Original author(s) | Dan Aloni |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Community |
Initial release | January 25, 2004; 15 years ago |
Stable release | |
Operating system | Windows NT family |
Type | Platform virtualization |
License | GNU General Public License |
Website | colinux.org |
Before we even get into this method, you should be aware that this only works on 32bit Windows, 64bit isn’t even supported. This method is more commonly known as coLinux which stands for Cooperative Linux. You can run Linux natively alongside Windows, and it’s much faster than your virtual machine.
Cooperative Linux, abbreviated as coLinux, is software which allows Microsoft Windows and the Linux kernel to run simultaneously in parallel on the same machine.[3]
Cooperative Linux utilizes the concept of a Cooperative Virtual Machine (CVM). In contrast to traditional virtual machines, the CVM shares resources that already exist in the host OS. In traditional VM hosts, resources are virtualized for every (guest) OS. The CVM gives both OSs complete control of the host machine while the traditional VM sets every guest OS in an unprivileged state to access the real machine.
Overview[edit]
Synaptic and nautilus running on Windows
The term 'cooperative' is used to describe two entities working in parallel. In effect Cooperative Linux turns the two different operating system kernels into two big coroutines. Each kernel has its own complete CPU context and address space, and each kernel decides when to give control back to its partner.
However, while both kernels theoretically have full access to the real hardware, modern PC hardware is not designed to be controlled by two different operating systems at the same time. Therefore, the host kernel is left in control of the real hardware and the guest kernel contains special drivers that communicate with the host and provide various important devices to the guest OS. The host can be any OS kernel that exports basic primitives that allow the Cooperative Linux portable driver to run in CPL0 mode (ring 0) and allocate memory.[4]
![Windows 7 64 bit free download Windows 7 64 bit free download](https://screenshots.en.sftcdn.net/en/scrn/67000/67232/xming-33.jpg)
History[edit]
Dan Aloni originally started the development of Cooperative Linux based on similar work with User-mode Linux. He announced the development on 25 Jan 2004.[5] In July 2004 he presented a paper at the Linux Symposium.[6] The source was released under the GNU General Public License. Other developers have since contributed various patches and additions to the software.
Comparisons[edit]
Cooperative Linux is significantly different from full x86 virtualization, which generally works by running the guest OS in a less privileged mode than that of the host kernel, and having all resources delegated by the host kernel. In contrast, Cooperative Linux runs a specially modified Linux kernel that is Cooperative in that it takes responsibility for sharing resources with the NT kernel and not instigating race conditions.
Distribution[edit]
Most of the changes in the Cooperative Linux patch are on the i386 tree—the only supported architecture for Cooperative at the time of this writing. The other changes are mostly additions of virtual drivers: cobd (block device), conet (network), and cocon (console). Most of the changes in the i386 tree involve the initialization and setup code. It is a goal of the Cooperative Linux kernel design to remain as close as possible to the standalone i386 kernel, so all changes are localized and minimized as much as possible.
The coLinux package installs a port of the Linux kernel and a virtual network device and can run simultaneously under a version of the Windows operating system such as Windows 2000 or Windows XP. It does not use a virtual machine such as VMware.
Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora and Gentoo are especially popular with the coLinux users.
Due to the rather unusual structure of the virtual hardware, installing Linux distributions under coLinux is generally difficult. Therefore, users in most cases use either an existing Linux installation on a real partition or a ready made filesystem image distributed by the project. The filesystem images are made by a variety of methods, including taking images of a normal Linux system, finding ways to make installers run with the strange hardware, building up installs by hand using the package manager or simply upgrading existing images using tools like yum and apt. An easier way to get an up-to-date filesystem image is to use QEMU to install Linux and 'convert' the image by stripping off the first 63 512-byte blocks as described in the coLinux wiki.
Since coLinux does not have access to native graphics hardware, X Window or X Servers will not run under coLinux directly, but one can install[7] an X Server under Windows, such as Cygwin/X or Xming and use KDE or GNOME and almost any other Linux application and distribution. All of these issues are fixed by using coLinux based distributions such as andLinux, based on Ubuntu, or TopologiLinux, based on Slackware.
Emulated hardware[edit]
- Ethernet network via TAP, PCAP, NDIS and SLiRP.
Limitations[edit]
- Does not yet support 64-bit Windows or Linux (nor utilize more than 4GB memory), but a port is under development[8] by the community. A sponsor was willing to complete the port, but the job got cancelled[9].
- No multi-processor (SMP) support. Linux applications and the underlying kernel are able to use only one CPU.[10]
See also[edit]
- Topologilinux, a Slackware-based coLinux distribution
- andLinux, a Ubuntu-based coLinux distribution
References[edit]
- ^http://www.colinux.org/?section=status
- ^http://www.colinux.org/?section=status
- ^coLinux main website
- ^http://colinux.org/ coLinux main page
- ^Dan Aloni announces Cooperative Linux
- ^Dan Aloni paper presented July 2004 at Linux Symposium
- ^See 'XCoLinux' on the coLinux Wikia
- ^64 bit development information and resources
- ^Status of sponsored 64 bit port
- ^coLinux FAQ
External links[edit]
- Official website
- Cooperative Linux on SourceForge.net
- Virtualization with coLinux a developerWorks by M. Tim Jones
- Portable Ubuntu Remix, another Ubuntu-based coLinux distribution
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cooperative_Linux&oldid=815343055'
streetfighter 2
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1) The most obvious solution was to unplug the HD and plug it into another linux box then transfer the files over the network. I didn't want to do this because the only dedicated linux box I have is my laptop and it doesn't have an extra SATA port accessible. I could use a USB adapter but transferring 100GB through USB is brutally slow...
2) I could easily use one of my many bootable linux discs to get access to the partition and send it over the network. I didn't do this because I wanted to go with option 3.
3) What I would like most is a driver or utility that would give me access to ext3 in Windows 7 x64. I assumed this option would be the best bet because it would certainly be useful in the future. I also observed that there was a great deal of file system support in OS X and linux. Therefore my assumption, that adding ext3/ext4 support to Win7 would be trivial, was fatally flawed.
![Bit Bit](http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/109878/460292856.25/0_1ff1ee_c84bc784_orig.png)
After googling the subject for a while and fooling around in VMs I found that there were a lot of different software solutions and none of them were remotely close to ideal. A brief outline of my discoveries is below:
Name | Cost | Type | DetailsDiskInternals Linux Reader | FREE | Standalone | Attempted to test but the application would hang at startup while scanning HDDs. Other people have reported that this utility works in Windows 7 x64. This utility provides read only access. I'm not sure if it ignores permissions.
Explore2fs | FREE (GPL) | Standalone | Works great for me in Windows 7 x64. Provides decent transfer speed and apparently supports both read and write ability. Ignores permissions so you can get access to every file on the partition. Does not appear to support ext4.
Ext2Read | FREE (GPL) | Standalone | I didn't get to testing this one. Apparently does not support x64 and it doesn't list Win7 as compatible...
Paragon ExtBrowser | FREE | Standalone | Tested and worked decently on Windows 7 x64 but it had lots of issues. Firstly it seems to have trouble navigating back to a parent directory and you have to start over from root. Secondly, and most importantly, it doesn't ignore permissions so you can't get any files out of your home directory... This utility provides read only access.
Ext2Fsd | FREE (GPL) | Driver based | I didn't get to testing this one. I've read that some people did get it working in Windows 7 though apparently the drivers are not signed for Windows 7 (so it must have been done in the testing mode thingy dealie). Apparently it does not support ext4. As far as I can tell it does not preserve permissions.
Ext Installable File System | FREE | Drive based | This driver does NOT support Win7 x64, ext4 or ext3 partitions with inode size greater than 128 (which is most). Since it works with Vista x64 I gave it a whirl anyway and installed it in a VM with Win7 x64. If you want to try it for yourself (advanced users only) rename the exe file with the rar extension then unzip it and install the Nt6_inst.inf and restart your computer/VM. You can then use the ifsdrives_x64.exe utility to assign drive letters to your ext3 drives with inode size of 128. As far as I can tell it does not preserve permissions.
Ext3 via CoLinux | FREE | Emulation based | I haven't tried this yet but I probably will eventually give it a shot in a VM. Unfortunately this strategy is a bit like bringing a howitzer to a Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots fight.
Explore2fs | FREE (GPL) | Standalone | Works great for me in Windows 7 x64. Provides decent transfer speed and apparently supports both read and write ability. Ignores permissions so you can get access to every file on the partition. Does not appear to support ext4.
Ext2Read | FREE (GPL) | Standalone | I didn't get to testing this one. Apparently does not support x64 and it doesn't list Win7 as compatible...
Paragon ExtBrowser | FREE | Standalone | Tested and worked decently on Windows 7 x64 but it had lots of issues. Firstly it seems to have trouble navigating back to a parent directory and you have to start over from root. Secondly, and most importantly, it doesn't ignore permissions so you can't get any files out of your home directory... This utility provides read only access.
Ext2Fsd | FREE (GPL) | Driver based | I didn't get to testing this one. I've read that some people did get it working in Windows 7 though apparently the drivers are not signed for Windows 7 (so it must have been done in the testing mode thingy dealie). Apparently it does not support ext4. As far as I can tell it does not preserve permissions.
Ext Installable File System | FREE | Drive based | This driver does NOT support Win7 x64, ext4 or ext3 partitions with inode size greater than 128 (which is most). Since it works with Vista x64 I gave it a whirl anyway and installed it in a VM with Win7 x64. If you want to try it for yourself (advanced users only) rename the exe file with the rar extension then unzip it and install the Nt6_inst.inf and restart your computer/VM. You can then use the ifsdrives_x64.exe utility to assign drive letters to your ext3 drives with inode size of 128. As far as I can tell it does not preserve permissions.
Ext3 via CoLinux | FREE | Emulation based | I haven't tried this yet but I probably will eventually give it a shot in a VM. Unfortunately this strategy is a bit like bringing a howitzer to a Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots fight.
As you can see it's not nearly as easy as adding NTFS support to OS X or Linux... I'm not above paying for a proper kernel mode driver that has ext3/ext4 support but I honestly couldn't find one for sale!
If anyone has any suggestions, comments, criticism or clever insults please let 'em fly. Thanks!