What's the simplest Linux installation that can boot off a CD and do Windows File sharing?

[PremiumG]

i want to put two or three hard drives in a computer, and have no OS installed on those hard disk.

i want to boot off a CD, and be able to share those drives on the network.

What Linux OS do u recommend that can do it off a CD?

 

[AStar617]

It has to be asked...

...the benefit of the Live CD distro is its portability. If you are going thru the trouble of installing "two or three" disks, upon which your setup is completely dependent, why not just add a small 1-2gb fourth disk for the OS and install the pared-down distro of your choice? You're already tethered to your physical platform by virtue of your intended application.

With that said, it looks like this is the way to go, though I'm still missing the point of this setup other than as a proof of concept. Maybe if you had a production NFS fileserver that you weren't allowed to install Samba on, and you desparately needed to kludge something together to get an NFS exported filesystem available to a SMB-only box like a Windows client... such a setup could act as a quick and dirty go-between using whatever hardware is available at the time, by mounting the NFS share locally and then exporting that filesystem via Samba to the target client. This might be a file locking nightmare though, not sure.

I suppose I should have warned you that I tend to overthink things at 4am. 🙂

 

[Brazen]

OpenFiler is probably the most popular linux distro for a network file server, but it does not have a livecd. But then, as AStar617 pointed out, using a LiveCD for this is just retarded.

 

[Nothinman]

But then, as AStar617 pointed out, using a LiveCD for this is just retarded.

Not really, for the same reasoning that people boot firewalls from floppy, cd, network, etc. If the boot medium is read-only you can be sure that you always know that your system is clean on reboot. Of course this makes updating, changing settings, etc more painful. Personally I wouldn't want to use a generic LiveCD though, I'd want a custom one so that I didn't have to reconfigure everything every time I rebooted.

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

But then, as AStar617 pointed out, using a LiveCD for this is just retarded.

Not really, for the same reasoning that people boot firewalls from floppy, cd, network, etc. If the boot medium is read-only you can be sure that you always know that your system is clean on reboot. Of course this makes updating, changing settings, etc more painful. Personally I wouldn't want to use a generic LiveCD though, I'd want a custom one so that I didn't have to reconfigure everything every time I rebooted.

Yeah, reconfiguring after a reboot would be the problem. I SUPPOSE it could be something that saves it's configuration on a floppy or CF card, like m0n0wall does. Then you still have the issue of anything you mess up is going to be saved, so why not just make life simple and use OpenFiler.

 

[Nothinman]

Then you still have the issue of anything you mess up is going to be saved, so why not just make life simple and use OpenFiler.

Anything you mess up will be saved in both cases.

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Then you still have the issue of anything you mess up is going to be saved, so why not just make life simple and use OpenFiler.

Anything you mess up will be saved in both cases.

yes, that is the point. In both cases. So, don't bother with a LiveCD and just go with whatever happens to be the best distro for the job - which I heare is OpenFiler. Do I need to draw you a diagram?

 

[Nothinman]

yes, that is the point. In both cases. So, don't bother with a LiveCD and just go with whatever happens to be the best distro for the job - which I heare is OpenFiler. Do I need to draw you a diagram?

Because that's not what the OP wanted? Yes, it's usually it's simpler to just install a distro and use it the 'normal' way, but running from some read-only medium isn't a bad idea if you're willing to deal with the addtional overhead of configuration and remastering the disc occasionally.

 

[trikster2]

Doncha hate it when you ask a question and everyone tells you the question is stupid instead of actually trying to help?

I "get" what you want. You want your OS to be independant of the hard drives and you don't want to suck up a hard drive just for the 4 or 500mb required by the OS.

Something I would really like is a small fast cheap hard drive just for OS installs. But that would still take up a channel so yours is a viable option, if you can figure it out.

You'll have to roll your own NAS using this solution but

http://www.puppyos.com/multi-puppy.htm

Puppy (of all things) linux supports a multisession "live" CD. OS even loads off the CD into RAM, lets you use the CD for other stuff. Before you shut down your settings are written back to the multisession CD or DVD.

Other light NAS options you might consider are freenas which has options for booting off from a USB pen drive and a web interface for most things after you do the initial install:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/freenas/

http://www.freenas.org/

Or Naslite plus ($24):

http://www.serverelements.com/naslite-plus.php

Or if you have a floppy available you can use the free floppy version:
http://www.serverelements.com/naslite.php

(looking at reviews naslite looks the most solid but does not work with SATA.... DOH)

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: PremiumG
i want to put two or three hard drives in a computer, and have no OS installed on those hard disk.

i want to boot off a CD, and be able to share those drives on the network.

What Linux OS do u recommend that can do it off a CD?

If you're familiar with Windows, Bart's PE is always an option...there are lots of plugins to make what you're doing easier, and it's a breeze to use once you get the hang of it, plus it's familiar Windows... put it on a CD or USB drive and you're all set.

 

[trikster2]

Bart's PE looks slick, but you need to (technically) burn one of your windows licences to make it work. If you have a spare licence, going with the familiar would be a nice option....