[SOLVED] Linux Ubuntu Live CD

[eazye]

Afternon people,

Just a quick question.

How does the Linux Live CD actually work? From what i have read, the actual CD contains the whole linux operating system and kernel etc.. but how it is booted that when loaded you can also see the contents of the windows XP operating system also.

Ive used these live CD's before but would greatly appriciate any technical details as to what resources the live CD uses in the machine to load successfully. e.g. how much hard drive space does the linux cd need?


Thanks in advance.

[Rubberman]

A live CD/DVD uses no hard disc space on the system. It will mount available file systems, including the Windows FAT and NTFS volumes so you can access the files they contain. Linux has software that can detect and use almost any hardware you might have. There are incompatibilities you will encounter from time to time, but for the most part, modern distributions such as Ubuntu will give you use of almost anything imaginable including WiFi, Bluetooth, webcams, broadband wireless (Sprint, Verizon, etc), and such.

[eazye]

Right,

So what if the computer hard drive is not partitioned? Would a linux boot cd still be able to function correctly?

[Rubberman]

Right,

So what if the computer hard drive is not partitioned? Would a linux boot cd still be able to function correctly?

It will recognize that. If you selected the "install" option, it could partition the drive for you and use that to boot your system.

[nujinini]

How does the Linux Live CD actually work?

You can put in inside the CD/DVD on boot. This will allow you to experience working in the environment of the Linux flavor you have.

From what i have read, the actual CD contains the whole linux operating system and kernel etc.. but how it is booted that when loaded you can also see the contents of the windows XP operating system also.

Yes it does contain pretty much everything. An update though after installation would make sure that you have a complete working system. Like what Rubberman said "Linux has software that can detect and use almost any hardware you might have." This particular capability can also be used to recover data from crashed or virus infected windows system, even without installing the Linux to your system but only as Live CD use.

Should you prefer to install it as a second partition, you may be able to do so also. If you choose to install, it should be getting around more or less 4G on your system.

[oz]

So what if the computer hard drive is not partitioned? Would a linux boot cd still be able to function correctly?

You should be able to run a properly working liveCD without any hard drive installed on the machine at all, so any partitioning on the drive or lack thereof should make no difference.

[eazye]

Much appriciated people, thanks.

Rubberman, in one of my previous posts you corrected a problem for me which was about the DD commands.

sudo mkdir /mnt/sdb1
sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdb1 /mnt/sdb1
sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/mnt/sdb1/sda.dd

Would you be able to tell me what each line is doing exactly?

E.g. why is -t needed, what does ntfs-3g mean? I need help especially on the 3rd line which actually creates the DD file.

Thanks in advance.

[nujinini]

sudo mkdir /mnt/sdb1

You made a directory/folder/destination where to mount your partition /dev/sdb1

sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdb1 /mnt/sdb1

By this you actually are mounting /dev/sdb1 to the destination you made which is /mnt/sdb1

The command to mount was mount -t

why is -t needed,

The standard form of the mount command, is mount -t type device dir.
I got this from the manual. You may go to terminal and type $ man mount to see for yourself.

sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/mnt/sdb1/sda.dd

I think you are in turn copying everything (the whole partition) /dev/sda in this case is your Input File "if" to your Output File "of" which is /mnt/sdb1/sda.dd

what does ntfs-3g mean?

ntfs-3g is needed for your linux to be able to handle the windows you are mounting. Please refer to this NTFS-3G at Tuxera

Hi eazye,

Welcome!

I hope I was able to give what you need. Anyway, I defer to the wisdom of the gurus just in case I got something wrong or I missed something.

Enjoy linux!

[eazye]

nujinini, this was EXACTLY what i needed. Cheers.


Have a nice day



E

[nujinini]

You are most welcome!

Have a my friend!