Latest revision as of 23:19, 16 April 2009

Luca Casagrande: luca.casagrande@gmail.com; http://ominiverdi.org

Introduction

What is a LiveCd

As Wikipedia reports, Livecd is a "generic term for an operating system distribution that is executed upon boot, without installation on a hard drive. Typically, it is stored on bootable media such as a CD-ROM (Live CD), DVD (Live DVD), USB flash drive (Live USB), among others." By using this technology, users can get a "taste" of a full GNU/Linux box without fighting with any setup or installation. Once the LiveCd has been booted, everything is loaded in RAM, keeping the hard disk safe. Of course, once the machine shuts down, every change is lost.

Applications

There are many applications that can be satisfied through the use of a livecd:

Running your favorite system anywhere you can find a PC. With a Pen Drive to save your data, you will have a perfect survival kit.
For teaching purposes: During a workshop, your audience can have anything you think is appropriate to increase the learning process.
Using an old machine: liveCd can be run on an old machine and also without a HD!
Spreading data: it's a very cool way to distribute your work. You deliver your work (for example output of complex elaboration) and all applications needed, configured to appreciate it best!

Limitations of a Livecd

Inside a livecd we have the kernel, drivers, WM, and all the applications required for a working environment. Of course, it is rather impossible to put all the drivers that would suit all the machines that have been created. It can happen that, during boot, the CD stops or something else goes wrong (e.g. missing lan detection). Thanks to the work of a lot of people (in primis Knoppix) we have very good software that detects hardware during boot but, like every software application, there can still be bugs. As you can understand, the idea of having a universal machine is a high expectation and the road to achieving this is still long.

On the other hand, no information is saved while working in the LiveCd environment. If this is a favorable aspect (e.g. keeping your hard disk safe), it can be tedious from another point of view. A solution is to use a Storage Device (like a USB HD, for example) to store all your output. This approach can also be used to save configuration files, so that you can keep your settings after rebooting.

LiveCd and open source geospatial software

LiveCd can be a valid tool if applied to open source geospatial software.

An example of an application of liveCd and GIS FLOSS is to run a workstation that will allow users to explore data inside it or, for example, in a remote Postgis DB. Old machines can be used to make access points to the database and can be set up with a viewer that is always available (as Internet Points do with a browser), allowing the saving of data on a storage device.

During the FOSS4G 2007 at Lausanne, we used 2 LiveCds during seminars (ka-Map and Grass 3d). We also allowed participants to immediately test what they had just see in the slideshow. Once the workshop ended, they were able to keep their liveCd and use it at home or at their office. This is a good example of the great potential of a liveCd deployed for Educational purposes.

Ominiverdi Livecd

Objective

Our liveCd will always try to offer users the following:

Up to date software with every main official release
Included guides, documents and tutorials
Good hardware compatibility

Tecnical development

We decided to use Catalist: the same tool that the Gentoo Release Engineering Team uses.

This choice is based on 2 main reasons:

To use a system that will keep the updating stage fast and safe
To allow the customization of everything inside the CD

Desktop 2007.0

Our first release for 2007 contains this software:

QGIS 0.8
GRASS 6.2.1
PostgreSQL 8.1.5
PostGIS 1.1.4
GDAL 1.3.2

The system runs a 2.6.18 Linux kernel and uses GNOME as a Desktop Manager.

While writing this abstract, we are waiting for the release of the 2007.1 Qgis 0.8.1.

Future Development and Tasks

Our goal is to keep the CD updated by creating new versions on a regular schedule, or at least as soon as major updates or included software will be released.

At the moment we are working on two tasks:

An Installer for the livecd
A server edition with mapserver and some webgis applications

LiveCD installer

The installer will be accessible through an icon on the desktop. The installation process will guide the user to the setup of the GNU/Linux distribution on his/her computer. Hard disk installations will allow better performance and the possibility to update all packages, thanks to the core of the Gentoo Linux ( http://www.gentoo.org/ )system.

Server Edition

The server edition will target a server machine with minimal graphical support but with a fully-featured set of applications to offer OCG Web Services and UMN Mapserver frontends (ka-Map, Open Layers, p.Mapper, ecc.).

More Info

Ominiverdi Livecd Project: http://livecd.ominiverdi.org
Gentoo Catalyst Project: http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/releng/catalyst/

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 =Introduction=
-==What is a Livecd==
+==What is a LiveCd==
-As Wikipedia report, liveCd is a "is a generic term for an operating system distribution that is executed upon boot, without installation on a hard drive. Typically, it is stored on bootable media such as a CD-ROM (Live CD), DVD (Live DVD), USB flash drive (Live USB), among others". Using this kind of application user can get a "taste" of a full Linux box without fighting with any setup or installation. Once the liveCd has been booted, everything it's loaded in the RAM keeping safe the hard disk. Of course, once the machine it's shut down, every change it's lost.
-==Tasks==
+As Wikipedia reports, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livecd Livecd] is a "generic term for an operating system distribution that is executed upon boot, without installation on a hard drive. Typically, it is stored on bootable media such as a CD-ROM (Live CD), DVD (Live DVD), USB flash drive (Live USB), among others." By using this technology, users can get a "taste" of a full GNU/Linux box without fighting with any setup or installation. Once the LiveCd has been booted, everything is loaded in RAM, keeping the hard disk safe. Of course, once the machine shuts down, every change is lost.
-There are many application that can be satisfied by a livecd:
+==Applications==
-#Using your favorite application everywhere you can find a pc. With a Pen Drive to save your data you'll have a perfect survival kit.
+There are many applications that can be satisfied through the use of a livecd:
-#Teaching purpose: people can have machine with the needed software in a boot time.
-#Using old machine: liveCd can be run on smooth machine and also without HD.
-#Spreading data: it's a very cool way to distribute your work around. You deliver your work ( for example data ) and all application needed and configured to appreciate it !
-==Limitation of a Livecd==
+#Running your favorite system anywhere you can find a PC. With a Pen Drive to save your data, you will have a perfect survival kit.
+#For teaching purposes: During a workshop, your audience can have anything you think is appropriate to increase the learning process.
+#Using an old machine: liveCd can be run on an old machine and also without a HD!
+#Spreading data: it's a very cool way to distribute your work. You deliver your work (for example output of complex elaboration) and all applications needed, configured to appreciate it best!
-Inside a livecd we have got the kernel, the drivers, the WM and all the applications. Of course is pretty impossible to put all the driver that could suite all the machine that have been created; can happen that, during the boot the cd stops or something else goes wrong (missing lan detection for example). During the years, have been created very good tool that detect the hardware during the boot, but, like every software application, there can be still bug.
+==Limitations of a Livecd==
-So you must see a failing boot, as a crash..that will be fixed soon!
-The other thing that should be clear, it's that no information it's saved while working in the livecd enveroment. This is good from a side (for example for keeping safe your hard disk) but can be tedious from another way. The solution for this is use a Storage Device (like an USB HD for example) to store all your outputs. This approach could also be used to save configuration file, so that you can have the same setting at every boot.
+Inside a livecd we have the kernel, drivers, WM, and all the applications required for a working environment. Of course, it is rather impossible to put all the drivers that would suit all the machines that have been created. It can happen that, during boot, the CD stops or something else goes wrong (e.g. missing lan detection). Thanks to the work of a lot of people (in primis [http://www.knoppix.net/ Knoppix]) we have very good software that detects hardware during boot but, like every software application, there can still be bugs. As you can understand, the idea of having a universal machine is a high expectation and the road to achieving this is still long.
+On the other hand, no information is saved while working in the LiveCd environment. If this is a favorable aspect (e.g. keeping your hard disk safe), it can be tedious from another point of view. A solution is to use a Storage Device (like a USB HD, for example) to store all your output. This approach can also be used to save configuration files, so that you can keep your settings after rebooting.
 =LiveCd and open source geospatial software=
-LiveCd can be a valid tool together with open source geospatial software. It could be used in one of the situation we already explained so that an easy access to user that want to try those new application.
+LiveCd can be a valid tool if applied to open source geospatial software.
-An example of the use of liveCd and GIS FOSS application, it's running a workstation that will allow the user to explore data inside it or, for example, in a Postgis DB. Using old hardware you could spread those kind of workstation all around the office.
-During the FOSS4G 2007 at Lausanne we used 2 LiveCds during seminaries (ka-Map and Grass 3d). We've allowed attendants to test immediately what they were seeing in the slide show. Once the workshop ended they have been able to take away their liveCd and use it at home or at their office. This is a good example of the great potential of liveCd in Educational purpose.
+An example of an application of liveCd and GIS FLOSS is to run a workstation that will allow users to explore data inside it or, for example, in a remote Postgis DB. Old machines can be used to make access points to the database and can be set up with a viewer that is always available (as Internet Points do with a browser), allowing the saving of data on a storage device.
+During the FOSS4G 2007 at Lausanne, we used 2 LiveCds during seminars (ka-Map and Grass 3d). We also allowed participants to immediately test what they had just see in the slideshow. Once the workshop ended, they were able to keep their liveCd and use it at home or at their office. This is a good example of the great potential of a liveCd deployed for Educational purposes.
 =Ominiverdi Livecd=
@@ Line 35: / Line 36: @@
 ==Objective==
-Our livecd will try to offer to user always those things:
+Our liveCd will always try to offer users the following:
-#Keep all software up to date with every single official release
+#Up to date software with every main official release
-#Include Guide, Documents and Tutorial
+#Included guides, documents and tutorials
-#Grant a good hardware compatibilty
+#Good hardware compatibility
 ==Tecnical development==
-We decided to use the same tool that Gentoo Release Engineering use: Catalyst.
+We decided to use [http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/releng/catalyst/ Catalist]: the same tool that the Gentoo Release Engineering Team uses.
-This choice as been made for 2 main reason:
+This choice is based on 2 main reasons:
-#Use a system that will keep the updating fast and safe
+#To use a system that will keep the updating stage fast and safe
-#Allow the customization of everything inside the cd
+#To allow the customization of everything inside the CD
 ==Desktop 2007.0==
-Our first release for 2007 contains these software:
+Our first release for 2007 contains this software:
+* QGIS 0.8
+* GRASS 6.2.1
+* PostgreSQL 8.1.5
+* PostGIS 1.1.4
+* GDAL 1.3.2
-    * QGIS 0.8
+The system runs a 2.6.18 [http://www.kernel.org/ Linux kernel] and uses [http://www.gnome.org/ GNOME] as a Desktop Manager.
-    * GRASS 6.2.1
-    * PostgreSQL 8.1.5
-    * PostGIS 1.1.4
-    * GDAL 1.3.2
-All the system run on a kernel 2.6.18 and use Gnome as Desktop Manager.
+While writing this abstract, we are waiting for the release of the 2007.1 Qgis 0.8.1.
-While writing this abstract, we are waiting for Qgis 0.8.1 for releasing version 2007.1.
+=Future Development and Tasks=
+Our goal is to keep the CD updated by creating new versions on a regular schedule, or at least as soon as major updates or included software will be released.
-=Future Development and task=
+At the moment we are working on two tasks:
-Our goal is to keep the cd updated, creating new version at regular times, or at least as soon as major update or included softwares will come out.
-Right now we are working on two tasks:
 # An Installer for the livecd
-# A server edition with mapserver and some webgis application
+# A server edition with mapserver and some webgis applications
 ===LiveCD installer===
-The installer will be accessible trough an icon on the desktop. The installation process will guide the user to the set up of the linux distribution in his computer.
+The installer will be accessible through an icon on the desktop. The installation process will guide the user to the setup of the GNU/Linux distribution on his/her computer.
-Installing on the hard disk will allow better performances and the possibility to update all packages thanks to Gentoo systems.
+Hard disk installations will allow better performance and the possibility to update all packages, thanks to the core of the Gentoo Linux ( http://www.gentoo.org/ )system.
 ===Server Edition===
-The server edition will target a server machine with minimum graphical support but full featured set of application to offer OCG Web Services and UMN Mapserver front ends (ka-Map, Open Layers, p.Mapper, ecc.).
+The server edition will target a server machine with minimal graphical support but with a fully-featured set of applications to offer OCG Web Services and UMN Mapserver frontends (ka-Map, Open Layers, p.Mapper, ecc.).
+===More Info===
+* Ominiverdi Livecd Project: http://livecd.ominiverdi.org
+*Gentoo Catalyst Project: http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/releng/catalyst/
-===More Infos===
+[[Category: Live-demo]]
-*[http://livecd.ominiverdi.org Ominiverdi Livecd Project]
-*[http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/releng/catalyst/ Gentoo Catalyst Project]

Difference between revisions of "Newsletter Volume 1 Livecd"