Mel McWeeney
Email: <hash bang AT SPAMFREE Ocean - Free DOT Net>
Zooming in
Now that we have avoided the scourge of software Patents, and Klaus Knopper can walk amongst society for the foreseeable future, I think we should avail of his technology!
This goes back to Hoary aka. Gnoppix aka. Gnome-Live or Beatrix with the remaining space using our own content. I really think this could be an and/or thing, because the Bugs mentioned on Gnoppix 1.1 have apparently been fixed, and I'll use my forthcoming broadband to check the hell out of them and make sure that's true. What would be lovely would be if we could use the likes of "UnionFS";![[WWW]](/wiki-htdocs/modern/img/moin-www.png){kind=small}
http://www.unionfs.org/ on future releases. As far as I've read, it can be morphed (in a jigdo sort of way) to provide both the files seperately and the ISO WITHOUT doubling the space. Someone read it and see if I'm right about this. Incidentally Slax is growing on me (but not for this particular occasion) because customising LiveCDs is a complete doddle, and it already uses UnionFS. Only problem is Patrick (please Kut the Krap) Volkerding dropped shaggin' Gnome so we'd need to add Dropline or Freerock .tgzs of our choice.
Anyway, looks like the Hoary bugs are out, and the Breezy Badgers are now defaulting to Gnome 2.10 which is the version we need. Now to find one without DHCP bugs (hangs if NIC unconnected), and it would be NICE if the boot messages were refined a bit (as per most Knoppixes out there).
Open to thoughts
Like to hear your feedback and I'll reply when I can.
Our Next CD -Candidates Pros and Cons
Appreciate the comments Glen and David. I agree we need to make sure that "Free" matches our definitions, steady release cycle and size.
IMHO the best starting position would be Beatrix but I'm open to all opinions. This could be changed by my wishlist. AtMission is new. Release cycles are thick and fast for DSL and Slax, and as you know, 6monthly for Gnome and Hoary.
Gnoppix, Gnome LiveCD and Hoary Hedgehog (aka Wishlist Updated)
Thanks Malcolm for getting me these. Here's the update: I've evaluated the "Gnome LiveCD" which seems identical to "Gnoppix 1.0", even down to the fact that both were used as the GUADEC 2005 promo CDs. Oh! -and they're both Hoary updated to Gnome 10/11ish.
Two problems
I've killed hours on looking for a live-cd installer for it. I'm looking possibly at remastering with a reworked Beatrix installer to get around this, unless I see an update soon on the Gnome or Gnoppix site. I would have thought that *ix-installer from any of the *ix-LiveCDs would be ok, but if that was the case, then why didn't they do this for Guadec. Sounds like I'm missing out on something critical here. I've seen as well postings about this in a few places, and THINK I recall seeing that the next Gnoppix will have one.
The second problem is a little worse. Some Hoary's don't boot up on a PC with an unconnected network card, and there isn't a cheatcode I can find to turn that off. Again, same behaviour on all the Hoarys I've tried.
Not a problem, just a bananaskin... if we were to use one of these, XScreensaver would need to be configured to point at images that are actually on the CD. At the moment they point at Guadec images, so if we were to replace with our own content, that would need to be tweaked on the 'Advanced Settings' of XScreensaver.
Other than that IMHO these are all suitable. Any views on Beatrix... the other wildcard for me is 'slax' which seems very stable, and expandable with UnionFS. Must check gsb.sourceforge.net and droplines for compatability with both _my_ slax, and _our_ ethics but I think all is in order. More as it happens.
Gnome LiveCD
"Gnome LiveCD"; http://torrent.gnome.org/gnome-livecd-2.10.torrent
Gnoppix
"Gnoppix"; ftp://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/gnoppix/ I really want to see if this overcomes the possible Ubuntu issues, see below.
What's on offer
Damn Small v1.2
"Damn Small Linux"; http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/ can add our customisations.
Pros
* Base system sits on 50mb
* Installed to USB stick and occupied space less than 128mb -Cool!
* There's an embedded version (approx 50mb) that allows running from within a regular Windows or Linux system on-the-fly via "qemu"; http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/
* Can use this base to add standard debian Packages from any debian (eg: Demudi)
* There are preconfigs that can be added on the fly via MyDSL so adding the apps we want is easy.
Cons
Uses a 2.4 kernel with no plans to upgrade. The docs on site say this is because 2.6 dropped support for a lot of legacy hardware. It may turn out that the applications are configured to work with 2.4 and 2.6 could screw this up. Didn't look into this due to time, but DSL still has a lot going for it.
Slax
"Slax"; http://slax.linux-live.org/ (Has UnionFS so we can add our own customs (Gnome, Gnome, Gnome!!!!) as well, possibly CramFSs).
Pros
* 2.6 Kernel, no cruft, so ready to expand in a direction of our choice.
* Comes in many spins, including Professional (full compiler suite), KillBill (fully configured Wine) and Popcorn (Low overhead, XFCE interface.
* There's a module add-on section on the site (similar to DSL).
Cons
* Apart from Popcorn, all flavours rely on KDE. See objections below.
* The installer on Popcorn is a 'something.kmdr' file, so it requires Kommander or some other KmyKrappilynamed appliKation to worK. God, I still Kringe at the Knameing Konventions on the Krap desKtop environment. Hopefully a library or two would be all that's needed, either that or just cross-port the hdinstall from another Slackware based LiveCD. NOT "Austrumi"; http://austrumi.isolis.lv/viewtopic.php?t=117 (it's blazingly fast but the HDinstaller falls flat on it's face at the starting line). A decent HDinstall script and we're away!
Ubuntu Hoary Hedgehog Live
Tried this on different qualities of machine with varying results. On less than 128mb ram, the boot up speed was PAINFUL.
Pros
* Lots of boot options, including booting straight to the HDinstaller or desktop
* Totally customisable
* Rock solid testing (Sponsored by Canonical)
Cons
* By the time Software Freedom Day comes along, the next release will be due.
* Boot up is VERY rough looking and intimidating to the novice eye, unlike our existing Morphix.
* Open to discussion on this, but there's a school of thought that Ubuntu does not follow the Debian packaging standards exactly and as a result may not update properly via Apt, except from Universe or other Ubuntu repositories.
BeatrIX Hoary Hedgehog Live
Pros
* Tiny size and totally appealing to M$ converts
* Rock solid testing (Sponsored by Startel)
* Designed by an Irishman!
* Totally polished bootup experience, and HDinstall.
* Expandable via Ubuntu Hoary
Cons
Same as Ubuntu Hoary Hedgehog.
ATMission
"ATMission"; http://www.atconsultancy.nl/atmission/ is another knoppix, but Cowloop looks a bit hairy, after a certain amount of use, the cowloop gets full and you get read-write errors. There are some boot options to adjust this, but I kinda lost interest there.