http://yablcds.brindabella.org/
This document explains how to create a bootable Linux CD-ROM.
It is possible to run GNU/Linux, including X Windows, from a CD-ROM. Various schemes and projects for accomplishing this have been published (see links section). These range from scripts and programs that automatically prepare a bootable CD-ROM from a pre-existing installation, to pre-prepared CD-ROM images that can be downloaded and burned onto a blank CD. The aim of this document is to describe, step-by-step, how to create a bootable CD-ROM from any given GNU/Linux installation.
The problem with running GNU/Linux from a read-only filesystem such as a CD-ROM is that certain files and directories need to be writable. The scheme presented by this document solves this problem by copying any files and directories that need to be writable into a writable filesystem at boot time. The writable filesystem is ramfs, and it is mounted under the read-only CD-ROM filesystem before the system is booted from the CD-ROM. The beauty of ramfs is that exists only in memory and its size will increase and decrease as required. When the system is shut down, the contents of ramfs are lost.
The final product of this scheme, a bootable GNU/Linux CD-ROM, operates as follows: # at boot time, the computer's BIOS loads an image of a floppy disc from the CD-ROM into memory; the floppy disc contains a kernel and an initrd; # the kernel is loaded and it, in turn, loads the initrd into memory; # a script in the initrd sets up the ramfs and copies files from the CD-ROM into it; # the script exits and the system boots normally from the CD-ROM with the files in ramfs being writable.
Navin Dhanuka Stud., MSc. [CA] Symbiosis Instiute of Computer Science and Research. Pune.
__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance - Get real-time stock quotes http://finance.yahoo.com