Slashdot Log In
Booting an x86 Virtual Machine from an iPod
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Tue Aug 16, 2005 11:11 PM
from the what-happened-to-communing-with-nature dept.
from the what-happened-to-communing-with-nature dept.
randomjohndoe writes "IBM has taken the next logical extension of booting Linux from a flash drive. Researchers were recently able to boot Knoppix from an iPod and run an x86 virtual machine in VMware, which provided an easy way to encrypt the whole operating environment. The tests were conducted on a 60GB iPod photo using Knoppix."
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
Yeah but does it run... (Score:4, Funny)
But does it run Linu...
Oh. Nevermind.
Re:Yeah but does it run... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Yeah but does it run... (Score:4, Funny)
Oh, never mind...
Parent
It is very nearly THIS (Score:3, Interesting)
HOW IT WORKS
BlackDog is a fully self-contained computer with a built-in biometric reader and a host of other powerful features. Unlike any other computing device, BlackDog is completely powered off of the USB port of your host computer - no external power adapter required!
To access and use your BlackDog, you merely plug it in to your host computer's USB port* and BlackDog takes over! Your host machine's monitor, keyboard,
Re:Yeah but does it run... (Score:3, Funny)
umm, ok, that's never been done before! (Score:4, Insightful)
next week, stay tuned for when they are going to install windows on a 1 gb usb keydrive!!
With product activation, that may be quite a task (Score:2)
Won't you have product activation problems (I'm assuming WinXP here) if you try to take that keydrive and plug it into a different machine?
Re:With product activation, that may be quite a ta (Score:2)
They just have to worry about having the i386 dir on the key so it can auto install the hardware every time they move.
Re:umm, ok, that's never been done before! (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, maybe it's not revolutionary, but it's nice that someone took the time to actually figure out all the random issues related to having a roaming workstation (not just a roaming profile) and making sure that it not only works on any x86 configuration, but that files, settings, and preferences are written back to the device, apps work properly, and everything is encrypted so that your data isn't compromised if your device is stolen..
It's more of a complete solution, versus a bunch of ideas that "anyone could have put together" but no one did.
Parent
Re:umm, ok, that's never been done before! (Score:2)
I dunno man (Score:4, Insightful)
If you buy IBM products, it's no longer your money, it's theirs. Likewise, if I buy a used iPod from you, would you want me telling you how to spend that money?
Plus, what they're doing is proof of concept type stuff. Research. Not enough companies to this kind of stuff anymore. Xeorx, AT&T, DEC.. all gone. IBM does research on a lot more then this too - they're into a lot of shit. I say we encourage them to keep it up. Because it's not like Microsoft does any cool stuff like this.
Parent
Re:umm, ok, that's never been done before! (Score:5, Informative)
Not really, they are just using it as a portable hdd. It's been done before I even have OSX and Linux installs on mine for if I need to fsck a disk at a customers site.
Someone managed to get Linux on an Ipod and documented it.
No, at least not in this article and not as you'd think it. The iPod is NOT running linux, it's simply being used as a storage medium.
Someone saw a new product.
Kind of from what I can tell the basic idea is a removable storage device with linux on it who's primary purpose is to run vmware which you then run that other OS.
This way you seperare the OS from the hardware, then run 1 os to drive the hardware and 1 os as an operating enviroment.
Linux is known for 'happily' moving hardware. So you run a distro (knoppix) that has all the drivers and is good at autodetecting and running on any x86. That distro boots into X with auto login that starts vmware running M$ software. So in this way you're never having to worry about drivers / activation due to hardware changes etc.
Parent
Think of the possibilities! (Score:4, Funny)
Or LVM!?!?!?! (Score:3, Insightful)
Now that would be *radical*!
Wow. IBM just discovered Mac OS X... (Score:3, Insightful)
You can even store your iTunes folder on the iPod, and use iTunes to load the thing...
So basically, IBM is just saying that they've discovered that hard drives are a lot smaller and cheaper than they used to be. Wow. I'm impressed!
Home on iPod (Score:5, Interesting)
When connected to a supported Mac, the OS would allow the user to log in with their usual login and password, giving a seamless M
the feature was apparently scrapped as desktop usage was too stressful on the iPod hard drive
Parent
Twist on the usual question (Score:4, Funny)
Get it? Usually you ask if it runs linux, but since this Ipod does run linux, it's funnier to ask if it still can play music.
Never mind, I should just go to bed.
iPod? (Score:2, Informative)
Read the Fucking article? (Score:5, Informative)
.ogg on an ipod, at last! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Not wanting to spend mod points on apple story. (Score:3, Informative)
First.
Let me get some definitions straight:
mp3: Lossy format. Converting to mp3 means encoding your music. The best encoder is LAME (As proof, I suggest you check out hydrogenaudio [hydrogenaudio.org])
ogg Vorbis [vorbis.com]: Lossy format. Converting to ogg means encoding your music. The best encoder is (offcourse) the original ogg Vorbis encoder.
mpc/Musepack [musepack.net]: Yet an other lossy format. Converting to mpc means encoding your music. The best encoder is (offcourse) the original Muse
The real hack (Score:3, Funny)
Zaurus? (Score:4, Informative)
The thing I want to know is, what CPU architecture are they playing with? Last time I checked, glibc was dropping support for ARM (which the Zaurus uses). What will IBM be using? (their own chips?)
They're obviously not using x86 (too power hungry I think).
IPod design? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:IPod design? (Score:3, Insightful)
Think about how many employees IBM has worldwide. It's in the hundreds of thousands. Think of how much it costs to equip them all with Thinkpads (even if they are made by Lenovo now). Now think about t
Portable computing nicely done? (Score:2, Interesting)
That's nothing... (Score:3, Interesting)
Who didn't RTFA? (Score:5, Insightful)
Personally I think this trend could be a very good thing, what with the horrible attempts at separation of user data in current operating systems where the majority of the data is actually shared.
Re:Who didn't RTFA? (Score:3, Funny)
I thought my windows machine had sold its soul to the devil.
RTFA for God's sake! (Score:5, Informative)
There is new info here (Score:5, Informative)
Misleading headline (Score:5, Informative)
This is not a "gee wiz, somebody got Knoppix to run on an iPod and encrypt the files on the drive". That would be kind of pointless. What makes this newsworthy is that they have developed a way to put an OS, applications, and datafiles all together on one portable device. This way, you can take everything in your computer (including the OS and its configuration), or as they put it the "soul" of your machine, and run it on another machine independent of whatever OS is installed on it.
While currently you can store your own data files on a flash drive and access them on another PC (so as long as that PC has the software needed to read those files), you're still limited to the OS and configuration of that temporary host. With this, the temporary host doesn't even have to have an OS installed on it; it's all run from the portable device.
Re:Misleading headline (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah amazing! One day though they will come out with portable "optical discs" with holes in the middle that you can store all your data and applications on. Word has it the going term in research circles is "versatile discs". Further down the road are magnetic hard drives so small you can take them with you in your briefcase.
Once these developments become commercial
Can anyone suggest (Score:3, Interesting)
Can anyone suggest an article in the format
"Booting Linux on a _______"
that would not be vaguely believable?
The actual article link... (Score:5, Informative)
There's a neat video of how it works too.
Neat, but... (Score:3, Funny)
If only... (Score:3, Interesting)
...you could do it without an iPod or Flashdrive! Imagine if you could just point a web browser at your box at home and you could use it as if you were there!
..oh... yeah. SSH, X11, VNC. Surely these are better solutions than having to takeover someones whole computer just because you can't stand to loose your session data or use WinXP? I guess its neat that someone has put a LiveCD on RAM, but it seems to make life harder than it really needs to be - still each to there own.
Shuffle (Score:5, Funny)
yep (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Uhh.. (Score:3, Informative)
The article is confusing, so I'm still not sure exactly what the point is. They talk about an "encrypted virtual machine," as if the phrase has meaning...
Re:Uhh.. (Score:5, Informative)
Yes at first I thought the iPod was being used to execute bochs and thus run an x86 OS. But this is about using the iPod as a USB drive to store and run a VMware machine?
Can someone explain to me why I should be thinking something other than "big deal"?
I can run VMware machines from my external USB and Firewire drives. I wouldn't bother trying to do this from my iRiver H340 because the performance would suck and I don't want to stress my MP3 player by using it in a longer term way which it was not designed for.
Parent
because it's an IPOD!!!!111 ;) (Score:3, Insightful)
And just like in this case, an overpriced USB HDD at that, if used for only that purpose. For all its merits as an MP3 player, if you're going to use it _only_ as an external HDD, there are much cheaper HDD's around.
I don't know, there seems to be a
Re:because it's an IPOD!!!!111 ;) (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Eh... (Score:2, Interesting)
You sir, have just described a Mac. If the intel switch works, I'm dual booting OS X and Slackware
Re:Eh... (Score:3, Insightful)
While generally I'd agree with that statement, it's not quite as clear cut as you make out. most
Re:Eh... (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd say this system actually did this part. I mean, after all, the SoulPad software features an encrypting userspace kernel module to encrypt the file system, thus making it a secure solution. Anything short of TPA really couldn't do a better job. And we know how slashdotters feel about that.
As for the rest of your comment, bullshit. Has nothing to do with anything. Encryption in software will always and forever be better than encryption in hardware because as that hardware ages, bugs will be found, and holes will be punched. If it's a software file system, you're inconvienenced by a few hours of decrypting all your files and re-encrypting at the most, or just patching your system in the least. Meanwhile with your solution, you'd throw away the whole computer.
Parent
Re:Eh... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Question (Score:3, Interesting)
source [ibm.com]
It's sort of an updated version of the original Next concept, in which users would store everything on a removable drive. If one had to use a different NextCube, one would simply pop in the disc, and boot into one's usual operating environment, with all the personalized software, user settings and so on. Allegedly, it didn't work so
Re:Half the benifits of a laptop, twice the cost (Score:3, Informative)
So, theoretically, you should see the exact same programs and your OS should act the exact same way regardless
Re:Or you could use a LiveCD (Score:3, Funny)