[vox] Installing Linux in a file inside a Windows parition (Was Re: Need to use a computer running Linux for 1-2 hours)

[Gilbert Coville]

On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 11:39:44AM -0700, Gabriel G. Rosa wrote:
> On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 11:28:26AM -0700, Bill Kendrick wrote:
> > On Sun, May 11, 2008 at 09:35:09PM -0700, Gabriel G. Rosa wrote:
> > > I'd recommend saving media, and going with QEMU[1] or Virtualbox[2]
> > > (both of which run on windows) and installing a throw-away distribution[3]
> > 
> > I hear that Ubuntu's installer now comes with a feature that lets you use
> > some space in your Windows partition as a 'host' for your Linux installation,
> > therefore removing the need to repartition the drive, or install a second
> > drive.  That's pretty hot.
> > 
> > Anyone got a link to the technology behind that? (I'm guessing it's not
> > Ubuntu-specific, but just something they happen to be using and touting.)
> > 
> 
> Heh. I remember being able to do something similar in 1996 on some
> floppy-based distro I don't even remember the name of. You could put the
> entire install in a DOS directory, and it would do some translation magic
> to map it to look like a unix fs. You could boot directly from DOS too
> (or use a boot floppy).
> 
> That's about all I remember.
> 
> -Gabe

Yes, I remember this.  It was called UMSDOS.  It was a filesystem module
that could be configured into the kernel that would allow you to use a
part of your DOS disk for your linux filesystem.  Extra filesystem data
was kept in an especially oddly named DOS file.  Many of the very early
distros: sls, slackware, yggdrasil, etc. would include this option.

UMSDOS was removed from the kernel tree some time back because it wasn't
being maintained.

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umsdos

Gilbert