Portable system on a SDCard

0

I want to have a portable system in a SDCARD, the requirements are as follow:

  1. It should run on a Bare Metal virtualization in a NetBook
  2. This should run solely as a medium to the virtualization, so it can be easily maintained
  3. It should run in a modern Notebook as a guest system
  4. The virtualisation solution on this notebook should be Free to commercial use or I may be prohibited of running it in the company computer.

I need help comparing the options, or a guide to bypass the limitations of any virtualization solution.

tl;dr

Further Explanation:

I'm currrently working as well as studying to achieve my Bachelor's Degree.

In my course I need lots of free software so I have turned to Linux which proves to be a more adequate system. It's simpler to keep a lot of interconnected software up to date on linux than in any setup with windows.

My employer lent me an ultrabook with a set up that is much better that my poor netbook, and I'm authorized to take it with me to use it for my own benefit (with limitations of not violating any copyrights laws). I believe that it would be great to have the same easy to configure/maintain system in both places(being my personal netbook AND work provided ultrabook).

I plan to buy a 128GB Class 10 SDCARD and install my system into it as a guest image. Then run it in two different hardware setups.

Benefits(?):

  • When on travel or go on vacation, I would prefer to take my personal NetBook with the complete set-up and less weight.
  • When I go between work and University, I can continue my studies from the last point I left off at on the company computer as well as between classes.

Previous searches/research

I'm not sure what I should call this set up and I have tried some searches without such luck:

  • Xen:
    It is pretty good, except that my NetBook processor (Atom N450) doesn't have the virtualization extensions support needed to run. It would also be a problem to use the Xen generated image on the company system.
  • VirtualBox:
    It seems good, but it needs a host system (I haven't put the effort into testing distros that say they can run a light virtualbox) and it can become too hard to use in corporate computer if it has an extension pack that has proprietary software.
  • Qemu:
    My netbook doesn't support KVM, I'm not sure if there is any window's version, and if there are any copywright restrictions.
  • VMWARE:
    This seems to be free of charge only to personal use, so it not acceptable to use in a company computer.

Rafareino

Posted 2014-07-09T15:06:36.453

Reputation: 278

I don't think you can, and virtualbox isn't baremetal and if you go from a computer to another will crash, vsphere is baremetal and xen server too, but anyway you can't move a OS from HW spec to another, unless all of them run from a virtual spec with the same spec – Quijote Shin – 2014-07-09T15:27:36.460

Interesting idea, but I think the lack of virtualization extensions on the Atom N450 (along with its extremely limited power) might make this a fruitless endeavor... Maybe try Hyper-V? It's free, although I'm not 100% sure of the licensing implications. – Tanner Faulkner – 2014-07-09T16:21:40.177

You are right quijote. But there are some Linux distributions loaded only with a feel modules, And virtualbox. It's not bare metal. But to run Linux over Linux it provide some kernel integration facilities, not sure if it have enough performance... – Rafareino – 2014-07-09T19:23:55.207

I will check hyper-v license, then I let you know Tanner – Rafareino – 2014-07-09T19:25:14.583

Are both laptops x86 or x86_64 or are they different? – cybernard – 2014-07-11T00:25:42.723

Yes, they are both x86_64, in fact, my current system on the netbook is Gentoo 64bit, the (host) system in the company notebook is windows 7 64bit. – Rafareino – 2014-07-11T02:34:55.823

Thanks @slow_excellence, for the edits, not only the question become better, but also I'm learning a lot from your suggested changes. – Rafareino – 2014-07-11T02:36:51.983

You're welcome! It's a really good question and I'm more than happy to have helped polish it :) – slow_excellence – 2014-07-11T05:03:33.533

I've just noticed that some security software, in the company notebook should prevent the virtual machine from running from the SD at all, I'm giving upcompletely, but I'll leave the question opened so it may be eventually answered. – Rafareino – 2014-07-15T01:45:42.283

No answers

Asked: 2014-07-09T15:06:36.453

Viewed: 196 times

Active: 2014-07-09T15:26:11.157