Monday, August 4, 2008

How to gather data from Linux installed on Virtual PC 2007?

Non-obvious requirements:

1. Get data from Linux installed on Virtual PC (Fedora 6 in my case)
2. Don't expose Virtual PC with Linux to the external network

Non-obvious funny solution:

1. Install coLinux
2. Setup private network coLinux - Windows through tuntap.
3. Run coLinux. Start Virtual PC.
4. Disable network adapters for virtual machine with Linux (Virtual PC Settings -> Networking -> Number of network adapters = 0).
5. Boot Linux from Virtual PC
6. Setup network adapter properly (i.e. IP and subnet)
7. Install and setup your favourite FTP server (it can be done through mounting custom ISO or ISO with packages)
8. Shutdown Linux from Virtual PC.
9. Enable network adapter for virtual machine with Linux (Virtual PC Settings -> Networking -> Number of network adapters = 1, use "TAP Win32 Adapter V8 (colinux)").
10. Boot Linux from Virtual PC
11. That's all: put data to be gathered into 'pub' folder and download it from windows or coLinux using your favourite ftp-client.