Review of Topologilinux
Topologilinux 5.0.0
http://www.topologilinux.com/ Introduction
The concept of Topologilinux is excellent in theory, imagine an entire Linux distribution that runs on top of Windows but without VMWare or some other emulator. The difference is rather then requiring a separate partition or running from a CD like Knoppix, the entire file system is a single file that physically resides on the Windows partition. This is the idea that drives Topogolinnux, a Slackware based distribution. It can run as mentioned above, on top of Windows, or as a stand alone distribution that dual boots alongs side it. While the theory is nice, in reality Topologilinux is not all that practical. As you'll see, installing Topogolixux isn't the easiest to do, and configuring anything more then basic command prompt is quite a task.
Installation
The installation is a three part install; first the Windows file system creation, then the actual Linux installation and finally a lot of configuration. The process starts out the way any typical Windows program does, simply pop in the CD and autorun takes over from there. From the start, however, there are troubles. Make sure you have the CD in the correct drive if you have more then one CDROM, as things won't go well for you if you don't. Note also that the for some reason, the defaults provide less the minimum recommended requirements, so you'll have to adjust them. Once I figured these things out, the first part of the installation went much smoother, although still not flawlessly. After you go through the initial setup, which includes creating your files system and swap space (again, just files on the Windows partition), you can begin the actual install of Topologilinux packages. There were several packages that didn't install because of an input/output error. The error claimed to be related to the CD quality, but I'm certain it wasn't, as I was able to install those package from the same CD later. After installing all the packages, you can either continue in console mode or boot into the “free mode” version, either way you'll have to configure the actual Linux system. Free mode is the mode in which you can run Topologilinux as a stand alone distribution. Once the configuration is finished, you'll be able to use X in free mode, but still have some work to do in order to run X on top of Windows. Fire back up Windows and go straight to the networking control panel; setting up Xorg is no easy task, this is where you'll need to start. To being, you'll need to setup a Virtual Network Connection (VNC) between Windows and Topologilinux through the mach Linux network driver that was installed with the system and a real Windows VPN connection. If you haven't installed SP2 yet, you can simply follow the instructions that come with the download, however the documentation provided is a little out of date, as it applies only to setting up Windows XP SP1 and Topologilinux v4.0. This made setting up the xserver a little difficult because I had already updated to SP2. The VNC connection has to be setup with Internet Connection Sharing in Windows which in turn requires Windows to have a static IP address of 192.168.0.1. This can be a major problem if your router has a default IP that's the same. There was no way to change this in Topologilinux, so I had to change the ip address of the router to use Internet Connection Sharing. Once you get that configured, setting up the vnc connection is a snap, simply start the vncserver in Topologilinux and connect using vncviewer in Windows. One of the packages that wouldn't install during the initial installation because of the I/O error was Perl, which is required to start vncserver. It was no big deal to mount the CD and install it from there, but I would consider that a bug.
A few other quick installation notes to mention before we move on. The installation takes care of the installing a multiboot bootloader so that you can choose run Topologilinux on it's own at boot time. The root environmental variable $PATH was missing several directories that didn't make sense. For example, issuing the command xorgsetup as user gave an error that only root could run it. However, logging in as root, the command wasn't even found. After changing to the /etc/X11R6/bin, and the command ran flawlessly. Also, if you configure X to start automatically in freemode, you'll receive an error when starting Topologilinux in Windows. Finally, always make sure to shut down the system appropriately, rather then simply closing the window. Closing the window will require fcsk on the next startup without a proper shutdown, even in Windows.
Bash Shell Running on Windows Usage
Topologilinux comes on two CDs, and has quite an impressive suite of applications. Everything from office productivity to multimedia applications. KDE 3.2, Gnome 2.8 and even other window mangers are available. Both Gnome and KDE come with their respective office suites, but OpenOffice.org is not included. Both Mozilla and Netscape are included for web browsing, as well as Galeon and Konqueror. The default style is sharp and the default theme looks fantastic. I noticed no significant problems running in either mode, nor did I notice any major differences between the two modes. Speed, control and functions were the same regardless.
KDE Running on Windows Conclusion
While Topologilinux is an awesome concept, I don't believe that it will ever be anything more then a novelty distrobution. For one thing, setup is lengthy and tedious, and even then your system may not work. Also, there are other solutions that offer the same functionality and are easier to configure. Finally, while the concept of a single file containing your entire file system may at first seem like a viable solution, imagine what would happen if a user deleted that file! As an everyday desktop solution, I would rank this distrobution 1/5 penguins. As a cool way to impress your friends by running a great looking Linux desktop on top of Windows, I'd rate Topologilinux 5/5 penguins.
Linear Mode
