14 DAY TRIAL // VMKnoppix, the former Xenoppix, has reached a new edition, 20080519. It is a Linux Live distribution based on Debian and Knoppix featuring an impressive collection of virtualization tools like Xen, KVM, VirtualBox, KQEMU and UserMode Linux.
The new edition is based on KNOPPIX 5.3.1 and was released a few days ago, using the Linux kernel version 2.6.24. It includes BitVisor 0.2, a secure virtual machine monitor, and Xen version 3.2.1. In case you didn't already know, KNOPPIX is a bootable Live operating system, that can be run directly from a CD or DVD. It comes with a large collection of free and open source software, out of the box support for many graphics cards, sound cards and peripherals.
The Internet boot loader, InetBoot made its way into this distribution. It loads a hypervisor, kernel and miniroot from a HTTP server and boots the operating system (KNOPPIX) with "kexec". Besides InetBoot, VMKnoppix comes with the network bootloader called "gPXE" for normal PXE and HTTP/iSCSI bootup. gPXE provides a replacement for proprietary PXE ROMs, and adds some extra features like DNS, HTTP and iSCSI.
VMKnoppix also brings you GRUB-IMA (Integrity Measurement Architecture) for handling Trusted Boot and the "OS Circular" Internet client, that enables you to boot some Linux distributions (CentOS 5, Debian Etch, Ubuntu 6.06, 6.10 and 7.04) on a virtual machine using Xen, QEMU, KVM, etc. with Internet Virtual Disk "Trusted HTTP-FUSE CLOOP". OS Circular is actually a framework of Internet Disk Image Distributor for anonymous operating systems. You can try an operating system without installing it on your computer, thanks to OS Circular. On real computers - not virtual machines - OS Circular offers a small bootloader as Internet Client, that boots KNOPPIX right from the Internet. QEMU091 (for x86_64) is included, and offers the AMD-V instruction set for the virtual machine.
Download VMKnoppix 20080519 right now from Softpedia.