Booting Fedora from inside windows

[Bill Davidsen]

john wendel wrote:
> 
> Is there a way to boot a real OS on a windows box (without using a VM)?
> 
> I'm looking for a way to boot Fedora on a hostile windows XP box. The 
> windows box is locked down with a BIOS password, won't boot a CD, 
> disabled usb ports, and no way for me to install any windows programs. I 
> believe the Ubuntu thing that runs Linux from windows requires the 
> installation of a windows program, so it won't work in this environment.
> 
Maybe. You may be able to plug in a USB thumb drive and then hit a key at boot 
time which takes you into a "boot manager" which bypasses the locked down BIOS 
choice. Some BIOS configs have it, some don't, some ask for the BIOS password.

If you can plug in a USB drive you can run one of the distributions which run 
using Windows as a microkernel (colinux) and executed off the USB drive. This 
does not use virtualization, at least in the usual sense of a virtual machine, 
and is about as fast as any Linux on bare iron.

There are articles on colinux, microkernel, etc.

-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot