to at least IE6.

6. Download and install Groove. Some difficulties here as installer complained about a missing dll (don't know if this was because I was using Win98 or because of VMWare virtualisation). Eventually found a link to install it directly.

7. Use Groove.net directory to find Gay Mathews or Eric Rasmussen and ask for an invite to the Strong Angel workspace. Then ask Gay for a Groove activation code.

Result
Works reasonably well. Slightly slow, even on a broadband connection, and VMWare is a bit of a resource hog but at least it works.


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jcrowley
Posts: 318
 Posted: Sun, 2006-08-06 02:38
Missing DLL is usually laptop power related

As I recall from my journies into getting VMWare/Win98 working on Redhat 6.x ages ago, the missing DLLs have something to do with power management on laptops. Was that the case Peter?

Next week, I am going to try to get VMware to cooperate with WinXPPro by installing a full copy of the OS into a virtual machine that will probably be running SuSE. I will let you know how it goes. Getting VMware working with XP is always an adventure with newer hardware (Thinkpad T60).


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buxtonp
Posts: 12
 Posted: Sun, 2006-08-06 06:34
Missing dlls

I am fairly sure that the missing dll was not power related. I worked round the problem and did not need to install the missing dlls.

When instaling Groove the initial download is an installer which you run, this then goes and gets the rest of the Groove package. It was this installer that had a problem. I found a direct link to the Groove package somewhere on the Groove help pages and this worked fine. Stupidly I did not take a note of the url and I cannot now find it.


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mmcguire64
Posts: 3
 Posted: Sat, 2006-08-12 01:33
Groove on Mac OS X?

Any way to do Groove on Mac OS X (without Virtual PC)?? www.groove.net says there's no native Mac version.


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