run linux off a cd

[darkside]

im fairly sure i read that someone on here ran linux off a CD instead of from the hard drive but thinking about it i cant it working

im 100% newbie when it comes to linux so i havent got a clue but if its possible i will give it a go

ill save some time and not ask other questions yet until i know if you can run it stright from a cd

thanks for any replies
Nathan

[neochivers]

yep its possible i have 2 distros i have done it with .... you can even boot of some(only some) flash usb devices

[darkside]

ok thanks for clearing that up for me.

whats the best linux to use from cd? i just did a google and found 'knoppix' is that any good?

would i need to have drivers installed onto the cd for my vid card etc or is it like XP where it tinstalls things automatically?
how slow is linux when ran from a cd compared to running from a hard drive?

im sure ill have more questoins but thats all i can think off for now

Nathan

[neochivers]

i havent personaly used that one but i am like you .. a beginer wait for a pro to recomend a distro, but if you are a biginer get one with a GUI (Grapical User Interface)

[Winnipesaukee]

Try Damn Small (yep no typo) Linux: http://www.damnsmalllinux.org

or SLAX http://www.slax.org

I havent tried knoppix

[foolishone]

Live CD's are completely self "contained"/"supported". They come with everything needed to have a completely operable OS, they need no drivers, etc. and if you get the right ones they detect just about everything automatically.

I just did a HD install of Damn Small Linux and love it. The HD is only 7GB. In fact, I just set it up to Fold not 4 hours ago, and am going to use it as a file server.

Don't be afraid to ask questions, even stupid ones. Somebody Googling (or God forbit search the forums) in the future might need the answer to your "stupid" question.

»fo

[Panama Red]

Knoppix and Ubuntu are two that I have used on Live CD. They both work nicely.

[darkside]

well im typing this from koppix, my first taste of linux. doesnt seem to bad to be honest looks nice enough and has plenty of stuff ( most of it i will never use but hey, what can ya do)

one question..., if i was to install it to HDD would i have to use a seperate partition (as i suspect) or can i do it from the same partition as XP?

also, does anyone know how i can save my settings for these live CD things or can i not do that?

cheers for the help
Nathan

[Panama Red]

Separate partiton, no saving of Live CD. Download the Ubuntu Install instead.

[darkside]

1 more thing, is there any way i can play my MP3 from my windows partition whist in koppix?

[Panama Red]

Don't know the answer to that one. Never tried it.

[darkside]

ill have a look at a few other live cds in the morning, its 2.20am here and its just to late for me to start messin about now

cheers for the help so far, no dount there me more questions tomorrow

[neochivers]

yep anythin on u hdd u can still use..

[Ind-PC_student]

This live CD is the easiest thing to use

1 download a live cd distro my suggestion is mepis if you have a fast broadband connection
1.b buy from the internet distrowatch a cd and skip to step 3

2 burn the .iso file to CD in linux use K3B, Xcdroast or Gcombust
under windows use deep burner free or pro its your choice

3 reboot enter the bios setup and in the boot options make sure the CD drive is first in order

example

+CDROM
+Removable storage
+Hard Disk

save settings and exit Bios

4 Enjoy your CD!

it is very simple but as humans we all tend to complicate simple steps

I should know i am as such.

[darkside]

ok ive treyd DSL and puppy and these didnt work for me 0.o

i get to the screen where it says hit enter to boot from cd or w/e then it does some stuff and then the screen goes black and nothing hapens, i thought it was just taking its time but i loaded one of em hit enter and then went to make a cup of tea, cam back and it was still on the black screen

on one of them it said something about there not being a partition on the drive or something but i could hit enter to continue without it but when i hit enter nothing happend like my k/b wasnt conected (the keyboard did work at first when i hit enter to begin with)

anyone know whats up?
cheers
Nathan

P.S can i make partitions on a drive without deleting all the stuff on it?

[ffreeloader]

i get to the screen where it says hit enter to boot from cd or w/e then it does some stuff and then the screen goes black and nothing hapens, i thought it was just taking its time but i loaded one of em hit enter and then went to make a cup of tea, cam back and it was still on the black screen on one of them it said something about there not being a partition on the drive or something but i could hit enter to continue without it but when i hit enter nothing happend like my k/b wasnt conected (the keyboard did work at first when i hit enter to begin with) anyone know whats up? cheers Nathan

I'd recommend that you give Knoppix a try. It has about the best hardware recognition around. I've never tried the other two distro's you did, but I've only had Knoppix fail to recognize one piece of hardware, and that was a proprietary wireless card built into a Toshiba laptop motherboard.

One more question. How much ram do you have on your computer? Live cd's require quite a bit of ram or they are extremely slow because nothing lives on the hard drive. Everything lives in ram or on the cd. I ran Knoppix one time on a computer with 96 megs of ram and it was like watching paint dry. It took so long to do anything that sometimes I would think the system had crashed.

[darkside]

ffreeloader, its 256 in this machine,
thats why im wondering about insatlling it to the hard drive, have you got any information on partitioing?

anyone know what was up wth dsl/puppy when i first tryed em?

i got a 'barebones' disto of puppy and that works fine cept i forgot to make the disc multisession and i cba to erase it and try again atm

[kilgoretrout]

Puppy is pretty cool; one of the new light weight livecds. Another you can try is slax:

http://slax.linux-live.org/

It's just under 180MB download and should run fine on your hardware.

[ffreeloader]

ffreeloader, its 256 in this machine, thats why im wondering about insatlling it to the hard drive, have you got any information on partitioing?

That should be plenty of ram. It might be a little slow, but you shouldn't have long periods of inactivity like I did with 96 megs of ram.

As to parititioning, I'm on a tight schedule this morning and don't have the time to help you right now. If you haven't gotten help from somewhere else I'll be able to help you in 8 or 9 hours.