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!"

Interesting, now for the next level...

[kcb93x]

This is cool. I'll have to take a peek at it, but what would be really cool (mainly due to the size of modern distributions) would be a DVD +/- RW version of this, if Knoppix can compress ~2GB of software into a 650MB CD, think what we can do with 4.7GB of space...

DVD? RW?

[Apreche]

Will this thing work with a CD-RW? How about a DVD? DVD-RW? If it only works with a CD-R that's sort of useless because the CD will eventually fill up, and its basically a one-time use deal.

What would be extra cool is if you could combine this with something like the gentoo catalyst livecd making software. So not only could I save files on the RW disc but could also customize which software is on the disc to begin with. So if I wanted to get rid of X and save more space for files I could do so.

Its been done

[Anonymous Coward]

Linspire "Thriller" (membership req) LiveCDs have been able to do this for some time.

At last!

[c0l0]

Finally an application for rewriteable optical media that truly makes sense. Another nice feature is this distribution is cached into system memory completely at runtime, so you're able to unmount and use your CD-RW-drive for other tasks while running this system as well.

This project deserves to be watched closely in the future, I'm eager to see what it's gonna offer in the future.

Linux Live CDs now required to surf the Net!

[usurper_ii]

Pretty funny for all the "everything will be connected, even your toaster," crowd out there ... it now seem that because of the ever increasing spyware/malware/viruses, etc., pretty soon we will have to boot up a live Linux CD to use the Internet.

I would use Ubunto, which is the first live Linux I have gotten my hands on, but it wouldn't pick up my modem correctly (probably a win modem thing). Other than that, and the fact that it wouldn't play MP3s without a plugin, I loved Ubunto. Linux is way close to "getting there."

But after I wasted three days getting some powerful trojan crap off my computer not too long ago (yes, on an XP system), running from a CD and having a read only hard drive while connected to the Net seems like a pretty good idea, to me!

Usurper_ii

Wonderful

[cdcarter]

I have been using Puppy Linux for a while now, and it is a wonderful distro. It's small, but it has tons of stuff. It has a nice working X server, abiword, a few web browsers, tons of other utility's and NTFS support. It is really fast if you have enough ram for /usr to be a ramdisk. I highly reccomed it for anyone looking for a non-knoppix derivative.

Packet Writer

[Anonymous Coward]

Why they not use packet writing instead of multisession cd-r?

It's a patch for the linux kernel that make it treat CD-RWs as another local filesystem, you can write and remove files as you can do that in your harddrive, no need to blank all the cdrw.

I tried it on the nitro kernel patchset, and it was fast on 4x media :D

(I think Nero InCD does the same thing)

Internet Cafes

[headkase]

Wouldn't using a live CD as your OS as an internet cafe owner save you megabucks on the hard drives you didn't have to buy? Not to mention no spyware dangers, or no users mucking up the configuration of the machines? And as a customer, simply rebooting when your done would clear all sensitive information.

Re:USB Key?

[pjr.cc]

Personally, i use RUNT, which (as far as i can tell) is the only truely useable usb bootable distro... and yes, im with you, i think having a bootable usb linux is much more usefull than a cd distro, if only cause of size.. The best part of runt is the fact it boots off the key using umsdos rather than various knoppix distro's that boot off the key and load into ram... the advantage of this is the filesystem on the key is "live"... i.e. anything you do on it, stays on it.. (its based on slackware 10 fyi) Runt's also not busybox based which fits one of the uses i have for it perfectly... a robot... an epia (or similar) based robot, booting off a usb key running native linux... (so much lower power req's than a hd or cdrom drive) OK, so a cd is 0.50c, and a 512m usb flash is only AU$90, buts its so much more usefull...

Re:USB Key?

[Trejkaz]

Yeah. It would be good if a USB key or another kind of removable storage could overlay the entire filesystem so that you could do things like editing configuration files in-place.

Imagine that for net cafes, though. As an ordinary user, you could get root access and install whatever apps you want, as long as your key is big enough to fit the overlay. As soon as you leave, the computer is automatically back in the pristine state, and when you return, no matter which computer you use, you see the same setup as when you last left... unless, of course, the net cafe has upgraded the distribution at some point, and then you might have some trouble. :-)

Re:Now for it's next trick...

[Trejkaz]

DVD should be somewhat simpler. You could theoretically use a rewritable DVD with a UDF filesystem to write whatever you want onto the disk, whenever you want. I think you could even delete files fairly easily using this approach.

Re:I can see it coming...

[damiam]

Wouldn't a simple USB keychain memory stick be so much easier and quicker? Not to mention reliable? Knoppix has done this for years...

Yes, which is why USB sticks aren't news. This is novel and at least potentially somewhat useful (not everyone with a CD burner has an extra USB flash drive lying around).

Re:DVD? RW?

[timeOday]

I wonder if you can pop in a fresh CDR at shutdown and have it burn a copy of Puppy + the current state of all your files? The media cost of CDR itself is hardly a concern.

And its going to Everest!

[luckytroll]

I have archtected Puppy Linux in a laptop on an expedition to Mt. Everest - the Flash/CDROM combination will enable the laptops to work above 18000ft, where a lot of hard disks "pop" out.

Re:Forensics?

[m50d]

I've already done that. I've got a CD with knoppix-std and a bunch of MP3s. Everything but the MP3s is hidden under rockridge and joliet, so unless you look at it in DOS you won't see anything else on there. And it plays fine in my mp3 walkman. But boot from it and you have practically every cracking tool under the sun. Or at least every one that was released when it was made, it's getting pretty old now. Anyone know when knoppix-std 0.2 will be out?

Re:Boot

[Andrewkov]

I mean just use a USB mem stick to store your profile and changes .. You'd still boot and run off the CD.