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MandrakeMove Bootable Linux CD Announced
joestar writes "MandrakeSoft just announced the release of the MandrakeMove release candidate, a special desktop version of the Mandrake Linux distribution that boots live from the CD and uses a USB key (included in the retail version) to automatically store personal data. It looks a bit like Knoppix, but comes with more features, such as the capability to eject the MandrakeMove CD-ROM during its use, in order to read audio or video files from another CD! The download release candidate is available here."
Also sounds like the 'Slackware Live' cd.
Can you create your own in mandrake like you can with slackware?
Be you Admins? nay, we are but lusers!
I wonder if usb hard drive (I have an Archos Jukebox Studio 10) work as well as a usb key?
4+Gb of opensource/free software on a single disc... why don't do a Linux DVD Live distro? ..just wondering.
just in case you don't believe the guy... http://www.knoppix.net/docs/index.php/CheatCodes so is this a default boot parameter with the mandrake offering?
Did I miss something? I thought Mandrakes focus was new users/desktop users.
This actually looks the ideal solution for people wanting to mess around with linux without messing up their hard-drive.
With the USB drive, you can do quite a bit on it, and get a proper feeling for the OS.
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This could be a plus for people that need to access the Internet in local libraries that utilize draconian filters to block out politically questionable material...unless the entire network is run through a proxy server...in which case you could use this to SSH tunnel into an unfiltered proxy server!
Mandrake has always been my favorite Linux company & I like throwing them a couple bucks for a boxed set now and then. Good work!
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How big is the USB Drive they include? Can I use my own?
I noticed in the first screenshot : "Multimedia Player for CDs / DVDs". How do they play DVDs legally?
If I have 2 CD / DVD drives on the system, can I use both and not have to swap disks? (I assume yes, but you know what happens when you assume...)
Very cool but it doesn't quite have that "edge" anymore. What we should really work on is having a full bootable Linux distribution on a bootable 512MB or 1GB USB Keychain. Such a system would FLY!
I'm a Mandrake Club subscriber and have supported them for a few years now. But two weeks ago I erased my last version of it. I installed 9.2 before it went public (being a Mandrake Club member) and, desktop speaking, it's superb. Everything works out of the box, all my non-geek friends and family members used it at will.
But then I started trying to do stuff I did easily in slackware a few years back, like messing with the hardware and installing a video capture card. It became very frustrating after three days trying and no results. No kernel shipped by Mandrake would let me install RivaTV. A google search will show you that a lot of people is stuck at that point and you will not find any useful answer.
You could install a vanilla kernel, but that would break the whole point of having a dependence based distro (urpmi, apt, emerge, etc).
Trying to share a internet connection using the wizard would screw up the firewall settings, and trying to bring the firewall back up would screw the connection sharing configuration.
After a lot of thought I decided to ditch Mandrake and go for a more traditional Linux distro, being the Debian servers compromised around those days (and I believe they still are), I went the Gentoo way (I was a Slackware junkie 8 years ago) and I'm not going back.
True, you need a few days to have a full system, but you gain again control of your computer. I see Mandrake now at a very delicate point, getting each day more and more like proprietary OSes, hiding a lot of stuff from the user (even thought the tools and the utililities are open source they sometimes choose ways that are non-standards).
I loved Mandrake and I'm still going to recommend their products for newbies, heck, I'm going to renew my suscription with them just to help them out, but I won't come back.
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Saddly, FAT16 is the standard format for USB keys, with the slow cluster chain following rather than fast inode structure, and without unix semantics like permissions, device files, hard links, and so on.
Maybe they'd allocate a big file and mount it with a loopback device? Or maybe they'll use on of the other mechanisms to make up for FAT filesystem limitations? Or maybe they'll just require the key to have an EXT2 or other "linux native" filesystem? But that would make the key unusable for the thing that makes those little keys so compelling... moving data around.
It's be pretty sad to have to carry 2 USB keys around, one for moving data between systems and a second one for MandrakeMove (or other distros that follow in their footsteps).
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One of my favorite uses for a USB key is for showing off Opera to people still using IE. It installs perfectly, plays nicely, and doesn't throw things in weird locations. You're right about complex software, but that's no real surprise.
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Could someone set up a bittorrent link or a north american mirror?
I've been working on a linux distro for a few months now that is using this combination of technologies. It definitely appears to be a configuration of growing use and interest.
I added the cryptographic iButton to the list as the only piece missing from the live CD / USB fob picture is secure authentication so that when you are accessing your files remotely from any location, you need not fear about Man-in-the-Middle attacks or insecure password / authentication allowing attackers access to your data.
I talk about some of the features I want in this thread of wanted features / technologies
The future trends are moving quickly towards seamless access to data via mobile devices and wireless communications. A trusted operating system on a mini-CDR with a USB key fob storing dynamic data and strong authentication via cryptographic hardware is all you need to access files, music, movies, anything back at home or work with complete security (or, as much security as you can provide given a good OS configuration)
And the best part: it fits in your pocket. You can take it anywhere. You can "phone home" via wireless and reach everything there as if it was local.
With AES encryption of sensitive data on the USB fob you can prevent any kind of unauthorized copying that would reveal private data, and compression added to the mix lets you store a lot more than 256M or so of data as well.
The latest USB devices are capable of throughput in excess of 6 MegaBytes / second, which is more than adequate for most tasks.
Userspace / overlay filesystems with selective encryption, networked access, and secure decentralized distribution are going to make this kind of setup extremely sweet.
I can't wait for it...