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What is kobold?

Kobold is minimalistic tool for automated Fedora Live CD installation on USB stick. It uses HAL and D-Bus to discover USB stick plugging and livecd-iso-to-disk for the actual installation process.

Kobold aims to provide a simple plug in-wait-plug out experience in Fedora spreading process, especially during public events: rather than giving away hundreds of CDs/DVDs you can setup a Linux machine and say "If you want to try Linux just plug in your USB stick, wait and use it as a live CD".

kobold was written in 30 minutes by a total Python/HAL/D-Bus newbie, so don't expect it to be decent. It is more a kludge than a bulletproof application the ugliest kludge ever seen on Earth and one of the best examples of spaghetti code but I hope it will grow up fast.

Why kobold?

  • Everyone has at least one USB stick (>= 1GB) and many prople carry one around with them.
  • Linux distribution should spend money fostering free software and innovation, not distributing CDs.
  • Be friendly with the environment, unlike CDs USB stick can be reused!

Why this name?

From Wikipedia: "Kobolds are a fictional species featured In the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. Aggressive, xenophobic, yet industrious small humanoid creatures, kobolds are noted for their skill at building traps and preparing ambushes". This depicts quite well what this software does: waits for you to plug you USB stick in and -- zap! -- copies Fedora on it before you can say "Noooooooooooo, my post-doc thesis". :)

Starting Points

For a complete list of local wiki pages, see TitleIndex.