Actually, I do have something JUST like that.
I call it Portable-Qemu(but I found out that name is taken), so maybe "Portable_Linux"
is better.
Anyway, mine works on both windows and linux, although not all distro's work.
Known to work with mine is
dsl
feather
tinycore
puppy
slackware
fedora
centos
and most small distro's
some ubuntu/deb don't
You really need a low-ram/low-resource linux is best.
Fastest Boot is dsl hd-install to vhd at 35 sec to desktop, on 1.8ghz 768mb ram PC, pretty good with no kqemu(uses kvm)
ok, I'm talking about my shit runs from a qemu-img of whatever size and all stuff runs just like a real system. Settings, etc are saved to vhd, apps added are always there.
Later today I am going to be releasing my best shit yet, A 3 hd setup that runs
in tandem or alone.
it would fill a book to tell all, but to get started i have also now a way
to directly access hd. cdrom, usb of "host" computer
(
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...so-how-734430/ )
Basically, my stuff runs from 2 scripts, run.sh and run.bat
it boots and plays just like any linux system.
here's some other good stuff
I wanted a fully portable Operating system that fit these criteria:
1) Capable of running from any partition type (FAT32, EXT3, etc)
2) Capable of running from any USB, no matter it's partition type
or bootability
3) Runs and plays without having to reboot the computer
4) Is fully cross-platform and works on both Windows and Linux
5) Fully self-contained and installed within the Virtual Hard Drive
6) Runs just as a real installed OS; settings/sessions etc are
saved back to the VHD, apps installed are persistent-everything
is as your own real Linux system!
7) Expendable-meaning that it is mostly to be used by Linux newbies
for learning Linux without actually risking their own systems/PC,
other uses include practicing compiling, programming, etc
Pro's of this setup include above and that the vhd's are compressable
and will compress down alot!
Example- 300MB mydsl vhd compresses down to 63MB
The vhd's can be copied, so that you can have a Master original.
Example- Make a copy of the vhd and use that, keeping the original
safe somewhere-that way you can modify/test and if you screw up,
throw it away and make another copy.
Only thing needed is SDL.dll or library libsdl someting.
Most linux systems and windows already have it or it's available.
YOU DON'T NEED QEMU INSTALLED TO RUN THIS, JUST THE SDL LIBRARY.
so, it's becoming a great "hacker's" kit, as you can access host hd, usb, cdrom, floppy and transfer data to/from vhd/hd
I will give you a link to sample of maybe browserpuppy47 or portable-tinycore_2.0
if you wish.
also, more screenshots at my site
(
http://multidistro.com/shots/scrnshots.html )
(
http://multidistro.com/tinycore-shots/tc-scrnshots.html )
most of those are portable-qemu on dsl and tinycore
