PCQ Linux 2009 comes in 4 Live CD flavors that you can use right off the DVD.
There is nothing to install or configure and you can get productive almost
immediately after the distribution of your choice finishes booting up.
You will need a machine with at least 1 GB of RAM and the standard video,
keyboard and mouse. For this version of PCQLinux 2009, you don't even require a
hard disk on the computer unless of course you wish to install the Live CD onto
the disk for using it permanently. Everything you need is available on the DVD
itself.
To use the DVD, simply drop it into a DVD drive on your machine and boot up
the machine with the DVD drive as the first boot device. You will be presented
with a menu that shows the four PCQLinux 2009 live distribution options:
- Web 2.0 Developer
- Security
- Multimedia
- Media Center
Live CD PasswordsThe following
are the passwords for different users on all PCQLinux 2009 Live
distributions.
User Password pcqlinux
pass@word1root pass@word1
Details of what each of them carry is presented a little further on. To boot
any of these live distros, simply select the one you want and continue. You will
then be shown a boot up screen for the chosen distro — this takes a little while
to start up since the entire OS is decompressed and booted in memory.
The multi-boot menu lets you select the PCQLinux Live distro you wish to boot off the DVD. |
Once the boot up is completed, you will be presented with a login screen with
a user called “PCQLinux” already present. Click on the user and use the password
given in the box for logging in. Once you are logged in, you will get access to
different applications and services already installed depending on the chosen
distro.
Once booted up, you can login using the default pcqlinux user created. |
PCQLinux 2009 Live Web 2.0 Developer Edition
The Developer edition of PCQLinux 2009 Live is meant for developers who
would like a web server, web development platform and an Integrated Development
Environment (IDE) to go
along with it. The following is one of the scenarios in which this can be used.
A client for whom you or your company is developing a web based portal
requires that a developer is available on site for some troubleshooting.
However, the client does not have a machine available with developer tools or
cannot allow a machine to be re-formatted and new applications installed. In
this case, the developer can simply carry the PCQLinux 2009 Live Web 2.0
Developer edition with him and boot that off the DVD drive. He will
automatically get access to a bunch of tools — as listed below.
- PHP 5
- Apache
- Netbeans IDE
- And more...
The article on using the developer edition has more details. Do take a look
at it.
The liveinst tool allows you to create partitions on the hard disk. |
You can also set other settings before it starts transferring the Live image onto the disk. |
PCQLinux 2009 Live Security & Forensics Edition
Security is one of the most important things that you require on any network
these days. With this edition of PCQLinux 2009, you can perform a number of
security checks, install honeypots to lure hackers away from sensitive data as
well as perform diagnostic forensics in case of a breach — all without
disturbing any data on any machine. There are a bunch of tools in this edition,
for instance:
- DSniff
- WireShark
- EtterCap
- HoneyD
- Kismet
- AirSnort
- Autopsy
- And more...
If you want to assess your machine or network or want to perform forensics on
a suspect machine, this distro is something that will surely help you out. Take
a look at the article on Security and Forensics later on in this issue.
PCQLinux 2009 Live Multimedia Edition
Many designers and multimedia content developers are usually scared to work
with Linux. However, the PCQLinux 2009 Live Multimedia Edition contains programs
that they can try out on their own machines very easily that duplicate programs
that they may be comfortable with. For instance, Gimp for image manipulation,
Scribus for publishing, Audacity for sound editing and Blender for 3D content
creation.
PCQLinux 2009 Live Media Center Edition
If you are planning to run a Linux based HTPC (Home Theater PC) for watching
TV and movies at your home, then this edition is the one for you. This is the
only edition that still requires a set of configuration tasks even after booting
up — each time. The objective of this distro is to allow you to download and
configure a working HTPC on your machine without creating an install full of
unnecessary and conflicting configuration options. Please read the article on
configuration options you need to perform after booting up this distro.
This is also the distro that most people after configuring correctly will
surely wish to install onto their hard disk. Note that installing on to the hard
disk is a feature supported by all Live distros of PCQLinux 2009.
Installing PCQLinux 2009 Live on your hard disk
Here's one more thing that you can do with PCQLinux 2009 Live. Once you are
satisfied with a particular distro and want to use it permanently, you can
actually install it on to the hard disk on your machine and boot directly from
there. The advantage with this approach is that settings you make are saved on
the disk and do not get wiped off as soon as you reboot. Follow the steps below
to install any of the Live distros provided on our hard disk by using a 3rd
party application that you can download for free.
First off, boot up the distro you wish to install from the DVD. You will then
need to connect to the Internet from within the running Live distro by clicking
on the network icon on the top bar or by running the Network Configuration tool.
Once connected, open Firefox and browse over to www.pcqlinux.org. Download
the latest pcqlinux-repos-2009.rpm from there to your machine or get it off the
PCQL-Extras folder on the DVD. Now open a new terminal window and enter the
following commands (giving the root password when prompted). This will download
approximately 9 MB of files that will help you install the distro to your hard
disk.
sur
pm —ivh /path_to_downloaded_rpm/pcqlinux-repos-2009.rpm
yum install anaconda
liveinst &
Once the liveinst application starts, follow the prompts and select the hard
disk you wish to install to and make appropriate partitions. Select a new string
password for the root user and proceed. Once the installation is complete,
remove the DVD from the drive and reboot. You should now be booting the chosen
PCQLinux 2009 Live distro right off the hard disk.
Installing PCQLinux 2009 Live on a USB drive
You can install any of the Live distros of PCQLinux 2009 on a USB drive that
can be used to boot up a machine that allows USB booting. You can create the USB
Live both from within the booted Live distro or from a pre-installed Linux
distro.
To do this, go over to www.pcqlinux.org and download the Install2USB script
or get it off the PCQL-Extras folder on the DVD. Run the script and follow the
instructions to install any of the PCQLinux Live editions on a USB drive. You
will need a USB device with at least 1 GB free space formatted with FAT or FAT32
to make this work.