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ASK: Are there any Linux LiveCDs which include the proprietary NVIDIA driver?

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GPL-2 issues FTW (Score: 1, Informative)

by Anonymous Coward on 2016-02-13 01:10 (#13T2P)

The problem with the proprietary NVIDIA driver is that linking the final .ko violates the GPL-2. When you do it on your own system, it's not a problem because you aren't redistributing, and who are you going to sue: yourself? This is why there are no distros that contain a prelinked .ko. When you install it on any distro, including Ubuntu, you get a package that compiles and links it on the fly.

In the past there were livecds that would include the proprietary NVIDIA driver by downloading, compiling, and linking it while you waited. Can you not `apt-get install` it on an Ubuntu livecd still?

Re: GPL-2 issues FTW (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2016-02-13 03:41 (#13TAW)

I think I've missed something. You've asked about "apt-get install" on WORM media?

Re: GPL-2 issues FTW (Score: 2, Interesting)

by Anonymous Coward on 2016-02-13 04:43 (#13TDF)

The read-only aspect of livecds was solved long ago. They'll use something like overlayfs [1] or unionfs to provide a transparent writable layer (using RAM via tmpfs [2]) on top of the read-only root. That way you can "modify" files or install new packages. The modifications will be copied into or made directly in the higher tmpfs layer.

[1] https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/filesystems/overlayfs.txt
[2] https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/filesystems/tmpfs.txt

Moderation

Time Reason Points Voter
2016-02-13 15:24 Interesting +1 computermachine@pipedot.org
2016-02-18 09:10 Interesting +1 seriously@pipedot.org

Junk Status

Marked as [Not Junk] by bryan@pipedot.org on 2016-05-06 23:17