Astronaut CPRS in Linux

Astronaut TMG-CPRS in Linux

• Use TMG-CPRS in conjunction with the either the WorldVistA server or the OpenVistA server (both of which are Linux-based). When both a server and an Astronaut CPRS virtual machine appliance exist on the same Linux computer, a self-contained EHR can be run on a single Linux computer.

• I am not able to run TMG-CPRS in either the Wine platform or the Mono platform in Linux. However, I have no problem running it in a virtual machine (in which Windows is installed).

Install Astronaut TMG-CPRS in a VirtualBox virtual machine

Use VirtualBox in (K)Ubuntu to create the virtual machine

• Install VirtualBox in Linux. (I use Ubuntu/Kubuntu -- see Installing VirtualBox in Kubuntu.
• Create a new virtual machine. A virtual machine running Windows 98 should be satisfactory. (I name this virtual machine Win98SE_CPRS, for example.)
• Install Windows 98SE (or Windows XP if you have a spare license) in the virtual machine. Make sure the logon screen is disabled.
• Install the Astronaut CPRS package into Windows in the virtual machine as usual.
• Configure Windows (within the virtual machine) so it starts up AstronautSSH as well as TMG-CPRS at startup. That way whenever the virtual machine starts, both the SSH tunnel and TMG-CPRS will start (without intervention). To further streamline this, I change the AstronautSSH negotiation to use a public/private key pair (so that an SSH password is not required).

Use VirtualBox in Windows to create the virtual machine

• As an alternative, the details in the above section can be followed using VirtualBox in a Windows environment, as well. Create the virtual machine, install and configure the Astronaut CPRS package within the virtual machine, and create and configure the key pair for SSH connection, as above.

• Once the virtual machine is created, the entire virtual machine can be copied onto a Linux machine (or onto a USB flash drive) and run from VirtualBox in Linux. Refer to the VirtualBox instructions for further instructions. In general, copy the contents of C:\Users\user\.VirtualBox on the Windows machine to /home/user/.VirtualBox on the Linux machine.

Run TMG-CPRS in the VirtualBox (Windows) virtual machine on Linux

• Create a Menu Item / Shortcut in (K)Ubuntu Linux to start the virtual machine automatically. In the example below, the virtual machine I created in VirtualBox is named Win98SE_CPRS. In the Command: line of the Menu Item / Shortcut I use

virtualbox -startvm "Win98SE_CPRS"

Copy the virtual machine onto a USB flash drive or another computer

• Because a virtual machine can be copied and moved anywhere, it is possible to create the entire VirtualBox virtual machine (in a 2 to 8 Gb file) and then place the entire virtual machine onto a USB flash drive (with enough storage to accommodate the 2 - 8 Gb file) or onto another computer. The USB flash drive can then be plugged into (and the virtual machine run) from any computer that already has VirtualBox installed on it. (This works identically no matter whether the computer running VirtualBox is a Windows computer or a Linux computer.) See this introductory tutorial.

• See these details.

• Disadvantages:

• Licensing. Each copy of Windows requires a license. A bulk licensing scheme with Microsoft would have to be negotiated by your organization ($$$$$!) If you don't, you won't be able to activate your copy of Windows (except for Windows 98) or update any copy of Windows running within a virtual machine (unless it is licensed).
• Windows 98 as a guest operating system in VirtualBox has some limitations. See the VirtualBox website for clarifications (here, for example.)
• Depending on how much RAM the host computer has, running a virtual machine from a USB drive can be slower.

OpenVistA in Linux

OpenVistA-CIS can run completely in Linux.

• Use only in conjunction with the OpenVistA server.
• Install the Linux version of the OpenVistA-CIS client package (which runs using the Mono platform).