Hi, friend,
sry 4 a bit offending response:
IMHO, maybe, you should get a 0.5 GB partition & try to run p9 natively, believe me, or not, it is worth to. Or, get a $20 i386
 box and install p9 on it. And yes, I am not a techie, I am a paleobiologist w/some basic skills on C programming. Yes, the learning curve was a bit steep (BTW: when  time vs. skills is plotted, the curve is flat, not steep).., please, don't give up and ask me if I can be of any help, sincerely,
Peter.