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Installing CoLinux on WindowsXP

This assumes that you don’t already have a Linux installation on a dual-boot machine that you want to use, and are going to install Linux from scratch. If you do already have a working Linux setup, then you can use it. The CoLinux FAQ explains how to configure coLinux on a dual-boot machine

  1. Get a 2nd IP address assigned that you can use on your Windows machine for the colinux interface (assuming you’ve already got one assigned to the main interface)
  2. Download colinux-0.6.2.exe from sourceforge onto the Windows machine.
  3. Run colinux-0.6.2.exe on the Windows machine
  4. By default, this will install into c:\Program Files\coLinux. I prefer it to be in c:\coLinux.
  5. The setup program claims it needs 7.6MB for a complete install including root filesystem.
  6. You’ll be offered a choice of distributions - choose Debian
  7. Decompress the Debian filesystem. You’ll need bunzip2, I used the version from cygwin, but you can, I think, also use the Tugzip Windows program
  8. Edit the default.config.xml, and change root_fs to be your unzipped debian filesystem. (If you don’t do this, you’ll get “Device index not specified” when you try to start colinux.
  9. I also increase “memory size”.
  10. You should now be able to run “colinux-daemon -c default.config.xml” and get a live colinux process.
  11. Login as root and change the default root password from “root”
  12. Edit /etc/network/interfaces and /etc/resolv.conf to set the interface’s IP address, router and default nameserver.
  13. Halt colinux
  14. Setup networking. I used a bridge network between my ethernet and the TAP interface created at the time of colinux install, using the native Windows bridging. (You can also use the WinPCAP option)
  15. Look for new interface in Control Panel. Mine was called “Local Area Connection”, since I’d renamed the original Ethernet to “Ethernet LAN”.
  16. Bridge between this and the external interface
  17. Bring up colinux and login as root.
  18. Once you know it works, install it as a service.

So now you’ve got a running CoLinux installation running Debian Woody.

Now upgrade Debian Woody to Debian Sid

  1. Edit /etc/apt/sources.list and change stable to unstable
  2. apt-get update
  3. apt-get dist-upgrade

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 28th, 2005 at 10:36 am and is filed under colinux, windows xp. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

6 Responses to “Installing CoLinux on WindowsXP”

  1. Tom Purl Says:
    August 9th, 2005 at 2:07 pm

    Great tutorial! Thanks a ton.

  2. Darby Says:
    October 10th, 2005 at 10:20 pm

    I’m having trouble with apt-get update and I think it’s because of my internet setup:

    It’s a router setup and I connect through Local Area Connection 2, and I put all my IP information on there, as well as edit my DNS Servernames. The problem is, it never works. I always get ‘Something wicked happened resolving *yada yada yada*.’

    I also can’t ping anything, so even though it’s set up correctly it still doesn’t work.

    I also can’t bridge between my Local Area Connection 2 and the TAP interfaces that CoLinux installs because I already use Local Area Connection 2 to get my upstairs computer on the internet wirelessly.

    !!

  3. Rodolfoster Says:
    April 5th, 2006 at 6:12 pm

    Just set your lan connection to share the internet connection and “coLinux” connection ip will be set to something like “192.168.0.1″. Now run coLinux console and type on the command line

    ‘nano /etc/network/interfaces’

    you must edit it to look like this:

    auto lo eth0
    iface lo inet loopback
    iface eth0 inet static
    address 192.168.0.100
    gateway 192.168.0.1
    netmask 255.255.255.0

    save it (WriteOut) and exit. Now type on the command line

    ‘nano /etc/resolv.conf’ and insert the line

    ‘nameserver 192.168.0.1′

    save and exit the editor. Now type on the command line

    ‘lodown eth0′ and ‘loup eth0′

    now ping the gateway ‘192.168.0.1′ to be sure it’s working

  4. janantha Says:
    April 27th, 2006 at 3:50 pm

    Im getting this error
    C:\coLinux>colinux-daemon -c default.config.xml
    Cooperative Linux Daemon, 0.6.3
    Compiled on Sun Feb 5 20:25:03 2006

    error loading configuration file ‘default.config.xml’
    daemon: exit code 84a08401
    daemon: error - CO_RC_ERROR_ERROR, line 33, file colinux/os/current/user/file.o
    (37)

    please help… following is my config file… i used WinRAR to expand the Debian archieve which resulted in a single file of capacity 1GB… i put the file inside a folder called “distro” and renamed “root_fs” to “distro”

    –>

    root=/dev/cobd0

    Please show me where im wrong..thanks!

  5. janantha Says:
    April 27th, 2006 at 3:53 pm

    hi i uploaded my config file here

    http://www.janantha.net/colinux.xml
    please let me know where im wrong..thanks !

  6. Cédric Says:
    August 30th, 2006 at 9:26 am

    Hello janantha,

    I had the same error.
    Make sure the file you have modified is default.config.xml and not default.colinux.xml…
    Try also to save it in another name.

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