🐉 DragonOS VMware Lab Summary

$ cat table_of_contents.txt

Installation

  • Installed DragonOS in VMware successfully.
  • Chose a ZFS-based installation.
  • DragonOS booted and completed first-run setup.
  • Desktop environment confirmed as LXQt.

Display / VMware Fix

Initial issue:

  • Wallpaper would resize/fullscreen, but the desktop/terminal stayed at the smaller resolution.

Fix:

  • Installed VMware integration tools: sudo apt update
    sudo apt install open-vm-tools open-vm-tools-desktop -y
  • Rebooted.

Result:
✅ Full-screen resizing works automatically
✅ VMware display integration working

Verified:

lsmod | grep vmwgfx

Output confirmed:

vmwgfx
drm_ttm_helper
ttm

VMware Tools Status

Checked:

systemctl status open-vm-tools

Result:

Active: active (running)

Verified virtualization:

systemd-detect-virt

Result:

vmware

VM Performance Tuning

CPU Optimization

Before:

2 virtual sockets × 2 cores

Changed to:

1 processor
4 cores per processor

Verified:

lscpu | grep -E "CPU\(s\)|Socket|Core|Thread"

Current:

CPU(s):                  4
Socket(s):               1
Core(s) per socket:      4
Thread(s) per core:      1

✅ Better Linux VM topology

Memory Upgrade

Before:

RAM: ~6 GB

Verified:

free -h

Before:

Mem: 5.7Gi

Changed to:

RAM: 8 GB

Current:

Mem: 7.7Gi
Used: 2.1Gi
Available: 5.7Gi
Swap: 1.9Gi
Swap used: 0

✅ Plenty of headroom for SDR work

Boot Warnings Review

Checked:

journalctl -b -p warning

Findings:

Normal VMware warnings:

  • vmwgfx graphics driver warning
  • SMBus controller warning

DragonOS package warnings:

  • Kismet udev rules for missing external hardware

Expected:

  • ZFS kernel taint messages

Conclusion:
✅ No serious errors found

Snapshot Created

Created a VMware snapshot after tuning.

Recommended purpose:

DragonOS Clean SDR Lab Base

Baseline includes:

✅ DragonOS working
✅ VMware Tools working
✅ Fullscreen fixed
✅ 4-core CPU configuration
✅ 8 GB RAM
✅ Clean boot state

This is your restore point before hardware experiments.

Future Plan: LimeSDR Mini 2.0

Goal:

LimeSDR Mini 2.0 + DragonOS

Planned workflow:

LimeSDR Mini 2.0
        |
        USB
        |
VMware USB Passthrough
        |
        v
DragonOS
        |
        +-- LimeSuite
        +-- GNU Radio
        +-- SDR tools
        +-- RF experiments

Recommended future steps:

  1. Enable VMware USB passthrough
  2. Connect LimeSDR
  3. Verify: LimeUtil --find
  4. Take a second snapshot: DragonOS + LimeSDR Working

Current DragonOS VM Configuration

🐉 DragonOS SDR Lab

Hypervisor:
VMware ✅

CPU:
1 socket × 4 cores ✅

RAM:
8 GB ✅

Swap:
1.9 GB ✅

Graphics:
vmwgfx + VMware Tools ✅

Display:
Fullscreen auto resize ✅

Snapshot:
Created ✅