How to customize a live distro?

xpucto · 08-10-2006, 03:47 AM

Hi!
I have 2 questions regarding live distros:
1) how may I customize a live distro? Is it different for each distro? I would like for example to have all internet-parameters saved in the live cd in order not to have to configure the all system everytime it starts. Is it possible? If yes, how?
2) I know that the idea of live cd is not to make any change on the HD, but is there any way to save some datas on a HD (for example an external USB HD)?

thanks.

Tinkster · 08-10-2006, 04:13 AM

Which live-CD ARE you using? Knoppix for instance allows you to save
your settings to a floppy or USB-MemoryKey.

Knoppix will also allow you to save settings to a FAT partition.

Cheers,
Tink

xpucto · 08-10-2006, 05:28 AM

thanks. I'll try with knoppix

pwc101 · 08-10-2006, 06:09 AM

Puppy linux quite nicely enables you to save your settings, so might be worth giving that a shot. It also runs uber-quick since it's loaded completely into the ram. As a result you need a fair amount of ram (I'd say you'd want around 512 MB to run it completely in the ram). Once puppy's up and running for the first time, it'll run a wizrd to setup your xorg.conf file, then once that's all done you can use the tools on the desktop to set up your internet connection. Once you've finished setting up you can save it to either the cd you loaded puppy from (with a cd-writer obviously!), or a USB drive.

Next time you boot it'll look for the latest saved settings file and load that. You can keep saving the changes until there's no room left on the cd.

Obviously when it's up and running, you can mount any drives you have (although NTFS is obviously read-only for the time being), and write to those as in any other non-live-cd distro.

As an aside, I believe that with the Slax live-cd you can customise it with certain packages before you write it to CD, thereby customising it before you commit to burning.

EDIT: spelling mistakes, capitalisations etc.

b0uncer · 08-10-2006, 06:27 AM

Quote:

Obviously when it's up and running, you can mount any drives you have (although NTFS is obviously read-only for the time being), and write to those as in any other non-live-cd distro.

Actually NTFS is read-write for the time being, but not reliably so. By changing the type from "ntfs" to some other installed driver (or what should I call it?) like the one from Captive, you can enable writing to an NTFS but most probably great amounts of writing and deleting data off an NTFS partition will fail at the moment.

I hope the ntfs "drivers" get better soon..it's a misery for Linux not to be able to access newer Windows partitions read-write (in a working manner).

Agrouf · 08-10-2006, 06:40 AM

The ntfs write support is here and stable since kernel 2.6.15 (not so long ago).
http://wiki.kernelnewbies.org/Linux_2_6_15

As for a customizable liveCD, http://www.morphix.org/ lets you do what you want, but if that's just internet settings, knoppix will do fine.

pwc101 · 08-10-2006, 06:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by b0uncer

Actually NTFS is read-write for the time being, but not reliably so.

that's essentially what I meant... damn english language and my inability to use it!

I know Captive uses the native NTFS driver from windows, but I thought it was painfully slow: maybe I misread that somewhere...

EDIT: I just read on http://wiki.kernelnewbies.org/Linux_2_6_15 the section on write support for NTFS:

Quote:

NTFS write support: NTFS finally implements write support so "vim /ntfs/foo.txt" works. You can write(2) to a file even beyond the end of the existing file. Resident non-resident files and are supported. Sparse files can also be written and holes will be filed appropriately. truncate(2), ftruncate(2) and open(2) with O_TRUNC flag also works. There're some limitations with heavily fragmented files which you won't be allowed to change. Also, notice that creation/deletion of files and directories is still not supported and mmap(2) based writes is still not complete

so there's write support, bit there's still some no-no's...

kirkpuppy · 08-10-2006, 08:33 PM

Puppy very happy with 256MB of ram, under 128mb you'll want some swap.

pwc101 · 08-11-2006, 02:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kirkpuppy

Puppy very happy with 256MB of ram, under 128mb you'll want some swap.

I sit corrected