I downloaded the linux-live scripts and ran them once. It told me that I needed to put unionfs.ko and squashfs.ko in the /root/Dekstop/linux-live-5.5.0/initrd/kernel-modules/2.6.18.1/ . So I located them on my system and placed those two files in that directory. I originally patched the kernel before I installed it with both squashfs and unionfs. I also installed squashfs-tools, but I wasnt sure if there is a unionfs-tools or similar I needed to install, for unionfs I just patched the kernel. When I booted the cd I got a message saying that "unionfs could not mount on union no such device" or something similar to that. Any help would be great. thanks

I had similar problems with mine so I decided to make my live cd from scratch rather than using the livecd scripts. The squashfs-tools are only needed in the initrd.gz file if you intend on decompressing the squashed file system while you boot the system. But you usually don't need that to run the live system, since the squashfs allows you to read a compressed files system just like a normal system.

It sounds like there maybe a problem with the linuxrc file in the /boot/initrd.gz that boots with the kernel. This file is the main file that loads into the kernel's memory and runs processes like mounting /proc /sys and mounting unionfs and squashfs files systems and other things like scsi, cdrom and dvd drives, basically everything that /sbin/init does.

Could you post the contents of the linuxrc file, it maybe still in the directory where all the building was done. Or failing that just copy the initrd.gz file from you live cd to a directory, extract it, then create a directory and mount the initrd file to that directory: