...
The CHARON installation procedure creates a shortcut on the desktop and under "Start" menu for the CHARON Virtual Machines Manager.
Desktop shortcut:
"Start" menu shortcut:
CHARON Virtual Machines Manager runs automatically at Windows startup. If it is minimized to tray after you can run it from the tray menu in the following way:
After clicking the shortcuts the main dialog of CHARON Virtual Machines Manager appears.
...
Start CHARON Virtual Machines Manager (see above) and press the "Create VM from Template" button:
In the appearing dialog select the Alpha hardware model:
Note the Home Directory for the VM (see screenshot below), it will be used by default for storing logs, virtual disk images, toy and container files if no path is specified in the configuration file.
...
The created Virtual Machine will appear in the list of Virtual Machines (left pane):
...
Start CHARON Virtual Machines Manager (see above) and press the "Create Add Existing VM from Cfg" button:
In the appearing dialog select the target configuration file by pressing the "Browse" button:
Select the configuration file and press the "Open" button:
Enter the CHARON Virtual Machine name and note the Home Directory for this VM, it will be used by default for storing logs, virtual disk images, toy and container files if no path is specified in the configuration file.
Press the "Create" button:
CHARON Virtual Machines Manager will report the VM has been created successfully:
...
The created Virtual Machine will appear in the list of Virtual Machines (left pane):
...
Select the target CHARON VM in the left pane and press the "Start" button:
CHARON Virtual Machines Manager will display the execution log:
Note the color meaning:
...
The console of this particular CHARON VM will then appear (if defined in the configuration file):
Depending on settings, Windows may display a Firewall warning dialog asking to confirm CHARON access to different networks.
...
Select the target CHARON VM in the left pane and press the "Stop" button:
...
It is also possible to remove a CHARON VM completely by selecting it and pressing the "Remove VM" button:
The Virtual machine has to be stopped before removing it (see Stopping a CHARON Virtual Machine chapter above)
...
Select the target CHARON VM and switch to the "VM Configuration" tab to see its features:
Alternatively it is possible to select the target CHARON VM and press the "Change VMEdit Configuration" button:
Using this dialog it is possible to:
...
Press the "Explore" button to open up a Windows Explorer window showing content of the selected CHARON VM home folder:
This content includes CHARON VM configuration file, and may also include virtual disk and tape images, logs, ROM files etc.
...
It is very convenient to use the "Create Virtual Disk" button to create empty disk images in the CHARON VM Home Directory:
The MkDisk utility will be called for this operation:
...
Press the "Edit Configuration file" button to open the CHARON VM configuration file in Windows default text editor:
The configuration file specifies all the settings of the CHARON VM. It will be discussed in the next chapter.
...
Select the CHARON VM startup behavior in the "Startup type" drop down list:
By default this setting is set to "Manual"; it assumes that a user should run CHARON VM manually from CHARON Virtual Machines Manager after a host reboot. If the CHARON VM has to start automatically, select the "Automatic" option.
...
Select the target CHARON version from the "Executable" drop-down box and press the "Apply" button:
...
Select the "Host Information & Utilities" tab to get a quick access to the most useful CHARON utilities:
Press the corresponding button to open up the target utility:
Button | Description |
|---|---|
| Sentinel Admin Control Center | Used to view CHARON licenses and manage them. |
Used to display the CHARON license content. | |
| License Update Tool | Used to manage CHARON licenses, collect the host system fingerprint and to transfer software licenses from one host to another. |
| Network Control Center | Used to configure a CHARON network. |
| Device check Check tool | Used to review system resources that can be mapped to CHARON. |
| Virtual Disk image generatorTool | GUI-based utility used to create custom or standard CHARON virtual disk containers. |
...