testing a distro

andreas_skw · 03-25-2008, 10:20 PM

I've heard that there is the way to test a distro without burn it first in the blank cdrom. How?

3rods · 03-25-2008, 10:24 PM

It depends on the distro. You have to install the "LIVE" CD for whatever flavor you're looking to run. I recommend Ubuntu to test out http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download.

The LiveCD and the install are the same CD. You have to boot into the live to install it. It's totally easy, if you don't like it, don't install.

danboland · 03-25-2008, 11:30 PM

I think he means even before that step. With out wasting a cd-r.

You could just use something like virtualbox or vmware. These will allow you to boot up the live cd or even install the new distro in a quarantine on top of your current operating system.

If you dont like it you just delete the virtual machine.

Dan

2damncommon · 03-25-2008, 11:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andreas_skw

I've heard that there is the way to test a distro without burn it first in the blank cdrom. How?

Check the md5sum to confirm the download is not corrupted?

andreas_skw · 03-31-2008, 10:26 PM

It is not like that i mean 3 rods. I mean, after i remaster a distro, i just want to test it before i burned it in blank cdrom, danboland said that i can use virtualbox or vmware. Is that only way? Btw, what is md5sum that have been mentioned by 2damncommon?

I've heard that there is a way to do that without using vmware or virtualbox. It said like this:
1. make a folder under /boot folder, named it for example testditro
2. mount a source iso to folder testdistro
3. then xxx (sorry i forget!, the main idea is i have to configure it)

I didn't understand it. Can someone give me the information?

danboland · 04-01-2008, 12:12 AM

Not sure about that method. I've always just loaded an ISO up with a virtualization system.

No sure why you would need to mount it under boot, but you could mount it somewhere and then chroot to that folder. Then you would be using its system binaries instead of your normal ones. But this really wouldn't test the live cd, all the tools in /bin could be working great but the boot method, the kernel, and 100's of other system tools could be currupted wrong. The only way to test a live cd is to use it like a live CD. there are lighter virtualization products out there besides those 2 a mentioned but thats the way we did it testing a linux distro i use to work on.

Dan

danboland · 04-01-2008, 12:14 AM

Basically md5sum is a way to compute a unique hash of the contents of a file. So changing even 1 bit would make the file's md5sum look different. Its a way to verify that a file you received is the file you wanted to get. Thats why there ussualy posted next to distro iso downloads, so you can make sure the iso you downloaded is really the one you wanted and someone is not messing with you.

Dan