Can I run Linux using XP Mode?

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I have XP mode on my Win 7 Pro machine. It’s a virtual machine, right? So can I install Linux running on another instance of that virtual machine? If so, how would I go about it?

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No. XP mode is a special virtual machine that is setup with XP SP3. See System requirements for Windows Virtual PC. 32-bit guest XP, Vista, & Win7 OSes only.

Joe

--Joe

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I would use Virtual Box or another similar app. I’m using Virtual Box to run Win 8 DP right now.

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To clarify, each running instance of a virtual operating system is a separate virtual machine. The Windows XP OS for XP mode is one instance. Running a Linux VM would be another instance. Microsoft doesn’t support other operating systems in their virtual environment on Windows 7. As mentioned, Virtual Box is excellent for running VMs in, and its free. Keep in mind that any VM will take RAM and disk space because it is sharing those resources with the host OS, in this case Windows 7. So for example, say you want to run Free BSD with 1 GB of RAM and 100GB of disk space. If there is 4 GB of RAM in the PC and a 500 GB hard drive, the Free BSD VM will use 1 GB of RAM, and 100 GB of disk space, leaving 3 GB of RAM and 400GB of disk available for Windows. In other words, the more RAM you have, the better off you are for running additional operating systems as VMs. Windows will have all of the RAM when the VM is not running, but disk space is still taken up by VM.

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Right. I installed Virtual Box and, within that, Ubuntu Linux 11.04. Works pretty well. Not as snappy as on dedicated hardware, of course, but good enough to play with.

I’m had some trouble with setting up a shared folder, but fixed by adding myself to the vboxsf group. Is there a way to make the shared folder show up on the desktop?

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Glad you got Linux working on Virtual Box. Unfortunately I do not know the answer to your other question.

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The Linux desktop is at /home/xxx/Desktop, where xxx is your account name. You can always add a soft link on the desktop to your folder. For example, assume your shared folder is mounted at /media/somefolder, then enter this at a command prompt:

ln -s /media/somefolder ~/Desktop/somefolder

You should then see a folder on the Desktop.

What I do is mount my D: drive as a shared folder. My D: drive has my documents, pictures and other folder on it. I then remove the ~/Documents, ~/Pictures, etc. folder in Linux and use “ln -s …” to creates soft links to the same folder on the D: drive. For example for my documents, which is at d:users]peterdocs, assuming a mount name of d_drive:

ln -s /media/d_drive/users/peter/docs ~/Documents

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Yes you can run linux on windows xp mode. http://answers.oreilly.com/topic/366-how-to-run-linux-under-windows-7s-windows-virtual-pc/

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I suspect your statement is true only if you equate Windows Virtual PC mode with XP mode!

See the first sentences of the article:
“When you install Windows Virtual PC and the XPM package, you get the Windows XP virtual machine free of charge so that you can run your legacy Windows XP applications. However, besides running the free Windows XP virtual machine, you can also install other operating systems on Windows Virtual PC. “

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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Yes, since they are one and the same download…..

The OP was referring to the win7 XP mode download which can also be used to run Linux instead.

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Yes, since they are one and the same download…..

The OP was referring to the win7 XP mode download which can also be used to run Linux instead.

No they are not. XP Mode requires the XP Mode download, the Windows Virtual PC download and then an update to XP mode. To run Linux, you just need the Windows Virtual PC download.

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You may be able to get Linux to run in Windows Virtual PC but it is NOT supported. See Virtual PC requirements:
Supported guest operating system:

[*]Windows XP

[*]Virtual Applications feature is supported only on Windows XP Service Pack 3
(SP3) Professional

[*]Windows Vista

[*]Virtual Applications feature is supported only on Windows Vista Enterprise
and Windows Vista Ultimate

[*]Windows 7

[*]Virtual Applications feature is supported only on Windows 7 Enterprise and
Windows 7 Ultimate

Joe

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--Joe

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