= Using Sage with SquashFS =
Introduction
SquashFS is the mountable read-only filesystem, almost all linux live and install systems are using. It is builtin the linux kernel and all tools are available for all linux platforms. It is a little bit like a compressed iso cd image file. But it can hold a full unix filesystem and has some other speed up features.
Pro:
- more system independent because it is built in the kernel even on quite a lot of embedded or arm linux
- parallel processing optimized
- speed and memory optimized mount functionality on (almost?) all linux systems
- smaller disk space usage
- backup functionality
Contra:
3.3<->4.0 version problem on old linux systems, so you have to create the sqfs at the system you built it or you have to convert it later
- the sqfs file is bigger than the lzma binary
- you need the rights for mounting filesystems on the machine where you want to use it live
Where it is usefull?
* If you need a special version for some classroom pcs with older processors * If you have to bring sagemath to quite a lot of pcs * If the system is to weak for compiling or has not enough disk space and there is no binary for your maybe older linux * If you want to test sagemath just for short or if you want to setup a quick'n dirty sagemath server * If you want to use sagemath on your netbook with insufficient disk space from an usb-stick or sd card (512Mb is enough) * If you are using old hardware you can check sagemath very fast by checking the md5sum of the sqfs file