Puppy Linux Lets You Run From, Save To The Same CD

qewl writes "Now there's a live CD that can actually save data back onto its own disk! How does it work? The PC boots with a multi-session CD inserted in the CD-burner drive -- thus, Puppy Linux automatically knows which drive is the CD-burner, in case you have more than one CD/DVD drive. Then you use Puppy in the normal way. At shutdown, all the changed files in your home directory are saved back to CD. That's it. Next time you boot, all the personal files are restored!"

nice!

[ErichTheWebGuy]

I was just discussing [slashdot.org] this earlier about whether Knoppix could do just that. I suspect it will only be a matter of weeks or even days before we see a Knoppix version that can also do this.

Re:Interesting, now for the next level...

[ErikTheRed]

Heck, dual-layer is pretty cheap now.

Encryption might be good.

[un1xl0ser]

This is a great idea.. but it says "The files are saved on the CD as normal files, not encrypted or compressed."

That's great for Windows compatability, but I'd prefer my files to be encrypted, even on a livecd.

USB Key?

[xtal]

Wouldn't using a flash USB key make a lot more sense? Or am I missing something here?

I may be a bit out of date on cd-rs

[imsabbel]

...but isnt there a session overhead of about 20-25MB for every burn?
Wouldnt that make even an empty cd fail be filled after a months, nevertheless rather full distro cd?

Whats wrong with using an USB stick for such things?

Re:USB Key?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not all flash devices are bootable and lots of computers don't support boot from usb. However, nearly all computers with a cdrw would be able boot the disc so it seems to allow a larger audience.

Good for data recovery and such

[Arthropod]

Anytime you need to get info off a messed-up pc that can't transmit to a useful network location, and doesn't have USB-ms drivers on it, but that has a cd-rw, this sucker would be a godsend. I've booted up on a knoppix cd more than once with the idea of writing files to a cd using knoppix. Though I suppose it would work just as well to boot into something that can load itself completely into memory, and free up the drive.

Anyhow, even if some of that is available, it might just plain be convenient. I like the idea, anyway

Re:I may be a bit out of date on cd-rs

[drinkypoo]

Last time I looked it was 5MB overhead per session. I'm certain it's not 20MB. Even if it's 10MB that's not that bad. If you don't change anything it wrong write a new session. It wouldn't be a bad idea to use some kind of PacketCD-style thing to store the data; since you're booting your own OS it's pretty reasonable to handle writes that way.

Re:USB Key?

[Grey_14]

Also, 650MB of CD-R space is WAY cheaper than 650MB of USB Flash space.

DVD-RAM

[Anonymous Coward]

You know, there's a perfectly good media called DVD-RAM which works exactly like a floppy drive - only with 4.7Gb capacity. It's a true writable format with a media that's relatively durable.

DVD-RAM drives are less common than DVD/CD-R/RW, but at around $60 [newegg.com], there's no reason not to have one if you want to run something like Puppy Linux on your own computer. (And DVD-RAM drives rock anyway, I've been using mine for casual data backups).

Re:USB Key?

[kidlinux]

One could carry a bootable CD with the distribution on it, and a USB key with their homedir/configs.