LiveCD News

Linux Magazine Online reviews Knoppix 6.0.

Knoppix has always been regarded as one of the most versatile Linux distros out there, but the latest version of the venerable Live CD Linux distribution has got yet another trick up its sleeve. Thanks to its excellent hardware detection, blazingly fast boot process, and the lightweight LXDE desktop environment, Knoppix 6.0 makes a perfect distro for netbooks.

It’s been two years and a few days since the last CD release of Knoppix, but the wait is over, and Knoppix 6.0 is out!

Klaus Knopper has released KNOPPIX 6.0, a brand new version of the popular Debian-based live CD, now with LXDE as the default desktop and ADRIANE, an audio desktop for the visually impaired.

TechRadar takes Fedora 9 and Ubuntu 8.10 and installs them on USB flash drives.

You’ll need a flash drive with at least 1GB of free space, and ISO images of either Ubuntu 8.10 or Fedora 9. It’s likely there are other distros out there that work with similar or perhaps even identical instructions, but Ubuntu and Fedora are the big two so we stuck with them.

Lifehacker took four Linux distros, put them on USB flash drives, and ran a Lifehacker Faceoff.

Today we’re detailing four no-install distributions—Damn Small Linux, Puppy Linux, Xubuntu, and Fedora—and helping you decide which might work for that spare thumb drive you’ve got lying around, or as just a part of your multi-gig monster stick.

Linux.com has a review of Minisys Linux.

Unlike Puppy Linux, which is available in a single 96MB edition, Minisys Linux comes in four versions: Live, Mini, Server, and Embryo. The Live version uses 690MB and is stocked to the gills with applications for every task imaginable.

Linux Magazine Online lets us know that Debian will have official LiveCDs with the 5.0 release.

More news about Lenny is that the Debian-Live team headed by Daniel Baumann is working on official live images. With these distributions users can employ Linux off the CD without needing to install it.

The Defensive Computing blog at CNET News has a great introduction to LiveCDs and their practical uses.

Now, another emphatic endorsement – all Windows users should have a Linux Live CD, and, know how to use it.

Tectonic takes a look at the new release of Puppy Linux.

Its been been six months since Puppy Linux 3.01 was released and today Barry Kauler announced Puppy 4.00, aka Dingo. Clocking in at a minimal 87MB download, Puppy 4.00 is a lightweight desktop Linux alternative ideal for low-end machines, or for users who want a little less clutter and more speed from their desktop.

Sun has released the free OpenSolaris LiveCD. Includes all the interesting parts of Solaris, including ZFS, DTrace, containers, etc. Also, you can sign up to have them ship you a CD for free.

Highlighted by the latest Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter (#88), there’s a great tutorial in the Ubuntu forums for transforming an Ubuntu install into a custom LiveCD/DVD.

This HOWTO is about making a live CD/DVD from the main system on your hard drive. This might be desired if you have customized your system and want to have it on CD. It can be useful also if you want to create a recovery CD from scratch, as you can make a minimal system using debootstrap and transform it into a live CD.

Red Hat Magazine has an interview with Jeremy Katz of Fedora, about Live CDs.

In Fedora 9, one of the new features is persistence for Live USBs. Based on the impression I get, this is a feature that is in high demand and probably has quite a number of uses. Where did your motivation for working on this feature come from; was it the demand from the users, or were you scratching your own itch?

Linux.com has a quick review of Puppeee.

Puppy Linux (and, by extension, Puppeee) was written from scratch with two goals in mind: speed and ease of use. Puppy Linux is, indeed, lightning fast — even when running on low-end machines like the Eee PC.

After a long wait since 5.1.1, KNOPPIX 5.3.1 is out as an official public release.

HowtoForge resets the root password of a Linux system with Knoppix.

LifeHacker has an excerpt from the second Knoppix Hacks Book, and asks for comments about everyone’s favorite LiveCD.

After a long time in development, Slax 6 is finally out.

CLICK has news that DSL will get Firefox 2.

Firefox in DSL will move from the current version 1 to the GTK 1 version of Firefox 2. Thats a big deal because a lot of Web sites require at least Firefox 1.5 for full functionality. It means, for one thing that itll be possible to use Google Docs and Spreadsheets with Damn Small Linux.

The folks at Kubuntu  have remastered their 7.10 release LiveCD with KDE 4.0.

Ars Technica’s open source journal has news and links to running a modified Xubuntu 7.10 off a USB flash drive on an Eee laptop. The installer still works too, so installing permanently is an option.

HowtoForge has instructions for building a custom LiveCD out of an Ubuntu based system.

This guide shows how you can create a Live-CD from your Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon or Linux Mint 4.0 system with a tool called remastersys. Remastersys is available in the Linux Mint romeo repository. You can customize your Ubuntu/Linux Mint system and then let remastersys create an iso image of it which you can then burn onto a CD/DVD.