PDA

View Full Version : Innovative Usage of Linux Live CD



anantshri
April 7th, 2010, 08:21 PM
thank you all for your responses.

i have finally collated all the idea and have placed here.

http://blog.anantshri.info/innovative-and-interesting-usage-of-linux-live-disks/

please add more suggestion on the blog.

================================================== ================================================== ================================================== ==========


old message below

================================================== ================================================== ================================================== ==
I am collecting various Usage of Live CD for my study.

Till now my research has listed following ways



Banks Providing Live CD with Browser Homepaged to Bank Website.
Internet Cafe's operating on Live CD,
To Setup Diskless dumb terminals / Thin clients booting on Live Disk for cheap workstation alternative. LTSP will be a good alternative
Ethical Hacking, penetration testing.
Un-Ethical Hacking or Cracking.
Disaster Recovery.
Forensic evidence collection.
Testing any Distro before switching to it.
OS on the RUN (when using Live USB mode)(or custom build)
Portable Electronic Workbench. <- Preinstalled toolkit for electronics development.
Portable Testing Workbench. <- complete with software testing tools installed
Portable WebServer with demo (for web development organizations.) (Browser opening and showing the webpages)

I am thinking of collection all the usage that i can so this is the message to ubuntu fourm community, please provide your suggestion.

malachi1990
April 7th, 2010, 08:24 PM
I don't know if you'd classify this as "disaster recovery" but I've used live disks to run anti-virus scans on windows drives.

anantshri
April 7th, 2010, 08:32 PM
I don't know if you'd classify this as "disaster recovery" but I've used live disks to run anti-virus scans on windows drives.

that i would classify under disaster recovery. anyway thanks for taking time to write a reply.

J V
April 7th, 2010, 08:41 PM
Cloning discs aka backup...

whoop
April 7th, 2010, 08:46 PM
Testing hardware...

PC_load_letter
April 7th, 2010, 08:48 PM
Maybe you can file it under "Portable testing", not obvious IMHO, but how about using live cds to shred a hard drive before selling it?

dearingj
April 7th, 2010, 08:49 PM
Here's what I've used Live CDs and USBs for in the past:

Showing off Linux to friends and classmates
Testing for possible hardware problems
Running my preferred software on school computers (my school has a rule against installing software, but is ok with running it off of a USB drive)

madjr
April 7th, 2010, 08:52 PM
live-CD/DVD gaming

in other words: games that come with their own OS to run on. no need to have 1 preinstalled.

in a lan party you hand everyone a copy of the Disc, no need to install anything.

same could be done with some types of apps or a mix of apps/games


if enough developers/companies used this approach, then many games wouldnt need windows to run. you insert disc and your computer becomes a Console

too bad they havent looked into something similar, even some game demos would be a start

anantshri
April 7th, 2010, 09:03 PM
live-CD/DVD gaming

in other words: games that come with their own OS to run on. no need to have 1 preinstalled.

in a lan party you hand everyone a copy of the Disc, no need to install anything.

same could be done with some types of apps or a mix of apps/games


if enough developers/companies used this approach, then many games wouldnt need windows to run. you insert disc and your computer becomes a Console

too bad they havent looked into something similar, even some game demos would be a start

That's a cool concept.

Once i get some spare time i might actually work on this one.

Maheriano
April 7th, 2010, 09:08 PM
I've used these:

1. If a system won't boot, use the CD to troubleshoot by booting into it. If it works, there is some misconfiguration or dead hard drive.

2. My parents' hard drive died and they had to send it across the country to me so I could return it where I bought it. In the 2 weeks they were without their precious Windows system, they used an Ubuntu liveCD to cover all their daily Facebook needs.

anantshri
April 7th, 2010, 09:24 PM
I've used these:

1. If a system won't boot, use the CD to troubleshoot by booting into it. If it works, there is some misconfiguration or dead hard drive.

2. My parents' hard drive died and they had to send it across the country to me so I could return it where I bought it. In the 2 weeks they were without their precious Windows system, they used an Ubuntu liveCD to cover all their daily Facebook needs.

so a Backup O.S.

thats a good usage.

madjr
April 8th, 2010, 03:38 PM
HARDWARE TEST (try before you buy)

another usage could be to test hardware.

i once took a live-cd to a store to test a laptop

i told them i didnt want windows and would only buy the laptop if linux worked on it.

i inserted the disc and booted to linux, i checked the wifi and other stuff, most of the stuff worked so i bought it.

if not then i would had gone else where.

fromthehill
April 8th, 2010, 03:51 PM
partitioning - I can't resize partitions within windows xp

Maheriano
April 8th, 2010, 06:19 PM
partitioning - I can't resize partitions within windows xp

Partition Magic does this.

anantshri
April 8th, 2010, 10:58 PM
Partition Magic does this.

if you remember that needed some money to be spend (if you don't go piracy way.)

anyways we can have this discussion in some other thread about pratition tools.

anantshri
April 8th, 2010, 10:59 PM
partitioning - I can't resize partitions within windows xp


Ohk so a dedicated partitioning toolkit.

that's an interesting usage.

alfplayer
April 9th, 2010, 12:49 AM
You have not listed Beowulf clusters live CDs.

anantshri
April 9th, 2010, 08:16 AM
You have not listed Beowulf clusters live CDs.

ohk so that puts me to cluster Live Disk, Load balancer on live disk and simmilar stuff.

thanks for the response.

keithpeter
April 9th, 2010, 01:56 PM
Banks Providing Live CD with Browser Homepaged to Bank Website.

I am thinking of collection all the usage that i can so this is the message to ubuntu fourm community, please provide your suggestion.


Hello anantshri and all

Excellent idea for advocacy. My suggestion is like the first one in your list

http://biopuppy.org/

Special Puppy Linux iso with bio-informatics software pre-installed

And of course, Musix.

cammin
April 9th, 2010, 04:38 PM
Coaster

c00lwaterz
April 9th, 2010, 04:53 PM
This is cool.. but it has to be compatible and flexible to hardware. Also if the system will be complex for the user.

Objekt
April 9th, 2010, 05:48 PM
so a Backup O.S.

thats a good usage.

Definitely. I keep an Ubuntu Live CD or USB stick around at all times, just in case my installed OS gets wrecked/unbootable in some way.

Ubuntu is really the best tool for fixing Ubuntu. If I accidentally hose up the config files & can't boot, I boot a Live CD so I can edit said config files to fix the problem. If all else fails, I can do a fresh install.

Objekt
April 9th, 2010, 05:55 PM
live-CD/DVD gaming

in other words: games that come with their own OS to run on. no need to have 1 preinstalled.

in a lan party you hand everyone a copy of the Disc, no need to install anything.

same could be done with some types of apps or a mix of apps/games


if enough developers/companies used this approach, then many games wouldnt need windows to run. you insert disc and your computer becomes a Console

too bad they havent looked into something similar, even some game demos would be a start

Things really do tend to come full-circle!

Your idea is pretty much how it used to be in the PC gaming world. In the days of MS-DOS, you could only run one program at a time. Late in the DOS period, as games required more and more memory management and other tricks to run, you pretty much had to reboot to play a particular game. I often would have a boot configuration (autoexec.bat file, config.sys, etc. ) on a 3.5" diskette tailored to the needs of a particular game. Creating such a boot disk was a common procedure in the early 1990's. Often the game's manual would walk you through the process, usually right after you created backups of the install discs (my how THAT has changed...).

earthpigg
April 9th, 2010, 05:58 PM
the ultimate gaming dvd for your PC. (http://live.linux-gamers.net/)

shrimpy89
April 10th, 2010, 06:01 AM
Coaster

Gah! Beat me to it!

anantshri
April 10th, 2010, 11:29 AM
Coasters


Gah! Beat me to it!

that's one usage I alway have once the Disk's are scratched beyound readablility.

anantshri
April 10th, 2010, 11:30 AM
Things really do tend to come full-circle!

Your idea is pretty much how it used to be in the PC gaming world. In the days of MS-DOS, you could only run one program at a time. Late in the DOS period, as games required more and more memory management and other tricks to run, you pretty much had to reboot to play a particular game. I often would have a boot configuration (autoexec.bat file, config.sys, etc. ) on a 3.5" diskette tailored to the needs of a particular game. Creating such a boot disk was a common procedure in the early 1990's. Often the game's manual would walk you through the process, usually right after you created backups of the install discs (my how THAT has changed...).

I suppose you are right and i just now came to remember the old days of dos disk's and ya we seems to be moving back to that old style.

anantshri
April 10th, 2010, 11:31 AM
This is cool.. but it has to be compatible and flexible to hardware. Also if the system will be complex for the user.

The best thing would be to base any live CD with Knoppix style hardware detection script.

that's the best i suppose till now.

the second best i can think of is the Linux-live script set.

anantshri
April 10th, 2010, 11:38 AM
Hello anantshri and all

Excellent idea for advocacy. My suggestion is like the first one in your list

http://biopuppy.org/

Special Puppy Linux iso with bio-informatics software pre-installed

And of course, Musix.



OHK so a music based distro

bio-informatics specific Live Disk

Directive 4
April 10th, 2010, 12:16 PM
wheels on moon buggy

varunendra
April 10th, 2010, 01:18 PM
This is cool.. but it has to be compatible and flexible to hardware. Also if the system will be complex for the user.
I've been using ubuntu Live CD for quite a while and haven't come across a single system- branded or assembled- yet whose lan, graphics, sound, etc cards weren't detected & configured automatically (I agree that WiFi adapters sometimes need to use restricted drivers).

Even now I've installed it on a portable 320GB USB HDD (see my thread [ubuntu_studio] Ubuntu Live on USB HDD (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=9101852#post9101852)) in live session mode & installed almost everything I need to work smoothly & with fun.
For me, its prime advantage is that I can now carry a safe & efficient operating system which can boot any pc that can boot off usb, along with all my favourite programs & settings and all my data without worrying about any viruses that may pre-exist in the pc I'd be booting, since window$ viruses don't work on linux.

So basically it's a safe & efficient OS for me which is ready to use on any hardware.

anantshri
April 11th, 2010, 11:11 PM
wheels on moon buggy

another classic usage

anantshri
April 11th, 2010, 11:12 PM
I've been using ubuntu Live CD for quite a while and haven't come across a single system- branded or assembled- yet whose lan, graphics, sound, etc cards weren't detected & configured automatically (I agree that WiFi adapters sometimes need to use restricted drivers).

Even now I've installed it on a portable 320GB USB HDD (see my thread [ubuntu_studio] Ubuntu Live on USB HDD (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=9101852#post9101852)) in live session mode & installed almost everything I need to work smoothly & with fun.
For me, its prime advantage is that I can now carry a safe & efficient operating system which can boot any pc that can boot off usb, along with all my favourite programs & settings and all my data without worrying about any viruses that may pre-exist in the pc I'd be booting, since window$ viruses don't work on linux.

So basically it's a safe & efficient OS for me which is ready to use on any hardware.

thanks for the confirmation

I myself never got the chance to work on large array of system types and hence was not sure of ubuntu's capacities.

Endomancer
April 11th, 2010, 11:39 PM
Coaster

and after it's done being a coaster, there's always Frisbee

varunendra
April 12th, 2010, 04:05 PM
Have you ever checked out UBCD (Ultimate Boot CD) or a similar one?
Don't know which category you'd place it under, but for me it's like All-In-One CD.

With some customization help provided in the cd, I managed to boot SLAX (for most easy-to-use Windows-like experience, specially for dealing with ntfs partitions), DSL(for systems low on resources), INSERT(based on DSL, but designed specifically for repairing, recovery & maintenance tasks), Norton GHOST, PQ Partition Magic and a few others of my customized floppy-images along with some 140+ disk-images & applications that came bundled with the CD - all from a single disk.

Literally one can boot perhaps any and all kinds of bootable disk images (floppy or CD; haven't tried a DVD image!) from that one CD (or DVD) if only he can fit them on it.

The magic was done by programs like diskemu & memdisk.

Another similar CD named "Hiren's Boot CD" seems to be more popular these days & I myself am using it but some very useful tools, especially some linux based ones, are missing in it. Also, doesn't seem as customizable as UBCD.

anantshri
April 13th, 2010, 08:17 AM
Have you ever checked out UBCD (Ultimate Boot CD) or a similar one?
Don't know which category you'd place it under, but for me it's like All-In-One CD.

With some customization help provided in the cd, I managed to boot SLAX (for most easy-to-use Windows-like experience, specially for dealing with ntfs partitions), DSL(for systems low on resources), INSERT(based on DSL, but designed specifically for repairing, recovery & maintenance tasks), Norton GHOST, PQ Partition Magic and a few others of my customized floppy-images along with some 140+ disk-images & applications that came bundled with the CD - all from a single disk.

Literally one can boot perhaps any and all kinds of bootable disk images (floppy or CD; haven't tried a DVD image!) from that one CD (or DVD) if only he can fit them on it.

The magic was done by programs like diskemu & memdisk.

Another similar CD named "Hiren's Boot CD" seems to be more popular these days & I myself am using it but some very useful tools, especially some linux based ones, are missing in it. Also, doesn't seem as customizable as UBCD.


That reminded me of my good old days

I created a UR-DISK -> Ultimate Rescue Disk
which had 3 Parts
UR-DS -> Dos based boot disk
UR-XP -> Bootable XP - bart PE based.
UR-NX -> Live Linux Disk

I started with packing the whole punch in A CD and then i moved towards creating the DVD also.

but after that i stopped its whole development but i think your post reminds me to either put the details on internet so someone else can work on it or start building it again.

madjr
April 13th, 2010, 08:10 PM
KIDS EDU / FUN LIVE-DVD


hey my ex wife uses XP and doesnt want to install linux

our kid wanted to play and learn but she doesnt want to install software or knows much about that

so i made and sent her a live-DVD with tons of educational stuff, programs and games

i even placed some preconfigured websites for the kids (icons or widget on desktop, like a cloud os) to visit and parental controls

she loves it :)

APPS ON THE GO IS KOOL concept

anantshri
April 20th, 2010, 07:52 PM
thank you all for your responses.

i have finally collated all the idea and have placed here.

http://blog.anantshri.info/innovative-and-interesting-usage-of-linux-live-disks/

please add more suggestion on the blog.

Maheriano
May 10th, 2010, 06:56 PM
Here's another, I'll add it to your blog if I can.

Here's what I have:
- girlfriend's Macbook booting to gray screen. It has a single 160 gibibyte SATA hard drive.
- my desktop machine with 1 terabyte SATA hard drive and 80 gibibyte IDE hard drive.

I needed to get the data off her computer and onto mine so I could reinstall Leopard onto her laptop and copy all her files back over. I took out her hard drive but couldn't plug it into mine because I only have one SATA cable and it's being used by my terabyte drive which has Ubuntu on it. In other words, if I hook up her drive, my computer won't boot to copy the files over. So I burned a 10.04 disc, popped it in, shut down, unhooked my terabyte drive, hooked up her drive and booted into the live environment. This way I had her drive hooked up via SATA and my secondary drive hooked up via IDE. I copied the files over, put everything the way it was, copied the files from my secondary drive to the terabyte drive and now when I fix her machine she can remote into my box and copy all the files back to her machine.