From: Mark Allums <mark_at_allums.com>
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:58:10 -0600

alex wallis wrote:
> Hi.
> Just wondering has anyone had experience with using colinux to run a
> rockbox build environment, i've heard that its a lot better from the
> point of view of not needing lots of resources like vmware,

I've used colinux, but not with X Windows or Rockbox. It is minimal in
its needs. VMWare needs the same resources as Windows, space for
itself, and space for the virtual machine to run in. It will run in 512
Meg, under XP, barely, but the virtual machine will only have room for
about 64 Meg. Maybe 128. Linux will run in 128 Meg, but a 2.6 kernel
will work better with more. Colinux is not a full operating system, and
is still experimental, although there are people who are reporting good
success using it.

You might consider Microsoft's Virtual PC, it is lighter weight than
VMWare. However, it can't run some distributions well. I have run
Slackware under Virtual PC, but never got Debian to remain stable.
Presumably this includes Ubuntu as well.


and should
> be just as fast as it uses its own file system. But I was wondering
> would i still need to install a linux screen reader to work with it,
> even though its not virtualising a machine. I have already tried asking
> about screen readers on the colinux users list, but I don't think they
> have had much contact with blind people.

You would need to use a Windows screen reader for ordinary text-based
command line windows, I think. Under X, you would need a screen reader
that runs under Linux and on top of X.

This is pure guesswork, but that is how I would proceed.

I still think you need to save up for some memory, or a separate
machine. You will have good success under VMWare with enough memory,
unless reading the VMWare console is a problem. I expect that Virtual
PC will be slightly friendlier than VMWare under a screen reader. The
OS being hosted will require a completely separate set of
screen-readers. Under either VMWare or Virtual PC.

I am skeptical of colinux.

--Mark Allums
Received on 2008-02-26