I was wondering to myself, and thought maybe someone here knows, about how Live CDs work.
I (think I) know the basics; the CD boots something like Grub, and on selection of the chosen menu option (assuming there are choices) then my understanding is that the kernel is loaded, which creates a virtual RAM disk, into which the files from the CD are mounted and run as if they were on the hard disk. Some live CDs, like Puppy Linux, copy their entire filesystem into memory so that the CD can be removed after boot, but most don't. (Puppy Linux can also be run from a CD-RW, in which cases changes can be saved back to the CD, although I've not tried it.) I think that if there is a swap partition on the hard drive then it'll mounted and used, otherwise it'll just manage with the RAM is has got. Can anyone correct or add to that? What got me thinking about this was that I'd like to create a Live DVD that includes several Live CDs. On the face of it I think this just means putting everything onto the DVD in sensible locations and modifying the grub configuration to load the right files, but I don't know if it's that simple. My aim is to put Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu and Edubuntu, both live CD and "alternate" CD versions, and Ubuntu-Server (and maybe Mepis & Freepire too, now that they're Ubuntu-based), onto one DVD. Given that the vast majority of the files will be duplicated between distros I know there are tools for creating the DVD equivalent of hard links between identical files (so you only have to store one copy on the DVD) so there should be plenty of space for all this. PS: If anyone knows of the tools for hard linking files on a DVD that would be helpful too. I know they exist, that's all so far. This is really all just because I want to see if I can do it. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG _______________________________________________ Peterboro mailing list [email protected] https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/peterboro
