Virtualization off of Flash drive

[Compaker]

Our school provides every student with a laptop that is essentially ours, we take it home and everything. Id like to be able to use it for something other than word. It is the Lenovo Thinkpad x201i, and I would like to install a virtualization software onto a flash drive and run it off of that due to the fact that I do not have administrator access on the laptop.


If that came out confusing:
1.Installation blocked in all forms on laptop.
2.Would use home computer to install Virtualization software onto the flash drive. (I would set the directory there.)
3.Would remove from PC and insert into laptop to run from flash. (Would I or would I not have admin access if this did work)

I want to get a confirmation that this will work and function correctly before I go doing all this for nothing. =D kthx all help appreciated

 

[huisinro]

Unless you use Qemu (which is very slow), all virtualization software require Administrator rights to install at least one driver. VMware (workstation or player) is most bloated, which installs several drivers (close to 10).

VirtualBox/VMLite can do it by installing only one driver, but it still requires Admin rights.

We will release a portable version of VMLite, shipped in 16G flash drives. Everything can be inside a folder on a flash drive, and there will be no registry and file changes to the host system. You click the exe from flash drive to launch the vm (also stored on flash drive). It DOES require admin rights to use it, though.

portable virtualbox and vmlite - VMLite

 

[strollin]

You could gain admin rights to the laptop by re-installing the OS. The problem with that is whether you need to access a domain at your school, as you will not be able to rejoin the domain without the admin password.

Another possibility is to purchase a second HDD and install it in the laptop and install the OS on it. When you wanted to use the laptop for your personal use, install the 2nd HDD, when you need to use it for school, re-install the original HDD.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there

Create your Virtual machine on another system and save the image on to the HDD on the laptop.

Create also a bootable USB stick containing a LINUX system which has vmware or vbox installed.

Linux will run from a USB device quite easily unlike Windows.

You can boot from a USB device on most thinkpads just press the BLUE BAR near the on off switch when you start the system as this will give you the BIOS boot menu.

Now when you start the vmware program use the OS virtual image you have created to access your virtual machine.

Note that your Virtual Machine image will run without change on Linux or Windows so you can run this image on as many different physical systems as you like.

Look at this link to get you started

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/

Once you've got the hang of this you can build your own Linux disrto -- I like OPENSUSE but there are loads of choices.

Install your required applications such as vmware or vbox and then create the USB system.

It should EASILY fit on a 4GB USB stick.

Here's how to do it for UBUNTU - another popular distro.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/linux/create-a-bootable-ubuntu-usb-flash-drive-the-easy-way/

Now you've got a perfect way of booting an OS and then starting your Virtual Machine on ANY computer.

Note BTW that YOU CAN RUN a 64 bit Virtual OS from a 32 BIT HOST OS so you don't have to install the 64 bit version of the Linux distro. You might want to create a 32 BIT Linux distro so you can run it on MORE machines and have Windows 7 X64 and W7 X86 Virtual machine images.

To run a 64 bit Virtual machine on a 32 BIT HOST OS the HOST hardware will need to have the Virtualisation feature in the BIOS enabled.


Doing this is actually a lot of fun as well as providing a useful OS -- you can of course add Backup software and partitioning software to your USB OS too.


Cheers
jimbo


Added -- This link is probably the most up to date and the easiest to follow

http://www.linuxliveusb.com/en.html