Faster booting media coming to a store near you

Moinak has written an entry on the very cool file sorting technology that has gone into the Distro Constructor(DC) project.

What this means to Joe user is that he needs to follow simple steps and build a Live distro that will have bootup time that was until recently in the realm of BeleniX and Knoppix.

Belenix optimizes the way files are arranged on the LiveCD, so the OS requests for files during bootup do not require the CDROM pin moving around crazily (as is normally the case). It uses Dtrace to note down the order of file requests. The distribution constructor project has incorporated these features into it. So heres what you do:

* Build your own (slow) distro using DC. Burn this on a CD and boot from it. Bootup can take anywhere b/w 5 to 10 minutes normally.
* Select "Solaris (32 bit) I/O tracing" from Grub. This will start off the background wizardry to note down the order of access of files. This data is saved in the file 'traceout' on your hard disk.
* Reboot from hard disk. Run 'proc_tracedata' script on this file. It generates a iso.sort file, which is a listing of all the files in the order they were accessed.
* Now rerun the DC to remake your distro. It will use the iso.sort file when rebuilding your LiveCD image.
* Now boot up your distro at blazing speeds!

This is the first time a LiveCD generator has automated such optimizations (not to speak of the hsfs speedups) into it. I predict this will start off a slew of distributions based on OS in the coming year.

Do you want to learn more about the Distro Constructor project and attend a workshop where you can learn to create your own distro? Attend my talk at Foss.in in the first week of December 07!

Foss.in is the biggest FOSS conference in India, with speakers coming in from around the world. If you are a technology enthusiast, and can make it to Bangalore, you shouldn't miss it. See you there :)