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

[Helmut Jarausch]

I'd suggest SystemRescueCD.
It's upgraded quite often (currently using kernel 2.6.35-x)
has a ready to go X11 environment and most useful,
it's an up-to-date Gentoo system, so one immediately knows
where to look if there are any problems.
And it has a well documented (easy) procedure for extending it.

Helmut.


On 11/24/10 23:02:10, Grant Edwards wrote:
> 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?
>



-- 
Helmut Jarausch
Lehrstuhl fuer Numerische Mathematik
RWTH - Aachen University
D 52056 Aachen, Germany