[Sugar-devel] [IAEP] Running sugar at almost-native speeds in Windows

[Benjamin M. Schwartz]

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Sascha Silbe wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 09:26:59PM -0400, Benjamin M. Schwartz wrote:
> 
>> So, the principal difficulty with using coLinux with Sugar is that it
>> uses
>> a Windows-side X server, which provides its own window manager.  We need
>> to use our own, custom-configured window manager, in order for the GUI to
>> work.  (For the same reason, Sugar won't run over an ssh tunnel.)
> Can't say anything about the first part, but the second is plain wrong
> (the box running Sugar shipped by lenny is in a different room - go
> figure how I prevent having to move my feet :) ). The window manager
> isn't tied to the X server in any way.

Are you using the "sugar-emulator" command?  I believe this command runs
sugar inside a Xephyr box, which creates a  complete new virtual X server.
 This X server runs on the "client"-side, i.e. your Lenny box, with its
own window manager, in this case Matchbox. Your "server"-side X server
never interacts with Sugar directly.

This approach should also work with coLinux.  However, it has significant
overhead (running multiple X servers will do that), and I'm not sure that
it would allow the user to run in full-screen mode (as Sugar is designed
to run).  Ideally, the user would be able to resize the Sugar window as
they please, including switching to and from full-screen.  I know that
VMWare Player supports this; I haven't tested anything else.

>> Virtualbox is Free and potentially similar.  Also, coLinux
>> requires Administrator privileges to run, so students on school computers
>> probably can't use it.[1]
> Don't VMs on Windows require admin privileges to install and/or run (I
> honestly don't know)?

I presume that we can package up the emulator as just some .exe on a USB
stick, to be run without needing installation.

- --Ben
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