Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron does not work with Parallels

[TokyoKev]

I have been patiently waiting for Parallels to support Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron). There seems to be quite a few requests for this in the forums. The big problem is that Parallels Tools does not support the new version of Ubuntu which has been out for months in beta, and was released recently as a LTS (Long Term Support) version.

Currently, the only reasonable solution available is to use the older versions of Ubuntu if necessary to use Parallels.

There are two other alternatives:

1. Use VMWare Fusion - This costs money. I have not tried it out, but others in the forums report that it works well.

2. Use VirtualBox - This is free for personal use. I have tried it out and it works flawlessly. Others in the forums have reported similar results. I was especially impressed by Virtual box because:
- it is free for personal use!
- it has very smooth desktop integration with Mac OS X, maybe superior to the Parallels for Linux guests in the current version of Parallels Tools.
- the performance seems to be fine on my Intel iMac at home.

One thing I have not checked is how well Win XP works as a guest OS on VirtualBox.

In any event, I do not plan to switch to VirtualBox soon on my work MacBook, but if Parallels continues to be so unresponsive regarding these basic problems with the most popular Linux desktop distro, I may dump Parallels for VirtualBox in the future.

I hope that someone at Parallels takes the time to respond to this soon.

 

[alexofindy]

check out "unofficial fix"

Please note that there is another thread in this forum, entitled "Unofficial fix for Linux Guest OS Parallels Tools with Xorg 1.4 version ", at
http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=21021

In this thread, Parallels points out that the version of Parallels tools available for download from a beta version of Parallels workstation will indeed install on Parallels Desktop for the Mac. The thread provides the necessary download links.

Several users, including myself, have found that this works.

Basically, you have to download the file indicated in the thread, which is a complete parallels workstation, unpack the file either in Ubuntu or on the Mac, and navigate to the folder (I think its data/tools) containing the .iso file with parallels tools. this will install in Ubuntu 8.04 (did for me), and it works. As I recall you just have to mount the .iso in parallels, and use "sudo sh" to run the installer script; the script will be in /media/cdrom0

There are, however, other gotchas, but the only significant one I know about has a fix as well. Even with parallells tools installed, the parallels ubuntu does not handle display resolution properly, and remains "stuck" in 800 x 600 mode. At least it did for me. But there is a fix, described in more detail, in the same thread - you have to start Ubuntu, and then manually edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf, changing the DISPLAY section to reflect the maximum resolution of whatever physical monitor your system has. See reply #7 in the thread.

Once you do this, most things work - the right mouse button remains an issue, but I suspect it will be solved too, and there are even some suggestions in the thread about this which I haven't tried.

It would sure be nice if parallels cleaned everythng up, of course, but the above is better than nothing. And, incidentally, virtual box works fine on the Mac with Ubuntu 8.04, no tweaking necessary. I have both Parallels and virtual box on my mac pro, and the two seem to live together fine, though you CANNOT have both running at the same time, or the Mac will crash.