I was planning to write a review on Win4Lin until I saw this post on the Portland Linux Users' Group List. My experience was quite similar to James'; and similarly, I'd recommend this program to anyone who is tied to using some Windows program. It works even better than having two PC's and using vnc. One thing I haven't tried yet is the compatibility with SMB file-locking on files on a samba server which is serving up to Win9X clients. I don't know how compatible Linux NFS file-locking is with Samba file-locking... I'll try and let you know. One further comment to note is that Win4Lin would probably be a poor choice if you are trying to use some obscure piece of hardware that only works in Windows, because Win4Lin has only a limited amount of support for direct access to hardware ports. For instance, sound cards are not supported at all under the Win4Lin environment, and things like USB devices, scanners, cameras, and such are probably out of the question. At 08:42 AM 5/19/00 -0700, James T Perkins <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >Here's a detailed review on Win4Lin that I just wrote. > > >GIVING UP ON NATIVE WINDOWS > > >I have two computers at home... one is the SMP Linux workstation, and >the other is the much-maligned Windows98 box, which I use to run Quicken >and Office applications (I'll admit my game playing is usually limited >to solitaire, and I usually play that using pysol now. :) > >The Linux box runs steady, but the Windows box is prone to the creeping >crud. Windows' stability erodes as applications come and go, as >applications fault and hang the operating system, and even as a result >of power cycles. The bandaid solution is a reinstall of Windows98 from >the CD over the existing installation. When this fails to make results, >I reformat the C: drive and do a fresh install of Windows98. > >Over time, I've done dozens of Windows98 installs, and have grown >impatient of the slow process of finding the DOS disk, rebooting, >reformatting, reloading Windows (sometimes 2-3 times until Windows decides >it likes my hardware), reconfiguring it for networking, reloading all >my key applications, and resetting all my preferences. If only there >was SOME way to image my entire hard disk, and restore my entire windows >installation from a compressed backup! > >I'd also like to get that extra (Windows) computer and its crappy display >out of my office... it would be nice to run everything on the stable >SMP Linux box. > > >CHOOSING WIN4LIN > > >I'd tried VNC and it worked okay, although the screen refresh algorithm >sometimes missed the latest changes, and it is a bit slow. What bothered >me most about VNC is it didn't help me with any of my underlying >complaints about Window's instability. > >I'd tried VMWare but I did not like the way it ate 32MB of system RAM, >and roughly 1.5 GB of disk (for a Windows+Office+apps C: drive), in an >opaque VMWare filesystem file. Plus, VMWare seemed s-l-o-w -- booting >the full Windows setup takes a *long* time. > >I had heard that Win4Lin is a bit like VMWare, but trimmed down. So, >I checked out the Win4Lin website at http://www.trelos.com, read the >functional description *and* all the trouble/problem reports. > >I learned: > > Win4Lin makes active use of Linux' virtual memory, disk caching, > and swap subsystem, so unlike VMWare there's no need to set aside > RAM and disk space for Windows to implement its own version of these. > > Win4Lin maps files from the windows C: drive to your > $HOME/win directory, so you can simply do a tar archive of this > directory. Voila! I can instantly back up my Windows C: drive, > and then restore it should windows become unstable. > > Win4Lin provides basic client networking from Windows by mapping > Winsock32 (Windows TCP) sockets into Linux TCP sockets. This means > that the Windows computer does not have its own IP address (it > uses the Linux host's IP address). It also means it cannot provide > Microsoft SMB File and Print sharing -- however, the underlying > Linux box can. This networking was 'good enough' for my light use. > > Win4Lin can also run either in a X11 display window of its own > under control of your favorite window manager, or it can run in a > full-screen window of its own (it does this by spawning another X > display server on another virtual console, and dominating it). I > began to wonder if maybe I could view my windows console through > DSL from my office. > > Most importantly, I learned that Win4Lin will fully support Quicken > and the MS Office suite. So, I decided to pay my $50 and give > Win4Lin a try. > >Shortly after I paid my $50, I reread the FAQs on the website and >discovered that Win4lin does NOT run on SMP Linux. Oops! I realized I was >not going to get EVERYTHING I wanted, so I came up with a backup plan. >First I did a fresh install of Linux on my Windows PC (turning it into a >Linux station). Then I would install Win4Lin on that machine. I could >still hock the crummy display and move the Win4Lin computer out of the >office to the garage, at the far end of an ethernet cable. > > >INSTALLING WIN4LIN > > >An overview of installation for win4lin is: > > 1) a script installs a new kernel (either precompiled, or you can > patch, compile, and install your own kernel), and modifies LILO > to be able to boot it. > > 2) as root, you run a setup utility to set up the /opt/win4lin > area and copy the Windows98 CD-ROM .CAB files there, then... > > 3) as an ordinary user, run another setup utility to run the > Windows98 installer to install Windows into your $HOME/win > directory. > > > Installing the kernel > >The candidate machine is: Abit AX5 motherboard, K6, 233 MHz, 64MB DRAM, >cheap 2MB ATI PCI graphics card, two 4.3GB IDE drives, Adaptec controller >w/CD-ROM. I've pre-installed Mandrake 7.0 on it and gotten it configured >to my liking on my home network. > >Once I mounted the win4lin CD, I discovered a top-level README, which >pointed me at the LINUX directory on the CD. I cd'd there and attempted to >follow the instructions "sh install-kernel.sh". It attempted to install >an rpm which installs a new kernel image in /boot/win4lin, and then add >a section to /etc/lilo.conf and offers to reboot the box. It crapped out. > >The first problem was that rpm complained of an 'architecture does not >match'. I copied the install-kernel.sh script to my home directory, >added '--ignorearch' to the rpm invocation line of the script, and then >ran it with "sh ~/install-kernel.sh". Now it got as far as running lilo, >which died (this was because I moved hard disks around after I first set >up lilo, and my current lilo.conf was illegal). I had to do an 'rpm -q >-a | grep -i win4lin' and then erase the installed rpm using rpm -e, >then correct my /etc/lilo.conf to be valid again, then reran the "sh >~/install-kernel.sh", and all installed. I rebooted and the win4lin >kernel worked fine. > > > Install of /opt/win4lin (as root) > >The next step was to run /usr/bin/install-win4lin.sh... I had a struggle >with supermount, and ended up having to do some mounts and unmounts of >/dev/cdrom to get things in a state win4lin could access the windows cd. >This meant it crapped out of its straightline script, but it fortunately >told me what other scripts to run, including "unloadwindowsCD" and >"loadwindowsCD". > >A bit of gunk on my Windows CD caused I/O errors. Once the CD was cleaned >I ended up having to repeat the "unloadwindowsCD" and "install-win4lin.sh" >process. Finally I was able to load the windows CD successfully. > > > Install of $HOME/win (as myself) > >Next I got to run "installwindows" as an ordinary user. This launched >a DOS 7 session, which brought up the windows installer, and put me >in the oh-so-painfully-familiar windows98 installer program. I was, >however, overjoyed to see it restricted to an X11 window!. Since I was >installing from the OEM Windows CD, I had to hunt down the correct CD key >from another Windows computer in my office, then continued on comfortably. > >The win4lin install finished without a hitch, and I installed MS Office >and Quicken 99 on it as well, which both work fine under win4lin. >Internet Explorer runs fine, too. > > >WHAT WORKS (AND DOESN'T) > > >I can happily run Windows in an X-window on my main X11 display on >the main Linux workstation, on the big monitor. The networked display >performance is much smoother and useful than using native windows with >a VNC server. > >Windows doesn't run appreciably faster or slower, but it does BOOT much >faster. Looking at the Windows System Devices page, it appears to be >emulating a pretty simple (ISA only) PC -- I suspect that the Windows >startup therefore can skip alot of the (PnP, PCI) device recognition >and setup that would normally slow it down. > >Files for windows are mapped into my $HOME/win directory, including >config.sys and Windows/win.com. No special partitioning was needed, >and the files are easily browseable from Linux. > >I mapped a win4lin H: drive to my $HOME directory, so that I can store >my user files in a different location than my virtual C: drive (programs >only). Aside from creating a $HOME/RECYCLED directory, windows' use of >this space seems to be working okay. > >I backed up win4lin's C: drive using: > > tar czvf backup.tgz $HOME/win > >Pretty nice! Now when windows fouls its own nest, I can blow it away >and just reincarnate the $HOME/win to a known-good copy from the tar >file. > >I'm getting occasional (nonfatal) Windows "file system error"s when >I try to empty the recycle bin -- but the files seem to be deleted >correctly. I'll need to understand that more. > >As advertised, MS Office and Quicken run fine and are fully supported. > >win4lin seems as solid as windows. My usage has been 'light' so far. On >*one* occasion I had my computer (Linux and all) lock up due to (I >believe) a Windows application running awry. I haven't had any other >problems. > > >CONCLUSION > >Although I had minor install problems, the scripting was understandable >and I was able to work around it. So far, I like win4lin much more than >VNC or VMWare, and have been able to use it to achieve most of my goals. >The price is right; I'd recommend it! > > >James >-- >James Perkins [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://commonhouse.net/~jamester > -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- > Love is a perky elf dancing a merry little jig and then suddenly he > turns on you with a miniature machine gun. > -- Matt Groening - Love is Hell >
