[ale] Ubuntu LiveCD over nfsroot

[Christopher Fowler]

On Tue, 2008-04-15 at 06:36 -0400, ale-request at ale.org wrote:
> If you're doing this for installations, you can PXE boot the
> text-based 
> installer [0]. It's slower to install from than the live cd, but it's 
> simple to set up and you  avoid needing to run software updates 
> afterwards. I've been using this, apt-cacher, and preseeding for mass 
> "fire and forget" installations on disparate hardware.
> 
> I agree that guides in the community-maintained Ubuntu wiki can be 
> hit-or-miss; it's in real need of a mass purge and reorganization.
> 
> [0] 
> http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/gutsy/main/installer-i386/current/images/netboot/386/netboot.tar.gz
> 
> -Brian

No,  I'm not doing it for installs but installs would be a side benefit.
I could boot a PC and via PXE load the live CD

The idea is that my daughter is getting older (5) and playing on Webkinz
and I want to give her a computer that it has almost no maintenance, I
control, and can easily be fixed.

I had an idea of creating a "sandbox" system where at boot her home
directory will be created from a file.  This way she can not mess up
preferences.  On her Mac she was always bringing up the wrong window by
accidentally clicking on the wrong thing.  I have installed a full PC
for her but I have a thin client device I want to use diskless.  I just
need to upgrade its memory to about 512m.  

I'm thinking the best thing to do for her and diskless is to install
into a vmplayer and copy the system to the nfsroot.  I can then setup
PXE.  Out of curiosity I would still like to get the LiveCD working.

Chris