Tips on how to Migrate From Windows to Linux

Introduction

As plenty of people do, their started using Linux, I created separate partitions for Linux and used Lilo or Grub too either into either Windows or Linux, in accordance with the different job requirements.

I used my laptop PC through the day inside of a company that used Windows applications within a Windows based LAN and consequently I normally were forced to boot in Windows every day to employ my colleagues whereas at your house I'd boot mainly into Linux. This method provides a few disadvantages the following:

• My work e-mails were in Microsoft Outlook and i was forced to boot under Windows to take over them.



• I used KMail (and then Mozilla Thunderbird) for this e-mails and that i was forced to boot under Linux to view them.



• I could access Window folders from Linux and copy data from Windows, but I was able to not access any Linux directory from Windows.

I reached the there will need to have been an easier way make use of my PC i searched a remedy that may allow to take over both Linux and Windows applications without rebooting.

I investigated many of the available products. I noticed the fact that wine or CodeWeavers Crossover supported most frequent Windows applications, however, many others won't work. VMWare looked interesting, but I preferred to work with until recently Win4Lin (originally put together by Netraverse with supporting only Windows 95, 98 or ME and then upgraded by Virtual Bridges to help with also Windows 2000 and Or windows 7 ) but this revolutionary product not really upgraded and supported,

I were forced to locate a replacement and lastly thought to install Virtual BOx, a virtualization platform originally developped by Sun Micro Systems and then held up by Oracle, after its buying of Sun.

Some good advantages when i contained in Virtual Box might possibly be the following:

• VirtualBox 3 is usually a desktop virtual machine application finding a "Type 2" hypervisor that will need a compatible host the gw990 (Linux, Windows, Macintosh, or OpenSolaris) and computing devices according to x86 or AMD64/Intel64 to function



• The installing of Virtual Box is actually comparatively straightforward, but there are a number of conditions that Let me describe later.



• You can certainly install many various Systems and also the performance is actually good. Ask for here are the the supported Os's at virtualbox. org/



• Creating a VM is easy and fast, due to a VM creation wizard that can take you step-by-step through creating your guest VM.

Installing Virtual Box

Virtual Box accessible from virtualbox. org, but I didnrrrt need to download it as the application is in addition to my Linux distribution (OpenSuSE 11. 3).

You will see a lot of documentation at theVirtualBox. org Technical Documentation page.

The installation is actually easy, nonetheless, you must be sure to manually add you that can access Virtual Box in to the special user group vboxusers. This could be easily carried out OpenSuSe utilizing the security and users option of Yast.

Using Windows under Virtual Box

I installed under Virtual Box only Microsoft windows because my main objective were create a Desktop environment where Possible easily access both Linux and Windows applications

One important dependence on a superb integration will be to potentially have gain access to from Windows also Linux directories much more allows to transfer data within the two environments.

Unfortunately there's nothing simple to succeed in. Virtual Box allows to declare Shared Folders that is accessed from both Linux (host main system ) and Windows (guest os ). I declared my Linux home directory as a general shared folder, howevere, if I began Windows the shared folder weren't visible while in the explorer. This problem and solution will improve explained from a separate point.

The main greatest things about installing Windows under virtual box are often the following:

• The Virtual Box Windows installation is surely superior integrated with Linux than the native Windows installation will probably have you can use great and bad Linux and Windows applications with very little should reboot.



• Windows under Virtual Box offers greater virus protection when compared to a stand-alone Windows installation. It's possible to keep your Windows directory in the form of tar archive a lot of viruses won't have any effect



• There isn't any Windows boot sector so boot sector or some other boot time viruses are ineffective.



• Virtual Box installs Windows files in subdirectories from the host Linux filesystem thereby FAT32 or VFAT related viruses are ineffective.



• Executable files and macro viruses can continue to attack, but will never customize the A linux systemunix if you do not transfer towards host filesystem an infected file. To relieve the danger, you will elect to declare a directory in the form of shared folders only once necessary

Virtual box Limitations and Peculiarities

Virtual box doesn't support copy within the Linux and Windows environments.

When clicking a button while in the Windows screen, the device captures a button in Windows and it'll not move not in the Windows screen. To implement a button outside, it is advisable to press critical to n-capture it.

Solution with the Shared Folder access problem

I introduced the issue before we think it is very annoying as it is an impressive limitation to your integration between Linux and Windows. I have been capable of finding a fix inside Ubuntu Forums. I summarize the steps wanted to solve the trouble below:

1. Start up Virtual box and start-up Windows xp



2. Go to the peak panel of one's Virtual Box and then click Devices--> Install Guest Editions



3. Download and install the Guest Editions. This may cause a Windows reboot.



4. Set increase protein intake shared folders in virtual box. Like declare share folder home/documents



5. Start up Windows, visit Start--> Run, enter cmd and press



6. once within the dos console, type net use t: \vboxsvr\documents. Recognize that it is advisable to placed in just the last folder name on the end for the command; as an illustration if you ever selected a folder under home/mario1/documents the command may be net use t: \vboxsvr\documents



7. If you peer within the Windows explorer, you will realise the modern t drive as being a shared folder and are capable to access its content.

Removing the actual Window partition

One negative point of getting both a different Windows partition as well as guest Windows installation could be the waste of space (such as I did Microsoft applications that come with both partitions). This setup could offer better security, in the event of problems with the idea to the Windows or Linux installation, but, someday, Choice we could of used better the disk space and work without double booting with Linux and Windows under Windows.

To avoid loosing useful data, I performed following activities:

• I identified the Outlook mail boxes utilize the Windows Find option with "*. pst" and copied the property to the Windows environment.



• I identified the Outlook Express maild boxes using the Windows Find option with "*. dbx" and copied these phones the Windows environment.



• I identified my Eudora mail boxes (used by great mail) using the Windows Find option with "*. mbx" and copied them how to the Windows environment.



• I found the 'Favorites' folders applied by Industry and that i copied it as well as its sub-folders within the Windows environment.



• I copied the 'My Documents' folder and the only thing other folders that we utilized in my Windows environment

Making the above mentioned copies inside Virtual Box environment is actually easy, because Linux can access the mnt directory. Yourrrre able to mount an original Windows partition around the Linux /mnt directory employing a ommand along the lines of:

$sudo mount /dev/sdb3 /media/windows -t vfat -o umask=000

Once the partition is mounted, you could declare mnt as a general shared folder and can get on with the Virtual Box Windows session..

Once I had been satisfied that every one of important data existed on the Windows environment, I am choosing to reformat the Windows partition and copy my Linux /home directory, that's part of the main root hierarchy, into a separate partition. This activity is described in depth below.

Using the freed partition for Linux, An excellent description of the way to move /home to a different one partition can be bought in a good quality tutorial by Daniel Robbins at IBM DeveloperWorks

The main steps are as following:

• Create a filesystem while in the new partition with a command which include mkfs /dev/???



• Mount the modern filesystem in /mnt using a command just like mount /dev/??? /mnt/newhome



• Drop to single user mode (init 1)



• Change to the home directory and enter a replica command similar to cp -ax * /mnt/newhome. The ax option causes cp to repeat in recursive mode by preserving all file attributes.



• Rename your existing /home to /home. old by utilizing the command mv /home /home. old and mount the latest one with mount /dev/??? /home.



• When you're likely that everything works correctly, it is easy to eliminate the /home. old directory.

Conclusions

I assume that the approach described above allows an optimal make use of both Linux and Windows resources.

It is normally challenging just use Linux, because often young people need to your job in Windows based LANs, meet up with other Windows users or maybe because the first is too lazy to find out new applications as an alternative to those used within the Windows environment.

A double boot experience inconvenient to apply. A solution that way described above allows a way more satisfactory utilization of your resources and time.

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