The other day I had a task to install some avtaar of Linux on an WinXP machine. One of my friend wanted to get started with Linux. He wanted to do some hands-on running, various commands, get hold of some basics of how Linux works, and gradually some further details like file system, Linux daemons, networking stuff in Linux and so forth.
Need was to install Linux on top of host OS WinXP, so that he can keep working on XP and switch to Linux for doing some hands on, etc. etc. The desktop he was running was bit out of time. 128 MB ram and 500 mhz of CPU. And on top of this we have a mammoth WinXP running.
VMWare was there to create a virtual machine on top of which the I was to install some distribution of Linux. Redhat was big bloat (4 disc for FEDORA) plus lot of space to set up whole thing, plus it will be killer to the CPU. So the idea was to get hold of some mini Linux distribution, which does not take whole lot of space and can get installed quickly.
I came across a roster of mini Linux distribution. But there was this BeatrIX which clicked to me. BeatrIX was cool piece of Linux bundling (<200 MB) with no need to setup since it runs directly boots from the CD. It has all the pieces which one would need to get started with Linux: Gnome, text editor, browser, terminal etc. etc.)
I downloaded the ISO image of BeatrIX. Instead of burning it to CD, I set of my VMWare CDROM to read this iso image file. And that’s it. The whole thing took less the 30 minutes. Just to recap the whole recipe:
1. Download VMWare Workstation 5 for Windows. Install it. Register and get the evaluation license key from the VMWare site (mind that its just for 30 days).
2. Download BeatrIX to some location under your file system.
3. Launch VMWare. Create a virtual machine as “Other Linux Distribution Kernel2.6.. “.
4. Modify the CD Rom device in VMWare to read from the ISO image and specify the file location to the downloaded copy of BeatrIX.
5. That’s it. Click Start. You have your Linux set up. The BeatrIX Linux OS does not need any installation since its boots up directly from CD.
By the way, BeatrIX seems to be have built and inspired by interesting set of people and cats. Check this out there site.
Monday, June 06, 2005
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1 comment:
Hi umi,
well, there are other linux flavours also which will give you same facility as well as compactness. like gentoo , ubuntu, knoppix etc.
Anyways, i must appreciate the way you maintain your blog. though, most of the article are not of concern to me.. the way you write is pretty good. keep up the spirit man..
"Your mouse has moved. Windows NT must be restarted for the change to take effect. Reboot now? [ OK ] "
--saurabh
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