http://live.debian.net/wiki/Home
A Debian Live System (DLS) is a [WWW] Debian operating system pre installed
in some way, that does not require a classical installer to be used. It
comes on media, like a cdrom, a usb-key, or over a network.
In operation it will require a boot process and Hardware Discovery, to
launch a preinstalled rootfs .
As first draft of key technologies to discuss we propose to investigate
Casper from ubuntu to implement initramfs generation, squashfs+unionfs
rootfs as the read-write environment, grub or isolinux/syslinux as
Bootloader and cdd-dev as the tool to produce rootfs.
Resources for information is http://live.debian.net/.
http://live.debian.net/wiki/WhyDebianLive
- 1.
What is wrong with current live systems
- 2.
Why create our own live system
- 3.
Debian Live + Installer
- 4.
What should a Debian live system consist of
| 1. |
What is wrong with current live systems
|
|
There are already several Debian-based live systems and they are doing a
great job. But, from the Debian perspective, most of them have one or more
of the following disadvantages:
-
They are unofficial projects, developed outside of Debian.
-
They mix different distributions, e.g. testing and unstable.
-
They support i386 only.
-
They change package's behavior and/or appearance by stripping them down to save space.
-
They include unofficial packages.
-
They ship custom kernels with additional patches not part of Debian.
-
They are large and slow due to their sheer size and thus not suitable for rescue issues.
-
They are not available in different flavours, e.g. CDs, DVDs, USB-stick and netboot images
|
| 2. |
Why create our own live system
|
|
Debian is the Universal Operating System: Debian should have an official
live system for showing around and to officially represent the true, one and
only Debian system with the following main advantages:
-
It would be an official Debian subproject.
-
It reflects the (current) state of one distribution.
-
It runs on as many architectures as possible.
-
It consists of unchanged Debian packages only.
-
It does not contain any unofficial packages.
-
It uses an unaltered Debian kernel-image with no additional patches.
|
| 3. |
Debian Live + Installer
|
|
Why not merge the Debian Installer and live/rescue system into one?
Something that would boot from anything (CD, USB, net, etc.), and then
provide a menu to either start the Debian Installer, or a command line. The
perfect Debian swiss army knife.
|
| 4. |
What should a Debian live system consist of
|
| -
The root should be mounted via a unionfs or the like so that new packages can be pulled from the net as needed (I think that most Debian based live systems are already capable of this).
-
A full suite of rescue and repair tools should be included by default.
-
A Debian Installer (something like the net inst).
|
last edited 2006-04-05 by eag41088
