cooperative linux

Forum: DSL Ideas and Suggestions
Topic: cooperative linux
started by: Epsilon

Posted by Epsilon on May 17 2005,02:41

Is just a suggestion against qemu

< Cooperative Linux (coLinux) >

Quote

Cooperative Linux is the first working free and open source method for optimally running Linux on Microsoft Windows natively. More generally, Cooperative Linux (short-named coLinux) is a port of the Linux kernel that allows it to run cooperatively alongside another operating system on a single machine. For instance, it allows one to freely run Linux on Windows 2000/XP, without using a commercial PC virtualization software such as VMware, in a way which is much more optimal than using any general purpose PC virtualization software. In its current condition, it allows us to run the KNOPPIX Japanese Edition on Windows (see Screenshots).

Posted by AwPhuch on May 17 2005,17:16

Pretty sweet...have you benchmarked this against the qemu version that is running now??

Brian
AwPhuch

Posted by Epsilon on May 17 2005,20:59

no, i dont have tested it. i dont know if it works but in the main page says that works on knoppix, so can work on dsl. But colinux needs to install drivers o the windows and qemu dont.
colinux is the linux kernel running over windows and qemu is a booting emulation or something like that.
Is very diferent.

Posted by advid on Oct. 25 2005,13:56

Late reply (I've searched the forum)...

What you have writen above is true, here is more information:
I'm using colinux in professional training environment: Oracle DB inside colinux (mandrake port) running on top of windows 2000.
This is even faster than the real linux environment due to windows cache of colinux FS, the price is that it is not safe: I guess power down can crash colinux FS.

Anyway what we need is: Windows NT/2000/XP with admin account, a custom 2.4 kernel patched with colinux and the old colinux supporting 2.4 kernel.
CoLinux 0.6.1 is based on kernel 2.4.26, so it could work.
Since hardware is much simpler in colinux, DSL could be trimed down again.
If you want graphics you need vncserver in colinux and vncviewer in windows.

Posted by brianw on Oct. 26 2005,02:37

Quote

Hardware virtualization
To cooperatively share hardware with the host operating system, coLinux does not access I/O devices directly. Instead, it interfaces with emulated devices provided by the coLinux drivers in the host OS. For example, a regular file in Windows can be used as a block device in coLinux. All real hardware interrupts are transparently forwarded to the host OS, so this way the host OS's control of the real hardware is not being disturbed and thus it continues to run smoothly.

Doesn't this mean it is just an emulator? I am a little confused on the "run natively" if "control is emulated through the host OS"

Posted by mattias on Oct. 27 2005,06:29

Quote (brianw @ Oct. 25 2005,22:37)

Doesn't this mean it is just an emulator? I am a little confused on the "run natively" if "control is emulated through the host OS"

No, CoLinux implements the linux kernel as a part of the Windows kernel. This allows for executing linux binaries in the Windows' kernel space. This means that some of the features like access on block devices have to be routed through the windows kernel.

I created some root filesystem imgaes based on Knoppix and Kanotix for some german magazines in the last 12 months. They worked pretty well and people liked getting a pre configured environment with apache and all that stuff.

Creating a DSL image for CoLinux won't be a big deal, but I think it makes more sense to create an image for VMware player. This is easier to set up (for the user) and does not crash as often as CoLinux.

Regards,
Mattias