Virtual CDROM for Unix?

[Christian Barth]

> Has anyone implemented a "virtual cdrom" facility as offered
> on
> windows?  That is CD images are cached & compressed on hard
> disk and shared across a network. See:
> 
> 	 http://www.winmag.com/library/1996/1196/11r24a.htm
> 
> I have not found any news of a Unix solution.  I would
> like to offer one on a Linux server to Windows clients.
> 
> It should not be hard to implement with Samba...
I have not tried this but it should work:
You can copy the wohle filesystem of a cd-rom to the linux disk. 
(some thing like cat /dev/cdrom > /../../image)
If it is compiled into the kernel (don't ask for the name of the 
option), you can mount this big file like a normal hard disk (mount 
/.../../image /shares/cdrom1) an then be exported like any other 
share.

O.K. I admind, it is not compressed, ...

Christian




_____________________________________________________________

  Dipl.-Wirtsch.-Ing. Christian Barth

  Universitaet Kaiserslautern  
  Lehrstuhl fuer Fertigungstechnik und Betriebsorganisation
  Abteilung Fertigungstechnologie
  Raum 42/472

  Postfach 3049
  67655 Kaiserslautern
  Telefon 0631/205-2872
  Telefax 0631/205-3238
  email   barth at cck.uni-kl.de