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Tiger 'breaks' Virtual PC 7

swiftaw

swiftaw

macrumors 603
Original poster
Jan 31, 2005
6,328
25
Omaha, NE, USA
Just installed tiger, checked to see if my apps still work. I now get an error when starting VPC that says that Virtual Switch mode is no longer available.

Apparently this is a known issue and a patch will be issued 'within the next few months' by Microsoft.

Just thought I would inform people.
 
I get the same on 6.1.1 but it doesn't seem to really change things all that much. It's just a warning at the start. Has anyone noticed its repercussions?
 
I havent noticed it restricting my ability to do anything in VPC, but it is just annoying to get that error every time.

Plus, perhaps there are people who need Virtual Switch mode specifically to do a particular task.
 
It is related to the way that the Virtual PC connects to the network

The two choices are: Virtual Switch or Shared Networking.

Shared Networking used NAT to share your Mac's TCP/IP connection.

Virtual Switch requires a seperate IP address for the PC to establish its own TCP/IP connection.
 
I get this virtual switch error too, but now VPC starts and quits substantially faster. I don't notice any difference in performance in VPC itself. Not sure if it's related to it using shared networking now instead, but everything seems to be working fine. :)
 
I get a warning saying I won't have network ability. And also it doesn't like to copy files back and forth anymore.
 
Shared networking

I can't get online in shared networking. Is there something I need to change in Windows to make it work?
 
This is why I am holding off putting Tiger on my PowerBook as I use VPC out in the field to programme Lutron lighting systems. I use a USB to serial converter to connect to the Lutron Homeworks processors.

I tried VPC on my desktop and get the same networking error message when starting the virtual machine. I still get network access though as it's configured for shared networking.

If someone can confirm that they do not have any hardware related trouble I may give it a go.
 
VPC 7 seems to be a hella lot faster for me. I get the Virtual Switch error at start but once it has loaded, I can actually USE XP. Lol..

Um.. off the point a little, but I have a gig of ram but I can only allocate 512mb to VPC... Is this normal? Can you go over 512?

EDIT: New Info.. Keep the ram at 256 for speed apparently

VIRTUAL PC AND RAM SETTINGS
Below, one of the Virtual PC (VPC) engineers explains why leaving VPC set to 256MB RAM is better than increasing the memory, even if you have the extra RAM to allocate. 256MB has always been the recommended size for Virtual Machines with Virtual PC. The reason is long and complex, but I'll try and simplify it for you.
When Windows boots up it determines the amount of physical RAM is has. When there is more than 256 MB of physical RAM it changes it's paging scheme as well as some of the caching optimizations to take advantage of the larger physical RAM.

These optimizations don't play well with Virtual PC for the Macintosh, because the physical RAM it thinks is there is actual virtual!

Because the fundamental performance bottleneck is paging memory between your Macintosh and the Windows Guest, the more memory Windows thinks it has the more it asks for. If you say you have 512 MB of physical RAM Windows XP will ask for a block of about 192 MB of RAM to use. Virtual PC then allocates that 192 MB of RAM and pages it in. This immediately gobbles up loads of memory and causes stress on your Mac and Virtual PC. If you set the RAM to 256 MB you don't see this happen.

Paging memory is slow, the more you page the slower you get. Keeping the RAM settings to 256 MB minimizes the amount of paging Windows does the majority of the time. Realize if you have 4 or 5 windows applications running in your Virtual Machine you are causing a lot of paging. The more physical RAM Windows believes it has, the more it thinks it can page information in and out.

So you have Windows paging it's applications to virtual RAM, we're paging that Virtual RAM to real RAM and you see a performance hit.
Click to expand...
 
SpaceMagic said:
VPC 7 seems to be a hella lot faster for me. I get the Virtual Switch error at start but once it has loaded, I can actually USE XP. Lol..

Um.. off the point a little, but I have a gig of ram but I can only allocate 512mb to VPC... Is this normal? Can you go over 512?

EDIT: New Info.. Keep the ram at 256 for speed apparently
Click to expand...

Thanks for the great info. I had been wondering whther to give more memory to VPC (I have 1.5GB), but it seems that's unncessary.
 
i've been running it with 256 all day today after reading this... things are much faster VPC and Mac OS X Tiger side of things! Cool...

Perhaps Microsoft isn't updating the Tiger bugs... until it can do VPC 7.1... that is, OpenGL support :D
 
I have the virtual switch problem (which is a pain because I need to address the VirtualPC from other machines on the network). But I also have problems with applications not working on VirtualPC.

I tried to install Postgresql and it wouldn't install. I copied the vpc hard disk to a windows machine, and it installed fine, but when I copied it back the application wouldn't run.

It seems to me that VirtualPC isn't an accurate implementation. I think that I might try and get my money back.

Has anyone tried any of the alternatives?
 
witness said:
I have the virtual switch problem (which is a pain because I need to address the VirtualPC from other machines on the network). But I also have problems with applications not working on VirtualPC.

I tried to install Postgresql and it wouldn't install. I copied the vpc hard disk to a windows machine, and it installed fine, but when I copied it back the application wouldn't run.

It seems to me that VirtualPC isn't an accurate implementation. I think that I might try and get my money back.

Has anyone tried any of the alternatives?
Click to expand...

I have had a problem with MS Money not running correctly on VPC (under Panther). As there isn't a real (good) alternative to Money under OS X I am a little stuck. Quicken is no longer available in the UK so I use a PC and Remote Desktop to it.
 
VPC and MS Money

skp574 said:
I have had a problem with MS Money not running correctly on VPC (under Panther). As there isn't a real (good) alternative to Money under OS X I am a little stuck. Quicken is no longer available in the UK so I use a PC and Remote Desktop to it.
Click to expand...

I've been running MS Money 2004 on VPC 7 (on Panther) for months without a problem. What are your specific problems with MS Money?
 
Xenious said:
My problem with money is it is so darn slow. This is on a dual G5 2.5. Any tips on speeding it up?
Click to expand...

You can speed up Virtual PC a bit by turning off unnecessary Windows features, like font smoothing, screen savers, desktop backgrounds, etc. You can also get better performance by using Classic Windows navigation. There's also a feature in Windows called System Restore that continuously creates checkpoints or snapshots of your system so that you can back out changes. This takes overhead to run and if you don't think it is necessary for your setup, you can turn it off as follows:

To turn off Windows XP System Restore

1. Click Start > Programs > Accessories > Windows Explorer
2. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
3. Click the System Restore tab.
4. Check the "Turn off System Restore" or "Turn off System Restore on all drives" check box as shown in this illustration:

Also, I was able to get MSMoney to run a lot faster when I turned off budgeting and cash flow forecasting. These features use up a lot of cycles and really caused unacceptably sluggish performance. Turning them off made Money run much faster.

Good luck!
 
Same here, but no Network connectivity

I've run into this problem too. I've tried to set things up using shared networking, but no matter what, I'm unable to connect to my server. It seems that some are able to get things working... anyone else not able to connect?

Chris
 
skp574 said:
This is why I am holding off putting Tiger on my PowerBook as I use VPC out in the field to programme Lutron lighting systems. I use a USB to serial converter to connect to the Lutron Homeworks processors.

I tried VPC on my desktop and get the same networking error message when starting the virtual machine. I still get network access though as it's configured for shared networking.

If someone can confirm that they do not have any hardware related trouble I may give it a go.
Click to expand...


*shudders* I remember having to wire for Lutron Lighting. Very nice for home theaters (when you have a Crestron Remote tied in to control the screen, projector, A/V equipment, and lights). But wiring it in a multi-million dollar home and having to make sure everything is the proper gauged wire and is daisy chained correctly...ugh. What a pain!

However, Lutron is a lot better than other methods out there for lighting. Especially Radio Ra. ECK!

Good to know someone else out there feels the pain that I once felt.

And VPC? Ech. I don't like using Windows at work, and therefor can't stand it on my Mac. I do recall when I DID use it, that Networking wasn't the best in the first place. I do know that VPC has stated they will be coming otu with an update to fix the issue. As to when, is anybody's guess.
 
eyerah said:
I've been running MS Money 2004 on VPC 7 (on Panther) for months without a problem. What are your specific problems with MS Money?
Click to expand...

Sorry for the delay in replying, been away for a while.

The problem I have is newly entered transactions do not appear in the register unless I change to another account and back again. And the programme fails to quit. File>Exit or clicking the cross box in the top right have corner fails to close the app. Only a Ctrl-Alt-Del and killing the process will shut it down.
 
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