On 11/21/2006 07:58 PM, Ray wrote:
> hi
>
> i want to know if anyone has any recommendations for a liveCD out there
> that can boot and provide server capabilities. i'm particularly keen
> on the liveCD to provide at minimum the following:
>
> - no need to use local harddisks
> - network (100mpb NIC) support
> - ftpd
> - ssh server
> - USB / NFS / samba support
> - NTFS / vfat32 / ext3 / ext2 support
> - low mem footprint
> - no need for graphical interface
>
> my brother basically have an old windows XP box on a PIII w/128MB ram
> that is crashing consitently on bootup (i think theres some corrupt
> drivers etc) and i can't pull the disks out to put into a new PC (PATA
> vs SATA interfaces on the disks etc) which is also running windows XP
> -- not my choice, but these arent my machines.
>
> therefore, i would want to boot the old windows XP box using a linux
> liveCD that easily setups the server instance processes
> (ftpd,sshd,samba support etc) so from the new box, either mount disks
> off the old box using samba or just ftp data from old to new
>
> anyone with recommendations for a liveCD is appreciated: i've seen
> DSL, ubuntu and slax but would like to gain from this groups
> experiences

Knoppix, well tested; learn to boot it into text mode. You may re-master
it as per your own configuration and, or needs.

--
Dr Balwinder S "bsd" Dheeman Registered Linux User: #229709
Anu's Linux@HOME Machines: #168573, 170593, 259192
Chandigarh, UT, 160062, India Distros: Ubuntu, Fedora, Knoppix
Home: http://cto.homelinux.net/~bsd/ Visit: http://counter.li.org/

Balwinder S "bsd" Dheeman wrote:
>
> Knoppix, well tested; learn to boot it into text mode. You may re-master
> it as per your own configuration and, or needs.
>
> --
> Dr Balwinder S "bsd" Dheeman Registered Linux User: #229709
> Anu's Linux@HOME Machines: #168573, 170593, 259192
> Chandigarh, UT, 160062, India Distros: Ubuntu, Fedora, Knoppix
> Home: http://cto.homelinux.net/~bsd/ Visit: http://counter.li.org/

thanks but i'd rather not be creating my own distro/re-mastering --
anything that is out of the box would be great

i tried ubuntu 6.06 livecd yday and that was ok but crucially it was
missing an easy way to set up and ftpd or mount a remote samba share --
the autodownload of smb didnt work for me (i tried this several times)

Ray wrote:
> Balwinder S "bsd" Dheeman wrote:
>> Knoppix, well tested; learn to boot it into text mode. You may re-master
>> it as per your own configuration and, or needs.
>>
>> --
>> Dr Balwinder S "bsd" Dheeman Registered Linux User: #229709
>> Anu's Linux@HOME Machines: #168573, 170593, 259192
>> Chandigarh, UT, 160062, India Distros: Ubuntu, Fedora, Knoppix
>> Home: http://cto.homelinux.net/~bsd/ Visit: http://counter.li.org/
>
> thanks but i'd rather not be creating my own distro/re-mastering --
> anything that is out of the box would be great
>
> i tried ubuntu 6.06 livecd yday and that was ok but crucially it was
> missing an easy way to set up and ftpd or mount a remote samba share --
> the autodownload of smb didnt work for me (i tried this several times)
>


The folks at pclinuxos are talking about creating a live cd just what
you are asking about. You might have a look here:
http://www.snipit.info?u=bcf07

Ray wrote:
> hi
>
> i want to know if anyone has any recommendations for a liveCD out there
> that can boot and provide server capabilities. i'm particularly keen
> on the liveCD to provide at minimum the following:
>
> - no need to use local harddisks
> - network (100mpb NIC) support
> - ftpd
> - ssh server
> - USB / NFS / samba support
> - NTFS / vfat32 / ext3 / ext2 support
> - low mem footprint
> - no need for graphical interface
>
> thanks
> ray
>
Take a look at Newbie,which is a NetBSD-based livecd.

Aioanei Rares writes:

>Ray wrote:
>> hi
>>
>> i want to know if anyone has any recommendations for a liveCD out there
>> that can boot and provide server capabilities. i'm particularly keen
>> on the liveCD to provide at minimum the following:
>>
>> - no need to use local harddisks
>> - network (100mpb NIC) support
>> - ftpd
>> - ssh server
>> - USB / NFS / samba support
>> - NTFS / vfat32 / ext3 / ext2 support
>> - low mem footprint
>> - no need for graphical interface

This makes very little sense. vfat, ext support ARE har disk file systems.
ftpd seems pretty useless without files to supply.
NFS/samba seem useless without a hard disk.

I think you need to be a bit more specific on why you would want a server
off a liveCD.

>>
>> thanks
>> ray
>>
>Take a look at Newbie,which is a NetBSD-based livecd.

Try SLAX @ slax.org. Very small (the server ed is < 300 MB), based on
Slackware 11, a venerated and respected parent distro, lotsa (>1500)
ready-made modules (extensions), and is the *easiest* live CD to
remaster. I like it bec it was designed w/ the intension of explicitly
being a live CD distro. Meaning: you *can* install it to your hdrive
but that's not what it's intended for. Bec it's a live CD, that's one
less thing that can be corrupted in one's system. In spite of its
size, it's very feature-rich (KDE-based.) It has everything you spec'd
(not sure about NFS, but you could add it quite easily) and it has a
nice user community/forum. Try it, I doubt you'll be disappointed....

Ray wrote:
> hi
>
> i want to know if anyone has any recommendations for a liveCD out there
> that can boot and provide server capabilities. i'm particularly keen
> on the liveCD to provide at minimum the following:
>
> - no need to use local harddisks
> - network (100mpb NIC) support
> - ftpd
> - ssh server
> - USB / NFS / samba support
> - NTFS / vfat32 / ext3 / ext2 support
> - low mem footprint
> - no need for graphical interface
>
> my brother basically have an old windows XP box on a PIII w/128MB ram
> that is crashing consitently on bootup (i think theres some corrupt
> drivers etc) and i can't pull the disks out to put into a new PC (PATA
> vs SATA interfaces on the disks etc) which is also running windows XP
> -- not my choice, but these arent my machines.
>
> therefore, i would want to boot the old windows XP box using a linux
> liveCD that easily setups the server instance processes
> (ftpd,sshd,samba support etc) so from the new box, either mount disks
> off the old box using samba or just ftp data from old to new
>
> anyone with recommendations for a liveCD is appreciated: i've seen
> DSL, ubuntu and slax but would like to gain from this groups
> experiences
>
> thanks
> ray

Unruh writes:
>
> This makes very little sense. vfat, ext support ARE har disk file systems.
> ftpd seems pretty useless without files to supply.
> NFS/samba seem useless without a hard disk.
>
> I think you need to be a bit more specific on why you would want a server
> off a liveCD.

sorry, but what needs to be more clear?

i have disks that are either vfat or ext2. i would want to boot the
'live server cd', mount the local disks on that box and allow
connections into that box via ftp, NFS, smb etc to get the files

so again, what needs to be more clear? if you have nothing useful to
add, dont respond with pointless comments

Unruh writes:
>
> This makes very little sense. vfat, ext support ARE har disk file systems.
> ftpd seems pretty useless without files to supply.
> NFS/samba seem useless without a hard disk.
>
> I think you need to be a bit more specific on why you would want a server
> off a liveCD.

sorry, but what needs to be more clear?

i have disks that are either vfat or ext2. i would want to boot the
'live server cd', mount the local disks on that box and allow
connections into that box via ftp, NFS, smb etc to get the files

so again, what needs to be more clear? if you have nothing useful to
add, dont respond with pointless comments

whatdoineed...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
> Unruh writes:
> >
> > This makes very little sense. vfat, ext support ARE har disk file systems.
...
> so again, what needs to be more clear? if you have nothing useful to
> add, dont respond with pointless comments

Excellent example of how to ingratiate yourself with Usenet folk.. but
never mind that :-)

Quite possibly he was confused (as I am) by your very first bullet
point:

- no need to use local harddisks

Now if you had never mentioned Live CD's at all, that might make sense
rephrased as
"No need to use local hard drives to boot and run the OS but I do want
to OPTIONALLY attach
vfat and ext drives". Probably what you meant, right? But "no need
to use local hardisks" is pretty much implied by "Live CD", so it was a
teeny bit confusing.

By the way, although I wasn't too happy with the draft manuscript I
looked at, you might want to be aware of a new book:
http://aplawrence.com/Books/live_linux_cds.html

--
Tony Lawrence
Unix/Linux/Mac OS X Resources
http://aplawrence.com

Ray wrote:

> thanks but i'd rather not be creating my own distro/re-mastering --
> anything that is out of the box would be great


I think you need to accept the idea of remastering - unless you don't
mind doing some work each time you reboot.

It's not all that difficult..but unless someone else happened to build
just what you want, it's the only way to get it done. In another part
of this thread I pointed you at a new book (
http://aplawrence.com/Books/live_linux_cds.html ) - I wasn't happy with
the amount of mistakes in the draft copy I looked at, but with luck
they'll fix a lot of that up before final release. If not, there is a
LOT of help on the web and of course these very groups can help you
over obstacles also.

--
Tony Lawrence
Unix/Linux/Mac OS X Resources
http://aplawrence.com