I found that Microsoft Virtual PC gave me the ability to safely explore different Linux distributions like Ubuntu and Fedora Core. To get Fedora Core 3 running on Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 needed some preparation and special steps.

In fact many operating systems other than those of Microsoft can be run on VPC- What Works and What Doesn’t in Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 will give you a good indication of what you need to know before pursuing any OS virtualization.

For FC3 I followed this guide that takes you through the installation and more importantly indicates that you need to install a custom kernel to get it running on VPC. Fortunately, this was straight forward in the sense that each step worked without workarounds and FC3 was all set for first use.

The next configuration needed was to increase the screen resolution to one higher than 800×600. Some would have you find and change XF86Config, but my copy of FC3 needed change in xorg.conf instead. [Note: A useful utility you can use to find files and directories on your machine is called locate that you call from a terminal. First use requires you to update your database by using the command –u in the form of locate –u, then to use type locate xorg.conf (or the file you seek)]

I edited xorg.conf using nano (by typing sudo nano xorg.conf) and looked for a section called “Device” and “Screen” to change it to the following and enable 1024×768:

Section “Device”
    Identifier “VideoCard0”
    Driver “vesa”
    VendorName “Microsoft”
    BoardName “VESA 2.0 (generic)”
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Device "Videocard0"
    Monitor "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth 24
    SubSection "Display"
        Depth 24
        Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

After saving, logging out and then in again the changes took effect.

Notice that the default colour depth is 24bit (higher depths are not supported in VPC to my knowledge), you might need to change it to 16bit for higher resolutions.

See also:
I just installed Fedora Core 3. Now what?

This entry was posted on Monday, April 18th, 2005 at 10:08 am and is filed under Technical. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.