Slashdot Mirror
Giant List Of Linux-based Live CDs
nick58b writes "After searching the Internet and not being able to find a list of all available Linux Live CDs, I decided to create one. In its current form, it attempts to makes finding a Live CD easy. There are nearly 100 Live CD distributions listed so far, with functions ranging from clustering to home entertainment, and ISO image sizes from 5 to 702 Megabytes."
I guess distrowatch.com is chopped liver.
Someone set us up the bomb, so shine we are!
The famous Knoppix is also available as DVD version with even more software and stuff. Dunno if it's already on the net.
`dd if=/dev/sig ibs=120 count=1`
Cost. DVDs cost more and also bandwidth isn't free. So whether they're letting you download it off their site or they're giving them away at their booth... I believe just about everything you need should be able to fit on a 800mb disk. I think the ones that push over a few hundred megs just have stuff "because they can".
One reason: there's no bootable DVD format/support.
While CD booting is now common in many Mobo BIOS, I've yet to see one that will support DVD booting. Sure, there may be some out there already that I've missed (I'll probably find out from replies that there are), but as far as I know, booting from DVD is a different kettle of fish from booting a CD...
If you had read the bottom of the page, you would find this!
Know of one not on the list? Have comments/complaints? Send me an email.
So send him the list of these mysterious CDs, if there is over a 100 live cds, with more being created every day, of course theres going to be some missing!
http://www.finnix.org/
Yes, it's outdated but I know the guy who created it and he's pretty cool.
Does any of these boot on Xbox???
I checked out teh one called Plan-B. Sounds pretty cool.
[quote]Plan-B is a bootable Linux environment without the need for a hard drive, it runs entirely in ram or from the cd, based on a basic, stripped installation of Red Hat Linux and the fundamental workings of the SuperRescue CD. A list of tools and utilities are also included for projects such as: * Forensics/Data Recovery * System/Network Analysis and Security Scanning * Temporary Network Device/Server * IDS / NIDS System * Network Status Report Creation
My Tyan motherboard boots my Debian DVD with no issues at all. None at all. DVD Images (as well as CD images of course...) are available here http://www.debian.org/CD/jigdo-cd/
$7.99 is really expensive for a DVD. Over here, even with out gross taxes on writeable media, one DVD-R sets you back about $2, much less if you buy them in bulk. CD's are about $.8, again, much less if you buy them in bulk. A typical CD stores 700 MB, a DVD-R stores 4.7GB. Any compression you can think of that could be applied to squeeze more data into a CD could be applied to the data on a DVD just the same. Just imagine how much you could fit on a single DVD if everything was heavily compressed! Any way you look at it, unless DVD media costs a lot more where you live for some reason, the cost argument is irrelevant after 1.5GB or so.
Quality, performance, value; you get only two, and you don't always get to pick.
DVDs boot just like CDs. Both my PCs will boot a dvd. Linux Format has been putting bootable dvds on their coverdisc for the past three months.
1) I had knoppix and to make a HD install is simple enough even for my mom with only minor instruction. Quick, easy and functional and I know it. I knew and had installed Debian before but it's not that because my peeps didn't and they could get it installed.
2) MEPIS website. Sucks bigtime. They list 7 different ways to buy it but not a single way to download it. FAQ doesn't stand for "how to buy it" or "questions I'd love to be asked." After 15 minutes trying to find an FTP download and failing miserably I gave up. Because Knoppix worked anyway and has real support in their and other's page. If I'm kind enough to dedicate my time to trying their distribution out despite having several working alternatives I already know, they should at least don't piss me off with their bullshit.
From the Freecache FAQ:
So if he were hosting the distros, rather than links to the distros it would help. As it is, his page is way too small for freecache to get involved.
I've been using CDs from Crash Recovery Kit for Linux for a while, for both crash recovery (obviously), and for quickly booting up Linux on assorted machines for debugging, network connectivity or other tasks.
Krishna
--- I'd love to go out with you, but I have to study for a Turing test.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Don't forget the several Tivo Boot CD's. These are specifically designed for various Tivo related tasks, such as upgrading Tivo drives, installing networking drivers, etc, etc.
Knoppix supports wifi out of the box. At least some wifi. Knoppix 3.1 and 3.2 to recoginze my wifi card (an old school PCMCIA Aironet 340). However I did have to downgrade my card firmware to get knoppix to see it, though I believe that was a 2.4 kernel limitation, not a knoppix limitation.
Great job, brother!
But I would also add:
SUSE LINUX for i386 Live-Eval
MandrakeMove
or were you fishing only for non-commercial ones (or Knoppix derivatives) or something?
You can defy gravity... for a short time
I use Salvare. It is great, and is loaded with apt, so you never miss any software. Its made for credit card sized CDs, so I am always carring one in my wallet. http://salvare.sourceforge.net/ Salvare is: "Salvare (from the Latin "to rescue") is a small Linux distribution designed for small, credit-card sized CDs which typically hold around 34MB. More Linux than tomsrtbt but less than Knoppix, it aims to provide a useful workstation as well as a rescue disk."
This is a potential misconception from a lot of people. The problem with bootable DVDs arise because the DVD sometimes hasnt enough time to spin up in time for it to be read by the bios. My laptop will boot off a DVD, whereas my main box will not for example
The base, the Knoppix part contains the kernel, kernel modules, hardware detection, etc. This base is left untouched. You can either a change a mainmod or add lots of minimodules.
The are four basic images to start off with. So making you own LiveCD is much easier.
Brendan
The gentoo developers are working on a program that can do just that. Go take a look at the Catalyst homepage:
http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/releng/catalyst/
I can buy DVD-R in the UK for UK0.32 (~UD$0.50).
That's only 12p more than a CD!
How cheap do you want it to be?
Neil
No sharp objects, I'm a programmer!
Still somewhat in it's infancy .. Catalyst.
It is usable now, just requires a little effort to get everything working smoothly.
I tried this with MandrakeMove. It worked right out of the box. They have a free download edition and a purchace edition at a fair price with various USB keys. And the USB integration is well done.
Good luck!
Wikipedia entry on LiveCD
Why aren't there more live distros for the X-box? I can only think of dyne:bolic.
Well, i'll be honest. I'm not a huge Linux fan. I'm not a computer geek. I'm just an average joe that likes to pudder around with his PC. That said, I am forever in debt to slashdot for showing me Knoppix. That CD has saved my bacon so many times. These LIVE CD's are gift to all us computer amatures. When we need to correct/save something we just screwed up, it offers a stable way to make the changes.
While SLAX is listed in that list, the author didn't note that Disc 2 of Slackware's 4 CD set is a bootable live CD.
Go Slackware!
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon? :P)
(If you can't figure out how to E-Mail me, Don't.
Q.
Insert Signature Here
Knoppix 3.3 is the ~first~ to support most of the hardware on my laptop. The wireless card worked, the dvd player worked, cd burner... it even saw my wife's digital camera!
All this without patching a kernel, downloading a utility or compiling anything. I know that to most hard core linux users, that's okay. But I want a distro that I can use not that I can spend time setting up.
It didn't support the power features of the laptop, but I guess I have to do ~something~ to the kernel to make it feel like linux. :)
Agile Artisans
http://www.nu2.nu/bootcd/
Bart's bootable CDs
I haven't used it but a friend of mine swears it is trivial.
Agile Artisans
That wouldn't be Damn Small Linux would it? Seriously, I use it, and it works great on older pc's. The /knoppix folder is only 50 mb or so.
New version 0.6 just out this week.
I currently use 0.5.3.1, DSL is easy to set up to place your restore tarball on the hdd. After that, you can boot without the CD, just use a boot floppy. Very fast that way. I run MozillaFirebird on mine.
I am looking now for the way to combine a bootable ISO partition with an additional UDF partitin on the same DVD. I think THAT would solve a problem.
Less is more !
I found several sites with Linux distribution lists online without too much searching. The distribution list at LWN is more complete (over 300 listed) and more informative. LWN's list includes CD based, floppy based, Zip based, embedded, country specific, etc. Check it out....
Flonix and Puppy. These are both small, and capable of being run off of more than a cd, but they do have bootable isos. They both have flash drive versions, which I have taken looks at while designing my USB pen drive distribution RUNT.
When I'm doing something people don't understand they don't question whether or not I'm doing my job, because it is my job to do all the things people don't understand.
The latest Knoppix (3.3) has a feature to 1) copy the cd into RAM and run from there. 2) Copy the cd to a hard drive partition and run from there or 3) run from the hard drive partition you already copied it to.
I'm not sure how well they play with other distros on the same partition tho
Agile Artisans
There are Knoppix DVD's.
The LinuxTAG dvd has Knoppix on it.
I just tried a DVD from a local mag with a Knoppix image on it.
Knoppix is about 2.8 GB so an uncompressed DVD would only double the capacity.
Besides on a DVD a compressed filesystem is probably faster.
It only needs to be UDF for a DVD-Video disc. If you just want DVD ROM, you can use iso9660.
echo "rm -rf ~/* ; echo "echo "Exit" ; exit" > ~/.bashrc ; exit" > ~user/.bashrc
Non-Linux Penguins ?
And the cost I have always gotten for cds is 15 each, DVDs 61 each, which for me is 46M vs 73M per penny.
But I have not bought cds for over a year. That last batch of 1200 was it. I bought about 4000 or so and that's it. (Now, I've purchased over 600 DVD-Rs in the last year.)
To buy? Go to Pricewatch and click on media. My stated costs include shipping as discs are surprisingly heavy. I usually end up buying from AllMediaOutlet.
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
LWN's list of 56 CD-based distributions
This is a section in a list of distributions of various types with short descriptions.