DSL Embedded :: Boot/qemu writable FS on USB



The virtual PC inside QEMU is not allowed to have direct access to your PC hardware like your USB ports or your CDROM drive.

When running QEMU on a Linux-basec computer (IE: Linux is the host OS), it is possible to access some devices but USB support is not yet provided.
Wayell, for linux, actually, you'd just have to use the /dev/sd?? block device that's allocated for the USB stick.  

For Windows, I can't see why there's not a way (what about the \\?\Device\.... UDL filenames for things?  I'll look into this.)
Ok, here's the thing.  I can be done.  With some code rewrite of QEMU (it's really just generalizing the disk IO code to use winioctl.h's functions rather than stdio.h).  But, we have a problem:

Access will be denied for device reads and writes if the device is locked for use.  Like, you know, if you're running a program off the stick, or you have it open in explorer.  In other words, you'd need to partition the medium, and you couldn't access the "data" partition by both operating systems at the same time.

But yeah, it can be done without samba.  Unfortunately, much like giving a 30-pound tom cat a purple mohawk, you'd probably hurt something and you'll most likely end up with less-than-satisfactory rewards.
Fordi,

Once again you have demonstrated that anything is possible if you think big.

My brain tends to automatically discount any option that requires C programming skills and a custom recompile of an application that I don't fully understand how to use,  nevermind how to change. :)

If someone wants to actually do this thing, I wish them the best of luck, sincerely.
Hi all;

(note: go gentle, it's my first time <grin>)

I stumbled across this forum after playing with Private Virtual Machine.  This is a pre-beta packaging of dsl w/qemu.

I unzipped the d/l to my usb drive and launched launched a qemu bat file.  Automagically detected broadband, keyboard, etc.  I was running a full DSL session from w/in a window on my Win2k box (emailing, surfing) w/in a few minutes.  

The only thing:  It is dog-slow.  D-O-G slow.

But it sure whet my appetite.

-Sparky
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