interesting live CDs? [solved]

[papaschtroumpf]

I'm interested in playing with other distros "just for fun" but I don't want to dual boot either of my other machines and my laptop HD is only 5G, so that leaves live CDs for now.

 

Are there interesting LiveCDs out there besides knoppix?

 

It seems like the 2 trendy new distros right now are Mepis and Ubuntu.

 

The Mepis site talks about a liveCD but I'm not sure if it's a standalone liveCD (a la knoppix) or if it's really meant to be used as an install CD.

Can the Mepis LiveCD be downloaded from anywhere?

 

 

I'm downloading the UBuntu "Warty" LiveCD over bitttorrent as I post this.

 

 

 

Anything else I'm missing that might be interesting? Is there a "gamer's" live CD out there? (I know there was a UT2003 Gentoo livecd at one time but it only worked on NVIDIA GPUs). I've got ATI at work and Intel on the laptop. (these are the only 2 places where I'd want to use a gaming livecd).

 

 

If some other distro looks really good I may play with it under VMWare to see if I want to install it. I eventually want to go linux on my laptop (when I buy a new one), so this is kind of a selection process for laptop use.

[spinynorman]

Is there a "gamer's" live CD out there?

PCLinuxOnline recently had an item on Games Knoppix. :mellow:

[spinynorman]

... and there's a full list of Live CDs here. B)

[papaschtroumpf]

... and there's a full list of Live CDs here.  B)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Yikes! that'll do :D

[Guest Hobbletoe]

Is there a "gamer's" live CD out there?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I have a Morphix LiveCD that is a "gamer's" CD ... even says so.

 

Morphix

 

They actually have three live CDs. One for Gnome, one for KDE, and the other for gamers (runs under IceWM).

 

Hobbletoe Clubfoot

Edited January 13, 2005 by Hobbletoe

[papaschtroumpf]

The morphix site appears to be down at the moment but I'll check it out.

 

I also downloaded the gamers version of knoppix (not tried it yet though). Actually has demos of a couple cool games from Garage Games and others, in addition to the usual linux fare.

 

Looks like the "warty" Ubuntu liveCD is based on the morphix CD (says "welcome to the morphix liveCD" at boot :P ). I understand the nexst liveCD ("hoary") should be much more Ubuntu-ish.

 

Speaking of Ubuntu, I can't seem to make it run at a decent resolution (namely 1024x768) on my Dell laptop. the resolution isso small that most windows don't fit in the screen. I tried adding screen=1024x768 to the boot command line, but to no avail. The Xconfig file and the bootup messages seem to indicate that 1024x768 is a valid recognized mode, but I can't figure out how to switch. The built-in Gnome desktop resolution applet only gives me the option of 640x480 @ 73Hz.

 

I tried the ProMepis CD but it gets lots of IOerrors on hdc (the CD-ROM drive), so I'm guessing I have a bad CD and will reburn it (since the downlaoded ISO md5sum is correct).

 

 

Edit: morphix site now back up. downloadding the "gamer" CD, I think I'll try the light GUI one too.

 

 

 

Another question: which one is a good general purpose "recovery" liveCD. Ideally provides tools for both recover of Win and Linux system (support for all the associated filesystems), USB key (to save off data) and ideally virus checking with internet update ofthe signatures right from the CD.

Edited January 13, 2005 by papaschtroumpf

[papaschtroumpf]

I've been using the Mepix LiveCD for a few days in my windows laptop and I like it, I think it's a little slicker than knoppix which was my "traveling linux" of choice.

 

Even detected and automatically configured my Cisco wireless card. With knoppix I have to do "ifconfig ath0 up ; pump -i ath0" before I can use it (open system obviously, I'm on the road and using hotel provided wireless access).

 

Haven't gotten a chance to try the gaming liveCDs yet, maybe later during my conference