Developer: Running Linux over Windows without virtualization

Running Linux over Windows without virtualization

TopologiLinux allows you to integrate Linux and Windows on the same system without creating separate partitioning on your hard disk

Rakesh Sharma

Thursday, June 12, 2008

BANGALORE, INDIA: In the April issue (andLinux: A Parallel Workstation), we discussed about andLinux, which co-exists with Windows. When you install andLinux on any Windows system, it is installed as an application. But TopologiLinux is a bit different. It gets installed as a separate operating system without any partitioning. You get a proper boot menu for booting Linux or Windows in the boot manager (if you want) or you can boot TopologiLinux within the Windows itself, with the help of coLinux.

This stable version of Slackware -based Linux runs on almost all versions of Windows. It requires minimum of 100 MB disk space and 8 MB RAM. But to install all components you need to have 4 GB of free HDD space. To install TopologiLinux you need to initiate the installation from Windows .


Insert the PCQ Xtreme DVD provided with this issue , go to Linux folder and run setup file. Specify the drive you want to install TopologiLinux to and allocate the space for the same	Install the GRUB based bootloader and click on 'Yes.' This process modifies the boot manager and adds TopologiLinux as the second option to boot


128 MB of RAM is recommended for coLinux to work on Windows smoothly. After installation, it will create a TAP-Win32 Adapter for networking	This option lets you install coLinux on your Windows system which helps you to run TopologiLinux on top of your existing Window OS


Once coLinux is installed, you will have the option to install TopologiLinux in colinux mode or in Linux mode. If coLinux doesn't work then try the next option	coLinux console comes up for the rest of the installation. Press enter if you have the default US keyboard, else press '1' to configure


After getting the login username, specify 'Root.' you will get the command prompt type 'Setup' to install TopologiLinux OS	For networking in coLinux, right-click on the TAP connector and select property. Set the IP to '192.168.0.1' as the MS Windows default IP for an NIC that is using a shared network connection


Right-click on the physical network icon, go to properties and navigate to 'Advance' tab. Check the 'Allow other connection ....' and boot TopologiLinux	Once the system has booted, type 'Setup' and press 'Enter.' Enter the user info and click on 'TopologiLinux X' icon on your desktop to connect to it in graphical mode.