What is a good live-cd distribution that could be used as the base for my linux program?

Question

There is an upcoming programming challenge (forensics challenge) that asks the entrants to write a program that runs on a bootable cd that helps format attached media to that computer.

I'm considering submitting an entry and I'd like to utilize as much existing open-source software as possible. In fact, I think the programming I'll be doing for this will be mostly writing a GUI wrapper around a couple open source linux utilities.

For the first part, I want to get the bootable CD working and I'm looking to use an existing linux live-cd disrtrobution. What is a minimal live-cd distribution that would be a good candidate for this usecase?

Considerations:

• Minimal
• Small memory footprint
• Fast boot times

Answer 1

Personally I favor slax. It comes as a good package as it is and is pretty slim for its content.

http://www.slax.org/

Answer 2

If you like Ubuntu, you can create your own custom LiveCD. Many other distributions offer this as well. I know that Gentoo also supports creating a custom Live distro.

Answer 3

Take a look at SUSE studio. It's basically a web-based engine that lets you customize your own distro or LiveCD based on SUSE.

Answer 4

Another option is rBuilder: http://www.rpath.com/corp/

Answer 5

A small linux distribution then you don't get much smaller than damn small linux.

Not the best distro about but from your description I don't think you intend to use this for anything other than your challenge. Meets your 3 requirements easily.