What is a Live CD?
A Live CD is a bootable compact disk that contains its own operating system (OS). Booting to a Live CD allows a user to try out alternate operating systems without making changes to the computer’s existing OS, hard drives or files. Live CDs, sometimes referred to as LiveDistros are used extensively for various incarnations of the GNU/Linux operating system. When power is supplied to a computer, the first thing the computer does is process a set of instructions read from the BIOS, or the Basic Input/Output System chip. Settings contained here can be user-modified but typical default settings instruct the computer, among other things, to boot off the hard drive after checking to make sure there is no bootable compact disk in the CD/DVD drive. If the computer finds a Live CD in the drive, it will boot to that system rather than the installed OS. Once the computer boots to the Live CD the user is free to explore the operating system without compromising the host computer. To get back to th
” produces plenty of results. I think finding a forum more specific to the topic or asking more knowledgeable questions would help your understanding better. Additionally, people searching forums find more knowledge when specific questions are asked. I think if you want to understand a live cd you have to understand what the OS is actually doing. Both will load the kernel and critical system information into ram. Not as a ram disk but as space used by normally operating programs. The OS then can load the programs off the storage medium to run. doing a google search for “custom live cd” may reveal some useful information. There are a few projects that actually teach you how to do all this. Searching for those projects and those forums would give you the most help into making your own. For a live CD Adding a ram disk for things like /var /tmp and /home allow programs to not freak out when they try and save a setting file or just need to store something temporarily. I’ve never used a live
A live cd is a temporary operating system that runs from a CD instead of a hard drive. This means that it doesn’t permanently effect your computer. When your computer is rebooted and the CD is ejected everything returns back to the way it was. Unless of course you want to use the Live CD to make changes to your computer, like fixing a computer that wont boot. Maybe you need to reinstall but you don’t want to loose those family pictures you saved. Maybe there is 4 minutes left on an Ebay auction and your computer wont boot.
