[Leaplist] small text-only live cd?

[tom foster]

On Wed, 16 May 2007 10:53:33 -0400 (EDT)
jms1 at jms1.net wrote:

> howdy-
> 
> i have a client with a bunch of bleeding-edge machines, which were
> shipped to him with "vista" pre-loaded. obviously step one was to
> wipe the hard drives, but the only linux distro we can get to install
> on the thing is mandriva.
> 
> now i'm looking for a way to automate the process of installing the
> OS and pre-configuring a bunch of packages, not all of which are part
> of mandriva itself. this includes a custom kernel (which i've already
> built and tested.)
> 
> the idea in my mind is a CD or USB stick which boots into some kind of
> "live cd" environment, where i can put my own scripts on the machine
> and just tell the people who will be installing these units to "boot
> the CD and type this command", and it does the rest (starting with
> partitioning the drives and so forth.)
> 
> i spent most of yesterday with google, looking at several "live CD"
> distros, a few of which i really like (i.e. the newest DSL kicks
> arse.) however, because the hardware involved is so new, the only one
> which actually boots on these machines is "mcnlive", where somebody
> converted mandriva 2007 free into a live cd image. problem is, it's
> almost 400MB.
> 
> what i'm really looking for is a "live cd" without any kind of
> graphical desktop, with a fairly simple way to re-master it with my
> own scripts, AND with the ability to use my own custom kernel
> (because of the hardware.)
> 
> is there a web page out there which explains how to build a very
> minimal "live" environment like this?
> 
> of course, if it ends up being "not entirely trivial", i'll write a
> web page about it, which will explain it easily enough for others to
> follow in my footsteps...
> 
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howdy Mr. Simmmpson,

you could look at the larch scripts.  Do a search at the arch linux
forums (bbs.archlinux.org).  there is a thread called something like
"larch: latest news," or like that.

You may balk at the archness of larch, but it is very customizable.

ttys.
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