Battletech and VMplayer
From BattletechMUX
Contents |
What is VMplayer?
If you do not have a Linux machine available (or would just rather not mess with setting one up), an easy way to get a development environment is via VMplayer. VMplayer is a free version of VMware Workstation that allows you to play images of virtual machines, but not create them (Like VM Workstation can).
How it works
- Someone with an actual paid VMware product makes an image from their machine and makes it available. This is basically taking a snapshot of the machine at the very moment the image was created. All files and settings are captured in the image, and you basically end up with a boxed up copy of your machine.
- The end user with VMplayer downloads the image and plays it. The user may then work under the environment that the image encompasses. This is often a full operating system such as Linux or Windows. Creating files and changing settings result in the image being updated to reflect the changes and you may pause/resume your work on your virtual machine at any time. So you basically have a computer running within a computer without actually disturbing your normal operating environment.
How it Relates to BattletechMUX
If you're running an operating system that doesn't support BTMux (or doesn't support it well), you may download VMplayer, grab a Linux image, and setup a development environment within that image to work on BattletechMUX. Downloading and playing an image is as good as having an actual Linux machine, and you can transfer files from within your image and your host computer.
Getting Setup
- Download VMplayer.
- Download and extract the BattletechMUX Ubuntu VM Image. (Requires an un-RAR utility to extract)
- Open VMplayer.
- Navigate to your image's .vmx file and open it.
- Read the README file on the desktop.
Setting up BTMux
Now you are set to follow the Setup Instructions as normal.
Free Images
Below are some other free (legal) images out on the net for your download. Most of our developers are using Debian and Ubuntu.
