Scientific Linux

The Scientific Linux Live CD/DVD is a bootable CD/DVD that runs Linux directly from CD/DVD without installing. It is based on Scientific Linux (SL), which is recompiled from RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) sources. It uses Unification File System (unionfs) in case of SL4, Another Unionfs (aufs) in case of SL5, and Fedora LiveCD tools in case of SL6. All of them allow a read-only filesystem to behave as a writable one. Further squashfs provids on-the-fly decompression that allows to store 2GB software on a normal CD-ROM.

The Scientific Linux Live CD/DVD can be installed on USB flash drive with persistence overlay.

Additionally the Scientific Linux Live CD/DVD can be used to setup a server for Diskless Client. The diskless clients will run Scientific Linux without a local Linux installation getting the operation system over the network. Please note that diskless client support in SL6 is limited.

The following versions of the Scientific Linux LiveCD can be downloaded for 32-bit and 64-bit:

• LiveCD: with gnome and icewm desktop
• LiveDVD: with gnome, kde and icewm desktop
• LiveMiniCD: rescue system with icewm desktop (300-350 MB)

• Read how to boot the Live System from an USB flash drive.
• Read how to create your own LiveCD.
• Read how to install the LiveCD on your local hard disk.

Public Torrents

• http://www.osst.co.uk/Download/scientific/livecd/?id=28

Verify Download

In order to verify the downloaded ISO image compare the checksum with the one found at the download site (see md5, SHA1SUM, or SHA256SUM file). Assuming you have downloaded the ISO image SL-60-i386-2011-03-07-LiveCD.iso, run on Linux:

sha256sum SL-60-i386-2011-03-07-LiveCD.iso   # use sha256sum in case of SL6
md5sum    livecd_SL55_gnome_2010-06-17.iso   # use md5sum in case of SL4, SL5

to calculate the SHA256 or MD5 sum of the iso file.
On Windows: Windows has no built-in md5sum, sha256sum, or sha1sum commands. But there are compiled versions around which you can use from Windows command line. For example google for md5sum.exe or google for sha256sum.exe.
Download md5sum.exe from http://etree.org/cgi-bin/counter.cgi/software/md5sum.exe.
Download sha256sum.exe from http://www.labtestproject.com/files/sha256sum/sha256sum.exe.
Md5summer beta version supports SHA1 and MD5 sum.

Labels
Scientific Linux Live CD/DVD labels can be found here (as .jpg or as GIMP .xcf files): http://www.livecd.ethz.ch/download/labels