How to create a LIVE CD for an Application

Question

There are Live CDs that boot up an OS and allow you to use it without installation.

I was wondering if there is an easy way to customize a Live CD so that it only loads what is necessary to run one application, and runs that application.

Answer 1

With Ubuntu I used the Ubuntu Customization Kit to customize an Ubuntu Live CD that loaded the stuff I needed by default in my computer.

Answer 2

For some values of "easy way" yes, but in most cases no.

If the required OS is Windows, you'll find a lot of information if you check out BartPE. You'll have licensing problems if you don't understand that you can't distribute windows OS, even on a livecd, without MS licenses for each copy.

Linux livecds are a little more complex to create, but there are many people making the process easier, http://www.linux-live.org/ is a great resource to get started.

-Adam

Answer 3

That depends what you mean by "easy way". If you're comfortable installing and administering an OS to be secure and stable, you shouldn't have much trouble creating a LiveCD for that OS with the software you need installed and auto-running. Much more detail depends very much on the OS and type of application you're trying to run.