The installation of SpeedLinux

What is SpeedLinux? 

  SpeedLinux,aka, freetzlinux, is a distro (http://sourceforge.net/projects/freetzlinux/) based on kernel built by Colinux (http://www.colinux.org/).  One might heard of once famous AndLinux (http://www.andlinux.org/), which is sadly not being maintained anymore, and Speed linux has taken the architecture from it.
  The central idea of this series of Linux is that it's creating a "true" native linux environment on top of MS Windows OS.  The kernel itself runs as a normal task under MS Windows, and thus no need of VM or any translation layer like the way Cygwin does.  I'm quoting sentences from Colinux here, "For instance, it allows one to freely run Linux on Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7, without using a commercial PC virtualization software such as VMware, in a way which is much more optimal than using any general purpose PC virtualization software."
64 bits Windows is not supported!

Why using SpeedLinux?

1. Fast, comparing to any Linux solution running on top of VM.
2. Easy to get package support.  For example, SpeedLinux is based on Ubuntu, and therefore you can get any latest released software through the great "apt" tool kits.  Unlike Cygwin, you'll need to rebuild from scratch if the software is not already supported by Cygwin.

Installation:

1. Download installation binary from http://sourceforge.net/projects/freetzlinux/files/latest/download, just like installing any Windows software.
2. Check WinPcap and the WinPcap bridge option under Colinux.
3. SpeedLinux will set up a virtual network interface, namely xtunnel, to communicate with Windows OS.  Configure the IP address as 193.168.0.1 on Windows side, and configure IP address as 193.168.0.150 on Linux side.  The default setting was 192.168.0.1 and it will easily clash with many LAN settings.
4. Create C:\sharedFolder folder.  This is the folder that is visible from both Windows and Linux side, of course, through Cofs' help.  If you don't like the name, you can always change it in C:\Program Files\speedLinux\settings.
5. Select Cofs when the installation program asks you what kind of filesystem support you want to use to communicate with windows partition.  Samba is great, but it would take too much effort to set it up.  Let's just select Cofs here.
6. After installation, run startup.  Try to ping local host through $ping 193.168.0.1 on your console.  If it fails, check your windows firewall settings.

Okay, now you're good to go.

P.S.
If Windows failed to create Xtunnel interface for some reason, it can still be set up manually.


Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Network\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\{USE_YOU_INTERFACE_SERIAL_HERE}\Connection]
"PnpInstanceID"="ROOT\\NET\\0000"
"MediaSubType"=dword:00000001
"Name"="Xtunnel"
"ShowIcon"=dword:00000001
"IpCheckingEnabled"=dword:00000000