WeBWorK News

WeBWorK 2.20 is available as a virtual machine image

WeBWorK 2.20 is available as a virtual machine image

by Arnold Pizer -

WeBWorK 2.20 is available as a virtual machine image. 

The instructions 

https://webwork.maa.org/wiki/WeBWorK_2.20_Ubuntu_Server_24.04_LTS_Virtual_Machine_Image

cover the installation of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and WeBWorK 2.20 using the WeBWorK Virtual Machine Image.

The WeBWorK Virtual Machine Image is an .ova file which is an "open, secure, portable, efficient and extensible format for the packaging and distribution of software to be run in virtual machines" (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Virtualization_Format) and is supported by VMware, VirtualBox, etc. 

Note that we are still working on the installation documentation but it should be mostly complete.

WeBWorK 2.20 is available as a virtual machine image

by Murray Eisenberg -

Does the virtual image support Apple silicon? I ask because I want to convert it to a Parallels Desktop for Mac virtual machine to run on an Apple silicon Mac.

WeBWorK 2.20 is available as a virtual machine image

by Arnold Pizer -

If you trust AI, the answer is no. 

AI Overview No, .ova images are not directly compatible with Apple silicon Macs
in many common virtualization solutions like VMware Fusion and Parallels Desktop
when the .ova contains an Intel-based virtual machine. While VirtualBox does
have an Apple silicon version, it may not reliably run Intel-based .ova images,
and if it does, it will be emulating the architecture which is slower than
native virtualization.

WeBWorK 2.20 is available as a virtual machine image

by Murray Eisenberg -

Note that one does not directly use an .ova as a virtual machine in Parallels Desktop for Mac. First one must use the VMware ovatool to transform the .ova into a .vmx; then one imports the .vmx into Parallels.

So my question, I assume, is what kind of processor is the original .ova have as target?

WeBWorK 2.20 is available as a virtual machine image

by Danny Glin -

I'm assuming that the .ova is built on the x86_64 version of Ubuntu, but Arnie can confirm.

It looks like Parallels is starting to support x86_64 VMs on Apple Silicon: https://www.parallels.com/blogs/parallels-desktop-20-2-0/, so you may be able to use this disk image with the latest version of parallels, but don't expect the performance to be great.

Another option for running WeBWorK on a Mac is in a Docker container.  There are various different sets of instructions available with differing levels of completeness, so it may take a little bit of experimenting to get set up.