OpenBSD Journal

Beta 1 of OpenBSD-based BSDAnywhere Live CD Released

Contributed by marco on from the OpenBSD-goes-live! dept.

An often heard complaint on misc@ is that we don't have a Live CD. Now our friends at BSDanywhere are trying to fill that void. The first beta release of the OpenBSD-based BSDanywhere - "enlightenment at your fingertips" is available.

According to their web site BSDanywhere is a bootable Live-CD image based on OpenBSD. It consists of the entire OpenBSD base system (without compiler) plus graphical desktop, an unrepresentative collection of software, automatic hardware detection and support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and USB devices as well as other peripherals.

So give it a twirl and report back to them and in the comments how it works.

(Comments are closed)

Comments

  1. By Anonymous Coward (2a01:198:25d:0:2c0:9fff:fe1a:6a01) on

    I remember other live CDs (from the GNU/Linux world though) getting
    in trouble with the FSF and others, or even shutting down due to it,
    because the people insisted you have to add the sources for all the
    packages installed to the CD as well.

    Comments

    1. By Anonymous Coward (122.49.135.14) on

      Even if GPL source based binaries existed on the CD, that is utterly ridiculous.

    2. By Anonymous Coward (2001:5c0:955b:0:213:d3ff:fe94:6dad) on

      > I remember other live CDs (from the GNU/Linux world though) getting
      > in trouble with the FSF and others, or even shutting down due to it,
      > because the people insisted you have to add the sources for all the
      > packages installed to the CD as well.

      Wasn't a liveCD with NVIDIA's blob that has been shutdowned ?
      Because GPLv2 only require that you give a way that permit YOUR consumer get the source.
      It can be a ftp, a cdrom, a dvdrom, a floppy, etc
      And you can made them pay for it :)

  2. By David T. Harris (KnightBlader) on http://cs.ucf.edu/~da465415

    Why would they choose not to include a compiler?
    One of OpenBSD's greatest strengths (in my opinion)
    is the development environment.

    Taking the compiler out of the picture totally leaves
    aspiring developers out of the picture and totally
    neglects those people who would want to see what development
    is like on OpenBSD.


    P.S. There are livecd's for OpenBSD

    Comments

    1. By Adam Patterson (71.240.175.185) adam@fakeempire.com on

      > Why would they choose not to include a compiler?
      > One of OpenBSD's greatest strengths (in my opinion)
      > is the development environment.

      Probably just because its a live cd. its test environment, not a development environment. It saves space. Who's gonna write code and compile it on a system that reverts back after a reboot.

      /2c

      Comments

      1. By Thomas Keusch (78.94.171.131) on http:://www.gedankenverbrechen.org/

        > > Why would they choose not to include a compiler?
        > > One of OpenBSD's greatest strengths (in my opinion)
        > > is the development environment.
        >
        > Probably just because its a live cd. its test environment, not a development environment. It saves space. Who's gonna write code and compile it on a system that reverts back after a reboot.
        >
        > /2c

        In my experience it's often needed nonetheless, e.g. when you use the live cd as a generic system to boot but need some special tool which doesn't come with it, for example something like dd_rescue when you need to rescue the contents of a dying disk.

        Granted, there often are special purpose live cds, but at least I don't carry them around most of the time. Having no compiler leaves you with only a small part of the flexibility a live cd system offers.

        My 2 cents.

        Comments

        1. By Anonymous Coward (122.49.135.14) on

          If you're adding tools that need to be built, you could add the compXX.tgz tarball yourself. Or build your own live CD.

    2. By Stephan A. Rickauer (130.60.5.218) on http://bsdanywhere.org

      > Why would they choose not to include a compiler?
      > One of OpenBSD's greatest strengths (in my opinion)
      > is the development environment.

      It's just not enough space available. Including the compiler means to leave lot's of packages out. Since BSDanywhere aims to be a general purpose live system, we will always have to make a compromise here.

      Stephan

      Comments

      1. By Anonymous Coward (83.250.202.201) on

        > > Why would they choose not to include a compiler?
        > > One of OpenBSD's greatest strengths (in my opinion)
        > > is the development environment.
        >
        > It's just not enough space available. Including the compiler means to leave lot's of packages out. Since BSDanywhere aims to be a general purpose live system, we will always have to make a compromise here.
        >
        > Stephan

        Use a DVD?

      2. By Anonymous Coward (132.170.51.59) on

        > > Why would they choose not to include a compiler?
        > > One of OpenBSD's greatest strengths (in my opinion)
        > > is the development environment.
        >
        > It's just not enough space available. Including the compiler means to leave lot's of packages out. Since BSDanywhere aims to be a general purpose live system, we will always have to make a compromise here.
        >
        > Stephan

        I'm not certain how you're actually putting your livecd together and what not, but Knoppix (the first livecd that's been around for years now) has always (to the best of my knowledge) had gcc on it, as well as OpenOffice, a web browser, terminal emulators, a big window manager (KDE), etc...

        Hence are you using some different technology other than what Knoppix used to create your livecd? If so, then why? I know that a lot of people are of the attitude (you don't like it, then leave), but this is a valid question (many of them probably are valid questions and are not meant to be antagonistic) and I'm curious as to the reason.

        Comments

        1. By René (91.42.56.84) on

          > Hence are you using some different technology other than what Knoppix used to create your livecd? If so, then why?

          Yes, we are using a different technology, because Knoppix is Linux and not OpenBSD. Knoppix has a special compressed filesystem. The kernel needs a driver for this filesystem. BSDanywhere uses a unmodified OpenBSD kernel. It is possible to test hardware compatibility for OpenBSD with BSDanywhere. We can only use filesystems that are included in OpenBSDs kernel. For a Live-CD this is only the MFS-filesystem (and the CD-filesystem of course).

  3. By Anonymous Coward (83.226.152.62) on

    There are two other OpenBSD live cd projects:

    http://g.paderni.free.fr/olivebsd/ (old)
    and
    http://openbsd.maruweb.de/download_en.shtml (no X)

    Comments

    1. By Rene (91.42.56.84) on

      > http://openbsd.maruweb.de/download_en.shtml (no X)

      There is already a version of this Live-CD with X (and Firefox):
      http://openbsd.maruweb.de/marbsd-x_en.shtml

      I'm the Developer of this version and the Co-Developer of BSDanywhere.

  4. By Stefan (80.129.233.84) stefan(at)wollny.de on

    Hey,

    there are several more LiveCDs out there. My fav is at
    http://www.jggimi.homeip.net/livecd/downloads.html
    because he provides 4.3-ISOs for i386 AND AMD64 AND takes care of several desktops. There are big DVDs with KDE and Gnome as well as CDs.

    Pretending that there are no OpenBSD-LiveCDs out there is not fair on jggimi's efforts!

    Nevertheless: If the folks at BSDAnywhere step up to support OpenBSD's popularity I will cheer up loud!

    Stefan

    Comments

    1. By Stephan A. Rickauer (130.60.5.218) on http://bsdanywhere.org

      > there are several more LiveCDs out there. My fav is at
      > http://www.jggimi.homeip.net/livecd/downloads.html
      > because he provides 4.3-ISOs for i386 AND AMD64 AND takes care of several desktops. There are big DVDs with KDE and Gnome as well as CDs.

      We are also planning to release an amd64 flavour as soon as our build environment for amd64 is set up. As often, the BSDanywhere project grew out of a personal need, so we cover our needs first. Sorry. ;)

      Stephan

      Comments

      1. By Anonymous Coward (83.250.202.201) on

        > > there are several more LiveCDs out there. My fav is at
        > > http://www.jggimi.homeip.net/livecd/downloads.html
        > > because he provides 4.3-ISOs for i386 AND AMD64 AND takes care of several desktops. There are big DVDs with KDE and Gnome as well as CDs.
        >
        > We are also planning to release an amd64 flavour as soon as our build environment for amd64 is set up. As often, the BSDanywhere project grew out of a personal need, so we cover our needs first. Sorry. ;)
        >
        > Stephan

        Could you may publish how you created this CD?

        Comments

        1. By Stephan A. Rickauer (130.60.5.218) on http://bsdanywhere.org

          > > > there are several more LiveCDs out there. My fav is at
          > > > http://www.jggimi.homeip.net/livecd/downloads.html
          > > > because he provides 4.3-ISOs for i386 AND AMD64 AND takes care of several desktops. There are big DVDs with KDE and Gnome as well as CDs.
          > >
          > > We are also planning to release an amd64 flavour as soon as our build environment for amd64 is set up. As often, the BSDanywhere project grew out of a personal need, so we cover our needs first. Sorry. ;)
          > >
          > > Stephan
          >
          > Could you may publish how you created this CD?

          We will publish the path to our svn repository very soon.

          Stephan

          Comments

          1. By Anonymous Coward (85.130.30.230) on

            > > > > there are several more LiveCDs out there. My fav is at
            > > > > http://www.jggimi.homeip.net/livecd/downloads.html
            > > > > because he provides 4.3-ISOs for i386 AND AMD64 AND takes care of several desktops. There are big DVDs with KDE and Gnome as well as CDs.
            > > >
            > > > We are also planning to release an amd64 flavour as soon as our build environment for amd64 is set up. As often, the BSDanywhere project grew out of a personal need, so we cover our needs first. Sorry. ;)
            > > >
            > > > Stephan
            > >
            > > Could you may publish how you created this CD?
            >
            > We will publish the path to our svn repository very soon.
            >
            > Stephan

            How about making packages for those interested in gcc and other stuffs ;-) ?
            That will make the public more happy. Maybe a DVD iso ?

            Comments

            1. By Adam Patterson (71.240.175.185) adam@fakeempire.com on

              > How about making packages for those interested in gcc and other stuffs ;-) ?
              > That will make the public more happy. Maybe a DVD iso ?

              compXX.tgz already exists.

    2. By Anonymous Coward (josh) on

      >...My fav is at
      > http://www.jggimi.homeip.net/livecd/downloads.html
      > because he provides 4.3-ISOs for i386 AND AMD64 AND takes care of several desktops. There are big DVDs with KDE and Gnome as well as CDs.

      Thanks, Stefan.

      Stephan and I have traded e-mails. He wasn't aware of my efforts, as I'd only announced them on advocacy@ and not here on Undeadly or on misc@.

      I've given his ISO a try. There are a few operational differences between our ISOs, of course. I have more variants available for download, he has the nicer website. :)

      Our approaches are slightly different, but our goals are the same: familiarization for newbies, and hardware platform testing for the rest of us.

      > Pretending that there are no OpenBSD-LiveCDs out there is not fair on jggimi's efforts!

      My FAQ lists a number of other OpenBSD LiveCDs, I have yet to add BSDAnywhere only because of lack of time these last few weeks. I will add it, along with the OpenBSD-based LiveCD which is special-use for librarians, whose name I can not recall (nor google for) at this moment.

      Comments

      1. By Anonymous Tasmanian (131.217.6.9) on

        > [...]the OpenBSD-based LiveCD which is special-use for librarians, whose name I can not recall (nor google for) at this moment.

        That's probably LOCKSS.

        Comments

        1. By Josh Grosse (josh) on

          > > [...]the OpenBSD-based LiveCD which is special-use for librarians, whose name I can not recall (nor google for) at this moment.
          >
          > That's probably LOCKSS.

          That's it! Thanks.

  5. By viking (viking) andy.elvey@paradise.net.nz on

    Good stuff! Many thanks to the BSDAnywhere devs for this.

  6. By Leonardo Vaz (189.6.221.97) on

    Great idea. What about USB-Stick images, or a short documentation about how install/use it from the provided iso images? IMHO LiveCDs and Bootable USB-Sticks are very useful, mainly when you're trying to see the behavior of determinate hardware works with OpenBSD, getting a dmesg without installing the system and obviously as a quick recovery tool.

    Comments

    1. By Stephan A. Rickauer (130.60.5.218) on http://bsdanywhere.org

      » Great idea. What about USB-Stick images, or a short documentation about how install/use it from the provided iso images? IMHO LiveCDs and Bootable USB-Sticks are very useful, mainly when you're trying to see the behavior of determinate hardware works with OpenBSD, getting a dmesg without installing the system and obviously as a quick recovery tool.

      BSDanywhere is a very new project. We have lots of ideas and USB images are definitely among them. However, as always, it'll take time and resources. Everyone who'd like to contribute is invited to do so!

      Check out our svn tree.

      Stephan

    2. By Anonymous Coward (2a01:198:25d:0:2c0:9fff:fe1a:6a01) on

      > Great idea. What about USB-Stick images

      FWIW, MirBSD ISOs (no matter if live or not) do work when
      dd(1)d onto a USB stick. So there's no need for an extra
      image.

    3. By Fábio Olivé (201.25.242.45) on

      > Great idea. What about USB-Stick images, ...

      USB sticks/pendrives present themselves as SCSI disks, so you can just boot the installation from your purchased CD set and install to the USB disk. Works like a charm, and then you can tweak it into a more LiveCD-like experience later (such as mounting an MFS /tmp, /var, etc).

      I recently bought an 8GB Kingston pendrive, loaded GAG as the MBR, and installed a 2GB OpenBSD partition, a 2GB Linux partition and a 4GB FreeDOS (hey, had to boot something on FAT32!) partition that serves as the real "pendrive" aspect of it (meaning: mounts anywhere, and I still get the nostalgia of booting into DOS from time to time).

      Of course, you have to be careful when your sd0 suddenly gets detected as sd1 or so because of the other disks on the box you are booting on, but nothing boot -a can't solve.

      R$0,02 :)

  7. By Brynet (Brynet) on

    What is wrong with your people? distributions of OpenBSD now? *sigh*

    There is *1* OpenBSD, enough with the Linux-isms.

    Comments

    1. By Anonymous Coward (74.13.40.76) on

      > What is wrong with your people? distributions of OpenBSD now? *sigh*
      >
      > There is *1* OpenBSD, enough with the Linux-isms.

      Well hell, maybe one day one of the Linuxism you seem to dislike will be good enough to, "come into the fold," as it were. OpenBSDLive could be a good way to show the Linux users out there just how similar OpenBSD can be when on the desktop, since it's just X, nothing special about Linux, as well as show the differences under the hood. These kind of things can be good for public relations, the image of OpenBSD, if done correctly.

    2. By René (91.42.56.84) on

      > What is wrong with your people? distributions of OpenBSD now? *sigh*
      >
      > There is *1* OpenBSD, enough with the Linux-isms.

      BSDanyware is not a distribution of OpenBSD. BSDanywhere *is* OpenBSD, only packaged for a a Live-CD. The Base-System is unmodfied.

  9. By ahb (88.65.184.91) on

    For everybody who wants to build their own:

    http://www.openbsd-wiki.org/index.php?title=LiveCD

    Once you have put most of this stuff into a shell script it is _very_ easy/fast to build new ones (e.g. to test the newest snapshot on other peoples machines)

  10. By Dean (24.8.70.179) on

    I downloaded and burned the iso, and lo! it booted right up on my Dell desktop at work (which I can't remember the model now). First time I have used enlightenment, and everything just worked. I killed off the tor and proxy, since I wasn't interested those.

    But when I had time I tried it on my Lenovo T61 (dual boots WinXP and OpenBSD recent snapshot). The iwn firmware blob isn't there on the iso, so I added it through pkg_add, no problem, as the ethernet interface came right up. But is it now a Catch-22? Driver gets installed into memory, but can't get activated unless there is a reboot which clears memory....

    I applaud the effort, and will find this useful, and would love to have a BackTrack3 that was build on OpenBSD, but small steps are just fine.

  11. By NetBSD (195.241.235.68) on http://iso.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/iso/livecd/netbsd-live-2007-README-en.html

    http://iso.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/iso/livecd/netbsd-live-2007-README-en.html

    The close OpenBSD relative NetBSD LiveCD runs very good, and is resource friendlier and better tuned, than most Linux LiveCD distros to run as quick responsive virtual appliance, in vmplayer or vmworkstation
    (500Mhz to 1000 Mhz, <1G RAM, Pentium 2 or Pentium 3 system)


    To make a Linux LiveCD more responsive lower the vm.swappiness from default 60 to 1 with sysctl.
    http://rudd-o.com/archives/2007/10/02/tales-from-responsivenessland-why-linux-feels-slow-and-how-to-fix-that/2/

  12. By Edward (99.228.81.6) on

    Beta 2 of OpenBSD-based BSDAnywhere Live CD released:

    http://bsdanywhere.org/development

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