quick-docs/en-US/livecd.adoc

= FedoraLiveCD

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[[download-and-create-live-image-or-live-usb]]
Download and Create Live image or Live USB
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To download a pre-built Fedora Live image, visit
https://getfedora.org/[the download page]. Then you can either:

* Burn the ISO to a CD or DVD. See
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/readme-burning-isos/[here] for burning
instructions.
* Learn link:how_to_create_and_use_Live_USB[how to create and use Live
USB].

If you want to build and then burn your own custom ISO, see
link:How_to_create_and_use_a_Live_CD[How to create and use a Live CD].

[[advantages-and-limitations]]
Advantages and Limitations
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Benefits:

* You can demonstrate features or try out a release, including testing
hardware functionality, before hard disk/SSD installation.
* Live USB/CD/DVD installation is faster than regular installation. Live
USB/SD installation typically takes only a few minutes and can be
configured with persistent storage.
* You can use Live CD technology for backup and recovery of your
installed hard drive.

Limitations:

* It is not possible to choose packages during installation. Live images
typically have fewer packages than a regular installation image.
* It is not possible to do an upgrade via the Anaconda installer. If you
have a separate /home partition, you can just not format it during the
installation and thus preserve your settings and /home content.
* It is not possible to choose a non-default filesystem.
* Once you shutdown a computer running from a Live CD, you will lose any
settings or packages installed, but Live USB/SD installations may be
configured with persistent storage.

[[fedora-live-image-features]]
Fedora Live image features
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Current features:

1.  A booted Live CD uses a temporary, in-memory, read-write rootfs, so
it's possible to install software for use while the Live CD is running.
2.  Data persistence options available on Live USB/SD installations.
3.  Install to hard disks or USB/SD drives.
4.  Uses SELinux in enforcing mode and other security features by
default.
5.  Includes best of breed software on the media.
6.  Stay as close to a normal desktop install with regard to features,
or try specialized http://spins.fedoraproject.org/[Spins].
7.  Ability to create normal CD-ROM and CD-R media (less than 700 MB) or
DVD images.
8.  Make it easy to do a derived Live CD with your own repositories,
packages, and artwork.
9.  API used by LTSP, appliance creator and others.

[[contributors]]
Contributors
~~~~~~~~~~~~

* DavidZeuthen - Primary developer and maintainer of
http://hal.freedesktop.org[HAL] and OLPC contributor.
* JeremyKatz - Fedora Ninja. Adds backend for installing from a live
image into link:Anaconda[ Anaconda].
* DouglasMcClendon - LiveOS device mapper trickster.

[[communicate]]
Communicate
~~~~~~~~~~~

Fedora Live image users and developers can participate and contribute in
the discussions happening in the Fedora list.
(http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-livecd-list[predecessor
list archives])

[[finding-the-code]]
Finding the Code
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The source code for the Live CD tools is maintained in git. The
repository is at https://github.com/rhinstaller/livecd-tools/ . You can
install it easily by installing the 'livecd-tools' package.

Kickstart files are in the spin-kickstarts.noarch package.

[[hard-drive-installation]]
Hard Drive Installation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The ability to install to a hard drive is available releases since
Fedora 7. After the live media boots, click on the install icon on your
desktop to start the installation. Installation from live image requires
that GRUB and the /boot directory be installed onto a drive with an
MSDOS partition label, or that the current machine supports EFI booting.
If a pc-clone machine has only GPT hard drives, then you may need to use
something such as a USB2.0 flash memory device (with an MSDOS partition
label) as an intermediate destination.

In Fedora 15, instead of clicking the desktop icon, choose
Applications->System Tools->Install to Hard Drive from the menu along
the top of the screen.

[[references]]
References
~~~~~~~~~~

* https://web.archive.org/web/20080611062804/http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-fedora-livecd/index.html[Mayank
Sharma "IBM Developer Works: Build a Fedora Live CD" (archive.org
version from June 2008)]
* link:LiveOS_image[LiveOS image]

Category:LiveMedia
'''

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