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eComStation running like WUBI

Started by miturbide, 2011.08.09, 19:10:05

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miturbide

Hi

I don't know if you guys are familiar with WUBI. It is an kind of installer, that installs Ubuntu inside a Windows partition and add Ubuntu as a boot option on the Windows 7 boot manager.

It is not virtualizing. When you turn your computer it loads the windows boot manager asks you if you want to run Windows or Ubuntu. So, it is a way of dual boot, but the ubuntu image is on a Windows directory. "C:\ubuntu\disks\root.disk". So Ubuntu has control of all the hardware, with the exception of the HDD, which is running inside an image file (which in part degrade HDD performance).  But is good to have dual boot without resizing the windows partitions for non-critical systems.

With EasyBCD tool for Windows I started to to play around with the boot manager and find out that some OS/2 and eComStation ISO can also boot the same way, which will be interesting to install eCS on a Windows machine without virtualization and without resizing the HDD partitions.

It also can be interesting to have a new way to install eCS on Windows machine (like Ubuntu)
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WubiGuide#Where_is_the_source_code.3F


I'm just wondering what kind of image file format is "root.disk" to try a full install of eComStation inside an image file.
Martín Itúrbide
OS2World.com NewsMaster
Open Source Advocate

Skype - martiniturbide
Google Talk - martiniturbide@gmail.com

Mike

Hi Martin,
not sure if it was WUBI but I"ve seen something like this or slightly different option soem time ago. In case its inside the foreign OS partition its ok as long nothing gets damaged  ;)

cytan

Interesting ... can you post instructions?

miturbide

Hi cytan

In fact it is not a complex procedure. It is more on just grabbing EasyBCD and installing it on Windows.
Then you can tweak it to point it to a ISO file with some OS/2 image on it. I had made some tests with OSFree and other OS/2 image.

Check the screenshots to give you and idea.

This config (boot2.jpg and boot3.jpg) will add a new option on the Windows Boot manager to load the ISO images.
Martín Itúrbide
OS2World.com NewsMaster
Open Source Advocate

Skype - martiniturbide
Google Talk - martiniturbide@gmail.com

Radek

I am not sure what is WUBI supposed to solve. AFAIK, it installs an operating system, booted by the host boot manager, but instead of being installed on a HD, it has an image file on a host HD. Therefore, the guest operating system needs drivers for managing the host hardware - which it (eCS) does not have. If it had the drivers then why installing it as a loop device?

The only advantage of WUBI like installation seems to be no need for additional partitions. But then, why not install eCS into a virtual machine? You do not need additional partitions as well. And it is a "classical" solution. Instead of a WUBI like installer, you woud need "additions" for most used virtual machines.

miturbide

Hi Radek

Wubi is exactly what you say.  It is good alternative for a Dual Boot, if you don't want to use a Virtual Machine. You have access to real hardware compared to a Virtual Machine. It is just a different thing.

About the "additions" for virtual machines, it will be a good idea (or desirable) to improve the Mouse/Network/Shared Folders drivers to run on the most common Virtual Machines (VirtualBox, VmWare)... I wonder if Sun/Innotek ever released the source code for the VirtualBox  OS/2 add-on drivers when it was open source. I think not.
Martín Itúrbide
OS2World.com NewsMaster
Open Source Advocate

Skype - martiniturbide
Google Talk - martiniturbide@gmail.com

abwillis

The WUBI systems I used are Read Only to the harddrive.  They run from a memory disk and anything installed is lost at boot.  It is possible there are read/write versions now as I don't really see that documented anymore.
Andy

miturbide

Hi Andy.

Wubi with Ubuntu 11 (and 10) it is not read only. It install an HDD image file inside the Windows file system... it boots on real hardware and any change you made it is stored inside the image. The files or any change it is not removed on the next boot.

It is like a dual boot, but running inside an hdd image file (sure, some HDD performance is lost)

Here it is the documentation.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WubiGuide
Martín Itúrbide
OS2World.com NewsMaster
Open Source Advocate

Skype - martiniturbide
Google Talk - martiniturbide@gmail.com

miturbide

By the way.. SplashTopOS does a similar thing (but without wubi).
http://www.splashtop.com/os

Directly from the installer, it installs the OS and put the option on the Windows 7 Boot manager.
Martín Itúrbide
OS2World.com NewsMaster
Open Source Advocate

Skype - martiniturbide
Google Talk - martiniturbide@gmail.com