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king_kilr · Fri Sep 14, 2007 9:01 pm

What is the best way to run Linux inside of windows(some sort of virtualization I should think)? I do web development and I'm looking at getting into python/django and looking through set up instructions Windows looks to have minimal support, up and until now I have been running a WAMP install, although I know enough Linux to get LAMPP(python and PHP) set up.

Heiwashin · Fri Sep 14, 2007 9:05 pm

You could try either using Vmware to run a virtual os or cygwin if it'd meet your needs.

king_kilr · Fri Sep 14, 2007 9:57 pm

VMware looks rather expensive, I was hoping there would be a free option.

Fri Sep 14, 2007 10:10 pm

How about a "cheap 'n' cheerful" Linux box? If you use a motherboard with IGP, you don't even need a video card (or even a monitor, if you access it solely via a remote desktop like XDMCP or VNC). If you've got a reasonably well-stocked junk closet, you might even be able to build one for free.

mattsteg · Fri Sep 14, 2007 10:19 pm

king_kilr wrote:
VMware looks rather expensive, I was hoping there would be a free option.

VMware server isn't expensive. It's free.

king_kilr · Fri Sep 14, 2007 10:49 pm

mattsteg wrote:
king_kilr wrote:
VMware looks rather expensive, I was hoping there would be a free option.
VMware server isn't expensive. It's free.

Doh, I was looking at VMworkstation. How difficult is it set up?

Unfortunately I don't have the junk closet to set up another rig, and the only linux running system in the house is running MythTV and its a communal system so if I do something bad/need to take it down to play with it/bork mythweb I'm going to piss people off.

Fri Sep 14, 2007 11:12 pm

king_kilr wrote:
Unfortunately I don't have the junk closet to set up another rig, and the only linux running system in the house is running MythTV and its a communal system so if I do something bad/need to take it down to play with it/bork mythweb I'm going to piss people off.

Yeah, nothing like borking your family's IT infrastructure to get on everyone's sh*t list! :lol:

I wouldn't think you'd need to be rebooting the box much (or even restarting the Apache service), once you've gotten the basic configuration set up the way you want. Unlike Windows, Linux generally doesn't require reboots when stuff changes. The main concern would be system load... if there isn't a lot of performance headroom, I suppose MythTV might drop frames here and there if other stuff puts a heavy load on the system.

king_kilr · Fri Sep 14, 2007 11:32 pm

The machines hardware is passable(s939 sempron I believe), the likelihood of me breaking something, badly, is high. My Linux experience is limited to setting up that machine, anything beyond that is scary, so this is sort of a venture out in the deep blue for me

. I'll probably be checking out VMware once I get back home, for know I'm loading up MythWeb :wink:

mattsteg · Fri Sep 14, 2007 11:34 pm

just brew it! wrote:
king_kilr wrote:
Unfortunately I don't have the junk closet to set up another rig, and the only linux running system in the house is running MythTV and its a communal system so if I do something bad/need to take it down to play with it/bork mythweb I'm going to piss people off.

Yeah, nothing like borking your family's IT infrastructure to get on everyone's sh*t list!

I wouldn't think you'd need to be rebooting the box much (or even restarting the Apache service), once you've gotten the basic configuration set up the way you want. Unlike Windows, Linux generally doesn't require reboots when stuff changes. The main concern would be system load... if there isn't a lot of performance headroom, I suppose MythTV might drop frames here and there if other stuff puts a heavy load on the system.

I'd think the main concern might be screwing up mythweb by breaking apache.

king_kilr · Fri Sep 14, 2007 11:53 pm

Breaking apache is likely, so is creating an infinite loop and stealing all the CPU cycles(accidentally).

Sat Sep 15, 2007 12:09 am

mattsteg wrote:
I'd think the main concern might be screwing up mythweb by breaking apache.

Agreed.

But you can mitigate this if you simply make a backup of your httpd.conf file before you make any changes. Worst case is you need to restore the old httpd.conf and restart Apache.

Usacomp2k3 · Sat Sep 15, 2007 12:58 am

I prefer VirtualPC to VMware personally. It might not be as powerful, but it's very straightforward and easier for me to work with.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/produc ... fault.mspx

Heiwashin · Sat Sep 15, 2007 1:00 am

Usacomp2k3 wrote:
I prefer VirtualPC to VMware personally. It might not be as powerful, but it's very straightforward and easier for me to work with.

I hear that alot, never tried it myself though.

lex-ington · Sat Sep 15, 2007 5:41 am

Take a look at http://www.xensource.com , see how you like that.

thecoldanddarkone · Sat Sep 15, 2007 9:25 am

Another free one is Virtual Box.

Sat Sep 15, 2007 7:05 pm

Rather than doing a full VM, if you just need a LAMP stack then take a look at Cooperative Linuxwhich can run the Linux kernel as a process on Windows. I would recommend the Debian-4.0r0-etch.ext3.1gb.bz2 root filesystem image as you should be able to apt-get everything you need quickly and easily.

Whatever you setup, remember to setup the networking and you probably want it in bridged mode so that it appears like another computer on your network and will be able to download patches and other software from the internet.

king_kilr · Sat Sep 15, 2007 7:32 pm

I was going to use Ubuntu server so that I can just set it up in LAMP mode and then all I have to add is mod_python, SVN, and django. I'm sure I'll be back asking for how to set up various things once I have VMserver installed.

Hance · Sat Sep 15, 2007 8:16 pm

It isnt exactly what you are looking for but Wubi will let you install Ubuntu as a program under windows. You would have to reboot to run linux but you would end up with basically a full linux install. http://wubi-installer.org/

king_kilr · Sat Sep 15, 2007 9:16 pm

Hance wrote:
It isnt exactly what you are looking for but Wubi will let you install Ubuntu as a program under windows. You would have to reboot to run linux but you would end up with basically a full linux install. http://wubi-installer.org/

I was actually running that for a while, however I prefer to do actual code writing in Windows, plus I have a whole host of other things that I need, and I hate to restart.

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