Hi everyone.

I am a newbie so please be nice!

I've been thinking recently...

If a PC is running another operating system (I'm thinking of a Windows machine) is there any way Linux could be installed onto that machine without the need for repartitioning?

More specifically I'm thinking... Could Linux create a (large!) file on that machine therefore reserving part of the disk for its own use and then be installed to, and run from that part of the disk?

I know we already have plenty of "live" distributions and distributions that are pretty good at repartitioning disks but wouldn't this be even better?

No repartitioning and a complete doddle to remove if you don't like it...

I'm sure there are lots of reasons why this might be difficult or problematic but is it *possible*?

You could use loadlin for loading the linux kernel from dos, and there's the UMSDOS filesystem to use a FAT/DOS directory as linux filesystem :

umsdos is an extended DOS filesystem used by Linux. It adds capability
for long filenames, UID/GID, POSIX permissions, and special
files (devices, named pipes, etc.) under the DOS filesystem,
without sacrificing compatibility with DOS.

It's over 7 years ago since I last did anything with loadlin, so things could have changed...

Greets, Frank

If I understand your question correctly you may be thinking of something like WinLinux. This linux version installs like a regular windows application, no partitioning or dual booting necessary. To run it you just double click its icon.

You can find more info here:

http://www.winlinux.net/features/

That is of course if you are thinking of something like this.


Peace V

Another solution would be to stick another hard drive into the machine and install Linux on it. You wont have to touch the windows installation. Then you can use grub to boot both OS. Or you can use NT loader to boot both. You could also run a live CD.
http://www.freesbie.org
http://www.knoppix.org/

DSL will run from a USB drive or card.
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/

you could also try something like vmware or virtualpc, which both create a virtual machine in which you can install an os without partitioning your drives.