Run Linux applications natively under Windows

I hate Windows, it sucks. As I say, failure is not an option--it comes bundled with Windows! However, the embarassing truth is that I need it. I can't live without Photoshop and World of Warcraft, and I don't care to try getting them to run on Linux. Additionally, my job requires me to have some form of Linux for the software development environment we use.

I've tried several solutions that would let me utilize Linux and Windows on the same computer, including VMWare, dual-booting the old fashion way, and dual-booting with a wubi-based Ubuntu installation. It's always a pain in the butt and my wireless drivers just don't work right under Linux, so my search for something better never ended.

The solution is a brilliant software package that lets you run Linux applications in Windows without a virtual machine, and it's called andLinux.

AndLinux is a complete Ubuntu Linux installation that runs seamlessly on Windows. This is made possible using the native Windows port of the Linux kernel, coLinux. It's not perfect yet though, so I'd like to shed some light on a few nifty bits of information I have found.

First of all, I installed the lite xfce4 based version. You may be tempted to download the KDE version because it sounds more familar, but wait--it's five times larger and you can do everything you need with the lite version.

After the installation and reboot, you should see a little yin yang icon in your system tray. You can click on this to get a meager list of applications to run on your new Linux-in-Windows installation. This will hardly do. Install an application you want to use (I like gedit) with the Synaptic package manager, and then I will show you how to add it to the menu.

You need to edit C:\Program Files\andLinux\Launcher\menu.txt to change the shortcuts available on the andLinux Menu. Here is a sample and the format:

Root Terminal;xfce4_terminal.ico;xfce4-terminal
<shortcut name>;<icon file>;<linux command>

It's pretty simple. I added a shortcut for gedit (Gnome's Text Editor) by putting:

gedit;xfce4_terminal.ico;gedit

Yea, I know i used the terminal icon. I'm too lazy to go find a decent icon to use.

One of the first big issues I encountered was drive size. My installation defaulted to a size of 2GB, and I need much, much more than that. In order to make your andLinux drive larger, you must perform two steps. The first step is enlarging the container file for the drive, and the second step is enlarging the filesystem to use the whole container.

To enlarge the container, unzip the file C:\Program Files\andLinux\ImageResizeTool.zip, and run the toporesize.bat file. Select your disk drive image, which should be at C:\Program Files\andLinux\Drives\base.drv, and click 'resize file.' Something should happen, and if you get an error message at the end of the process, don't worry just yet.

Next you'll probably have to resize the filesystem to fit the container. Open a Linux terminal from your nifty yin-yang andLinux Menu in the system tray, and type the following commands:

dfree -h
apt-get install ext2online
ext2online /dev/cobd0
dfree -h

You should be all set! -- Update: when I tried to increase my drive size to 20GB, I found out that ext2online has some limitations. If you run into problems when you run ext2online, try the following after increasing the image file size using toporesize. Copy andLinux\Drives\base.drv to base1.drv. Edit andLinux\settings.txt and add cobd2=Drives\base1.drv. Restart andLinux and type ext2resize /dev/cobd2. Shutdown andLinux and move base.drv to base.drv.old. Move base1.drv to base.drv, remove the cobd2 line from settings.txt, and then start andLinux. Voila!

Now you may have noticed when you opened a terminal that it is a root terminal. It's not a good idea to leave it this way--you should create a normal user to do everything except administration tasks. You can find a guide to doing this on the andLinux wiki at http://andlinux.org/wiki/index.php5?title=Quick_Tips#create_a_normal_user.

One of the steps created problems for me, and that was the editing of the /usr/bin/startwindowsterminalsession file. Instead of editing this file, I changed all my shortcuts to start up under my user account. You can start an application under a specific user by adding 'sux - <user>' before the command. Therefore, my command to start gedit is 'sux - jbarton gedit.'