[ale] Qemu experiences (or.....wow!)

[Keith R. Watson]

At 09:58 3/4/2005 -0600, you wrote:
> >From Jay Loden:
><snipped>
>
> >There's also a Windows Live CD out there, and at least one site with
> >instructions on how to make a Windows live CD that you can run apps off 
> of.
> >If you're really against getting Windows installed, you could probably 
> create
> >one of those to run the app from.
>
>The one I knew about was based on Win98 but I found this and it looks 
>interesting:
>
>   URL  = "http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/about48896.html"
>   Title = "Windows XP Live CD"
>   Snippet = "... PostPosted: Sat Feb 19, 2005 4:19 pm Post subject: 
> Windows XP Live CD ...  idea how to do this, but with the help on the 
> page I built the Win XP Live CD ..."
>
>(unfortunately I can't verify anything right now)

The page above is is about BartPE.

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

BartPE is a utility for creating a bootable Windows XP/2003 CD. I have been 
creating custom versions of BartPE boot disks for some time. We use it for 
Ghosting windows servers, workstations, and laptops across subnets. Ghost 
Server can create boot floppies that will work across subnets but only if 
you have a Wins server and DHCP. Also Ghost floppies can only have one 
network driver and there aren't any DOS drivers for some of the server raid 
arrays and laptop network adapters.

With BartPE I was able to add drivers for network and raid controllers used 
in all our workstations, servers, and laptops. Now we can Ghost all our 
machines across subnets or to USB drives using one boot CD, and I don't 
need Wins. Whooo Hooo, sorry, it's just that I hate Wins.

It should be possible to create a BartPE CD with the BIOS update software 
installed. If the BIOS update utility is just an executable and doesn't 
require installation then it's even easier. This would allow booting from 
CD and flashing the motherboard BIOS Without having to install Windows on 
your Linux box.

The only downside is that the BartPE utility will only run under Windows 
2000, XP, or 2003.

your friendly neighborhood digital mercenary,
keith

-------------

Keith R. Watson                        GTRI/ISD
Systems Support Specialist III         Georgia Tech Research Institute
keith.watson at gtri.gatech.edu           Atlanta, GA  30332-0816
404-894-0836