Ubuntu JeOS (Just enough OS) 8.04 in VMware Player?

I downloaded VMware player, downloaded Ubuntu 8.04 JeOS. Came with 3 VMware files. root, swap, and Ubuntu. I ran Ubuntu, and what looks like a Command Prompt came up and I put in the username/pass, then did the following commands:

* Keyboard: ’sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-data’
* Timezone: ’sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata’
* Password: ‘passwd’
* enable root login: ’sudo passwd root’

Then I stopped and waited to see if anything happened...Er, how do I run the OS? XD

dpkg -l "*buntu-desktop" | grep "^ii"
Do you see anything? If not, then you don't have a desktop system installed, and you'd only have console (you'd have to install desktop system yourself).

A nice wall of text comes up..Any way for me to c/p it? =p

You must've typo'ed something; at most, only 3 lines of text should come up... six lines if your screen's set to wrap at around 48 characters or so... Copy and paste the command and try again. If still huge wall of text, read what it says, chances are, you're missing some things that you need to configure still.

If your download was about 200mb, you downloaded the server version.

I would suggest downloading VMWare server and installing Ubuntu desktop from an ISO image unless you need Ubuntu server.

It was 48mb...*shifty*

The command you gave me, that's a sudo command right?

48mb then you only have the bare minimum, linux image, core util, and maybe a few other small command line settings. You'd need to install your own desktop engine and othe stuff (which will total up towards almost a CD, or maybe towards 1gb, depending on what you selected).

The command I gave you doesn't have to be ran by root, anyone who can use dpkg should be able to use it.

The first step now would be to choose what you want to do with it... If you want it to be a server, you don't need a desktop system... in fact, you should not install desktop system for a server, as that wastes too much resources that can be used to serve genuine users. If you want it to be a desktop, then you should choose what kind of desktop system you want? Gnome -- generic, most people get this; KDE -- slightly prettier looking out of the box, large amount of people prefer this over gnome; xfce -- light weight robust desktop system that looks like gnome; others? maybe.

Once you decided what to do, use aptitude to install it.
Server: Apache, MySQL, PHP, etc.
Gnome: ubuntu-desktop (meta package, it should choose a ton of stuff for you automatically)
KDE: kubuntu-desktop (meta package, same as above)
xfce: xubuntu-desktop (meta package, same as above)

That should be a start in a nutshell.

If he wants to run Ubuntu well emulated, he has either the choice of *box, awesome, or dwm for managing windows. Xfce, GNOME, and KDE don't run well emulated and have 3D effects that are useless virtualized.