Generating a Debian Live CD is very simple. You need to have live-helper
(package available in Debian sid and lenny), and Debootstrap
(or cdebootstrap) from etch or newer.
apt-get install live-helper
lh_config -b iso -a $ARCH
where $ARCH
is the intended architecture (i.e. - i386 or amd64).
-b
flag is used to be sure to obtain image in ISO format.
lh_build
The command above will create the basic image, containing just the Debian standard system (with no X at all).
If you want to have any of the Desktop_environments on your livecd, ls /usr/share/live-helper/lists
will show a number of available package Lists to choose from, e.g. lh_config -p gnome-desktop
More examples are listed at DebianLive/Examples. FIXME LINK
See Section 5.1, “Customising package installation” for help configuring a local Debian Mirror and other aspects of the live system.
qemu -cdrom binary.iso
If you have also kqemu installed, you can add -kernel-kqemu