rBuilder:Demo CD

From rPath Wiki

The Demo CD/DVD (Live CD/DVD) image build type in rBuilder creates a software appliance that can be run directly from bootable media (such as a CD or DVD) without requiring installation on a local hard disk. Another term for this is LiveDistro.

Users should understand that any changes made to the system are temporary because the RAM is volatile and the media is not considered writable. Such changes, then, will be lost unless saved to permanent storage.

The Demo CD/DVD build type requires the system have a CD or DVD drive, at least 512 MB of RAM, and other operating system requirements for rPath Linux.

Your selection for the size and media type in the Advanced Options determines whether this is a CD or DVD.

The following options can be customized in the Advanced Options section when creating a build of this build type.

Custom Conary installLabelPath setting

Use this to specify the locations where your software appliance will retrieve software updates, such as a local Conary repository dedicated to the development of your software appliance. (If you do not choose this option, the install label paths are set to locations at rpath.org.)

Custom output filename prefix

Use this to specify a custom prefix for filenames output from the build, overriding the default name-version-architecture prefix.

Automatically install required dependencies during updates

Use this if you want the appliance to automatically install additional software on which updates may depend.

Compress filesystem

Use this to make a Demo CD/DVD which takes up less space on the media. This employs zisofs technology to compress the operating system distribution on the CD or DVD.

Enable UnionFS for entire filesystem

Use this to make the operating system a single writable filesystem from a single mount point instead of a combination of read-only and writable mount points typical to a LiveDistro system. The UnionFS kernel modul is required to use this option and must be applied in addition to other software used to create the appliance prior to building the binary appliance group with rMake. Note the following advantages and drawbacks of using UnionFS prior to using this feature:

Advantage: less RAM is used

Advantage: the single mount point for the entire filesystem eliminates concern that the appliance will attempt to write to read-only mount points

Drawback: the developer must incorporate the UnionFS kernel module in this operating system distribution, even if it is not included for other distributions of the same appliance

Drawback: the appliance will have general behavior differences compared to other distributions of the same appliance, possibly resulting in inaccurate tests or demonstrations of the appliance