In my continuing effort of finding a suitable complete Windows environment under Linux for those small occasions when you just can’t ditch it, I’ve tried Win4Lin. You can download 2 week evaluation copy from the website.
$ su -
$ wget http://www.win4lin.com/administrator/downloads/Win4LinPro-6.2.5-01.i386.rpm
#wget http://www.win4lin.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=76&func=download&filecatid=3
$ rpm -ivh Win4LinPro-6.2.5-01.i386.rpm
Preparing... ########################################### [100%]
1:Win4LinPro ########################################### [100%]
14 day(s) left in evaluation period.
Creating images... done.
ERROR: Module kqemu does not exist in /proc/modules
Host architecture: i686
KQEMU package: /opt/win4linpro/etc/kqemu.tar.gz
NOTE: KQEMU is Copyright 2005 by Fabrice Bellard.
Win4Lin, Inc. is an authorized distributor of this code.
Building KQEMU module in /tmp/.build_kqemu-24886
Please see the file /tmp/build-kqemu.log in case of error
Installing KQEMU module in /lib/modules/2.6.9-22.0.1.ELsmp/misc
Loading KQEMU module
Starting Win4Lin Pro: [ OK ]
Need to load a Windows XP CD. Note: It must have SP1 or SP2. An older XP CD did not work.
$ loadwinproCD
13 day(s) left in evaluation period.
You may use Win4Lin Pro without entering a license code
until the evaluation period ends. If you already have
a full license code, you may enter it now.
If you do not have a license code, you may enter it at
any time in the future by running (as root):
/opt/win4linpro/bin/ask_license.sh
Would you like to enter your license code now? (y/n) n
Checking CDROM...
Media found: Windows XP Professional (Service Pack 1)
Loading installation files... please wait...
.................................................
Loading CDROM... please wait...
..................................................
Windows CDROM load complete.
$ exit
# must not be be root to continue
$ installwinpro
Selected winxppro to install by default
installwinpro: installation details:
Target directory: /home/rbradfor/winpro
Windows version: winxppro
Guest image size: 4G
mergepro-gowimg: created /home/rbradfor/winpro/GUEST.IMG, size=4G
Enabled KQEMU acceleration
(mergepro-core)
Partitioning guest image...
Guest image partitioning complete.
Enabled KQEMU acceleration
(mergepro-core)
Formatting guest image...
QuickFormatting (only flushing metadata)
Format complete.
4,293,563,392 bytes total disk space
4,293,563,392 bytes available on disk
4,096 bytes in each allocation unit.
1,048,233 allocation units available on disk.
Volume Serial Number is 0D28-140E
Guest image format complete.
installwinpro: launching guest installation...
Enabled KQEMU acceleration
mergepro-gfx: LANG not found, defaulting to: en-us
This then provided the normal windows installation in a window, the only requirement was a serial number, so they have definitely streamlined the Windows installation. Then to run windows.
$ winpro
I did have an installation problem, where I got a CD error of not being able to access a file. Now given that Win4Lin precopied the entire CD, I’m not sure what to make of it, I had to skip the file, and it did not appear to affect the installation. I’ve got a screenshot to upload sometime.
So far, all I’ve really done is run it, I found that it was very slow. What was great, that on the very clean desktop the only icon was a mapping the Linux user home directory. I tried to install Photoshop CS, about the only thing I really want under Windows until I become better with Gimp. Problem was it promptly told me I needed 7GB of space, which I didn’t have. Not sure if I can easily add additional diskspace. Guess I’ll have to RTFM.