Looking for Live Linux for Open GL Development

[vanfanel]

Hello all

I am a total newbie on OpenGL, but I am very excited about learning how to write applications using this timeless standard.
I'm also a devote Gentoo Linux user so I will use this OS for OpenGL learning/programming purposes, but unfortunately I can't use Linux at work (but I have a lot of free time to dedicate into OpenGL and programming in general), so I'm looking for a Linux Live distro to run in a virtualized enviroment (VirtualBox) to learn/develop OpenGL at work.

I've tried MyOS: it has a minimalistic approach I really like (creating semi-embedded opengl apps gives a A LOT of ideas!) , but I don't like it's outdated-MGL-drivers approach and I would preffer to develop using OpenGL on and Xwindowed enviroment, as it's the de-facto linux standard way (even if I hope it changes in the future and we can see OpenGL on the framebuffer, using DirectFB or whatever other approach).

Can you people please point me to some Live Linux distro to develop C/C++ applications with OpenGL that would run on an X enviroment? Hardware acceleration support for MESA is not that important since I won't be using it in a virtual enviroment.
Any conceptual aclarations are welcome, too.

Thanks in advance!

[ZbuffeR]

Well, Ubuntu is pretty full featured out of the box. The install CD double as Live CD. But you will need to install dev packages for headers needed.

[vanfanel]

I can't install any packages unless I install the system first, and I would like to use a live CD without installing: just boot, develop, store files in a mounted partition and shut down...
But I supposse I will have to do make a basic install on an virtual Harddisk file if no one comes with new ideas/distros. Thanks anyway, ZbuffeR

[s_ridenour]

Couldn't you install it on a removable drive? I'm pretty sure Ubuntu can be booted from a USB thumb drive, if the computer supports booting from one. Or could you hook up an external hard disk and use that?

[c0de]

Try Slax (a slackware based liveCD). I didn't tried to add opengl on it but Slax is customizable (very easy). You can add new packages very easy then rebuild your iso image.

[lordmule]

For all interested, the latest Ubuntu 8.04 Beta offers a program Wubi that allows you to install ubuntu as a windows application. In doing so there is no need to create a separate partition, however the windows bootloader is adjusted, and when rebooting you get the choice to boot into windows or ubuntu. This program is called Wubi (Ubuntu 8.04 Beta) (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardyHeron/Beta#head-b0182be4e8920f642f70a23d88fbd131301c694c)