Re: Live file system
On Tue, 6 Oct 1998, Nathan E Norman wrote:
>
> IIRC Dale Scheetz used to have one for bo (sorry if I'm wrong, Dale :)
>
Well, not exactly. What I do is an imbedded file system that can be
installed on a DOS/Windows/'95 file system as simple files and booted with
a special patched kernel using the loop device. BTW, DiD is available in
hamm as well as bo versions for anyone interested ;-)
The problem of a "live" file system on CD is more complex than that
because you need to be able to write to some files on your system. The
current solution is to use the initrd feature of the kernel to mount the
CD file system onto a ramdisk, copy the volatile files from the CD to the
ramdisk and symlink the rest of the file system off of the CD.
The real problem with this scheme is that it requires the kernel to have,
or accuire, information about the hardware. In addition, because of the
need for volatile files, sufficient memory is required for the ramdisk,
making small memory machines unusable.
Then there is the question of what to do about /home?
I've been working on a CD specific install that basically delivers a
"standard" system with "cp -a" that could be used to also construct a
"live" file system. I'll let you know how it works out, if I can ever get
back to working on it.
Dwarf
--
_-_-_-_-_- Author of "The Debian Linux User's Guide" _-_-_-_-_-_-
aka Dale Scheetz Phone: 1 (850) 656-9769
Flexible Software 11000 McCrackin Road
e-mail: dwarf@polaris.net Tallahassee, FL 32308
_-_-_-_-_-_- If you don't see what you want, just ask _-_-_-_-_-_-_-
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