SchilliX

SchilliX is an open source and bootable Live operating system derived from the OpenSolaris distribution. It has been declared as the the first pure OpenSolaris-based Live CD/DVD and uses a monolithic kernel from the Illumos UNIX OS.

It’s available for download as an archived Live DVD

The good news is that users will have to download an XZ archive or approximately 400MB in size, which contains the 1.2GB Live DVD ISO image,  in order to use SchilliX.

The GRUB bootloader includes powerful options

When booting the SchilliX ISO image from the BIOS of a computer, using either a DVD disc or a USB thumb drive of 2GB or higher capacity, the user will encounter a boot menu powered by the GEUB bootloader.

From there, you can boot the live system in full mode or in RAM only. It supports both 32-bit (i386) and 64-bit (amd64) instruction set architectures, and includes several boot options for each of the aforementioned modes.

Be aware though, that the operating system has been designed mostly for German users, which means that you must boot with the “Ask KBD layout” option if you want to use the OS in English.

In addition, you can perform a system memory (RAM) diagnostic test or boot an existing operating system that is currently installed on the first disk detected by the BIOS.

The best way to experience OpenSolaris technologies

Be aware that you will be dropped to a shell prompt, when booting the Live CD, where you have to login using the “schillix” username and password combination (without quotes, of course).

The operating system includes several command-line tools, such as cdrecord, star, bash, bz2, fakeroot, gmake, gpatch, gtar, gzip, pod2man, texinfo, unzip, wget, GCC, smake as /usr/ccs/bin/make, as well as all Schilly tools. It can be easily installed to a local drive and features self healing services.

What is new in this release:

• This release has been updated to use OpenSolaris Nevada Build 92, fixes a bug in the IP Kernel implementation that caused a buffer overflow, and fixes a bug in hsfs that could cause the kernel to panic if someone attempted to mount a non-hsfs filesystem as hfsf.

What is new in version 0.7.1i:

• This is the first Ilumos-based SchilliX release. Illumos is the Community controlled OpenSolaris Source. Illumos was created a few weeks before Oracle stopped updating the OpenSolaris source. Illumos is currently replacing the last closed-source bits with OSS.