Please Help - MEPIS, Windows and VMware Server

I tried VMWare but l couldn't figure it out so l bought Parallels Workstation and found it quite easy to install and use. Download and evaluate it for free for 15 days and if you don't like it nothing lost:

http://www.parallels.com/en/download/workstation/

Wayne

hoe:

Thanks, I will look at the link. In the meantime, would you mind telling me a bit more about your set-up? What version of MEPIS do you use? What is / are your guest OS?

I installed VMWare server, and it was quite easy.

You must first register at the site in order to be able to activate the VMWare server. They will send you a license key that later needs to be filled in.

Then, go to the VMware site again, and download from here: http://www.vmware.com/download/server/

Once downloaded, extract the file and run the setup script. It is a guided script, that just needs you to answer some questions. The defaults would be OK.

The install should create a menu entry in system (if I remember OK), from which you can launch VMWare.

Cheers

Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question

And of course, you need to install the kernel headers first;
www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php/Install_kernel_headers

--
Check out Mepis wiki: www.mepis.org/docs

AdrianTM:

Thanks for the link. It looks like all I would do is "su" into root, copy and paste the two (2) strange looking command line gibberish on that wiki page, then exit out of root and out of konsole.

Is that correct? Is it really that easy, or am I missing something?

Thanks again for your time.

carlops:

Glad to hear it was easy for you. Do you mind if I ask what your current set-up is (i.e., which MEPIS version, what is your guest OS, etc).

I have been at that download page before but I became confused because there are five (5) different Linux downloads. I can understand the 1st download and the 2nd download, but what on earth are the last three (3) used for and do I need them or not:

--Management Interface.
The VMware Server Web-based management interface. Install on your VMware Server system to enable control from a Web browser. Includes downloadable VMware Server Console installation files.

--VMware Server Windows client package. A zip package containing installer files for the following VMware Server Windows Client components:
- Windows VMware Server Console (.exe)
- COM scripting API for Windows (.exe)
- Perl scripting API for Windows (.exe)
- Programming API (.exe)

--VMware Server Linux client package. A zip package containing installer files for the following VMware Server Linux Client components:
- Linux VMware Server Console (.tar and .rpm)
- Perl scripting API for Linux (.tar)
- Programming API (.tar)

I don't understand the description given for these three (3) downloads, so any insight would be appreciated. Thanks again for your time!

Keep it simple: only download the vmserver package.

I am not using it anymore. Before I had Win2000 as a guest OS, merely to test Internet Explorer for quirks in websites I developed. Since I bought a laptop with WinXP on it, I can use that to dual boot. Happens once every 50 days..

That being said, I could never get the VM stable. It would crash often, and I never found the cause. At work, I used VMware in WinXP as host and MEPIS as guest, and that was 100% stable. Must have sth to do with my machine, but I don't know what. MEPIS as host runs super stable, so a hardware problem is unlikely.

When you extract the file, there will be a vmblabla.pl file. To start that, go to a console (in konqueror, press F4), su to root and do ./vmblabla.pl.

Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question

Another way to go is to install vmware-player from the repositories. Then go to http://www.easyvmx.com/tutorial.shtml and download "super simple edition". While there, download a "vmdk image" for your disk. Extract those to your home directory and you are good to go.

...if you are wanting to have multiple virtual machines.

If you only want to run one virtual machine that's one thing, but if you are wanting to run two or more, then I recommend using the Server version.

I am running VMware Workstation with Mepis 6.0-1 as host. I also ran the same workstation when I was using Mepis 3.3.1-1, so I know it does work. The biggest confusion is getting the thing started. You MUST make sure that you have the current kernel headers for your particular version of Mepis. You can find what kernel version you are running by entering the command "uname -r" in a Konsole. Then, use synaptic an search for "linux-headers-yourversionnumber" and install it.

The configuration script, which will be called something like vmware-config.pl, will probably be located in /usr/bin. So the full pathname to the command is /usr/bin/vmware-config.pl. You MUST do this command as user root.

Jon

I'm your worst nightmare: A Geek with an Attitude!

Proud Charter Member of
Da Mepis Posse

I ve remeber that i read in a Forum (dont know the forum anymore) that Windows 2000 runs instable as guest OS, there must me some special configuration for it, in windows 2k himself, but dont know what it was, cauz I dont have it and so haven't save anything. May google will help, I also found it with google.

Here a nothe way with vmware player and quemu (found with google in a german Forum)

My only problem was in past (I ve try this way) that I dont know the kernel source from mepis with is need to install/configure the vmware player for my mepis. I will try it next week, may this weekend. My guest OS will be win98se cauz I have some old games that need it and the other games/applications will run on it too (and I own it legal).

Hope it could help some one.

Vmware-player is in the deb and ubuntu repositories so install/configure is not a problem.

Bob, you don't need the kernel-source, you need the headers. You can find that by opening a konsole and entering:

uname -r

With that number, go into synaptic and search for "linux-headers-yourversionnumber" and install it.

If your repositories are up to date, you can do the following commands as root:

# apt-get clean; apt-get update
# apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

The above is with version 6.0+ of Mepis. If you are running an earlier version of Mepis, then you would use "kernel-headers" instead.

Jon

I'm your worst nightmare: A Geek with an Attitude!

Proud Charter Member of
Da Mepis Posse

If that's what you wanted, I did a full installation step by step of the vmware server and I copied all of the terminal output showing the full text of the installation process with comments I introduced to "show you the way". Read the comments others have made too, they are quite helpful

http://www.mepis.org/node/11913#comment-44347

There is no gui installer, deb file or otherwise, it is a text only installer that must be installed through a terminal window and vmware is not open source so we're not allowed to create a deb type package to simplify installation, but even if we were allowed to do it, some of the configurations it uses would simply not work because they are machine specific.

If you're after info on installing a guest OS within vmware server, and you have installed windows in the past, then you already know how to do it, except for the initial setup of vmware to prepare the space and virtual settings which for the greatest part is self explanatory.

Basically installing a guest OS is no different to installing it for real, except that it runs much slower until you install the vmware tools, but that has to be done after the guest os is installed. The hardware vmware emulates is well supported by virtually every OS so no additional hardware installation is necessary.

If there was one thing I would add to anybody wishing to install vmware and a guest OS onto their Mepis system, it would be to match your kernel to your hardware if you are running the stock standard 386 kernel before you install the vmware server. I have an intel based laptop and we all know laptops are simply slower than desktops, so it needed all the help it could get.

Upgrading my kernel to the 2.6.15-27.686 gave me a 12% overall improvement, but a whopping 33% improvement in all cpu pipelining according to unixbench. One of the pipelining tests completed in half of the time and that's got to help when you have a guest OS. I now wish I had a core-duo instead of a centrino because all of my guest os'es are still rather slow.

Mike P

--------------------
Life may not be the party we thought, but while we're here, we may as well dance.
Break M$'s shackles from your feet and free yourself with Mepis

m_pav:

That is a very detailed explanation and good link. Thank you so much. Question though: where do you get "vmware tools" and how do you use it?

The vmware-tools are part of the vmware installation. Once you have put vmware (server/player/workstation) in place and build a virtual machine (that's the slow part), then you will have an menu icon available on the vmware host tool: VM -> Install vmware-tools. You press that button once you have the virtual machine running. Once you press the button an icon will show up on the guest desktop (in most operating systems) showing that a CD is "mounted". That "CD" is where you will load vmware-tools from.

See this thread for more info that we gave someone else who wanted to load VMware:
http://www.mepis.org/node/11913

Jon

I'm your worst nightmare: A Geek with an Attitude!

Proud Charter Member of
Da Mepis Posse

Jon -- does the file format of your partition for where you intend to install VMware Server matter? What about the guest OS?

My Mepis hdd (entire 2nd hdd) is EXT3 (root and home) except for swap, which is swap format.

The other hdd (primary hdd) is split. It has the following partitions: half full XP NTFS, almost full EXT 3, and blank NTFS.

I created this blank NTFS partition to hold the guest "virtual" 2k or XP, since 2k and XP use NTFS. Would I also install VMware on the same NTFS partition, or would I install it somewhere on my Mepis hdd? Since I want Mepis to be host OS, I would assume I need to install VMware Server itself on the Mepis hdd...but where?

Sorry for the ultra n00b questions...just want have all the data before I sink or swim.

Thanks a bunch!

The virtual machine needs to be hosted on a natively supported file system with the attributes needed to ensure permissions can be set and maintained by the host, so it must be either ext3 or reiser of one of the linux types of fs.

During the virtual machine creation process you allocate the amount of hard disk space and once allocated, you can use pretty much any tool available for partitioning that you would use if you were working on a blank hard disk, after the vm is powered on, but they must be accessed as if there were no OS on the virtual drive.

I personally use a ranish partition manager for this task because I can't stand microsofts time wasting and mostly useless partitioning tool provided on their installation media, but you might be better to download the gparted cd iso, burn it to a cd and boot with that, partition your vm guest as you wish, then power it down and install windows.

MikeP

--------------------
Life may not be the party we thought, but while we're here, we may as well dance.
Break M$'s shackles from your feet and free yourself with Mepis

I think I see where you might be getting confused MBA Whore. As m_pav mentioned VMware, the application, will be running on your host system (Mepis?) on whatever drive you have set up, using the current native file system. You stated on your system that is ext3. That is fine.

Here's where the confusion might be. When you create a "guest computer" everything is a bunch of files. For instance, I created a directory in my account /home/me/vmware. Inside of that vmware directory I created sub-directories for each of my "computers". So let's say you create a sub-directory ~/vmware/winxp. When you instruct VMware to create a machine, it will create a series of files that contain information. You will have something that looks like this:

$ ls -la
total 2996200
-rw------- 1 me users       8664 2006-11-30 17:02 Mepis-6.0-1.nvram
-rw------- 1 me users 3068002304 2006-11-30 17:02 Mepis-6.0-1.vmdk
-rw------- 1 me users          0 2006-11-28 14:47 Mepis-6.0-1.vmsd
-rwxr-xr-x 1 me users       1001 2006-11-30 16:50 Mepis-6.0-1.vmx
-rw-r--r-- 1 me users      29387 2006-11-29 11:47 vmware-0.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 me users      57555 2006-11-28 18:08 vmware-1.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 me users      40607 2006-11-30 17:02 vmware.log
$                                                  

The *.vmx file contains all of the configuration information for this virtual computer.
The *.nvram is a file that will be the VM's RAM. When you start the VM you will find that the size of this file grows and shrinks.
The *.vmsd is a temporary work file for the VM.
Finally, the *.vmdk is a virtual hard drive.

Now, to answer the possible confusion. That virtual hard drive can be configured to be any number of partitions, and any file system you would like. From the perspective of the virtual computer, it is a real hard drive.

So you do not need to put your guest computers on any particular file system, they are already "safe" inside the virtual hard drive.

One warning: The current default hard drive type is SCSI. In other words, when you first create a virtual hard drive, the interface to the virtual machine will be SCSI. For newer OSes, this is not a problem. But for some OSes, you need to destroy the newly created hard drive, and make a new one, and choose the advanced option, where you can tell VMware that you want to use an IDE interface. Other than that, there is no difference in the file creation.

Jon

I'm your worst nightmare: A Geek with an Attitude!

Proud Charter Member of
Da Mepis Posse

Hi all,

I have two (2) questions and a summary check.

I put a Linux / VMware post at:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?t=506744

Comment #14 mentions:

"You need the xinetd and some C header files (compat maybe? I can't remember which) which you can install with yum. . ."

I have looked around but not satisfied my curiosity. Could someone tell me what are "xinetd" and "C header files?"

Now, for my summary check, I think this is what I need to do (in this order). Someone please correct me if I am wrong.

1) Download VMware Server Serial #
2) Download VMware Server tar.gz
3) Get kernel headers for my current MEPIS host OS
4) Extract tar.gz to home (what about extracting it to another partition instead?)
5) Follow the text / terminal based installer print out by m_pav on node 11913 (http://www.mepis.org/node/11913)
6) Install guest OS via disc or ISO

Before taking the plunge, I wanted to do my research. I just have those two (2) questions above remaining and would like to know if my step-by-step summary is accurate.

If it the summary is accurate, then hopefully other n00bs can use it too!

Thanks!

You're getting warmer MBA Whore!

Don't worry about the xinetd and C header files. I think that comment had more to do with Fedora, RedHat or whatever other distro that uses yum is tied into. The important thing is to get the linux-headers for your system. I believe m_pav has that stuff on the other link.

Yes, you can load the tar.gz file anywhere you want. But once it's opened, installation must be done as user root.

Good luck, let us know how far you get, and if we can help further

Jon

SimplyMEPIS Value CD: $17.95
Amount saved not buying Windows Vista Ultimate: $399
Experience gained learning Mepis and helping others: Priceless

Thanks Jon. I am glad to know that I am actually understanding the process, rather than just blindly hitting buttons. LOL.

I still got a few more questions though. I was reviewing m_pav's terminal print-out and getting ready to try it, then I noticed two (2) items I did not understand:

>>>Do you want networking for your virtual machines<<<

and

>>>Do you want to be able to use host-only networking in your virtual machines<<<

1st Question: What is the difference between these two (2) questions?

Ideally, I would like my host Mepis OS with two (2) guest OSs (one Win and one linux). I would like to have a FAT32 partition that all three (3) OSs can read / write. Then, if I had a file on my FAT32 partition that I decided to keep private, I can simply mount the FAT32 partition while in my host OS. Then I could cut / paste the file from the FAT32 partition to the restricted access folders inside my host OS home directory (which of course, is a separate partition).

2nd Question: Is my "ideal" scenario described above both feasible and safe, or am I missing something?

Thanks again!

You must be learning MBA Whore, because your questions are getting better

When VMware is configured, there are THREE different networks that can be configured.
1) Bridged
2) NAT
3) Host-Only

For all of them VMware will actually create some "virtual network interfaces" on the host. These will (possibly) be linked to your real network interfaces. Once they are created you will be able to see them by entering "ifconfig" and you will see three interfaces named "vmnet*".

Bridged networking is where each guest machine has its own IP address and is part of your network, and is (possibly) addressable from the outside world. Each guest computer, and the host computer can communicate with each other.

NAT will give each guest machine its own IP address, but if that machine tries to connect to the Internet it will not be visible; it will share the host machine's IP address. From within your local network you will be able to "see" the NATed computer. Each guest computer, and the host computer can communicate with each other.

Host-Only will give the guest machine its own IP address but only the host and guest machine will be able to communicate. The guest will be unable to connect to the Internet, and each guest computer will be unable to see the others.

It is always "safe" to accept the defaults ("Y") for both of the questions. Why? Because you can always turn off, or change what type of networking each guest computer uses.

Regarding the configuration of your two guests, and one host system to have a FAT32 directory. It is easier than that. Just create your two guest computers, one Windoze, the other Linux. Get the VMware-tools loaded into them. On the host system, create a directory under your home account. I called it /home/me/vmware/shared. Yes, it's a directory, but in it you can put "stuff".

Now, for each guest machine, under Edit Virtual Machine Settings, choose the Options tab. You will see something called Shared Folders. You can then add a reference to /home/me/vmware/shared. If the guest machine is a Windoze OS, then you will find "shared" as a "networked" drive. You can use Windoze's "Map Network Drive" to make the link permanent. If the guest machine is Linux, then I believe the "shared" drive is visible as an NFS mount. I am not positive about this, because I have not had a chance to play with it

Let's try to get your virtual computers built, and the networks configured. Then we can get the different machines to "share stuff" OK?

Jon

SimplyMEPIS Value CD: $17.95
Amount saved not buying Windows Vista Ultimate: $399
Experience gained learning Mepis and helping others: Priceless

Short question Jon, do you get sometimes with VMWare-server hight CPU utilization even though it's turned off? I get that and when I check in top it's vmware-vmx process at fault. That's why I moved to VMWare-player which doesn't create such problems. Maybe I did something wrong, any ideas? Thanks.
--
Check out Mepis wiki: www.mepis.org/docs

Since I'm running VMware Workstation, I do not have that problem on my laptop. But when running SERVER, it is running in the background (that's why it's a server (grin)).

You can turn it off, by opening a konsole, "su" to root, and perform the command:

# /etc/init.d/vmware-server stop

See if that works. If it does, you may want to change how/when the server starts by changing the entries in the "run-levels". I am about to go running around town doing weekend errands, so I shall check back later. Let me know if this helps

Jon

SimplyMEPIS Value CD: $17.95
Amount saved not buying Windows Vista Ultimate: $399
Experience gained learning Mepis and helping others: Priceless

I know it runs in the background, but it shouldn't consume 100% of my CPU power when Windows is shut down.
--
Check out Mepis wiki: www.mepis.org/docs

OK, I'm joking (and not well, I might add).

AdrianTM, is it the SERVER itself that's taking 100% according to top, or some other sub-daemon? I don't know why that would be. I have seen situations where a GUEST will take a lot of time while it's trying to negotiate and get an IP address for DHCP, but I have not experienced the host being drilled into the ground because of the server

What more can you tell me?

Jon

SimplyMEPIS Value CD: $17.95
Amount saved not buying Windows Vista Ultimate: $399
Experience gained learning Mepis and helping others: Priceless

I'm not running it at this moment, I installed VMPlayer, but from what I remember it was vmware-vmx process that was misbehaving (usually not imediatelly after rebooting MEPIS but in time it would start to eat CPU cycles)

Since I have a AMD X2 that even not always noticable because it eats only one core so the computer is still pretty fast, I usually start to notice it in the System Monitor applet, I see that half is red, then I check in "top" and see that vmware-vmx is misbehaving.
--
Check out Mepis wiki: www.mepis.org/docs

Aaacckk....something is wrong.....help!

I only got as far as the first 3 "apt-get" commands posted by m_pav (http://www.mepis.org/node/11913). It looks like the 2nd "apt-get" command went ok, but not the 1st and 3rd.

Can anyone understand what this terminal output means? FYI: Mepis 3.43.

root@1[cat1978]# apt-get install libx11-6 libx11-dev libxtst6 xlibs-dev xinetd wget
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Package xlibs-dev is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
However the following packages replace it:
x-dev
E: Package xlibs-dev has no installation candidate

root@1[cat1978]# apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r` build-essential
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
linux-headers-2.6.15-1-586tsc is already the newest version.
The following extra packages will be installed:
cpp cpp-4.1 g++ g++-4.1 gcc gcc-4.1 gcc-4.1-base libgcc1 libssp0 libstdc++6
libstdc++6-4.1-dev
Suggested packages:
cpp-doc gcc-4.1-locales gcc-4.1-doc lib64stdc++6 manpages-dev automake1.9
libtool flex bison gdb gcc-doc libc6-dev-amd64 lib64gcc1 lib64ssp0
libstdc++6-4.1-doc
Recommended packages:
libmudflap0-dev
The following NEW packages will be installed:
build-essential cpp-4.1 g++-4.1 gcc-4.1 libssp0 libstdc++6-4.1-dev
The following packages will be upgraded:
cpp g++ gcc gcc-4.1-base libgcc1 libstdc++6
6 upgraded, 6 newly installed, 0 to remove and 828 not upgraded.
Need to get 7577kB of archives.
After unpacking 22.8MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
WARNING: The following packages cannot be authenticated!
gcc-4.1-base libgcc1 libstdc++6 cpp-4.1 cpp libssp0 gcc-4.1 gcc
libstdc++6-4.1-dev g++-4.1 g++ build-essential
Authentication warning overridden.
Get:1 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main gcc-4.1-base 4.1.1-19 [198kB]
Get:2 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main libgcc1 1:4.1.1-19 [21.7kB]
Get:3 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main libstdc++6 4.1.1-19 [294kB]
Get:4 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main cpp-4.1 4.1.1-19 [2330kB]
Get:5 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main cpp 4:4.1.1-13 [10.3kB]
Get:6 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main libssp0 4.1.1-19 [4498B]
Get:7 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main gcc-4.1 4.1.1-19 [459kB]
Get:8 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main gcc 4:4.1.1-13 [5056B]
Get:9 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main libstdc++6-4.1-dev 4.1.1-19 [1632kB]
Get:10 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main g++-4.1 4.1.1-19 [2613kB]
Get:11 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main g++ 4:4.1.1-13 [1364B]
Get:12 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main build-essential 11.3 [6982B]
Fetched 7577kB in 51s (147kB/s)
(Reading database ... 87320 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace gcc-4.1-base 4.1.1-13 (using .../gcc-4.1-base_4.1.1-19_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement gcc-4.1-base ...
Preparing to replace libgcc1 1:4.1.1-13 (using .../libgcc1_1%3a4.1.1-19_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libgcc1 ...
Setting up gcc-4.1-base (4.1.1-19) ...

Setting up libgcc1 (4.1.1-19) ...

(Reading database ... 87320 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace libstdc++6 4.1.1-13 (using .../libstdc++6_4.1.1-19_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libstdc++6 ...
Setting up libstdc++6 (4.1.1-19) ...

Selecting previously deselected package cpp-4.1.
(Reading database ... 87320 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking cpp-4.1 (from .../cpp-4.1_4.1.1-19_i386.deb) ...
Preparing to replace cpp 4:4.0.2-2 (using .../cpp_4%3a4.1.1-13_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement cpp ...
Selecting previously deselected package libssp0.
Unpacking libssp0 (from .../libssp0_4.1.1-19_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package gcc-4.1.
Unpacking gcc-4.1 (from .../gcc-4.1_4.1.1-19_i386.deb) ...
Preparing to replace gcc 4:4.0.2-2 (using .../gcc_4%3a4.1.1-13_i386.deb) ...
Removing old gcc doc directory.
Unpacking replacement gcc ...
Selecting previously deselected package libstdc++6-4.1-dev.
Unpacking libstdc++6-4.1-dev (from .../libstdc++6-4.1-dev_4.1.1-19_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package g++-4.1.
Unpacking g++-4.1 (from .../g++-4.1_4.1.1-19_i386.deb) ...
Preparing to replace g++ 4:4.0.2-2 (using .../g++_4%3a4.1.1-13_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement g++ ...
Selecting previously deselected package build-essential.
Unpacking build-essential (from .../build-essential_11.3_i386.deb) ...
Setting up cpp-4.1 (4.1.1-19) ...
Setting up cpp (4.1.1-13) ...

Setting up libssp0 (4.1.1-19) ...

Setting up gcc-4.1 (4.1.1-19) ...
Setting up gcc (4.1.1-13) ...

Setting up libstdc++6-4.1-dev (4.1.1-19) ...
Setting up g++-4.1 (4.1.1-19) ...
Setting up g++ (4.1.1-13) ...

Setting up build-essential (11.3) ...

root@1[cat1978]# apt-get install gcc binutils-doc cpp-doc make manpages-dev autoconf automake1.9 libtool flex bison gdb gcc-doc gcc-4.0-doc libc6-dev-amd64 lib64gcc1
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
gcc is already the newest version.
The following extra packages will be installed:
cpp-4.0 cpp-4.1-doc g++-4.0 gcc-4.0 gcc-4.0-base gcc-4.1-doc gcc-doc-base
libc6 libc6-amd64 libc6-dev libstdc++6-4.0-dev locales
Suggested packages:
autoconf2.13 autobook autoconf-archive gnu-standards autoconf-doc
automake1.9-doc bison-doc gcc-4.0-locales doc-base lib64stdc++6 gdb-doc
glibc-doc libstdc++6-4.0-doc libtool-doc g77 fortran77-compiler gcj
make-doc-non-dfsg
Recommended packages:
libmudflap0-dev
The following NEW packages will be installed:
automake1.9 binutils-doc bison cpp-4.1-doc cpp-doc flex gcc-4.0-doc
gcc-4.1-doc gcc-doc gcc-doc-base gdb lib64gcc1 libc6-amd64 libc6-dev-amd64
libtool manpages-dev
The following packages will be upgraded:
autoconf cpp-4.0 g++-4.0 gcc-4.0 gcc-4.0-base libc6 libc6-dev
libstdc++6-4.0-dev locales make
10 upgraded, 16 newly installed, 0 to remove and 818 not upgraded.
Need to get 33.5MB of archives.
After unpacking 41.8MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
WARNING: The following packages cannot be authenticated!
libc6-dev locales libc6 flex bison gdb libc6-amd64 make manpages-dev
autoconf automake1.9 binutils-doc g++-4.0 libstdc++6-4.0-dev gcc-4.0 cpp-4.0
gcc-4.0-base gcc-doc-base cpp-4.1-doc cpp-doc gcc-4.0-doc gcc-4.1-doc
gcc-doc lib64gcc1 libc6-dev-amd64 libtool
Authentication warning overridden.
Get:1 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main libc6-dev 2.3.6.ds1-8 [2719kB]
Get:2 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main locales 2.3.6.ds1-8 [3954kB]
Get:3 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main libc6 2.3.6.ds1-8 [4719kB]
Get:4 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main flex 2.5.33-10 [306kB]
Get:5 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main bison 1:2.3.dfsg-4 [421kB]
Get:6 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main gdb 6.4.90.dfsg-1 [2411kB]
Get:7 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main libc6-amd64 2.3.6.ds1-8 [3331kB]
Get:8 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main make 3.81-2 [382kB]
Get:9 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main manpages-dev 2.39-1 [1217kB]
Get:10 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main autoconf 2.61-1 [447kB]
Get:11 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main automake1.9 1.9.6+nogfdl-2 [388kB]
Err ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main automake1.9 1.9.6+nogfdl-2
Unable to fetch file, server said 'Failed to open file. ' [IP: 128.101.240.212 21]
Get:12 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main binutils-doc 2.17-3 [483kB]
Get:13 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main g++-4.0 4.0.3-7 [2423kB]
Err ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main g++-4.0 4.0.3-7
Unable to fetch file, server said 'Failed to open file. ' [IP: 128.101.240.212 21]
Get:14 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main libstdc++6-4.0-dev 4.0.3-7 [1487kB]
Err ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main libstdc++6-4.0-dev 4.0.3-7
Unable to fetch file, server said 'Failed to open file. ' [IP: 128.101.240.212 21]
Get:15 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main gcc-4.0 4.0.3-7 [507kB]
Err ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main gcc-4.0 4.0.3-7
Unable to fetch file, server said 'Failed to open file. ' [IP: 128.101.240.212 21]
Get:16 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main cpp-4.0 4.0.3-7 [2120kB]
Err ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main cpp-4.0 4.0.3-7
Unable to fetch file, server said 'Failed to open file. ' [IP: 128.101.240.212 21]
Get:17 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main gcc-4.0-base 4.0.3-7 [182kB]
Err ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main gcc-4.0-base 4.0.3-7
Unable to fetch file, server said 'Failed to open file. ' [IP: 128.101.240.212 21]
Get:18 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/non-free gcc-doc-base 4.1.1.nf3-1 [23.7kB]
Get:19 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/non-free cpp-4.1-doc 4.1.1.nf3-1 [199kB]
Get:20 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/contrib cpp-doc 4:4.1.1.nf2 [2144B]
Get:21 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main gcc-4.0-doc 4.0.3-7 [1578kB]
Err ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main gcc-4.0-doc 4.0.3-7
Unable to fetch file, server said 'Failed to open file. ' [IP: 128.101.240.212 21]
Get:22 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/non-free gcc-4.1-doc 4.1.1.nf3-1 [1820kB]
Get:23 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/contrib gcc-doc 4:4.1.1.nf2 [2232B]
Get:24 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main lib64gcc1 1:4.1.1-19 [24.5kB]
Get:25 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main libc6-dev-amd64 2.3.6.ds1-8 [2014kB]
Get:26 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main libtool 1.5.22-4 [328kB]
Fetched 24.8MB in 2m40s (155kB/s)
Failed to fetch ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/a/automake1.9/automake1.9_1.9.6+nogfdl-2_all.deb Unable to fetch file, server said 'Failed to open file. ' [IP: 128.101.240.212 21]
Failed to fetch ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/g/gcc-4.0/g++-4.0_4.0.3-7_i386.deb Unable to fetch file, server said 'Failed to open file. ' [IP: 128.101.240.212 21]
Failed to fetch ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/g/gcc-4.0/libstdc++6-4.0-dev_4.0.3-7_i386.deb Unable to fetch file, server said 'Failed to open file. ' [IP: 128.101.240.212 21]
Failed to fetch ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/g/gcc-4.0/gcc-4.0_4.0.3-7_i386.deb Unable to fetch file, server said 'Failed to open file. ' [IP: 128.101.240.212 21]
Failed to fetch ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/g/gcc-4.0/cpp-4.0_4.0.3-7_i386.deb Unable to fetch file, server said 'Failed to open file. ' [IP: 128.101.240.212 21]
Failed to fetch ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/g/gcc-4.0/gcc-4.0-base_4.0.3-7_i386.deb Unable to fetch file, server said 'Failed to open file. ' [IP: 128.101.240.212 21]
Failed to fetch ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/g/gcc-4.0/gcc-4.0-doc_4.0.3-7_all.deb Unable to fetch file, server said 'Failed to open file. ' [IP: 128.101.240.212 21]
E: Unable to fetch some archives, maybe run apt-get update or try with --fix-missing?
root@1[cat1978]#

Why don't you upgrade to MEPIS 6?

--
Check out Mepis wiki: www.mepis.org/docs

AdrianTM:

Because 3.43 serves my needs just fine. Unless there is some super ultra mega sexy benefit of 6.0 over 3.43, I see no need to upgrade (or more likely in my case, I prefer fresh install).

Are 3.43 repositories no longer maintained?