Python live CD with Tk

[Gerhard Häring]

Thomas Korb <Doc at goodweb.de> [2002-10-14 14:09 GMT]:
> Is it possible to create a 'live CD' with Python/Tkinter for Linux and
> Windows? This would be very nice (e.g. to use tools written in Python
> on PCs of friends/customers etc. where you do not want or cannot install 
> Python).
> 
> The Windows-side does not seem to be such a big problem (I think) using
> the binaries.

Yep. You should be able to just copy your Python installation + python22.dll +
maybe your favourite editor to CD. That's also how I distribute python apps
myself.

> On Linux, I am not sure. E.g., when compiling Python, it needs to know 
> the location of the Tcl, Tk, X (and other) libraries.

Yes, but that's no problem at runtime.

> Has someone experience with creating such a 'live CD'?  If it is possible, I
> think many people might be interested in a short HOWTO on that subject.

If you want to make things reasonably independent of the Linux system at hand,
I'd recommend to link statically wherever possible. That will require patching
the Python build process, however.

Another approach for Linux is to copy all the shared library dependencies in a
special directory, say /linux/lib on the CD-ROM and make a start script that
sets LD_LIBRARY_PATH to this lib directory, then executes python, IDLE,
whatever.

-- Gerhard