How to convert installed system to live-CD

[Vladislav Kurz <vladislav.kurz@webstep.net>]

Hello all.

I have two similar scenarios for Live-CD/DVD/USB system, and I'd like to know 
if debian live project can be of any use:

a) I have a home computer, with all software I need, configured to my 
preferences, etc. I'd like to make a live-copy of it that I could take with me 
and use it to boot any computer (same arch, of cource) and get my home system 
running there. Of course any changes will be lost or would have to be synced 
manually.

b) I have a specially configured installation that I need to deploy easilly on 
more identical machines. I'd like to make a live-cd of it, boot it and use the 
"live" installer to copy it on new hardware. 

What I have mostly found so far is just creating the live-cd from scratch, 
with some options to tune it and a possibility to add live-to-hdd installer 
and some provisions to keep changes persistent if live-usb is used. But 
nothing that would take the running system and convert it to live system.

I already had something like that couple of years ago based on debian Sarge. 
It was a system tuned to run on read-only media that could boot with isolinux 
as well as lilo with simplified installer (mkfs, rsync, chroot lilo), but 
everything has changed since then (udev, grub, squashfs, etc, etc) and it was 
a lot of work and debugging to get it running smooth. I wonder if someone has 
taken this to a new level.

Thanks for any hints on which direction to focus my search.
-- 
Regards
        Vladislav Kurz