Well, I have to admit that I don't have any experience creating livecd distros (or any sort of distro) myself, so I'm kind of figuring this out as I go. (Also, I'm not an Ubuntu user myself; I mostly switch between Arch and Fedora distros for my personal stuff. It just seems like everybody uses Ubuntu, so that seemed like a good common distro.)

But yeah, my biggest worry is that a live-cd/-dvd/-usb/-etc has to work on a wide range of hardware to be successful. If I just clone my personal system, I can imagine it'd have trouble dealing with different CPUs, different amounts of available ram, different displays, etc. And how would it deal with the lack of a file system? Anyway, I can imagine a number of different issues a live-iso must deal with... More homework for me to do here.

In fact ...
I just found ...doing some light hunting...
these so far...
http://klikit.pbworks.com/w/page/731...ersys%20Capink
fairly thorough, comprehensive but intensive. In the end though it means having essentially whatever distro (that could conceivably work) packed with say....ALL the pre-set-up enviros for the 770, n8x0, n900, etc...on a (persistent rolling release even...meaning the master copy really wouldn't need redoing unless particularly installed enviros changed...big plus) liveusb ...forget a livecd or livedvd structure...just not big enough.
hm..

and this for linux mint...wonder if it would work with debian edition ...
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=167640

going to look and read some more...
if I find any other interesting tidbits I'll mention it here...

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=163119
https://www.pacificsimplicity.ca/blo...allation-or-vm

here is an intriguing method caught my eye...
clone your fresh-clean-bare-normal operating system into your v.m
tweak it into maemo-enhanced-perfection safely in said virtual machine.
then turn it into a distributable iso ...
hand them out to everyone.
they just burn it on their own cd/dvd/usb/sdcard and..
voila! instant bootable live medium maemo-goodness
http://www.turnkeylinux.org/blog/convert-vm-iso
hm..y'know..as a side note...I just thought ...
isn't mer installation on pc meant for a vm enviro only?
that puts an interesting spin on things...
possibly having mer running as a bootable live running distro on a usb, dvd or card. THAT I'll have to try...

addendum...ach Cop ...live distros are simplicity personified nowaday.
and they are built to run on pretty much anything.
crap I've played with so many of them...
I've put then on usb sticks, sd/minisd/microsd cards and run them...
persistence...though...is such a grand thing. writing your stuff to the liveusb so it remembers...retains everything from when you were last working with it. No more just shutting off and starting up to an scrubbed clean.. erased (of end-user changes that is) liveusb.
I just never thought before of packing up a normally installed distro with maemo devel enviros. and then turning it all into a persistent rolling release liveusb .
edit: yeah i did forget an eensy-weensy thing about -" took 2-3 minutes to load the whole DVD to RAM, and once it was done, it was faster than using a USB stick since reading/writing to RAM is faster than reading/writing to USB stick" to quote someone who tried both a liveusb and livedvd...
also I forgot that with persistence enabled on a liveusb alot of reading/ writing goes to the usb stick...meaning the usb lifespan is lessened...alternative is to make copies onto other usb sticks as failsafe backups..which seems a sane precaution anyway...or disable persistence when not required...even simpler solution...thereby lengthening the usb stick lifespan to a normal time and yet be able to utilize say a 32gb (or greater) usb stick capacity instead of a 4 gb re/writable dvd capacity...which makes a great deal of sense considering that the intent is to have devel enviros on a live medium ...hence the more space available the better.
....and on some my personal fav's like epidemic, kaos, semplice, lmde ... ...considering the nature of this exercise... and across-the-board end-user friendliness ...compatibility with maemo devel enviros...and all around distro health and stability ...I would lean toward something like lmde...pretty stable compared to others... as far as r.r.'s go
It would be grand to just do it on normal ol' 'buntu or debian ...most are familiar with that..but ...in no time we'd be back in the same sticky-spot we are now...the livecd/dvd/usb would be outdated again...not really something I would savour doing every couple of years...
Hm...I think I'll set up lmde in a v.m. and see what I can pack it with...
then see how it works out as a live-whatever..as well I think I'll set up mer and try the same...

edit: for starters the links here at tmo for mer-x86-generic-image-anything is shot.
edit: scratch that think I found something.

Also downloaded, installed and setup the offline Qt SDK v1.1.2 for Linux 64-bit (onto my Debian Wheezy VM), exactly the same results as Hawox. All goes well, except for downloading the Maemo toolchain because the Qt SDK Maintainer cannot fetch update files from the repositories. Nokia has truely forsaken us (this has been clear for years, fair enough).

About creating a image/iso with a full dev setup, certainly sounds viable. I'd love to help testing and stuff, however, I'd need a working Maemo/Qt SDK for that first AFAIK

Anything else I can do?

Yes, I just noticed that myself (after downloading 1.1.2 this weekend onto a fresh Ubuntu box). I put up an apology about this a few posts above.

As I also mentioned a few posts above, I then tried out version 1.1.1 of the SDK, and as it turns out that does come complete with the Maemo toolchain. (So, no need to even touch the package manager.) I then rebuilt an app of my own using that SDK (Pierogi in this case), and packaged and installed it onto one of my N900s, and it runs fine. So, I would say that using version 1.1.1 is now the way to go. (I have no idea if there is any way to upgrade the 1.1.1 SDK to a later version, but I don't think it would be necessary if all you're doing with it is developing Fremantle apps.)

Which kind of update files? From where? Can you spot it down to file names?

The files in question here are the ones Qt was using to maintain its products during the time it was owned by Nokia. Presumably, when that group was spun off, they had to abandon those files due to copyright considerations. The Qt Package Manager lists the following URL as its default repository in its settings (this is for the OSX version of the SDK):

http://nds2.fds-forum.nokia.com/noki...ine_qtsdk_repo

I've got an absolutely enormous "Installationlog.txt" file as well; I don't know how long it would take to dig through all of it, but near the top is an interesting section with some filenames. To my eyes, the most interesting ones are probably "2009q367.7z", "madde.7z", and "madde462.7z", but I'm not entirely sure what to look for here. Here's the full list:

Damn, so sorry, I didn't fully read your post! Went through the thread a little fast to catch up on it, and then totally missed that remark. Tried v1.1.1, all is working well, time to code some Thanks a lot Copernicus!

Edit: never mind what I stated here earlier about the error message in answer to peter, Copernicus already answered it above

Interesting...
odd. the mer-x86-generic-image 0.16 didn't want to play nice at all with virtual box on lmde mate. nasty nasty lil' issue with /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup ...evil nasty nasty thingie. hmm...hunted down the issue didn't care for the answer.
took the same image tossed it on a win 7 64 bit virtual box and it started up with no problem. I'll try the same image on a half dozen more distros I have on my computers and see what happens... It is great to see mer running so quick and effortless even in a virtual enviro. (a much better experience nowadays compared to the earlier iterations of vb and vm ) ...but though it up and runs without a hitch on windows doesn't help me much... since there is really nothing in the way of appliances or processes in or for windows to convert the vmdk image to an iso. 1 alt which was cavalierly mentioned in a forum was poweriso ..great utility ...am very familiar with it...but the fellow was talking out of a lower orifice . it was ugly ...poweriso extracted the files but didn't want to play well with the transmorgification into any iso or bootable format ...and the tut. , help, instructionals are inadequately vague.
. I may look a bit more but really I have little hope of finding vmdk to iso programs for windows ...there is much more work done in linux...speaking of...I found that the only method of installing tklpatch was via the last method and git...there was too many probs with "unable to fetch this that or the other thing" or "not found" when trying the other methods of install through software or pac. man. ......not bad though... a few hoops ..but I did get tklpatch properly installed on lmde...that is where I'm at on the linux side so far.
I'm almost of the opinion that attempting the same method on a straight up 'buntu or debian build may be more successful in making an iso of mer for usb or dvd.

edit:
I've forgotten how much fun...how smooth the touch interface even in the virtualbox mer is on my convertible m780 ....argh...It's like having a beautiful giant mer-tablet ...hm...anyway...enough fun for now...I'll work more on that later...

Mmmh, okay. No idea about anyone backupped that. Damn

Back to the task at hand..
well turnkey is problematic on lmde .
I wouldn't suggest tklpatch for it.
another distro it may function fine...
and I intend to try it later on a few.
I did find that there is yet another option.
2 options in fact.
refracta
http://www.ibiblio.org/refracta/
their write-up seems innocuous enough..
what they offer is quite intriguing.
one of 2 options...

1- a debian distro which... in it.. has the requisite tools to make a live usb from the running system ...choose the latest release.
It does not state whether or not you can distribute your revised distro as an iso before turning it into a live usb distro.

2- the requisite tools in the form of "refracta2usb" .
this tool will not work on a standard distro ...but will work on live distros...turning it's running instance and everything you have on it into a live usb. So it therefore is possible to pack up what you wish on your live distro and make a live usb out of it. Not sure if you can simply distribute your revised live distro as an iso and then let those individuals burn their own live usb's
It is an interesting set of options...
restricted either to refracta linux or a live distro...and not quite a direct mention as to whether it could be turned to an iso and simply distributed prior to turning it into a live usb distro.

Personally I'm not quite done giving up on lmde...
personally I believe there is still the option of doing what would be most expedient for say...a rolling release like lmde or a distro of one's own choice... like say...linux-live
http://www.linux-live.org/

It will take me some time but looking at the situation ...it looks more than promising
There are many possible tools and there are many many other distros I'm familiar with that I use or haved used which may serve us just as well that I intend to explore for the purposes of the creation of a live medium iso which can contain what is conveniently set up and needed by our community...that will meet most if not all needs and functionality without the worry of it suffering the same fate as the old alternatives did.

edit:
Bingo.
I believe I found something which isn't so old it isn't being maintained anymore or will not work as said consequence of the need for it to be on a single fixed obscure distro (refracta) nor only limited to supported live distros in the 1st place...
and has exactly what is needed...
ubuntu based...perhaps will work on a r.r. like lmde.
http://www.unixmen.com/systemback-re...revious-state/
Will most likely work on more ..."loyal" 'buntu bases ...I'll try it over the next couple of days on lmde. see what happens.