LiveCD

A LiveCD is a portable Linux system which runs entirely from a single CD (some larger systems run from a DVD). This article focuses primarily on the Ultima Linux LiveCD generated using the so-called Ultima-scripts.

Contents 1 Description 2 Technical notes 2.1 Disk usage 3 Cheatcodes 4 Other LiveCD's

Description

A LiveCD compresses a more or less complete Linux system so that it can fit onto, and run from, a single disc. Some LiveCD systems can be installed to hard disk – for example, recent Ultima Linux LiveCD's use the Wolvix Control Panel for this task – although others are designed to run only from CD.

Starting in Ultima Linux 8.2, the LiveCD is available in both Desktop and Server editions. The Desktop edition includes packages such as Firefox/Thunderbird, OpenOffice.org, and various multimedia applications; the Server edition is similar, but includes various server programs such as Apache, MySQL, and vsftpd instead. Both include a similar set of basic packages, including KDE, Wolvix Control Panel/LiveCD installer, etc.

Technical notes

Main article: Ultima-scripts

Ultima Linux 8.2 and newer use the SquashFS filesystem to compress the LiveCD files; previous versions used cloop. (See disk usage.) Depending on the size of installed applications, some LiveCD editions may need to be slightly "overburned" to function – see here for an explanation of how this works.

Some files, including development packages and headers, are not included on the LiveCD due to space limitations. In order to use these files, the necessary packages will need to be installed separately. Some packages, such as those in the l and x series, may need to be reinstalled to restore missing functionality. This should not, however, affect most users – only those interested in developing their own software on Ultima Linux.

Disk usage

LiveCD's are typically compressed so that they can fit more onto a disc than it would normally allow. Here are the approximate sizes for Ultima Linux 8.1beta2:

Platform	LiveCD	Installed
Ultima-x86	630MB	2.1GB
Ultima-AMD64	690MB	2.5GB (approx)

The LiveCD column lists the size of the disc itself, whereas the installed column lists the uncompressed size when installed to hard disk.

Cheatcodes

There are a few cheatcodes which change the LiveCD's default startup behavior. These are activated by typing them at the LiveCD's boot: prompt. Note – if you have an SCSI hard disk, type scsi rather than linux.

Cheatcode	Description
linux noxconf	Do not auto-configure X11 (Ultima 8.2a and newer)
linux xorgmaker	Manually configure X11 with xorgmaker (Ultima 8.2a and newer)

Other LiveCD's

Note that this is not a comprehensive list, these are just the ones we think are important ;-)

• Wolvix – similar to Ultima; available in different editions; usually about 300-600MB
• Damn Small Linux – nothing like Ultima, but it fits into 50MB!

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