Linux Blog

Run Linux on Windows seamlessly without virtualizers

andLinux is a complete Ubuntu Linux system running seamlessly in Windows 2000 based systems (2000, XP, 2003, Vista [32-bit only])

andLinux uses coLinux as its core which is confusing for many people. coLinux is a port of the Linux kernel to Windows. Although this technology is a bit like running Linux in a virtual machine, coLinux differs itself by being more of a merger of Windows and the Linux kernel and not an emulated PC, making it more efficient. Xming is used as X server and PulseAudio as sound server.

andLinux is not just for development and runs almost all Linux applications without modification.

Download andLinux from here.

Alternative Boot Loaders

If you do not wish to use a boot loader, you have several alternatives:

LOADLIN

You can load Linux from MS-DOS. Unfortunately, this requires a copy of the Linux kernel (and an initial RAM disk, if you have a SCSI adapter) to be available on an MS-DOS partition. The only way to accomplish this is to boot your Linux system using some other method (for example, from a boot CD-ROM) and then copy the kernel to an MS-DOS partition. LOADLIN is available from

ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/boot/dualboot/

and associated mirror sites.

SYSLINUX

SYSLINUX is an MS-DOS program very similar to LOADLIN. It is also available from

ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/boot/loaders/

and associated mirror sites.

Commercial boot loaders

You can load Linux using commercial boot loaders. For example, System Commander and Partition Magic are able to boot Linux (but still require GRUB to be installed in your Linux root partition).

Network Configuration Files in RedHat and Fedora

The primary network configuration files are as follows:

/etc/hosts

It can also be used to resolve hostnames on small networks with no DNS server. For more information, refer to the hosts man page.

/etc/resolv.conf

This file specifies the IP addresses of DNS servers and the search domain. For more information about this file, refer to the resolv.conf man page.

/etc/sysconfig/network

This file specifies routing and host information for all network interfaces.

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-

For each network interface, there is a corresponding interface configuration script. Each of these files provide information specific to a particular network interface.

HowTo Install GRUB

If GRUB was not installed during the installation process, it can be installed afterward. Once installed, it automatically becomes the default boot loader.

Before installing GRUB, make sure to use the latest GRUB package available or use the GRUB package from the installation CD-ROMs.

Once the GRUB package is installed, open a root shell prompt and run the command /sbin/grub-install , where is the location that the GRUB Stage 1 boot loader should be installed. For example, the following command installs GRUB to the MBR of the master IDE device on the primary IDE bus:

        /sbin/grub-install /dev/hda

The next time the system boots, the GRUB graphical boot loader menu appears before the kernel loads into memory.

HowTo get information about your filesystem?

At times, you need some information about your file system. There is a utility dumpe2fs which can give you number of information about Linux file system. For example, if you want status of bad blocks on a device containing Linux file system, run dumpe2fs with option –b. It will check for bad blocks and give you information about the bad blocks it finds in a dumped file. Dumpe2fs has various arguments and options and you can get the information you need about your file system for a quick diagnosis. For more information on dumpe2fs, see its man pages.

# dumpe2fs /dev/sda6 | more

Filesystem volume name: Root
Last mounted on:
Filesystem UUID: 85b12d68-aa77-4b03-83d1-63fecf66b276
Filesystem magic number: 0xEF53
Filesystem revision #: 1 (dynamic)
Filesystem features: has_journal resize_inode dir_index filetype needs_recovery sparse_super large_file
Filesystem flags: signed directory hash
Default mount options: (none)
Filesystem state: clean
Errors behavior: Continue
Filesystem OS type: Linux
Inode count: 2496960
Block count: 4992190
Reserved block count: 249609
Free blocks: 1705515
Free inodes: 2079363
First block: 0
Block size: 4096
Fragment size: 4096
Reserved GDT blocks: 1022
Blocks per group: 32768
Fragments per group: 32768
Inodes per group: 16320
Inode blocks per group: 510
Filesystem created: Sun Nov 4 15:53:20 2007
Last mount time: Fri Mar 7 01:29:50 2008
Last write time: Fri Mar 7 01:29:50 2008
Mount count: 10
Maximum mount count: 500
Last checked: Fri Feb 29 03:31:48 2008
Check interval: 5184000 (2 months)
Next check after: Tue Apr 29 03:31:48 2008
Reserved blocks uid: 0 (user root)
Reserved blocks gid: 0 (group root)
First inode: 11
Inode size: 128
Journal inode: 8
First orphan inode: 851245
Default directory hash: tea
Directory Hash Seed: 8c4179e2-9bfb-4d55-a046-ba92f1f2bf88
Journal backup: inode blocks
Journal size: 128M