The problem with these distros is that they are outdated before the
distro has a chance to get spread. Since you can't add hardware drivers
manually (no disk, right?) it means that the drivers for the latest
hardware needs to be on the CD. And "latest hardware" is a matter of
very short time.
If you remember the mail thread about static compiling a couple of weeks
ago, it was part of my own toying around about making a similar distro,
but in a smarter way: Rather that spreading the distro itself (half a
giga), I thought about writing a (perl) script, which automatically
creates such a distro, based upon files that already exist on the
system, that the script is running on.
I saw the following two steps:
1. Create a "floppy disk image" that is needed for El-Torito boot CD's.
That image needs to include a small kernel, and a very small RAM disk
image, which includes only one executable (diet-statically linked): init
(or linuxrc?). Kernel copied from /boot, RAM disk image created ad-hoc.
2. Create a CD image, which includes a selected list of files and/or
paths (this list should be easy to alter). Not all files are taken
directly from the system, but I suppose that 90% of the files can be
used as is.
Now, about the init executable: (possibly based upon the source of one
of the existing demo distros):
(a) Mount the CD (by attempting a list of possible /dev/hd* and friends).
(b) chroot so that the CD is "/"
(c) execute the new root's init -- this would start a "normal boot"
Now, since CD images are mountable as loop devices, it's possible to
test if the distro works without actually burning a disc.
As for the "init", it has to be compiled on the current system, so that
the statically linked "init" will work with the kernel. So compiling
"init" specially is necessary per kernel.
I don't have the time to do this myself right now, but if this idea
makes someone's fingers itch, there might be a nice outcome.
Eli
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