Windows and Linux Dual Boot Virtual Machine Netflix

[matthewetaft]

Hi guys,

Could not think of a better name for the title; sorry. Here's my story: I currently have Windows Vista Business and Linux Mint dual booting. I hate logging into Windows, and there's only two reasons I do so anymore: One is for a Windows-only store manager tool I use, and I'm considering trying that through Wine. The other reason is Netflix. I'd love to be able to stay on the Linux side and watch Netflix. One solution I heard was that people use a Virtual Machine and install Windows inside that. My version of Windows, however, didn't come with a CD (isn't that GREAT? You have to call and ask for it to be sent). Anyway, I'm basically wondering if there is any way to access and run Windows while already booted into Linux? I could provide a bunch of version and drive info for you, but I really don't know if that will mean anything to this question. It's probably not possible, but I'm just wondering what solution there could be without having to log into Windows to watch Netflix.

[MikeTbob]

I found a link that tells it like it is. Straight up...you can't watch Netflix on Linux systems with a Virtual Machine.
How to watch Netflix (Watch Instantly) in Linux - a great resource for How To's from Wikia

Hello and Welcome.Netflix does not currently offer support for Linux (as of 9/2011),

This how to is by NO means, in ANY way shape or form an official or supported way of running the Netflix: Watch Instantly feature natively in GNU/Linux.

So the only way I have found to watch Netflix in Linux is by running a virtual machine. If you don't like it, complain to Netflix, not us. Their phone number is 1-866-716-0414 or you could sign the petition to add Linux support to Netflix. Petition to add Netflix "Watch Now" feature for Linux. Calling Netflix and signing the petition both is the best plan as the numerous times I've called has resulted in the call center person telling me that "...the more people who call and request linux as an option is noted by Netflix".

[matthewetaft]

I found a link that tells it like it is. Straight up...you can't watch Netflix on Linux systems with a Virtual Machine.

Thanks for the help, but I read that article also, and unlike what you said, that author doesn't say you can't watch Netflix on Linux with a Virtual Machine. The author says, "...the only way I have found to watch Netflix in Linux is by running a virtual machine." I was just wondering if anyone else knew of another way.

[jayd512]

This question comes up every so often.
Netflix can run in a VM. But, as noted in the above article, unless you have some fairly decent hardware, video playback can suffer.

[MikeTbob]

Thanks for the help, but I read that article also, and unlike what you said, that author doesn't say you can't watch Netflix on Linux with a Virtual Machine. The author says, "...the only way I have found to watch Netflix in Linux is by running a virtual machine." I was just wondering if anyone else knew of another way.

My bad, that was a typo/incomplete post above. I meant to say that you can run Windows in a VM and run Netflix from there. I have not tried it and do not know if it's worth the hassle or not.

[matthewetaft]

I think I may have found a way. I haven't posted enough posts here yet to post a link, but if you google this:

"Run Your Windows Partition Without Rebooting" "linux journal" "Elliot Isaacson"

You'll find the video I watched. It was back in 2008, and I think some things have gotten easier on the VM side. For one, he speaks about the product costing money, and says you can download the free trial to set everything up, then remove everything but the free vm player and it will work. That might still be the case, but it looks like there's an open source version available from VM Workstation now that might do the trick. Also, he talked about needed to download drivers for SATA or SCSI disks, and said that these drivers were for floppy disk, so he also walks through installing a virtual floppy disk. On the current VM Workstation site, where he says to go to get these drivers, doesn't have anything to download, so maybe the newest VM Workstation has those drivers included already now. He also says the binaries for the virtual floppy are for 32-bit only, and if you have a 64-bit system you have to compile everything. But if the floppy isn't even needed, this is a mute point. The hardest part seems to be making sure the windows partition is NOT mounted when you try to boot it in vmware, making sure you NEVER try to boot into the linux partition when you're using the vmware in linux already, and making a custom hardware profile in windows to use when booting in the vmware. Seems like it should work, but I haven't tried it yet.

[Rubberman]

I run Windows XP in a VM on my workstation - I give it one core of its own (dual quad-core 3GHz E5450 CPUs) and 2GB of RAM. I can run videos on it quite nicely, so it may work for Netflix. I haven't tried as yet (no subscription), but just FYI, I use the VirtualBox VM. It's free and works very well, supporting all the hardware virtualization stuff that modern systems have. One thing is that Windows discs from hardware vendors are often keyed to run only on their hardware (HP does that) and you can't use it to install in a virtual machine. My copy of XP was from my Microsoft MSDN subscription, so it doesn't care what hardware you use.

[matthewetaft]

Hmm, that might be a snag, then. I've got a Compaq Presario dv5 I wanted to try it out with. I might still try and see what happens Thanks for the info regarding VirtualBox, I'll check that out too.