Installation

Hello!

This is not a question, nor a problem at all. This is right the opposite, this is the solution to my problems and - I'm sure - to the problems of several more users.

What I want here is to explain how I managed to make my M0n0wall installation to be the most optimized it can be and to use the less RAM as possible.

I have to say I was a VMware fan. But after I installed it on my "Backup" PC, with it's modest 256MB of RAM, I changed my mind.
VMware is great, but it uses a loooot of memory. It was almost impossible to do other things on Windows while it was open.

After a few dozens of clicks, I discovered this Microsoft Virtual PC 2007. It is very, very lightweight, perfect for my old PC, now turned into a mega-server 

It solved most of my problems. Before, on VMware, that bloddy "Can't find a floppy" message kept appearing every time I rebooted my monowall. Virtual PC WILL NOT have compatibility problems and you will not have to download that old preconfigured VMware virtual machine for VMware Workstation 5.

Right now, am running M0n0wall on Virtual PC. It's using - believe me - 8MB of RAM in total. 

I'm also using the original ISO file from version 1.233 (Jan/08) using the embedded virtual CD/DVD Drive.
That's very useful too, since I don't have to worry about problems with CD's or my (physical) DVD Drive.

The last thing - and that's just wonderful - I'm using a virtual floppy image. Unfortunatelly - AFAIK - Virtual PC does not create the IMG (or FLP or whatever floppy image) of the floppy, you have to use one that has been already created.

This program, "Virtual Floppy Drive" can create the image for you. Link here

After you "Release Physical Drive A:" and "Capture Floppy Disk Image", man, that configuration save will be at least 10 times faster.

Ok, so I will enumerate my configurations and settings:

Windows XP
Microsoft Virtual PC 2007
Virtual CD Drive Image ("cdrom-1.233.iso")
Virtual Floppy Image ("floppy.img")
M0n0wall v1.233 (Jan/2008)

Results:
Boot time: ~15 seconds
Reboot time: ~30 seconds
Save time: ~3 seconds (20+ with physical floppy)
Memory allocated: 8MB


I really, really hope this helps many people that are stuck on VM problems.

Terrific Post!  I've often found that virtual PC is more memory efficient... however on cavet, unless you find a way using like auto login or something, how do you recover after you computer loses power and reboots?  With VMWare it will start the Virtual Machine automatically because it runs as a service.  I suppose we could try Microsoft Virtual Server, but i hate the dependence on a Web Interface.... so lame.  I haven't use VPC in awhile can you script the start of a machine in anyway?  Where are my script kiddies at?  If we can solve this issue, i might be going back to a virtual image again.

Thanks for your feedback. I'm glad you liked it, capndoody.

For recovering after a power failure, I just added to the "Initialize" folder (under Start-> Programs) a shortcut to my Virtual PC M0n0wall virtual machine. It automatically starts M0n0wall after a reboot.
About the auto-login, I didn't use it. I have just one Windows account and it has no password, so Windows just "logs" by itself.

I've also made a Java program that checks whether or not a LAN PC can ping the M0n0wall server and if it can connect to the Web. If something is not OK (no Internet connection or server unreachability) it automatically reboots my PC through the command line:

Code:

shutdown -r -t 30 -f -c "M0n0wall Restart"

Man that installation is perfect now =)

I suppose we could try Microsoft Virtual Server, but i hate the dependence on a Web Interface.... so lame.

What do you mean?

I haven't use VPC in awhile can you script the start of a machine in anyway?  Where are my script kiddies at?

I didn't understand what you are asking me here =)


=)