Running Linux from a live cd

Is it possible to do this with any linux distro? I am interested in trying Ubuntu or Mint. Is is safe to do so, no damage to my current OS? And where is the best place to download these two distros? I want to give it a try and learn about it. Thanks.

 

It's possible for a number of distros, but not all. Both Ubuntu and Mint let you run as a LiveCD. This just loads into RAM and runs off the CD, it doesn't touch your hard disk, unless you ask it to. The best place to get them is directly from their respective websites: Mint or Ubuntu. You can also download each of them legally via bittorrent.

 

Thanks for the reply. So there isn't a special version to run on live cd, I can just run it from the cd and install it if I like it? I'm not really up on bittorrent, is that info on their websites, or could you provide a link or more information?

 

There used to be different live CD versions but now they pretty much unified the installer CD with the live CD, and since Mint is Ubuntu-derived they are both that way. The torrents can be found on their websites: Ubuntu or Mint

 

Thanks for your help. Out of curiosity, what are you running?

 

I use Debian, have for a very long time now. Ubuntu is based on Debian, and Mint is based on Ubuntu, so it's all connected. There are Live CDs for Debian here if you want to try it out.

 

I am downloading the main version. I got a bit confused at the torrent link. I really don't understand the torrent sites.

Also, how do I verify the download with md5sum? I am using XP, and I am downloading and saving Mint in My Documents. How and to where do I download md5sum so I can can make the comparison to see if it is correct? Sorry for so many questions.

 

You need a utility that can run md5 checksums, there are a number of programs. I use Jsummer on windows, but there are other tools.

 

If I download Jsummer, what do I have to do to check it?

 

Just take that long string of characters in the md5 from their site and make sure it matches the output from Jsummer checking the .iso image that you downloaded.

Edit: More specifically just take the md5 file and go to file->open check file and then go to file->add file and select the .iso

 

I think I understand that part, but what exactly do I have to do to have Jsummer check the iso image? I have already downloaded Mint, now I am going to follow your link and download Jsummer.

 

Which version should I download? There are several choices. I am running XP.

 

Get the native one that's the .msi. If the .md5 is in the same directory as the .iso you can just go to file->open check file and select the .md5

 

I have installed Jsummer. The iso is in my documents, what do I do?

 

If you downloaded the .md5, put it in my documents and go to file->open check file

Otherwise go to file->add file, select the .iso and compare the output to the md5 hash

 

I checked it and it matches, so I am burning the cd now. I had a bit of a problem selecting the iso, I still don't know what I was doing wrong, but I think I had to do it the second way you listed. It wouldn't work using check file, I got an error message of some kind. I'll have to spend some time later and learn about this part so I understand it. I have no idea what an md5 is or what or why I had to do it to compare the numbers. I'm dumb, LOL.

I am assuming it is safe to run Mint off the cd without installing it yet. I won't screw up my Windows OS in any way? Thank you very much for your help. I am sorry I have so many questions, and I'm sure I'll have more once I try this out for a while and decide whether to intall it or not. Any more advice or tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

Yeah, I think the Mint CD is just like Ubuntu, which is a Live CD with the option to install. I haven't tried it so I could be wrong, but there is no mint Live CD I could find.

 

It's burned, I'm going to give it a whirl. If I don't post again, that means I destroyed my pc.....fingers crossed......I'll let you know what happens. I can always steal my wifes laptop!

 

I gave it a quick try and it is horrible running it from the cd on my system. I couldn't do anything. Open Office freezes when opening, it took many minutes to get to the desktop and taskbar and couldn't do much of anything when there. It's late, time for bed. I'll try it again later. I knew it would be slow from the cd, but I was hoping to be able to try it out and see how it worked. I don't think I will be able to do that without installing it.

Again, I thank you for the help and I'll let you know what happens when I try it again. Is it normal for it to be so slow when running it from the cd?

 

Yeah, it'll be painfully slow if you try to load big apps like openoffice. It should run alright once it's actually loaded though. It's just that instead of your hard drive it's reading the CD-ROM for data that isn't in RAM, so that's an order of magnitude slower...

 

A program like Jsummer is used to check whether a downloaded file is complete; not corrupted.
Another usefull program to check a hash value is HashTab.
When you've installed it, it integrates with Windows Explorer.
You can simply right-click the file/ISO, check properties and then click on the Hash tab.
The program will automatically calculate the hash for that file.
Only if a file is complete, it can give a correct hash.

This hash value is offered along with the file like shown on this Mint 6 page.
When you've downloaded the ISO, you can use HashTab to calculate if the ISO is actually complete.
Copy the MD5 sum from the relevant Mint page, then right click on the ISO, check properties, check the Hash tab, let it calculate the hash, paste the MD5 sum from the Mint page and HashTab will either show that the calculated MD5 is similar to the one from the Mint page; the ISO is complete or it won't and then you know that the download is/was corrupted.
This way, you can be sure that the Linux OS you've downloaded, is complete.
Also, when you've burned the ISO to CD (always burn an OS at slow speed!), you can check whether the burn was succesfull by again checking the hash value.
Cheers.

 

Just as a side,
If you have a USB key with enough free space (and a computer that supports booting from USB) you can create a LiveUSB which should be noticably faster and responsive than a LiveCD.

 

Exactly what I was thinking. Try the Distro on USB route. The Live CDs are great for testing out the distro to see if most of your hardware is detected, to get a good idea of the look and feel of the Window manager and to play with a few small programs. But if you want to do more, then the USB route is better. Also with a Live CD, if your optical drive is old(i.e slow), it can be painful.

 

Thanks for the explanation. This is all new territory for me and I am trying to understand it. Can the md5 sum be used for other downloads too or just linux? I don't think I have ever seen and md5 for anything else.

 

I have to check if my computer will boot from usb. In another thread I was told that mine may not as it is about 5 1/2 years old. Another member here suggested plugging in a usb drive and see if it is recognized in the BIOS. I still have to give it a try.

 

Thanks for the reply. All of you have been most helpful. I want to find a flavor of linux that I like and give it a try. I may get a second hdd to install it on so that I pose no risk to my XP setup.

 

MD5 is an algorithm that can be used to process most any data, but it's commonly used for verifying large files like ISOs. It's not just for linux

 

How would one do this, say for Widnows 7? Where would you find the md5 for that, or XP Service Pack 3?

 

They have to be posted on the site that you download from, so unless they are obviously posted on the download pages, it's not possible. There are a couple of threads I found by searching the net for 'windows 7 md5' and there are a few checksums which seem to be the same. This isn't as good as a checksum from the publisher but it'll at least verify against other users.

 

The live cd takes over 12 minutes to get to a usable desktop, and then a long time to do anything else. It took even longer on my wife's laptop and she has 4GB of RAM. No way for me to get a fair idea of what it is all about.

 

I'm curious after reading on this forum for a while; has anyone had a good experience running from a live cd? I have read some posts from last year that suggest running Mint or Ubuntu from cd was a good, usuble experience. If so, why does it take 12-13 minutes for me to get to a usable desktop and then have it take forever to do anything. When I was using it this way, it made a 14.4 modem seem like lightning.

Now that I ran it on a flash drive, the difference is huge. It is ready to use in about 2 minutes from boot, and it actually works fast enough so it isn't annoying.

Is my cd experience normal, or is there something wrong somewhere? I used it 2 pc's and the result was the same.

 

Ubuntu doesn't take quite that long to boot for me from a live CD. I would guess it's about 6 to 8 minutes from boot up. The live CD will always take a bit longer to boot than when installed on the hard drive. It has more work to do from CD. If you intend to use it as a main OS it should be installed.

Puppy linux is a fast booting Linux distribution from live CD. It allows you to easily remaster the CD. I set it up with all my favorite open source system utilities, so it's an easy recovery environment for my computer. This is the only reason I would ever use a live CD, aside from simply test driving a distribution without commitment.

 

I want to try out Mint and probably Ubuntu before I intall it. The usb drive works quite well to get a feel for things. Unfortunately, my pc won't boot from usb, so when the opportunity presents itself, I have to steal my wife's laptop to explore Linux. I think I will probably end up buying anoher hdd and put Linux on it and keeping my present drive for XP. Or I guess I could always dual boot.

What do you like better about Ubuntu over Mint?

 

I think the Live CD for Ubuntu is pretty quick to boot. I use it pretty oftern.

 

It's been a while since I've tried Linux Mint, so it may have changed a bit since then. At the time, it was Ubuntu in pretty packaging. Their web site suggests it's grown a bit and has come more into its own. I'll probably try it out again.

Buying another hard drive, while not necessary, is a good plan. I have two hard drives myself with one used for Linux and the other Windows. Also it's nice because you can store an image of drive 1's important data on drive 2 and vise versa.

 

Live CD (Ubuntu) was much faster in my laptop with 2 GB RAM. I could get to the desktop in less than 5 minutes.

 

I'm going to give Ubuntu a try now. I may even try it on the flash drive like I did Mint. I am going to order a second hard drive so I can try a few of these out without worrying about messing up my XP.

 

A lot of this depends on CD drive speed. Laptop cd drives can be SLOOOOWWW.

 

This is a test post from the Ubuntu live cd. I am online now with the live cd. It works much better than the Mint cd did. I haven't been able to get my printer to print, but it is recognized. I'm not used to Fireox either, but wer're trying!

I am going to try youtube and see if video works on this.

 

The screensaver works, and the system went to sleep, but it would not come out of sleep. I had to pull the plug and then power up to remove the cd. The same thing happened with Mint running on a flash drive. I don't know if it would work fine if it was installed on the hdd or not. I had the same problem with Windows 7 when I had it installed too. I really don't understand what makes sleep/standby mode work. Is it my machine? Will I have the same problem with Linux even if I install it? This really frustrates me.

Have any of you tried sleep mode from the live cd? I am curious to learn about this. Also, no youtube videos. It said I needed to install a flash player and I didn't know if this would work from the cd or not, so I didn't bother to try. Any ideas? I don't know why I couldn't print either. These are the things that make me wonder what will happen with a full install. I would hope that it would be easy to get the basics working, printer, sound, video, sleep/standby, etc. Any help would be appreciated.

Also I wanted to add that Ubuntu ran much better for me from the cd than Mint did. Mint was unusable, while I actually got online with Ubuntu.

 

For Ubuntu (I don't know about Mint, it could be similar), you can hit Tab at the boot screen and add acpi=off to the boot parameters. Your laptop probably doesn't support ACPI, so coming back from resume wouldn't work in that case. Probably the same case with Windows 7 except I don't know if you can disable ACPI in Win7.

For the flash player, in Ubuntu, again I don't know about Mint, you can install the flashplugin-nonfree package:

Code:

sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree

 

I download the Mint KDE CE RC1 last night just to check it out. It's been a year now since I've had Mint installed and wanted to see if they've brought it into their own yet

 

I was wondering if this only because of live cd or running from usb. I have used MInt on my old desktop and on my wife's new laptop, same resulsts. I have XP, she has Vista. I have run Mint from the usb on her's, it goes to sleep and it won't come out. I ran Ubuntu from cd on my desktop, it went to sleep and I had to actually pull the plug to get out of it. I will try what you have suggested. I have a new project I want to try and I think I will start a new thread. I hope you will check it out and give me your input. Thanks.