[gentoo-user] On what to base a custom live CD?

[Grant Edwards]

I need to build a liveCD that boots on as wide a variety of hardware
as is practical.  It needs to load one custom kernel module and then
run one console-mode application.  Instead of building something from
scratch, I was hoping I might be able to modify an existing liveCD.

There's no need for support for networking, graphics, or even access
to optical or hard drives.

The current version of this CD is built sort of from scrach using a
labor-intensive and error-prone process. However, it does produce
something that's small (less that 10MB), and boots fast (around 10
seconds). But, updating the existing CD with a newer kernel (to gain
support for newer hardware) is difficult.

I thought about using a customized systemrescuecd, but that takes ages
to boot (almost 5 minutes).  This CD is intended as something a
customer can run to do a quick hardware test, and making them sit
there for 5 minutes to see a 5-second test just isn't going to fly.

I also looked at the gentoo minimal install CD, but that's still
pretty slow (3-4 minutes), and it's not at all obvious how to add a
kernel module to it.

Does anybody have an recommendations for a good way to build a small
liveCD with a custom kernel module?

-- 
Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! I'm having a
                                  at               quadrophonic sensation
                              gmail.com            of two winos alone in a
                                                   steel mill!