Linux boot CD

MooseJam

I have to do an assignment on linux scripting, nothing major just filesystem stuff, I don't know anything about linux so I don't want to overright my windows os or anything like that, are there any good Linux boot CD's where you get basically a whole OS but it boots off CD, I would need to be able to access my hardrive for file i/o stuff as well

Tony H

ubuntu
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu

that should do the trick

Orion

All of the major distros do live CDs which runs the OS off the CD. Your hard disk is untouched but accessible to you.

dioltas

You could try knoppix.
Alot of distros allow booting from a usb key, such as puppy linux or damn small linux. That way you could save your progress on the key.

Orion

Another option is to install a distro in a VM - http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

samhail

could consider cygwin too www.cygwin.com
its a shell that you install onto windows and it will give you a *nix interface - with all the programs etc.

or could looking getting a shell account online somewhere - but dont have access to your files as easily as the other methods here.

MooseJam

Macros42 wrote: »

Another option is to install a distro in a VM - http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

yea great idea, I'm going to do this, whats the best distribution to use do you think ?

Orion

how long is a piece of string

It really depends on what you want to use it for. If it's just for basic filesystem/bash scripting then any will do. I'd check what's in use in your college and use that just in case there's any compatibility issue. It's most likely Ubuntu or Fedora being used so one of them will do just fine.

MooseJam

cool I'm going to go with ubuntu so, fingers crossed there good stuff on bash scripting online

Orion

There's plenty - here's some to get you started

http://www.hypexr.org/bash_tutorial.php
http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Bash-Prog-Intro-HOWTO.html

MooseJam

good stuff, managed to pretty much finish it, could do with a bit of spit and shine but have time for that, anyway I have a working version in my virtual Ubuntu, what would be the best way to get that to my home directory, I have no idea, I mailed it to myself so I have access to it in windows too but the formatting is all over the place - looks fine in ubuntu but a mess in windows, I can putty into my home directory from windows but I'm not sure if that would be any use - could I copy and paste from windows into Vi in a putty session, I'll look into it tomorrow but if anyone has any good ideas I'm all ears,
If I have to manually type it into vi I can imagine reams of typo's

MooseJam

well I ended up typing it up in Vi one missed ` caused me 30 mins troubleshooting but it wasn't as bad as I would have thought,

Anyway are there any good guides for writing the batch file header to make it look good you know like

########################
# script to do whatever #
# version : #
# author : #
# #
########################