The Labs.Com OS Lab InterOS

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Inter Operating System Approaches

Many OS'es: FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Linux, Solaris, IRIX, MacOS, BeOS, Win3.1, Win95, Win98, WinNT, Win2000 - but how to operate between them?

1. Virtual Machines
2. Virtual Network Computing
3. Emulators
4. Multiple Machines
5. Multi-Boot
6. Win98 + Linux + FreeBSD
7. Remote Booting Multiple OS
8. OS Source
9. Misc. Approaches

Virtualization is one of the new emerging technologies available on PC (it was well known on expensive and large main-frames for long) since the PCs (e.g. x86-based PC) are performance-wise able to virtualize and partially emulate other systems and still be usuable:

VMWare

On a x86 machine vmware allows to run various OS simultaneously on the same hardware (a hostOS is required: Linux, FreeBSD, or WinXX): VMWare.Com Main site Note: You need at least PII 300 to use this (performance wise). The virtual machines boots its own BIOS, and the hostOS can provide a virtual hard-disk, or can use a physical disk too. You actually install your guestOS on your hostOS as if you would have a plain physical machine (check our VMware-section). OSes which we got to work with VMWare: Linux, FreeBSD NetBSD, OpenBSD, QNX, Win95/98. It is definitly recommended this product, it is worth the money.

Plex86

Another approach is Plex86, few guest OSes (DOS, Linux, Win95, NetNSD) are booting, host OS Linux & NetBSD, yet very slow (Dec 2000): Plex86.Org Main site (formely freemware.org) The project is very promising as it provides virtual PC in source-code and therefore a lot of guest- as well host-OSes will become supported as time unfolds.

Linux In Linux

UML (User Mode Linux) is truly a nice piece of software as it allows to run multiple Linux-kernels and filesystem (guest) within on a Linux-machine (host), a feature mainframes have: UML (User Mode Linux) Running Linux in user-mode(space) of Linux; check also UML-user list archive Download a root-filesystem e.g. root_fs_debian2.2_small and make a sym-link  ln -s root_fs_debian2.2_small root_fs  Download the UML-kernel e.g. linux-2.4.0-test12 and execute the kernel  ./linux-2.4.0-test12  The advantage is obvious: great test-bed for other Linux variants fastest virtualization (faster than vmware or plex86) advanced resource accounting: nice the guest-Linux appropriatly on the host true virtualized web-hosting and beside, it prooves the Linux design being consistant in itself. The file-system is a flat-file and easily be backed-up or moved arround on other machines.

FreeBSD in FreeBSD

FreeBSD has a nice feature called jail and enables to run FreeBSD within itself, check man jail: The features: virtual machines (with their own IP) in FreeBSD advanced resource accounting possible for each jailed enviroment Unlike UML does FreeBSD's jail use the host file-system and is accessible easily from the host. See Jail Tools, a toolset we developed for handling jails.

Misc Virtualism

a386 C programming library which provides a virtual machine. The virtual machine is an abstraction of an Intel 386 running in protected mode. Brown Simulator High-level machine simulator intended for operating system prototyping/instruction. x86-64 (IA-64) AMD SimNow! AMD's IA-64 software simulator Win4Lin Windows under Linux (commercial, $$) LINE Running linux-binaries under WinXX (GPL, free) WinaXe X11-server for WinXX (commercial, $$)

InterOS 2. Virtual Network Computing

VNC is based on synchronizing screen-buffer from the server to a client. VNC by ATT/UK has developed VNC-servers for

• X11,
• Win95/NT,
• MacOS,
• and other platforms (3rd party contributions)

and many clients for X11, WinXX, MacOS, and even as Java-applet; this means you can connect with any browser to your machine; VNC seems better supported than the (rather complex) X11 standard (status Feb 2001)

Virtual Network Computing (VNC) Main homepage (GPL source)

WorkSpot.Com Free linux desktop/account via VNC java-applet

InterOS 3. Emulators

Emulators is the slow way to run an alternate OS:

MacOS

To run MacOS under Unix, BeOS or even WinXX: Basilisk II: MacOS for Unix/BeOs/WinXX Open source MacOS 68k emulator (requires MacOS ROM) compile it, get yourself the disk-image (e.g. MacOS 7.5.5), and the MacOS ROM too (either 512K or 1MB). More info in MacOS-section. Fun: Download MacVNC, and run Basilisk II under WinXX, on the WinXX start the VNC-server, then start within the Mac/Basilisk-II the MacVNC (full-screen) and . . . you will happen is a cascading recursive mirror-in-mirror . . . MacVNC views itself through Basilisk! If you have an PPC and you run Linux, consider this Mac on Linux Run MacOS under Linux on a PPC (great feature!)

PalmPilot

PDA Lab: PalmPilot XCopilot, PlamOS under X11

Others

OpenDirectory: Emulators Overview

InterOS 4. Multiple Machines

The easiest approach is when you dedicate several machines to different OS'es. My recommendation is to get so called "all-in-one" boards which have video, sound and sometimes LAN (ethernet) on-board, e.g. Shuttle-599 "all-in-one" motherboard (video+sound on-board) (May 2000) with K6-2/500, with 64MB or 128MB DIMM, and 10/15/20GB IDE for less than $400 all for each machine. Also (Jan 2001) ASUS-CUSI-FX "all-in-one" (video+sound+ethernet on-board) with Celeron 700 and 20GB IDE for ~$360 each (no case, no kb/mouse or monitor).

Together with an 4x or 8x KVM Switch (check iogear.com for 4x or 8x switches incl. cables): one screen, keyboard and mouse to multiple machines:

• Server: NFS (Network File System), Samba (NFS for WinXX), DNS (Domain Name Service), NAT (Network Address Translation)
• Workstation: Programming and graphic-design
• Lab-machine: multi-OS boot for testing releases, distributions and experimental kernels

InterOS Example Some sample installation

MultiHead Some infos on running multiple monitors

x86 PC Some general infos on building a PC

InterOS 5. Multi-Boot: Win98 + Linux + FreeBSD

Here a procedure for a three-OS machine:

1. boot Linux-Debian CD, make four partitions: 1) vfat (type=0c), 2) bsd/386 (type=a5), 3) linux (type=83), 4) linux-swap (type=82)
2. install Linux-Debian on 3rd partition (it will recognize it automatically), install LILO on root-filesystem (not on the MBR!)
3. install Win98 from CD, it will use the first partition and format it, go through all til done (Win98 may host QNX, MacOS Emulator, BeOS 5)
4. install FreeBSD from CD:
   • fdisk will show freebsd-partition, don't alter anything
   • disklabel will show DOS parition, leave it untouched; add swap-space (twice your physical memory) plus root-filesystem (to keep it simple), it will put it within the 2nd partition (Note: FreeBSD partition(s) live within a slice; a slice is a partition in Linux/Windows terminology).
   • install boot-loader on MBR, it will recognize the DOS & Linux automatically:

     F1   Windows

     F2   FreeBSD

     F3   Linux

     Default: F1

It will take you aprx. 3hrs to install all three OSes, assuming you are experienced with all three OS installs. More experiences and details you find in InterOS Example.

InterOS 6. Remote Booting Multiple OS

An even more flexible solution is to boot machines diskless from a server which provides the OS. Yet, not all OSes provide diskless operation (such as WinXX, BeOS), most UNIX'es do allow diskless operation.

FreeBSD Diskless Our own section

A disk-dump/boot where the OS-image (the content of an OS including applications is stored as one large file aka as disk-image) approach is

Remote OS-Booting HowTo Booting various OS'es

How It Works

To sum up the functionality: the server has the disk-image (e.g. 200MB) of an OS with the minimal configuration of a working OS; once the client boots the server provides this image and it will be unpacked on the local disk of the client and then booted. The user data are either provided by SAMBA (for WinXX systems) or ordinary NFS for UNIX-based OSes.

OS-image

The OS-image is created with tools (e.g. mrzip) available at the above mentioned URL, this image you can store on the server. Use one test machine to install your OS you like to boot remotely, and generate from each OS a disk-image. Be conscious of is about the hardware configuration, as some OS (e.g. WinXX or even Linux) are very picky about different client-hardware configurations, therefore the OS-image should be made with the idea of supporting as many different hardware configurations as possible to be flexible by the time.

Advantage

The advantage is that the OS is in a defined state and can only altered temporarly by the client as it runs a copy of the OS-image from the server, and the client cannot alter the original on the server, only the user data are on the server read/writeable. Additionally almost every PC-based OS can be booted this way: WinXX, QNX, BeOS, *BSD, Linux.

Disadvantage

The disadvantage is that the very first booting of an OS can take up at least 90secs til 100MB compressed image is transfered to the client on a 100Mbit ethernet network, for the entire booting may use up to 5 mins (fast-format, dumping OS-image).

InterOS 7. OS Source

For the people who have a fast link to the net . . .

OS Lab Brief overview of some OSes	LinuxISO.Org ISO Images of common Linux & *BSD distributions (SuSE & Mandrake are the best May 2000)	Kernel.Org Linux Kernel archive - unix workstation & multimedia
FreeBSD.Org Homepage - server appliance	NetBSD.Org Homepage - server appliance	OpenBSD.Org Homepage - server appliance
BeBits.Com BeOS Resource center	Sun: Solaris Solaris 8.x - reliable server	OS Opinion.Com News site about OS'es
FreeOS.Com Free OS news site	Nick Rozanski: Multi Boot Very good info about multios partitioning (a bit outdated though)

InterOS 8. Misc. Approaches

Other approaches worth to be mentioned:

Java Telnet Applet Fully featured telnet applet

MindTerm Another java-applet telnet/ssh

                                                                                                                                   

MacOS

OS Lab

Qemu