[Fedora-livecd-list] [RFC/PATCH] livecd rebootless installer

[Tim Wood]

> Continuing this thought- if MarkMC's dm-snapshot-merging patch was in the
> kernel, there could be a button in the live session, such that at any
> point
> _long after_ the installation, the user could _opt_ to 'fold in' their
> live-session modification.  (i.e. hitting the button triggers a
> dm-snapshot-merge of the tmpfs overlay into the
> install-destination-drive).

Hmmm... I'm going to play devil's advocate.  The standard linux boot
process --at least with Redhat, CentOS and SUSE-- is for a minimal Kernel
to start that can just do enough to mount a real filesystem and load the
real kernel.  It then hands over control to the real kernel and dies. 
Until this post I was assuming --silly me :-)-- that this discussion was
about something similar.  Since the cluebat didn't get me on this one, can
someone explain the difference?

On another front, my two primary use cases for live media are:

1) Handling specific tasks I can't easily handle with one of my existing
systems.  Insert 10,000 versions of I saved my computer/drive/whatever
here.  I really don't like Ubuntu _except_ that it handles Mac OS X's hfs
filesystem brilliantly.  I don't want to run Knoppix on a daily basis but
it's impressive what I've done to salvage stuff off a hd/floppy/whatever
that someone's Windows box wouldn't recognize.

2) Quick and Dirty dedicated systems.  I've created a number of custom
live CDs in situations where someone wanted a server to do something
fairly specific in a hostile environment.  For instance, something to
handle basic logins and print serving for a windows computer lab.  Because
the vast majority of the stuff is on non-modifiable media, it almost
doesn't matter what a malicious user does, the staff can reboot.

The first case is handled nicely by existing solutions.  The second one is
a brilliant place for Revisor.  Now that I've gotten something of a handle
on Revisor, I believe it's going to save me a lot of time fighting Morphix
and Knoppix.  The thought of using a respin approach to mix and match from
previous live cds/cf cards is very very appealing.