On Sunday 30 August 2009 04:07:00 john wendel wrote: > Is there a way to boot a real OS on a windows box (without using a VM)? > > I'm looking for a way to boot Fedora on a hostile windows XP box. The > windows box is locked down with a BIOS password, won't boot a CD, > disabled usb ports, and no way for me to install any windows programs. I > believe the Ubuntu thing that runs Linux from windows requires the > installation of a windows program, so it won't work in this environment. Method 1: depending on the motherboard/bios, you *might* be able to reset the bios password by pulling the cmos battery out or using a jumper dedicated for this. Then once cd and usb are unlocked, it's easy. Method 2: remove the hard drive from within the machine and replace it with another, Linux preinstalled drive. Method 3: replace the motherboard for another one (this will make Windows unhappy and it will ask for reactivation, but you aren't going to use it anyway, right?). Method 4: negotiate with the machine owner to unlock it for you, because Linux is so much better and more secure than Windows. Method 5: pull out the network cable from the machine, plug it in your laptop/netbook, and use that instead. Btw, I have a friend who was working in a bank, and was in a similar situation. He did not want to install Linux, but just some djvu plugin for IE under Windows, so he would be able to read online books when idle in office. But alas, Windows itself was quite completely locked down, bios had a password, and the machine case was welded and chained to the floor of the office, so that it cannot be moved/opened without a substantial amount of noise. In addition, having a laptop on premises was strictly forbidden (unfortunately, netbooks still get discovered by metal detectors, so he couldn't smuggle one through...). Eventually he gave up and resorted to reading paper books instead. YMMV. HTH, :-) Marko -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines
