Linux for Demo's

Enygma

One of our clients wants to be able to put his new website onto a CD so that he can show it off to his clients without Internet access.

This would be fine except that the site runs on Tomcat and accesses a MySQL database.

I wonder would it be possible to create a bootable linux CD that has the required software installed and setup for the client.

Which distribution would lend itself best to this type of thing?

All the software I really need would be Java, Tomcat, MySQL and Firefox. Size isn't a problem, as long as it's under 700MB or so, I was thinking PuppyLinux but I'd say we could include KDE or something.

What would your recommendations be for something like this?

Just thinking, the database would need to have write access to the hard disk, is that a potential problem?

tomk

If he's intending to use the CD-ROM on his clients' PCs, then I would say hard disk access could be an issue!

You could try setting it up to work in conjunction with a USB storage device. Knoppix and MandrakeMove use this kind of configuration to provide a persistent /home directory for their live CDs.

Before you ask, I've no idea how this is done! The Knoppix forum might be a good place to start.

Enygma

Ya I just thought of that after I posted. It's easy enough to do.

I suppose something like MandrakeMove looks alright, but how would one go about modifying it and then burning to CD?

leeroybrown

I use Knoppix from time to time and find it quite good.

I would suggest that your client could set up their Demo Disc so that on boot a script is run copying the files required for the site (DocumentRoot, MySQL DB, etc) onto the ramdisk, followed by starting the necessary daemons (Apache (with TomCat), MySQL, etc) to ensure it works. If the database, JSP's, etc are on the RAM disk it means that the client will get no cdrom read lag and will be able to demonstrate functionality that requires the DB to be changed (althought these will obviously be lost at shutdown).

It would be a bit of work but it would mean that all the client needs to do is boot the CD on the client's PC and the whole thing sets itself up and automatically opens with the clients demo page ready for viewing.

Enygma

That sounds pretty good, I'll look how to set this up on the ramdisk.

I mightn't have to do this yet, which would be a shame cause it sounds like fun!

Fingers crossed

leeroybrown

Knoppix (and I presume most of the other live-disc's) automatically allocate a decent sized ramdisk as part of their boot process so there should be plenty of space available on it for the site and db.

One issue you might run into is that the fuller featured live-disc's tend to fill the entire 700Mb+ available on the cdrom in order to pack as much features in as possible. You'd probably need to strip down one of them to make space for the site files.

I don't know if any of the live-disc's have TomCat included on them.

slartibardfast

this is based on knoppix, and has most everything java related including tomcat, might be a good place to start your customization.

And if you remove eclipse + netbeans + all ides' you should have about ~100mb free.

http://moe.tnc.edu.tw/~kendrew/pollix/

Capt'n Midnight

Knoppix CD image takes about 700MB so only about 15MB free on normal CD's

If the web page will fit in 10 MB then fine.

Write access means you can't use the default Knoppix CD - it is very deliberatly set to read only (policy) to prevent trojans etc.

On the CD there is a folder with the boot files.
You will also need the 700 MB image.

The boot for version 3.4 won't fit on a floppy so I used a dos/win bootdisk and Loadlin to start it - also means you can set the keyboard to UK etc. and SCAN for home / config

Then there are three files you can copy to C:\ before you LoadLin
a) unzip knoppix.swp (to make startup with Knoppix 2 then use mkdosswapfile to make it and then zip it in windows later - should be abouth 60KB compressed)
b) configs.tbz [edit - filename]
d) knoppix.img - home folder - does not compress well - but can hold persistant settings like a short cut to the the web site.
e) Web.zip

will try to dig up settings later.

Capt'n Midnight

Files in Loadlin folder (copy from CD)

BOOT.CAT
BOOT.MSG
F2
F3
GERMAN.KBD
ISOLINUX.BIN
ISOLINUX.CFG
LINUX24
LINUX26
LOGO.16
MEMTEST
MINIRT24.GZ
MINIRT26.GZ
LDLINUX.SYS
SYSLINUX.CFG

LOADLIN.EXE (in loadlin.zip - 10KB)

LINUX.BAT - this next single line - with UK keyboard and scan

loadlin linux24 init=/etc/init lang=us xkeyboard=gb home=scan myconfig=scan apm=power-off vga=791 initrd=minirt24.gz nomce quiet BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix nodma vsync=60 keyboard=gb xkeyboard=gb home=scan myconf=scan