what is the deal with 'PhatLinux'??

StamfordRob · 05-21-2002, 10:08 AM

i just passed by this.. what is the story with this distro (if its even considered one).. it runs on a windows partition??

acid_kewpie · 05-21-2002, 10:11 AM

what are you confused about? yeah it can install in to a file on a fat32 partition, just like mandrake, peanut an some otehrs can do... nothing unusual...

StamfordRob · 05-21-2002, 10:17 AM

maybe i am confused from what i read on their site..

it doesnt run IN windows right?? can it share a partition with windows or does it have to be the only os in that partition..

Thymox · 05-21-2002, 10:20 AM

No, it doesn't run in Windows, it simply stores its file on the Windows partition (sort of). It creates a huge file on the vfat partition and formats that file as ext2. Then when you select to run it, it uses the ol' loadlin program (or a version of it) to close down Windows and boot Linux from within the ext2-formatted file held on the vfat partition. If you've looked at SuSE's Live Eval version of their distros, you'll have an idea as to how it works.