This page discusses the possible ways to build a ["LiveCD"] for DebianScience.
Scientific Live CDs that already exist (pionneering works)
[http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com/quantian Quantian] and its [http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com/quantian/todo.html TODO list] (if you want to help).
[http://lists.debian.org/debian-science/2007/08/msg00046.html ?PaiPix], now based on DebianLive
[http://www.vigyaancd.org/ Vigyaan] Vigyaan is an electronic workbench for bioinformatics, computational biology and computational chemistry based on KNOPPIX v3.7
CD or DVD ?
Should we put all the scientific tools on one single CD? If yes, then [http://lists.debian.org/debian-science/2005/07/msg00003.html a DVD should be more sensible].
Otherwise, if we want to stick to CD, maybe several thematic CD sets could be build.
Available tools that could be used for building live CD
debian-live
See DebianLive
Pros :
Cons :
Knoppix
[http://www.knoppix.org/ Knoppix]
Pros :
Already used for [http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com/quantian Quantian], so there is much experience with it.
- It works.
Cons :
- Not 100% Debian (specific kernels and configuration packages).
- The knoppix mastering scripts and configuration packages have not yet been ported to Debian.
More about Knoppix
dfsbuild
[http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/dfsbuild.html dfsbuild]
Pros :
- Almost 100% Debian (currently the standard Debian kernels do not suit dfsbuild)
A simple config file for building the live CD (see [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=311537 proof of the concept here]) makes it easy to customize.
Cons :
X configuration is currently closer to a [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=311537 hack].
- The config file (by construction) only properly handles lower case file names which may be a severe limitation.
- Do not yet support standard kernels.
debix
[http://debix.alioth.debian.org/ debix]
(please comment)
sidux
[http://www.sidux.com/ sidux] Debian Sid (unstable) based Live CD