[clug] DIY live CD kit?

[Chris Smart]

Sounds good Alex.
http://www.linux-live.org/ (that you linked) is prob a good way to go.
You build your system on a partition or directory including a kernel
with uafs, then configure the script and run it. It does all the work
and spits out an iso. Haven't used it myself, but sounds promising. It's
what SLAX is built from. I don't think it's distribution specific
either.

-c

On Tue, 2007-03-20 at 11:37 +1100, Alex Satrapa wrote:
> I have this crazy idea of building a live CD distribution to hand to  
> people complaining[1] about getting up and running with Ruby on Rails  
> (substitute Ruby on Rails with application of choice).
> 
> What I'd like to be able to do is:
> 1) Set up a system which contains stuff shipped with the distribution  
> (or available as managed packages) where possible
> 2) Add stuff which doesn't come as "stock" from the package  
> management system (eg: Package X might only be available in the  
> experimental/unstable release)
> 3) "Clone" the image onto CD.
> 
> The options I've found are:
> 1) Intellibuild[2], which seems to pretty much require all software  
> to be installed through Debian packages, and gives you some scope for  
> tweaks by programming Python scripts (ie: installing the latest  
> version of Ruby, Rails and a few gem packages will involve Python  
> programming effort).
> 2) Linux-Live[3], which seems to be just right.
> 3) Roll my own from scratch[4]: probably a nice companion to "Linux  
> from Scratch"[5].
> 4) Rework a Knoppix CD - which is pretty much a DIY version of (1).
> 5) Use "bootcdwrite" which was a package in Debian at some point in  
> time.
> 
> Ultimately I'd like the system to boot with a pretty graphical splash  
> screen (I get bored watching the hundreds of lines of init scripts  
> reporting that they're doing what they're supposed to be doing, and  
> would I please enjoy my trip through this door), and present the user  
> with a KDE or Gnome desktop that is customised to test-driven  
> development using Ruby on Rails.
> 
> Is there a "live CD" preparation package that you've used (and would  
> recommend) that I have missed? It would have to be able to prepare a  
> boot CD based on the contents of the hard drive, since I will have to  
> add packages that aren't included in eg: Debian stable.
> 
> Alex
> 
> [1] Zed Shaw, for example, hates Debian's handling of Ruby and Rails  
> - http://lists.rubyonrails.org/pipermail/rails/2006-May/037763.html
> 
> [2] Intellibuild, apparently based on Debian: http://ibuild.livecd.net/
> 
> [3] Linux-Live, creates an image of your HD: http://www.linux-live.org/
> 
> [4] "Creating a Complete Distribution on CD", http:// 
> www.linuxjournal.com/article/7233
> 
> [5] http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/