Hi all, I was wondering if it possible to have a Centos LiveCD installation boot from a Compact Flash in a embeded x86 (Wrap/Alix) platform *and* be able to save the changes made to the File System back to the Flash memory.
So, the next time the LiveCD boots it will have all the changes made.
The problem I'm trying yo solve is: - fast boot time - fast recovery when the Linux is shutdown improperly (power failure, etc) - be able to upgrade some rpm packages via yum
Will a LiveCD (squash/union FS) be a better solution than booting Centos directly from an ext2(fewer I/O than ext3) partition?
Many thanks in advance Oliver
On Sun, Aug 10, 2008 at 12:39 PM, Oliver Schulze L. oliver@samera.com.py wrote:
Hi all, I was wondering if it possible to have a Centos LiveCD installation boot from a Compact Flash in a embeded x86 (Wrap/Alix) platform *and* be able to save the changes made to the File System back to the Flash memory.
You would need to really hack at it to get it to that. The ability to do that did not get into Fedora until 9 so its part of the init scripts or the livecd tools to make an overlay partition.
So, the next time the LiveCD boots it will have all the changes made.
The problem I'm trying yo solve is:
- fast boot time
- fast recovery when the Linux is shutdown improperly (power failure, etc)
- be able to upgrade some rpm packages via yum
Will a LiveCD (squash/union FS) be a better solution than booting Centos directly from an ext2(fewer I/O than ext3) partition?
Many thanks in advance Oliver
-- Oliver Schulze L. Asuncion - Paraguay http://tinymailto.com/oliver
CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
Hi Stephen, I read about the overlay feature in Fedora9, but I don't know if when the changes to the FS are so big (like going from 5.1 to 5.2) the overlay will grow and grow over time. And the overlay solution will require too much space.
Thanks Oliver
Stephen John Smoogen wrote:
On Sun, Aug 10, 2008 at 12:39 PM, Oliver Schulze L. oliver@samera.com.py wrote:
Hi all, I was wondering if it possible to have a Centos LiveCD installation boot from a Compact Flash in a embeded x86 (Wrap/Alix) platform *and* be able to save the changes made to the File System back to the Flash memory.
You would need to really hack at it to get it to that. The ability to do that did not get into Fedora until 9 so its part of the init scripts or the livecd tools to make an overlay partition.
On Sun, Aug 10, 2008 at 1:19 PM, Oliver Schulze L. oliver@samera.com.py wrote:
Hi Stephen, I read about the overlay feature in Fedora9, but I don't know if when the changes to the FS are so big (like going from 5.1 to 5.2) the overlay will grow and grow over time. And the overlay solution will require too much space.
For the live Cd that is about your only choise. The overlay will not grow.. it will eventually fill up, but if you are making that many changes in an embedded environment you really need to think about why you aren't doing a complete reflush of the SSD
Hi Stephen, thanks for answering.
I'm trying to see if I can get a router using an embeded platform, alix in this case. Since the Alix platform is getting more powerfull and the 1GB compatch flash is also getting cheaper, I was think in createing a full Centos distro booting in that platform.
Will read more about the overlay feature and see if it will do the job for me.
But maybe I will go back to have an ext2 partition and don't write to it. I like the LiveCD option because of the fast (no fsck) boot feature
Regards, Oliver
Stephen John Smoogen wrote:
On Sun, Aug 10, 2008 at 1:19 PM, Oliver Schulze L. oliver@samera.com.py wrote:
Hi Stephen, I read about the overlay feature in Fedora9, but I don't know if when the changes to the FS are so big (like going from 5.1 to 5.2) the overlay will grow and grow over time. And the overlay solution will require too much space.
For the live Cd that is about your only choise. The overlay will not grow.. it will eventually fill up, but if you are making that many changes in an embedded environment you really need to think about why you aren't doing a complete reflush of the SSD
Oliver Schulze L. wrote:
Hi Stephen, thanks for answering.
I'm trying to see if I can get a router using an embeded platform, alix in this case. Since the Alix platform is getting more powerfull and the 1GB compatch flash is also getting cheaper, I was think in createing a full Centos distro booting in that platform.
Will read more about the overlay feature and see if it will do the job for me.
But maybe I will go back to have an ext2 partition and don't write to it. I like the LiveCD option because of the fast (no fsck) boot feature
Regards, Oliver
Stephen John Smoogen wrote:
On Sun, Aug 10, 2008 at 1:19 PM, Oliver Schulze L. oliver@samera.com.py wrote:
Hi Stephen, I read about the overlay feature in Fedora9, but I don't know if when the changes to the FS are so big (like going from 5.1 to 5.2) the overlay will grow and grow over time. And the overlay solution will require too much space.
For the live Cd that is about your only choise. The overlay will not grow.. it will eventually fill up, but if you are making that many changes in an embedded environment you really need to think about why you aren't doing a complete reflush of the SSD
OK ... what would be the benefit of booting and updating the livecd as compared to just installing and updating CentOS on the flash.
There is nothing special about the RPMS on the LiveCD as compared to regular CentOS.
The only possible thing I see as an advantage would be the fact that the OS was NOT WRITABLE .. however, by rolling in the overlay feature, you would be over riding that.
Am I missing something here?
Hi Johnny, I was exploring some options to make the embeded platform boot faster. Right now I'm using ext2 partitions(ext3 use more I/O), but when it is shutdown improperly it takes a little to boot(it runs fsck).
I was thinking that the LiveCD will help boot faster when the power goes off, but now I realize that the ext2 solution will be better.
Thanks for all comments, Oliver
Johnny Hughes wrote:
OK ... what would be the benefit of booting and updating the livecd as compared to just installing and updating CentOS on the flash.
There is nothing special about the RPMS on the LiveCD as compared to regular CentOS.
The only possible thing I see as an advantage would be the fact that the OS was NOT WRITABLE .. however, by rolling in the overlay feature, you would be over riding that.
Am I missing something here?
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Johnny Hughes -
Oliver Schulze L. -
Stephen John Smoogen