[TriLUG] Running Winders XP in Linux

Joseph Tate dragonstrider at gmail.com
Sat Dec 13 20:57:39 EST 2008


KVM (aka qemu-kvm) is way easy.  It's included in decent builds of
recent kernels, and it can use physical devices:

qemu-kvm -hda /dev/sda1.  Where you're going to have problems is the
license/activation of winblows.  Also, before you try this, you need
to boot Winders into safe mode, go into the device manager and remove
every single device.  Since the old Mobo is dead, you may not be able
to do this without a reinstall anyway: Windows loses its mind if you
swap the chipset/mobo, and goes into an eternal blue screen loop.  At
least it did 6 years ago with XP SP1.  Not even safe mode can save
you.  As for re-activation, you still have to do it, unless you have
access to a VLP version of XP.

But, you should also check to see if your applications run under wine.
 It really is amazingly good.  I can even use my favorite DVD
ripping/resampling app.

Linux can mount NTFS volumes, in Read Only mode if you're paranoid, so
that you can retrieve your data.

On Sat, Dec 13, 2008 at 7:48 PM, Neil L. Little <nllittle at embarqmail.com> wrote:
> In my next step of transition toward being winders free, I want to run a
> XP installation as a virtual machine on a Linux box. (ok, the original
> winders box (mobo) died and I dont want to have to go through the pain
> of getting it activated again after I have replaced the Mobo, the
> Processor, the video card, ok the only thing that remains the same is
> the hard drive and the case itself.). Another reason for doing this has
> to do with the applications I had on the system as well as a lot of
> other files I still need (Like my original resume files, email contacts
> and the like).
>
> As this is my first attempt at using virtualization ever and I see that
> there are more than one choice (QEMU, KVM, OpenVZ etc.), so which
> application is going to allow me to set this all up with the least pain?
>
> The system is on the original hard drive (Formatted as NTFS).
> The Linux distribution used will be Ubuntu (or rather the Kubutu KDE
> desktop environment).
>
> I seem to remember that there was a program or two presented at a Trilug
> meeting in the past but all those old notes and emails from the
> discussion list, reside (you guessed it) on the Winders machine.
>
> So I need to pointed in a direction where I can find a "How To" or
> something of the sort that will tell me about:
> 1. Making an Image of that Winders hard drive
> 2. Installing a virtual machine application on Ubuntu
> 3. Getting that XP installation running in the virtual machine
>
> As always, thanks for the help in advance.
>
> 73,
> Neil, WA4AZL
> www.jars.net
>
>
> --
> TriLUG mailing list        : http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug
> TriLUG FAQ  : http://www.trilug.org/wiki/Frequently_Asked_Questions
>



-- 
Joseph Tate
Personal e-mail: jtate AT dragonstrider DOT com
Web: http://www.dragonstrider.com



More information about the TriLUG mailing list