Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Stretches. Usual oatmeal breakfast. This morning at work when I attempted to start VMware Fusion 1.1.2, it listed 2 boot camp partitions when before I only had one. This happened to me before on April 4, 2008, and last time the fix seemed to be to reinstall Fusion and then opening one of the two listed VMs would work, though some of the earlier troubleshooting steps I had taken that day might have also been part of the resolution. This time, the error message is exactly the same as before—"Cannot open the disk '/Users /[username] /Library /Application Support /Vmware Fusion /Virtual Machines /Boot Camp /%2Fdev%2Fdisk1 /Boot Camp partition.vmwarevm /Boot Camp partition.vmdk' or one of the snapshot disks it depends on. Reason: Resource busy. (OK)"—but this time VM #0 opens and VM #1 gives the error message. This time the problem was not preceded by a hang in Windows like last time—nothing out of the ordinary this time, but yesterday I was trying unsuccessfully to change settings and the settings wouldn't stick and I posted about this in the VMware communities forum—no definitive answer after 2 replies from others. On a lark, I deleted my VMware file called Preferences (in /Library) and then attempted to restart VM #0 and it worked!—Win XP started without any problems. I shut down Windows, reopened Fusion, then looked at settings for VM #0—all my shared folders were missing and other settings I had changed before were now back to presumed defaults. I changed the Battery setting ("Pass host power supply status to guest") from unchecked to checked and clicked Display. A dialog appeared asking if I wanted to apply the change, and I clicked Apply. I changed the Display setting("Accelerate 3D graphics") from unchecked to checked and clicked Memory. A dialog appeared asking if I wanted to apply the change, and I clicked Apply. At this point VMware quit unexpectedly with no error or warning of any kind. Restarted Fusion. Looked at settings for VM #0. Battery setting stuck (was checked). Display setting stuck (was checked). I changed Memory from 512 to 768 and selected Apply. I selected Processors then selected Memory again—it says 768 as expected. I select Processors again and change the setting from 1 to 2. This time when I select Apply the setting reverts to 1 and the Apply button becomes grayed out (unselectable)—I am expecting the setting to stay on 2 but it does not. I select OK. Quit Fusion, restart Fusion, return to settings for #0. I review settings for Battery, Display, and Memory—all as expected. I select Processors and again change the setting from 1 to 2 then select Apply. This time, the setting stays on 2 and the Apply button becomes grayed out (unselectable)—as expected. I select OK, quit Fusion, restart Fusion, check first 4 setting categories—all as expected. I select Shared Folders. Both Enabled and Enabled at Power On are unchecked. I check them both and select Apply. Both checkboxes disappear and the Apply button becomes grayed out (unselectable)—not what I expect. I select both checkboxes again and again select Apply. Again, both checkboxes disappear and the Apply button becomes grayed out (unselectable)—again not what I expect. I change Enabled at Power On from unchecked to checked and select Apply—this time it sticks (remains checked). I then select Enabled and select Apply. The checkbox on Enabled disappears and the Apply button becomes grayed out (unselectable)—not what I expect. (The Enabled at Power On remains checked as expected.) I again select Enabled and select Apply. Again, the checkbox on Enabled disappears and the Apply button becomes grayed out (unselectable)—not what I expect. (The Enabled at Power On still remains checked as expected.) I create a shared folder by selecting the plus sign, specifying my home folder, naming it the same as my home folder, leaving Read-Only unchecked, and selecting the Enabled checkbox for this shared folder. I select Apply and all settings remain as I left them and the Apply button becomes grayed out (unselectable) as expected. I select Shared Folders and change Enabled from unchecked to checked and select Apply. The checkbox on Enabled disappears and the Apply button becomes grayed out (unselectable)—not what I expect. I again change Enabled from unchecked to checked and select Apply. The checkbox on Enabled disappears and the Apply button becomes grayed out (unselectable)—again not what I expect. I change Enabled from unchecked to checked and select OK. The dialog disappears. I reenter Settings. Shared Folders is still not enabled—not what I expect. Posted message to VMware communities forum. Archived backup data to DVD. Starting VM #0 in Fusion 1.1.2 asked for my password only once instead of twice—weird. Web host shopping. Decided on ServInt Essential VPS, reviewed TOS and other ServInt policies for any problems. Reviewed XP SP3 white paper. Sent ServInt decision to Susie for approval. Lunch at desk: leftovers. Helped student AP with a computer purchase decision. Submitted a calendar event for student IG to the campus calendar. I had a small panic attack today when Outlook 2007 did not show events that I could view as expected in Entourage 2008, and the cause was that I accidentally had the Details setting set to Low rather than High. In Outlook 2007, when creating a new message that has been explicitly set to plain text, AutoCorrect modifies URLs to be clickable and blue-underlined, and I think that's wrong. Listserv management—several of our listservs were deleted due to non-use but I thought Danica and I agreed she would let us keep ours for one more round. Student computing committee work. Updated my project list. Visited the Google I/O website to make a final decision about whether I should go or not. When I first looked a few weeks ago it seemed really interesting. Now, when faced with which sessions I might select, I realize that I have to narrow it down to several of 82 sessions, but Google's website doesn't make that an easy task. I sent them e-mail: " how can i print a list of all the sessions with descriptions so that i can easily review the entire list offline (e.g., while commuting)? or, can you send me a pdf of this information? the interactivity provided on http://code.google.com/ events/ io/ sessions.html is nifty, but it will take me too long to open each of the 82 triangles individually—i don't have time for that. even if i print with stylesheets disabled, i only get one page at a time (and it's ugly)." Patrick picked me up from work in the car. Drove to Chris and Nate's and planned a trip to Seattle with Patrick, Chris, and Nate. Dinner at Aperto (415-252-1625, 1434 18th Street, San Francisco, California, USA 94107) with Patrick, Chris, and Nate. Stretches.