LFS building on a remote PC with LiveCD - how to?
 

The idea is:
I have a PC (Celeron 700) with WinXP which I use for my daily works (I am a student)
And I have another PC (PIII 450MHz) which I decided to build LFS on.

The problem is that I have only one monitor, one keyboard and one mouse. I do not want to buy any of those KVM switches - they rarely appear in local shops.

So is there any way how I can build LFS remotely - to check from WinXP how LFS is going and to give new compilation tasks?

I have tried TightVNC on Windows, I like it, but it seems a bit complicated task to get VNC onto LiveCD image and in autoboot scripts. But if you could tell how to achieve this (or any useful link about LFS livecd structure and bootscripts) I would be grateful!

It seems I need to know, where exactly LFS LiveCD boot scripts are located and how to edit them without spoiling the image (will UltraISO or WinISO do the thing right?). I have found some TightVNC Linux tutorials, will see, if I can get that thing running. I need it to be running when the LiveCD boots.

Or maybe there is any simpler solution which I just do not see (I am a bit new to LFS)?

Thanks.

This is what I WOULD suggest:

Boot your LFS machine up with the LiveCD.
Wait a few minutes for it to completely boot to the shell.
Use your Windows machine to check your router's (or equiv) dhcp table to see what IP your LFS machine retrieved from DHCP.
Download a program call "putty". A simple google.com search of "putty ssh" to get it. Install this onto Windows.
You can now use this putty program to SSH into your LFS system. Use Fullscreen to make it seem your monitor/kb is hooked to LFS machine.

Lookup SSH if you dont knwo what it is. Its a great tool for shell on a remote computer. It's almost like VNC, but for shell.

NOW. The reason why I can't suggest this almost perfect plan... The live cd requires you to answer a few questions before it boots up. Timezone, language, keyboard layout, etc... I don't think the SSH server is running at the time of these questions.

Theoretical Solution: Edit the boot process on the LiveCD so it doesnt ask these questions on boot. Hard code your responses int th code, recompile, reburn to make new LiveCD. --- This I have no idea how to do, or if it can be done. Its just an idea that popped into my head.

Thats your REAL showstopper here. The LiveCD asks these questions before the system is even booted up. This would prevent any type of VNC or SSH type program/server from running.

BUT! I do not know from first hand about this bootup process. I've only booted from this LiveCD twice. I guess it would be a good idea to try to SSH to the LFS machine before you try anything else.

Hope I helped.

That will work. Just connect monitor, mouse, and keyboard to LFS computer, get it booted and start sshd if you need to. Then connect the cables to your Windows box, boot it up and run putty. Or can you not hot-swap those kinds of cables? The monitor cable will work, and if you have usb mouse/keyboard, that will work. I don't know about PS/2.