Shortest summary is:
I am trying to get a drive image-for want of better semantics- that will be a plug in-power it up-and it goes to a working desktop with net if possible- needing near to zero human input. There are obviously non trivial parts of the process. Yet- let me explain how the query came about. A friend came over earlier this week bearing the HD from his Gateway P133 Win98 old system. In an attempt to copy files onto backup media- the drive was accidentally installed as primary master. Which of course resulted in a failed attempt by windows to boot hardware it lacked information about. Which caused a query. How can a Livedistro be replicated onto a HD? The simple elegance of a pre-imaged drive that on initial boot acts identical to Knoppix etc for autodetection and bringing up a functional net connected if possible browser. Think it over a moment as to what is and NOT involved. The two prime factors desired here are an ultimate "it just works" function level. And having it do so absent other than trivial human interaction wherever possible.
Sounds a bit non-trivial at first but is it really that hard? Here's my current "missing links" list.
What is the best tutorial for remastering Live distros in overview?
What is recommended for scripting automatic local identification thru IP or whatever. IF there was a comparatively painless way to automate the "where am I in the world?" issue- several set up queries in the dialog go away.
Can anyone direct me to an explanation of how/why an installed from Live distro seems to lack the auto detect on startup properties ?
And yes- I have been asking around about some parts of this a while. and Google etc seem not to be yielding good enough to use data.