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CentOS LiveCD 5.5 Release Notes

Contents

  1. Translations
  2. Introduction
  3. Packages and Applications
  4. New features
    1. Persistence feature
    2. OpenOffice.org 3.1.1 is now included
    3. Improved wireless network adapter driver
    4. ext4 support
  5. Known Issues
  6. Network Install
  7. Community Involvement
    1. CentOS LiveCD project
    2. Mailing lists and Fora
  8. Thanks

1. Translations

Translations of these release notes are available for the following languages :

2. Introduction

The CentOS Development team is pleased to announce the availability of the CentOS LiveCD 5.5 for both i386 and x86_64 architectures. These LiveCD are based on our CentOS-5.5 i386 and x86_64 distributions.

You can get the CentOS LiveCD 5.5 from the CentOS mirrors:

We used the tools from the Fedora livecd-tools project to create the CentOS LiveCD 5.5 image. This toolset offers numerous advantages:

3. Packages and Applications

The LiveCD can be used as a Workstation, with the following software:

It can also be used as a rescue CD with the following tools:

4. New features

4.1. Persistence feature

The long awaited persistence feature is now available. With livecd-tools 014-7 and later, it is possible to create a LiveUSB media featuring a persistent overlay. An overlay of a fixed size is appended to the standard filesystem. This overlay is a dynamically growing set of blocks that have been modified on the original LiveCD root filesystem. It is used to store data and configuration changes. The size of the overlay should be no more than 2048MB on a VFAT Flash drive. If you use an ext3 Flash drive, the size of the overlay should be no more than the size of the root filesystem of the LiveCD. This value is defined on the "part / <size in MB>" line of the LiveCD kickstart file. The official CentOS 5 LiveCD has a 4096MB root filesystem.

Using a smaller overlay than the root filesystem can produce errors as the space available on the overlay is filled up. In this case, the LiveCD root filesystem will act as if there still was space available on the overlay while in fact it is fully allocated. However, there are many advantages at using a smaller overlay than the root filesystem on smaller Flash drive (4GB and less) even if it can be filled up eventually. To erase the content of the overlay and return to the original state of the LiveCD, add the reset_overlay kernel parameter at boot time. This will effectively reset the overlay.

4.2. OpenOffice.org 3.1.1 is now included

openoffice.org 3.1.1 provides support for files created with Microsoft Office 2007 or Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac OS X (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx, etc)

4.3. Improved wireless network adapter driver

The iwlwifi driver is now included which result in better support for Intel Wireless devices. You will need to install manually the Intel microcode image corresponding to your hardware in /lib/firmware to activate your wireless adapter. The microcode images are available from the Intel webpage: http://www.intellinuxwireless.org/?n=downloads

4.4. ext4 support

The ext4 partitions of your system should now be detected automatically by the LiveCD.

5. Known Issues

6. Network Install

There is a "Network Install" option on the Live CD that is the same as our CentOS-5.5-i386-netinstall ISO. This option allows you to perform an FTP, HTTP, CD, Hard Drive or NFS install per these instructions:

http://www.centos.org/docs/5/html/Installation_Guide-en-US/s1-installmethod.html

(CD, NFS or Hard Drive installs require that you have downloaded the full CentOS tree or ISOs and taken the prerequisite steps to perform these installs per the above instructions, if you only have the LiveCD then you are NOT interested in these options)

If you desire to do a remote HTTP or FTP install from the Internet using the LiveCD, you can pick a mirror that is close to you from these public mirrors:

http://www.centos.org/modules/tinycontent/index.php?id=13

You can then find the path on that mirror to the "5/os/<arch>/" directory and use the paths for install where <arch> is the desired architecture (i386 or x86_64 for example). If you want to choose the mirror provided by "Linux Kernel Archives", in the above page click on the HTTP link for that mirror, then click 5 -> i386 -> os ... the full path for this mirror would be:

http://mirrors.kernel.org/centos/5/os/i386/

In the HTTP installation, use these paths based on the above mirror: 

Server: mirrors.kernel.org
Path:   centos/5/os/i386

Other install locations are available by selecting a mirror close to you.

7. Community Involvement

As a CentOS user there are various ways you can help out with the CentOS community. Take a look at our Contribute page for further information on how to get involved.

7.1. CentOS LiveCD project

The CentOS LiveCD project is where the development of the CentOS LiveCD takes place. Various topics are covered:

7.2. Mailing lists and Fora

Another way you can help others in the community is by joining one of the mailing lists or the fora and actively resolve user problems & discuss solutions with others.

8. Thanks

We thank everyone involved for helping us produce this product.

Copyright (C) 2010 The CentOS Project

2023-09-11 07:22