The
cooperative linux will be the next boom in linux.Inorder to
understand what is
colinux or cooperative
Linux ,one should know the
answers to the following questions.So before starting with the
cooperative linux i like to explain the following things.
1)What is a
Virtual machine?
2)What is it used for?
3)what make it different from a normal machine?
4)What are its advantages?
5)What are the different types of virtual machines?
Popek and Goldberg were the first to define a virtual
machine.They defined it as the as an efficient, isolated duplicate of a
real machine.The
virtual machines can be classified into two major
categories.The first one is System Virtual Machine and the second one
is the Process Virtual Machine. The System Virtual Machine supports the
execution of a complete operating system whereas the Process Virtual
Machine is designed to run a single program, that is it supports a
single process.System Virtual Machine
System Virtual Machines are also called Hardware Virtual
Machines.Each virtual machines ahs its own operating system.There is a
software layer that is used to run different operating systems on a
host computer at the same time.This software is called the
hypervisor.The hypervisor is also called Virtual Machine Monitor.
The main advantages of virtual machines are:
1)In a virtual machine there are many
os in which we can switch to different OS without restarting the machine or rebooting .
2)The virtual machine has its own instruction Set Architecture which is different from the ISA
of real machine.
The virtual machine has a host OS and guest OS.The Os of the physcal
machine is called the Host OS and using this OS we are creating many
guest OS
Each VM on the same physical machine contains different OS.The
different services that used to run on individual machines in order to
avoid interference, are instead run in separate VMs on the same
physical machine. This use is frequently called quality-of-service
isolation (QoS isolation).
Process Virtual Machine
The Process Virtual Machine is also called an Application Virtual
Machine.It supports a single process .It runs as a normal application
inside an OS.It is created when that process is started and destroyed
when that process exit.Every program needs a platform to run.The
Platform is a set of hardware architecture which enables the program to
run.The purpose of the Process Virtual Machine is to provide platform
independent programming environment.
HOW VIRTUALIZATION WORKS?
VIrtualization is the current boom in the software field.VMware is a
company that provides virtualization software for x86-compatible
computers.virtual machine has its own cpu which is isolated from other
virtual machines.Each virtual cpu has its own registers,buffers and
control structures.If the host system or the physical machine is intel
x86 based then the guest OS will use an intel x86 architecture,the same
goes for all other compatable processors like AMD etc.The x86 computer
hardware which is the very powerful .The Vmware software is used to
transform the hardware resources of a computer ,say it be a x86 based
hardware to a completely software part.This transformation is also
called the "Virtualization".This hardware resources includes the
RAM,CPU,HARDDISK etc.Thus in brief there would be only one physical
machine but many virtual machines.But the main advantage of it is that
the harware part that these virtual machines share should not get
interfere with each other.
COOPERATIVE LINUX
The Cooperative
Linux is also called Colinux.The word cooperative is used to denote two
bodies working in parallel.The colinux allows one to run linux freely
on Windows 2000/XP without using the pc virtualization software known
as the VMWARE Software.There is a company called VMware inc which
markets two virtualization products for servers: VMware ESX Server and
VMware Server.VM stands for virtual machine.In traditional VMs there is
a host OS and guest OS and these guest OS are in an unprivileged mode
to control the real machine.In this case the resources are also
virtualised for every OS.But in the case of cooperative linux,it gives
both the OS complete control of the host machine. The guest kernel
which contain special drivers is used to communicate with the host and
provide various important devices to the guest OS.The comparisons
between the Colinux and traditional VM is shown below:
1) In traditional VM the guest OS is in a less privileged mode than
that of the host kernel whereas in Colinux the guest OS and host OS has
complete control over the real machine.
2)The stability and security of Colinux is far behind than the traditional VM.
If it is unstable then it has the potential to crash the
system.Acquiring root user access on a Cooperative Linux machine can
potentially lead to root on the host machine.It will be a great benefit
for the attackers who hack the root password. Steps To Install colinux
1) Download the latest installer from the colinux website and run it under windows.
2) Winpcap* should be downloaded and installed.
Winpcap is a tool for link layer network access in windows environment.It
allows applications to capture and transmit network packets.some of the
features of Winpcap are the following:
winpcap is
a)Free
Winpcap is free to use and modify.It is relesed under BSD open source license.
b)Popular
It is free as it is used by many tools.Some of the tools that are using
winpcap for network access are sniffers, traffic generators, network
testers, etc.
c)High Performance
Winpcap has very good performance compaired to others
d)Well documented
winpcap documentation contains all the features of WinPcap.
e)Commercially Supported
More reviews about the www.colinux.org