Looking for Hardware / Linux Recommendation
Ok, Here's the situation. I travel a lot for work. The IT department is cracking down. My work computer has highly restrictive policies with an encrypted drive. When you plug back onto the work network, they scan your system to ensure you haven't visited any 'prohibited' sites. People have been canned for inappropriate browsing from their hotel rooms. So I generally travel with 2 computers, work + personal. My work PC is an HP Latitude D830 with XP.
I used my personal computer for personal mail's, etc from my hotel room. Some sites like google mail are blocked on work PC. This works fine, however, I'm beginning to tire of traveling with 2 computers all the time. I'd like a way simply use one PC and do some creative drive swapping. Potentially, I could attach an external drive rather than travel with 2 computers.
I got my PC to boot onto a USB linux drive (thumb drive) loaded with FEDORA. But, nothing really worked. Lots of CORBA errors. Couldn't launch a browser. Couldn't connect to the internet.
Here's my questions.
1. Is there an ideal USB linux version for what I want?
2. Or should I pursue getting a second internal drive to swap out?
3. Is there any risk I'm overlooking here? I certainly don't want to damage the PC an any way. I am assuming that if I remove the encrypted drive and boot from a USB drive the worst consequence is that I may fry my own USB disk. No big deal there. What I don't want to harm the work PC. Wouldn't want to end up canned if I visited a 'prohibited' site.
I used my personal computer for personal mail's, etc from my hotel room. Some sites like google mail are blocked on work PC. This works fine, however, I'm beginning to tire of traveling with 2 computers all the time. I'd like a way simply use one PC and do some creative drive swapping. Potentially, I could attach an external drive rather than travel with 2 computers.
I got my PC to boot onto a USB linux drive (thumb drive) loaded with FEDORA. But, nothing really worked. Lots of CORBA errors. Couldn't launch a browser. Couldn't connect to the internet.
Here's my questions.
1. Is there an ideal USB linux version for what I want?
2. Or should I pursue getting a second internal drive to swap out?
3. Is there any risk I'm overlooking here? I certainly don't want to damage the PC an any way. I am assuming that if I remove the encrypted drive and boot from a USB drive the worst consequence is that I may fry my own USB disk. No big deal there. What I don't want to harm the work PC. Wouldn't want to end up canned if I visited a 'prohibited' site.
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I had the idea of Vmware too, but then I realized that any company blocking an employee from using google while traveling for business is going to go into a 'terminated employee shaped meltdown' if they found Vmware installed.
I would use Knoppix or Ubuntu (both iirc have bootable live cdrom filesystems that save persistant settings to a thumbdrive) if you can get the machine to boot from a USB device. Following the paragraph above, any company that anal^H^H^H^Hparticular might have the boot order locked to the internal ide/data device and protected with a BIOS password. If the laptop is TPM compliant, shorting the battery to get into the BIOS will probably also prevent the machine from properly booting from its encrypted filesystem.
IMHO, the best bet is to do what you are doing now and continue using your own machine for your personal use. Its obvious the company doesn't want you using the laptop for personal business, and in some workplaces, the act of 'getting around' or even trying to evade the restrictions can trigger the afore mentioned 'terminated employee shaped meltdown'
If you can say, I'm curious as to what line of business that has such restricted use when you are in your hotel room ?
I would use Knoppix or Ubuntu (both iirc have bootable live cdrom filesystems that save persistant settings to a thumbdrive) if you can get the machine to boot from a USB device. Following the paragraph above, any company that anal^H^H^H^Hparticular might have the boot order locked to the internal ide/data device and protected with a BIOS password. If the laptop is TPM compliant, shorting the battery to get into the BIOS will probably also prevent the machine from properly booting from its encrypted filesystem.
IMHO, the best bet is to do what you are doing now and continue using your own machine for your personal use. Its obvious the company doesn't want you using the laptop for personal business, and in some workplaces, the act of 'getting around' or even trying to evade the restrictions can trigger the afore mentioned 'terminated employee shaped meltdown'
If you can say, I'm curious as to what line of business that has such restricted use when you are in your hotel room ?
The amount of time and energy that can go into tweaks and workarounds is simply baffling. I'd suggest you leave the company machine as is and go for a lightweight companion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASUS_Eee_PC) for your personal needs while travelling. This should also ensure you're not put on your IT department blacklist for "doing things" to your company laptop.
/RID
/RID
You may want to check out http://portableapps.com/
With this for example you could run the standalone version of firefox off a usb drive and then remove the usb stick when done and no one would be able to detect it.
With this for example you could run the standalone version of firefox off a usb drive and then remove the usb stick when done and no one would be able to detect it.
ASKER
Update: I'm following sunycoders steps. I like ubuntu so the idea of an ubuntu pen-drive is appealing. There is a technical issue with the steps. I've opened a question in:
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/23790560/Ubuntu-pen-drive-setup-issues.html
Thought I'd let you all know since it is related and there are more points on the table.
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/23790560/Ubuntu-pen-drive-setup-issues.html
Thought I'd let you all know since it is related and there are more points on the table.
You should not try physically removing the drive ... It should be okay to change boot sequence to boot from a CD e.g. knoppix - rather this would probably be ideal solution or from a USB drive.
http://www.knoppix.net/