Filesystem overlay ?

[Dave Stubbs]

>For completeness and for educational purpose, there are 2 standard ways:
>    - Use 'initrd'.  Let it fall through the boot process, and mount it
>      on /var.
>    - Use 'tmpfs'.  Right after kernel mounts /var, populate it with
>      stuffs from /clean-var.
>I'm currently using 'initrd' because it doesn't require modification of
>bootup scripts, so it works with any Linux distro.  It's a bit messy to
>build and maintain, though.  'tmpfs' is cleaner, but it requires custom
>script very early in the boot process.  On Slackware, it's no problem;
>on other distro, however, it's not that easy.
>
>  
>
Are you reinventing the wheel for enjoyment or self-education?  If not, 
I'd suggest that you take a look at some of the very good distros out 
there that have already done this work for you.  Of course, the most 
known is Knoppix, but if you want to really push knoppix to where it 
could really go - to make it modular and extensible, you should really 
take a close look at morphix.  If your heart is really set on slackware, 
you should look at slax.  Both of these (morphix and slax) also have 
lots of information on their websites about using their distro as a 
"kit" to build your own custom distro for your own special needs.

Summarizing:
  - morphix is based on knoppix which is based on debian
  - slax is based on slackware.

Dave...
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