Linux Bootable CD with applications? 1

[ADB100]

I am not sure anyone on here can assist me but I have a requirement where I need to use Linux on some users PCs to run a testing application (VoIP QoS testing). I have got a few Linux distributions that will boot and operate from a CD, however I need to install a small application once it is up and running. If Linux is installed locally then this is no problem but when booting from a CD obviously everything is lost that isn't on the CD.
I have seen a couple of guides on how to do this but it all looks a bit daunting as I don't have much Linux knowledge. I have (sort of) decided on Puppy Linux as the default installation is slim enough for what I need. I just need to know how to re-engineer the CD so the application I have is installed by default.

Any simple guides?

Andy

 

[smah]

What is the application? Even though current development is delayed, slax has a pretty good system to add modules and a fair list of already created ones that can be added.

 

[geirendre]

Maby this howto is what You need.

http://www.howtoforge.com/ubuntu-linux-mint-livecd-with-remastersys

1. Install Ubuntu.
2. Install additional applications you need.
3. Follow the guide from Howtoforge.com
4. Burn the new LiceCD.
5. Have fun with the new LiveCD.

HTH

 

[ADB100]

Thanks for the replies ) Can this be applied to Puppy Linux? Apparently the supplier of the software will only support us if we run into problems if we use Puppy Linux 2.14. I could use Ubuntu but if the application fails or hits any issues we can't get support (

Thanks

Andy

 

[thedaver]

Would you please let us know what the constraints are from the vendor for Puppy Linux? That's a pretty peculiar constraint.

D.E.R. Management - IT Project Management Consulting

http://www.dermanagement.com/

 

[ADB100]

Would you please let us know what the constraints are from the vendor for Puppy Linux? That's a pretty peculiar constraint.

The constraints are they have tested their application with Puppy Linux and will provide some OS support if there are problems with the application.

Does remastersys work with Puppy Linux?

Andy

 

[geirendre]

Then maby this from the:

http://www.puppylinux.com/cd-puppy.htm

site:

Remaster the CD.
After you have burned Puppy on a CD, and you then decide that you would like to make changes to the CD, it is now very easy to pull apart the contents of the CD and put it back together again.
After booting up the live-CD, go to the "Setup" menu and select "Remaster Puppy live-CD". This will take you through simple steps to create a new CD. Your PC will of course need to have a CD-burner.
Remastering enables you to completely change Puppy. The basic idea is you make custom changes, download any extra packages that you would like to have on the CD, then run the remaster-CD script.

Puppy Unleashed.
Or, build a Puppy live-CD totally from scratch, with only those applications that you need.
What if you don't like Seamonkey, the web browser used in the 'standard' release of Puppy? What if you would rather have Opera? Or, the Xvesa X server supplied with the standard Puppy doesn't work on an old PC, and you need Xfbdev, a framebuffer X server? Or you want to cut the size of the ISO file way down? No problem, you can now choose your own mix of packages, and create a custom live-CD with exactly what you need.
The complete collection of over 350 packages designed to work in Puppy is available and is called Puppy Unleashed.

http://www.puppylinux.com/puppy-unleashed.htm

HTH

 

[ADB100]

Then maby this from the:

http://www.puppylinux.com/cd-puppy.htm

site:

I have just spent the last couple of hours playing around with this and it looks like it will do the job )

You won't believe the amount of old cr4p PC hardware I am butchering to get a few test machines together....

Andy

 

[kjv1611]

[blue]geirendre,[/blue]

I've never heard of a LiceCD before? Does it cause you to itch much?

1. Install Ubuntu.
2. Install additional applications you need.
3. Follow the guide from Howtoforge.com
4. Burn the new [highlight]LiceCD[/highlight].
5. Have fun with the new LiveCD.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[cyoung]

I always thought that a LiceCD came from M$.

 

[geirendre]

Well if you had a LiceCD,
would'nt it be a good idea to burn it?

Sorry for fatfingering that one,
but English is'nt my native language.

As if yoo hatnt notizet. ;-)

 

[gbaughma]

Puppy Linux? Wow... never even heard of that one....



Just my 2¢
-Cole's Law: Shredded cabbage

--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com

 

[kjv1611]

I've not tried Puppy Linux yet, but I've read people bragging on it b/c it's just so tiny a setup. I think my brother tried it once in the past few months, and seemed to like it... or was he just thinking about it?

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[normntwrk]

Puppy Linux is blazingly fast and runs in a very small footprint. The only downside I found to it was the hardware detection (particularly NIC cards) is pretty weak. I finally got it working with my HP laptop by loading another Live CD version of Linux to see what they used for the driver for my NIC (I got tired of trying over and over different drivers)

Norm

 

[ADB100]

OK I managed to get this working by remastering the LiveCD. What I have now is a CD that boots, loads the driver for an Intel 8255x NIC, binds IP to the NIC and starts DHCP. It also has the application I wanted pre-installed ready and waiting and I have modified the startup so a CLI login prompt is presented and X-Windows doesn't start automatically.
This is great, I have one additional request though and that is how do I get the CD to automatically start the drivers for other detected NIC's? I have a HP Laptop that has a Broadcom NIC and with the CD I created it doesn't start by default, it detects it and if I manually start it and select DHCP it works, however I want there to be no user interaction required regardless of the hardware the CD was booted on. I appreciate that I won't be able to get it to work with anything, but I would like it to detect what is generally out there (Intel 8255x, Broadcom, 3Com 3C905's etc) and automatically start IP and DHCP on them. I would like to have a single CD that I can use on almost anything.

Is this possible? If so how?

Thanks

Andy

 

[ADB100]

Can anyone offer any suggestions on how to get the boot CD to recognise the installed NIC and start IP/DHCP on it?

Thanks

Andy

 

[kjv1611]

I remember one of the posts in here (I think) mentioning what they did at one point (if it's for just one machine) was to:
[ol]
[li]Load a distro of Linux that will install a working driver[/li]
[li]Copy/Write down the driver that worked with that distro[/li]
[li]Include that driver in your rebuild of the distro boot cd you are trying to use. [/li]
[/ol]

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[ADB100]

I managed to get this going if anyone is interested....

The issue I was having wasn't because the drivers weren't loaded it was because the PC I was working with had two NIC's - an Intel 2200BG Wireless one and a Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet one. The wireless NIC was being detected first so was appearing as 'eth0' - the Broadcom was appearing as 'eth1'. The saved settings on the CD were only for 'eth0' which obviously wasn't working as the wireless was disabled via the button on the PC. When I manually started 'eth1' it created an 'eth1mode' file in /etc, however this file wasn't making it to the LiveCD when it was remastered.
In the Puppy linux LiveCD remastering utility, towards the end of the process it asks if you want to customise anything before it creates the .iso image (or directly to CD if you have a CD writer). I simply copied over the 'eth1mode' file to the /etc folder and then allowed it to create the .ios image.
Now when it boots it attempts to start both NIC's - eth0 first and then times out and then eth1. It takes a little bit longer to be operational (2-minutes) but that is good enough for me )

Andy

 

[kjv1611]

Hmm, very much worth a consideration, too, b/c if you want to use a liveCD on various different computers, one may have more than one network connection, where the next only has one. So doing it that way would make sure you cover all your bases. Good work!

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me