[PD] PD Knoppix [live CDs in a nutshell]

derek holzer derek at x-i.net
Wed Mar 10 19:03:37 CET 2004


Since a few people asked on and off list, maybe I should explain this 
"live CD" concept...

A live CD is a Linux distribution that runs from the CDROM. Most live 
CDs allow you to mount your existing harddrives and read/write from and 
to them [although be careful wrting to NTFS!]. For people used to making 
binary executables in Max, I find live CDs a much more open way of 
distributing your work.

For people looking to try Linux, they are fantastic, as they don't 
require a seperate partition. You can even use them to rescue data from 
your harddrive when your Linux or "Evil Empire"[TM] OS crashes or gets 
messed up.

Some live CDs even allow you to install them as working, hard-disk based 
operating systems. Knoppix in particular is fairly good for this, 
although you won't have a particularly optimized system...

Most live CDs are for PC architecture, and won't work on Macs. The 
exception are the live CDs which Gentoo uses for starting any 
installation, which are made for most major architectures and 
processors, but often only have the most basic packages involved needed 
for bootstrapping and installing Gentoo. I suppose these too could be 
remastered. I am particularly interested in making PD live CDs for PPC 
[Mac] architecture, so if anybody has any experience with remastering 
Gentoo PPC live CDs, please contact me offlist!!!

The live PD CD I mentioned is based on Knoppix, which is a vey popular 
live Linux CD. Others exist, such as the fabulous Dynebolic [includes 
PD, soon to include PDP!!!], whose main audience is artists, teachers 
and activists:


http://www.dynebolic.org/

Guenter Geiger also has a live CD using Knoppix and some of the 
unofficial Debian/Agnula/DeMuDi packages:

http://devel.demudi.org/images/live/

Another live CD I haven't tried is MediaLinux @ OSL:

ftp://logx.it/mirrors/medialinux/

The official Knoppix CD can be found on their site, along with 
instructions on how to "remaster" your own Knoppix CD using Debian packages:

http://www.knoppix.net/

And, of course, the PD Knoppix CD I originally posted lives here:

http://stream.sil.at/pdknoppix/

Good luck trying these out, and have fun ;-)
d.

-- 
derek holzer ::: http://www.umatic.nl
---Oblique Strategy # 88:
"Imagine the music as a set of disconnected events"




More information about the Pd-list mailing list