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

[Douglas McClendon]

Elias Hunt wrote:
> Douglas,
> 
> Assuming that iso-caching-to-disk feature is implemented, would it be
> easy to have the caching occur on an ext3 partition?


Yup Yup Yup :)  My 2001 project would scan for all partitions it could blindly 
mount (mount -t auto), and use any that it found available with at least 2X the 
free space needed.

I'll take your use-case as added motivation to work on a proof of concept 
implementation of that feature...  So much code to write... so little time ;)

-dmc


> 
> My company actually has a use case where we create custom livecds for
> hundreds of systems, using a local drive for data storage only as we
> don't want the OS to be modified permanently (a reboot will restore to
> normal). Having the performance gain of actually running the iso from
> the local disk, while still being able to mount the disk for data
> storage, and being able to insert other CDs to the running system would
> provide huge benefits.
> 
> -Eli
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: fedora-livecd-list-bounces at redhat.com
> [mailto:fedora-livecd-list-bounces at redhat.com] On Behalf Of Douglas
> McClendon
> Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2007 5:23 PM
> To: fedora-livecd-list at redhat.com
> Subject: Re: [Fedora-livecd-list] [RFC/PATCH] livecd rebootless
> installer
> 
> Douglas McClendon wrote:
>> Jeroen van Meeuwen wrote:
>>> Douglas McClendon wrote:
> 
>>> I'm sure there's /a/ use-case for this technical advancement. Besides
>>> that, I'm all for any technical advancement -whether it has actual
>>> use-cases or not.
>>
>> /The/ use case is simple.  It does what it does.  It is what it is.  
>> Whether or not it is well received once it is an available option, 
>> remains to be seen. Note, that it is trivial to enhance the existing 
>> patch such that things only happen differently than normal if you pass
> 
>> 'support_rebootless' on the kernel commandline.
>>
>> Also note that it is fairly trivial to add an option so that the user 
>> can chose whether to live-migrate the cdrom+ram_overlay onto the 
>> destination volume, or just the cdrom.  In the latter case, the user 
>> could still eject the cdrom when installation is complete and continue
> 
>> working in the live system, though on reboot it would forget all the 
>> live-session modifications and give you a fresh start.
> 
> A different continuation of this thought, is the modification to support
> the 
> iso-caching-to-disk functionality I described in my 2001 project.
> Though now, 
> instead of vfat, use ntfs-3g.
> 
> I.e. do your live migration to a file on an ntfs partition, such that
> after the 
> migration
> 
> a) the user can eject the cdrom and use the cdrom drive for other
> reasons
> b) the system will be much more responsive as data is pulled from the
> ntfs 
> rather than the cdrom
> c) with a sufficiently modern (i.e. probably doesn't exist yet) version
> of grub 
> or loadlin, the live environment could be subsequently booted strait
> from ntfs, 
> without needing the original livecd.
> 
> -dmc/jdog
> 
> --
> Fedora-livecd-list mailing list
> Fedora-livecd-list at redhat.com
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-livecd-list
> 
> --
> Fedora-livecd-list mailing list
> Fedora-livecd-list at redhat.com
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-livecd-list