Free boots software for linux

boot-dvd project contains a couple of Perl-scripts that can be used to create a custom DVD-ISO image (to be burned), that contains user selected Linux boot/live-CD images (only ISOLINUX boot loader supported) in a handy GRUB menu.
Enhancements:
- Many updates and bugfixes were made.

U-Boot is a Universal Bootloader project that provides firmware with full source code under GPL.
Many CPU architectures are supported: PowerPC(MPC5xx, MPC8xx, MPC82xx, MPC7xx, MPC74xx, 4xx), ARM(ARM7, ARM9, StrongARM, Xscale), MIPS(4Kc,5Kc), x86.
Enhancements:
Support for new CPUs:
- AMCC 440SP
- ARM 946E
- NetSilicon NS7520
Support for new boards:
- AMCC Luan 440SP
- AMD Pb1x00
- AP1000
- Armadillo HT1070
- Barco SCN
- Barco SVC
- Cogent csb637
- esd CMS700
- esd CPCI2DP
- esd cpci5200
- esd pf5200
- IFM o2dnt
- KwikByte KB920x
- MP2USB
- Sandburst Karef
- Sandburst Metrobox
- Silicon Turnkey eXpress XTc
- TQ Components TQM834x
- TQ Components TQM8541
- TQ Components TQM8555
- Vibren PXA255 IDP
- Support for GCC-4.x
- Support for multiple PHYs
- Support for passing Open Firmware flat trees to the Linux kernel
- Generic 4xx_enet.c driver for all 4xx CPUs
- Uniform support for all AMCC eval boards
- Xilinx Spartan3 family FPGA support
- Major cleanup ARM Integrator boards
- Changed all $(...) variable references into ${...}

Booting Ubuntu To RAM is an article aims to document the process of creating a customized Ubuntu that loads an image from the hard disk to RAM, then boots an entire Ubuntu session out of RAM. It is intended for intermediate to advanced Ubuntu users who are familiar with the shell, and may have limited experience customizing the livecd (LiveCDCustomization) and shell scripting. We will customize a LiveCD and copy it to the hard drive, and make a few modifications to bootup scripts so that it copies to RAM via our good friend tmpfs.
WARNING: The author asserts that this procedure works for him, but cannot guarantee that this procedure works for anyone else. Although this procedure is meant to be 100% safe, it is feasible that there may be mistakes, or a chance of misunderstanding the instructions in a manner that causes loss of data. Please make a backup and do not attempt on mission critical systems. Read through this article thoroughly, and do not attempt if you do not comprehend or feel comfortable about any of the instructions!
CAUTION: I hope this is intuitively obvious, but Ill humor you and state it bluntly: Changes you make under the live session are NOT saved and WILL BE LOST when you reboot or shut down. Dont save anything important to the "home directory" and expect it to still be around! If you want to save data permanently, mount a permanent medium (such as your hard drive), plug in a thumbdrive, or use some network functionality built into Ubuntu to save your data to a non-volatile destination.
There are many cases where one would like to boot Ubuntu to RAM:
- Performance: The desktop performance is dramatically improved. A 400MB squashed filesystem in RAM, that holds 1200MB of data, is read back on a 1.6GHz Core Duo in about 3 seconds, including decompression time.
- Power, Noise, Durability: Although modern hard disks dont use much power compared to other system components, this may still be important for some. In laptops, hard disks are often the noisiest components, so this setup can reduce system noise. With the hard disk spun down, a laptop can potentially withstand greater shocks without damage.
- Abrupt poweroff: Since the hard disk is only momentarily used in read-only mode during boot, then never touched again, there are few or no negative consequences of an abrupt poweroff. If a system is used where power is inconsistent, or the system is regularly used in a context where fast shutoffs are required, this is very handy.
- Privacy: Anything you do in this session are lost when you reboot or power off. This is great for kiosks or other systems where permanent modification are not desired. (Note that by default the livecd user has full sudo access, so potentially a malicious user can still make permanent changes by mounting the hard drive and following this HOWTO)

grub-choose-default is a simple but handy GUI to set the grub default for the next boot.

Control Grub Default through a GUI

Do you have a dual boot system? Isnt it annoying when you want to reboot from Linux into Windows or vice-versa, and you have to wait for the machine to shut down, BIOS to initialize just so that you can now select the OS that you want to boot into?

grub-choose-default gives you a GUI that you can use to easily select the next default for grub and you can go and grab a snack while your computer reboots without having to wait for anything.

Its a very simple program that just reads your grub menu entries and then lets you click on the one you want to be the next default.

How It Works

In grubs menu.lst file you need to specify default saved, so that grub consults the file default in the grub directory to see which entry it should boot. That file is then modified by grub-choose-default

Cross Platform

grub-choose-default is written in Python (which is required to be installed at the moment) and works under Linux and Windows.

Under Linux it reads /boot/grub/menu.lst and writes your choice to /boot/grub/default

Then grub-choose-default searches all your drives for a grub/menu.lst or a boot/grub/menu.lst. There currently is no way to specify manually where menu.lst resides, please let me know if this is needed.

BUM - Boot-Up Manager is a Perl-Gtk2 application to handle runlevels configuration of any debian derivative system.

With this program the user will easily start and stop boot-up scripts, without the necessity to handle thru complex links and permissions.

Boot-Up Manager has been tested on an Ubuntu 05.04 release, but as it only relies on Perl-Gtk2 libraries, it can be run on any Debian-like system.

slakbootIBS (Slackware Interactive Boot Scripts) is an enhanced set of replacement boot scripts for the Slackware Linux distribution.

Slackware Interactive Boot Scripts includes a set of control and dispatch tools for configuring and booting with colorized interactive scripts. The new boot process allows the operator to select or skip start-up components in realtime.

It facilitates debugging of startup problems and allows operators to maintain a common baseline to support several local configurations or multiple servers with a single set of scripts.

APODIO project is a Mandriva-based specialist live CD designed for musicians and multimedia enthusiasts.

The new version 4.2.2 is considered a test release; it contains a large collection of software for audio, video and graphics manipulation.

The APODIO live CD boots into French by default, but English and a number of other languages are also supported.

The default window manager is the light-weight PWM, with OroboROX provided as an alternative.

The APODIO project was started in 2003 by the APO33 association It has two objectives : First : to create a live CD for PC, a complete audio station under GNU/Linux that could quickly be installed on the hard disk, or work straight away as a CD, with a Ram of at least 320 Mo, and practical and simple administration tools.

The 3.0.9 April 2003 APODIO version of the live CD immediately recognizes and adjusts itself to your equipment, your sound and graphic display adapters and your eventual hard disk partitions. It offers various interfaces, such as Gnome, Rox, Fluxbox... and a choice of software to work on sound. It is based on the GNU/Linux Mandrake 10.0 distribution and on the mklicecd group scripts for the creation of the live CD or of the hard disk.

The second objective is to give some sort of permanence to part of our work, while adhering to the principles of GNU/GPL. Unlike most other distributions that tend to drift too far away from the Linux Debian/RedHat/Mandrake communities, we wished to remain close to Mandriva, to allow users to reclaim the tools for themselves.

From the start, APODIO was not meant to become a finished or final product, but rather, a toolbox, more adapted to the common user than to the developer ; more practical than technical. Since we follow closely the Mandriva platform, we can concentrate more on what we find interesting in the first place, while making sure that our work will keep up with changes in hardware and software.

The complete remade July 2005 APODIO-4 version utilizes less RAM than the V3 ; it is based on - and can be synchronised with – Mandriva 2006 (cooker). Some video processing software has been added and the PureData base has been considerably increased.

We now have a practical base in the evolution of the live CD APODIO on Mandriva and new projects are in progress : the Poulpe (Octopus), a live CD that can be the basis for a sound and plastic installation, in various places linked by web-radio flows. Ref. the site : (http://www.apo33.org/poulpe) The Ubik, the live CD for a standby or a disabled situation, becomes a sound and video sculpture, connected to any other Ubik. It can be responsive to a network or to a keyboard/mouse set. Each user can either modify the CD base or the PureData patches found in a known directory in a disc, usb, fp... and thus personify his/her Ubik.

AFROS Live CD is a bootable CD with a small collection of GNU/Linux software, ARAnyM and the AFROS. AFROS Live CD boots and runs completely from CD, does not write anything to the harddrive and so is safe to try out. It is meant as a demo version of ARAnyM/AFROS. It is not the dreamed Installation CD of ARAnyM yet (although it could be modified to work so).

The underlying Linux kernel and related software provide the CD autoboot, automatic hardware detection, and support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and USB devices and other peripherals. ARAnyM plus AFROS provide our familiar and favourite TOS/FreeMiNT/GEM operating environment. Its all integrated seamlessly and after PowerOn boots straight to the Teradesk (GEM desktop).

AFROS Live CD is distributed in the form of a CD ISO image which is the usual way of distributing CDs electronically. The ISO image file can be burnt on a CD-R/RW and so youll get an exact copy of the AFROS Live CD I created on my machine.

AFROS Live CD configuration:

fVDI resolution and/or color depth change: open up the C:FVDI.SYS (double click it and select Edit), locate the "01r aranym.sys mode 800x600x16@72" line, comment it out and uncomment one of the other prepared lines (or just make up your own). Then reboot the AFROS.

The ARAnyM Config GUI is unfinished yet so changes to ARAnyM config must be done outside of ARAnyM in the .aranym/config file. When you quit ARAnyM you should be able to edit the file with one of the supplied GNU/Linux editors (in the future this shouldnt be necessary as I am working on the Config GUI as you read this).

DSL site (AFROS Live CD is based on the DSL) might give you some hints about preserving the changes youve made to the AFROS disk image or ARAnyM configuration (you might also want to read File Restoration -> HowTo in the X11 desktop). Note that this is untested by me and might be dangerous. Try it on your own risk only.