[Fedora-livecd-list] missing filetypes for 2 files on LiveCD

[Douglas McClendon]

Tim Wood wrote:
> +1
> 
> FWIW, some LiveCDs have an index.htm or index.html file in the root of 
> the cdrom that holds the readme and links to an html version of the GPL, 
> etc.  Going off memory, there's an autorun dot something file in the 
> root of many windows cds that is used to automatically open such 

I'm pretty sure I'm on record as a +1 for this.  I won't argue too much 
for changing the existing README/GPL (but then again I don't use 
winblowz and don't really know how ugly the current behavior is or is not).

But what I will advocate again is something like

/Documentation/Fedora-8-Release-Notes.html

and

/autorun.inf

When I last played around with such - 6 years ago - I recall there were 
various ways you could have the autorun.inf launch the html.  For 
compatability reasons (and I think also not opening/flashing a cmd shell 
in the background) I ended up going with some open source program that 
invoked some windows blessed htmlview equivalent.  Anyway, I'm sure 
there is some best way these days.  I would even vote for just doing 
something that works immediately, and replacing it with a 
nicer/more-compatible way in the future if one is found.

And because I like to throw ideas on the table, I'll reiterate the idea 
of having win32 qemu installed(!=installer) on the iso, such that the 
livecd user can pop it in in windows, and then boot it up virtually, 
without so much as having to have anything else installed on their computer.

One thing I just found, which applies to that and perhaps other options 
is this-

http://www.x-lair.com/myprograms/autoc.html

which appears to be a nice open source win32 GUI shell to spawn multiple 
things.  I.e. so that on autorun, it opens up a menu that says (lets the 
user choose)

a) view the fedora-8 release notes
b) view the fedora-8 livecd documentation
c) run fedora-8 livecd virtually under qemu
d) install firefox for windows

Again, yes, much of this is unrealistic for various reasons.  Just 
planting seeds... ;)

-dmc



> creatures when they're inserted in a windows box.  Knoppix uses this to 
> give info about the cd, links to the project and give a soft sell on the 
> product.  Pretty cool, low effort promotional tactic IMHO.  I believe 
> there's something similar for OS X, and (if anyone decides to take this 
> approach), I've got a MacBook Pro, so I could dig up and test the 
> comparable widgit for that OS.  Heck... I could do the same thing with 
> XP...
> 
> Tim
> 
> 
> On Oct 15, 2007, at 6:30 AM, Nelson Strother wrote:
> 
>>   As of f8t3, the files GPL and README have no filetype extension.
>> For unlucky users on non-Linux operating systems where files with no
>> filetype have been configured to be swallowed by e.g. a database
>> program, or a game as a saved level, this could lead to puzzling
>> results.  For the lucky users, attempting to read either of these
>> files is likely to bring up an "open with ..." dialog where they
>> select which program should attempt to interpret these files.  For the
>> non-technical users who may be most likely to need to read some of
>> this information, such a choice may be overwhelming.
>>
>>   Would not these be better as:
>>     GPL.txt
>>     README.html
>> It should be a rather safe assumption that some web browser is
>> available on any system new enough to have a CD drive.  Converting
>> back to html for a <hr> and the couple of internal hyperlinks will be
>> far more portable than the current wiki gibberish.
>>
>>   Might this have already been fixed in the 20071011 LiveCD:
>>
>>   
>> https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2007-October/msg00561.html 
>>
>>
>> or should I repeat these observations in bugzilla?
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Nelson
> 
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