how to set up VM, or is there a freeware equivalent to Deep Freeze Software

[Phil Meyer]

Antonio Olivares wrote:
>
> This is more or less what we are looking for.  Is there a howto on setting up quemu with -snapshot option?
>   

Too easy.

Assuming F7:

# yum install kvm qemu

# modprobe kvm-intel (or kvm-amd)

check for errors on the command line and in dmesg.

No errors?  The you have a system that is capable of hardware 
accelerated virtual systems.

# mkdir /data
# cd /data
# qemu-img create -f qcow vdisk.img 10G

Put your copy of XPSP2 in the CDROM drive.
# dd if=/dev/scd0 of=XPSP2.iso

# qemu-kvm -hda winxp.img -cdrom XPSP2.iso -boot d -m 1000

This will start the install.

The -m argument is Megabytes RAM, and I have a 4GB system to test. :)  
Drop it as low as 256 for smaller systems.

To run normally (after the install):

$ qemu-kvm -hda winxp.img -cdrom /dev/null -m 1000 -net user -net nic 
-snapshot

There are lots of suggestions here:

http://kvm.qumranet.com/kvmwiki

Good luck!