Just reporting a minor milestone: As a POC (proof-of-concept) and learning/testing exercise, I created a custom "Build-system Live CD" using the BeleniX remastering toolkit. It's based on the BeleniX core and it's about 215 MB in size. (It's 100% open-source, but it's not downloadable from anywhere right now. If anyone wants to play with it let me know, I'm sure there's somewhere I can put it.)
The main difference between this ISO and the regular BeleniX Live CD is it excludes xorg/gtk/xfce/kde/etc., and includes a build environment system. The build system is the pkgbuild[1]-based, JDS/CBE[2] in gcc mode. This remastering kit is very cool. As with regular BeleniX, "my LiveCD distro" :) boots fast (esp. since it's a small, command-line only ISO), transparently gets an IP from DHCP, and transparently mounts HD partitions in /mnt (which, e.g., I could put copies of spec files on, from which I could quickly/easily generate Solaris packages, because by booting my live CD, my box temporarily turns into a dedicated JDS/CBE build system.) Now, how about a 100% open-source, ZFS-based, home NAS box LiveCD w/ HD installer... I have a feeling _that_ would be pretty hot... --Eric P.S. This was mainly a proof-of-concept exercise -- other build systems such as Companion[3], Blastwave/GARNOME[4], pmpkg[5], etc. could have been used instead. 1: http://pkgbuild.sourceforge.net/ 2: http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/desktop/communities/jds/building/#jds-cbe 3: http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/companion/contributors/buildccd/ 4: http://svn.blastwave.org/wiki/GettingStarted 5: http://freshmeat.net/projects/pmpkg/?branch_id=60504
