wacky idea

Forum: DSL Ideas and Suggestions
Topic: wacky idea
started by: brotherscrim

Posted by brotherscrim on Oct. 07 2003,19:17

How feasable would it be to put DSL on a 80mm or standard CDRW and use the extra space to store your settings and documents?

The way I see it would be booting with toram, so the disc is no longer being accessed to run DSL itself, and then using all the leftover space on the disc as storage. DSL doesn't have cdrecord or anything like it, does it? How big would a burning program be?

This is a similar idea to the USB memory stick idea, only cheaper and (IMO) cooler. Heck, if this is possible, some interesting options could come about.

Posted by John on Oct. 07 2003,19:56

I've thought about this too

.
It would be an interesting project. Only two drawbacks I can see:
1) Stripping and reburning CDRWs takes time.
2) (potential drawback) Burning CDRWs can be flaky, about 1 in 10 burns go wrong for me.

I am sure there are a lot more computers with CD burners than USB bootable systems.

Posted by brotherscrim on Oct. 07 2003,20:32

I don't think the time it takes should be much of a problem.

It could only write to the disc when you tell it to (or suggest you do it when you're running short on memory).

Now, the flakiness of CDRWs is indeed an issue. Of course, if you were using this as your one-and-only method of computing or something, I imagine you would be making backups to CDRs and such frequently. It is a fun idea though, isn't it?

Just how big is cdrecord, anyway? if it's too big to fit snugly on the biz-card, I'd suggest leaving this idea to the hackers around here to figure out. Unless you really want to fork this project or step up to a 80mm.

Posted by tunesnake on Oct. 08 2003,19:39

I installed DSL on a windows XP machine running Full VMware Workstation. The DSL booted with Zero problems in about 2 Minutes, Since VMware has virtual disk support i was able to use a virtual 2GB drive i had created to install other programs and save documents ect, ect. It's Very easy Give it a shot. Im running a 1ghz Dell Laptop with 256mb Ram, using bridged networking on my wireless card.

Peace,
Tuner

Posted by mojo on Oct. 11 2003,21:22

Why not just run the distribution on RAM or the CD, and save/store files and the such on a USB storage device? Unless you're always tweaking the settings of DSL, I don't see why this isn't a better idea...

Posted by brotherscrim on Oct. 13 2003,19:27

well, by putting everything on one disc instead of a disc & something else, you are:

Saving money - USB memory devices aren't crazy-cheap like the less than a dollar CDRWs are.

Saving space - Granted, not MUCH space. But also consider that you won't be forgetting to take your not-cheap USB memory device with you when you're done with whatever machine you're using.

Making it more accessable - If all the USB ports are being used, or if the machine doesn't have them, having everything on the ubiquitous CD means you can use it in more places. Heck, even if you need to use it on a machine that doesn't have a CD burner, chances are that it will have a CD ROM that can read the disc.

Posted by RoGuE_StreaK on Jan. 03 2004,16:58

Hmmm... is it possible at all to have DSL as a mutli-session disk? Just thinking, if you could burn the base install onto an 8cm, then have an option that any changes or installs you make can be saved to an "update" session... hey, you could have a fluxconfig thing in there so you could make new styles, then burn your new setup...
Ooh, how about, if that's not possible, a version of DSL with inbuilt burning that has all the config stuff in there, then when you have it set up with the styles and apps you want, hit "burn new version" to create a seperate updated disk?? Probably need two cd drives, one to boot from and one to burn to, but I'm sure a most of the users in here would have that kind of setup anyway...
(sorry if I'm rambling, hey, it's 2am, haven't had a coffee in 9hrs...):p

Posted by Modrak on Jan. 11 2004,13:44

I think it's a great idea
Go to internet cafe,do some work,connect USBdisk and copy files.
Computers in .netcafe don't have burner but you can burn cd for 20CZK if you ask the guy who want's 1 CZK/min :angry:

(1$ = 25CZK)

Posted by Modrak on Jan. 21 2004,15:42

knoppix toram hdc=ide-scsi
bashburn next track (probably 2nd)

Posted by old_lou on Jan. 23 2004,04:41

What about sticking the basic setting you need to save on a floppy or pinching a bit of hd space to save settings on like Suse live eval ?

Posted by karlan on Jan. 30 2004,04:17

how would you go about putting DSL on the beginning of a CD-RW(normal size), and then add files, such as a set of tarballs and precompiled compiler....?

Posted by karlan on Jan. 30 2004,04:18

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
i don't want too add stuff from DSL, but from another computer

Posted by Modrak on Jan. 30 2004,09:16

Quote (old_lou @ Jan. 23 2004,04:41)

What about sticking the basic setting you need to save on a floppy or pinching a bit of hd space to save settings on like Suse live eval ?

If everytime you use DSL, you're on another computer...so saving config files,documents & etc. to HD is unusable because you need to have you files with you

Finaly...I'm going to buy 64MB FlashDisk , remaster and put myDSL there

I thing 14MB is still lot of place to put some sheets in ABC or text on Ted...

---------------UpDATE------------
My FlashDisk is here (@home)
64MB for 25 $ (650 CZK using currency 26 CZK for 1 $)
The price was DamnSmall :cool:

(they normaly cost about 1000 CZK )