Quote Originally Posted by locutus
...This is on the same thread as what I'm thinking about doing with Knoppix. My thought is to build a web page that'll allow me to enter in some custom user information( email related initially ) and then it'll generate a custom ISO file with this pre-set for the knoppix userid. I'll also want the default boot to have home=scan and myconfig=scan. The idea is to allow me to build custom Knoppix based CD's for family and friends where they won't have to do anything but boot the CD and they'll be able to get their email and browse( plus lots more ) all without entering anything at boot time...
Wow, this is very close to a notion I had when I first became interested in Linux several years ago. I wonder how many other people have thought of something like it?

With Knoppix' hardware recognition and configuration ability, it might now be practical to customize Knoppix for each application, but there are a few problems that would need to be overcome:

  • - Knoppix loads to RAM from a read-only CD, so if the user wants to save his work it has to be stored somewhere on a hard drive or other nonvolatile storage available to the computer. Perhaps the new USB "keys" are the best solution to that problem for most applications, but I have an application in mind, VHS-to-DVD, which requires a great deal of temporary storage for the digitized video. If the computer's hard drive is formatted NTFS then perhaps a serial ATA hard drive would be the best solution for someone who wanted to transpose his VHS family movies to DVD but wasn't up to partitioning his hard drive or installing a new one in his computer.

    - Each user's work could be stored in encrypted form, with the key on the CD. A password might also be desirable to prevent someone from stealing the CD and accessing the owner's files that way. Of course the encryption key and password need to be stored somewhere safe in case the CD needs to be replaced.

    - I suppose that what you have in mind is to download, or run from CD, some kind of minimal Knoppix to run on the target computer for which the Kustom Knoppix is to be created. That program would look around on the computer to see what hardware there is, perhaps ask some configuration questions of the prospective user, then report its findings back to the server which would then create a custom Knoppix with only the software necessary for what the user wants to do on the target computer. Presuming that the Kustom Knoppix is for someone who isn't likely to read instructions and doesn't care about the details of an operating system, you could also leave out most of the documentation that comes with Knoppix. The last problem is, how to get the CD to the user? I found downloading and burning an ISO to be pretty much a no-brainer with standard CD burning programs in Windows, but that method of distribution requires a high-speed internet connection.


No doubt many more issues would arise in attempting such a scheme, but it does seem that Mr. Knopper has shown that it might be possible.