compressed read-only ext3 file system

[Keld Jørn Simonsen <keld dkuug dk>]

Hi

I am looking for a compressed ext3 file system, for a read-only
purpose.

The idea is that I would like to make a live-cd that is fast to install.
The install should be almost just a raw copy of what is on the cd,
uncompressed. In that way I should be able to make an install of a full
Linux system of say 3 GB in under 2 minutes. The fs type I would like
to unpack is ext3 - but other fs types should be doable as well.

Then I would like to run the cd from the cdrom drive, so some kind of 
live-cd running code should also be available.

Has this been done before? Is the idea feasible?

best regards
keld