Livecd-ng modified to work "out of the box"

[DanBUK]

Hi,
Noltha and I have been working on the livecd-ng system.
We have made changes to the system in the following way:

Works with cloop 1.02
Etc files are stored in a subdir on cdrom to allow for faster dev cycle
when testing etc changes
Added rc option for ease in changing services on livecd
Added all option to run through all the steps needed to make a livecd
from a profile
Fixed inittab/linuxrc to work with 1.4 stages/current portage tree
Added deps syslinux and busybox
wget'ing cloop srcs

The ebuild and tar of livecd-ng are located:
(EDIT) PLEASE USE http://livecd.lockedbox.net/ NOW (/EDIT)

(EDIT) THESE USAGE INSTRUCTIONS ARE OUTDATED PLEASE SEE:
http://livecd.lockedbox.net/install.html (/EDIT)
In order to use this youll need to grab the ebuild and run:
emerge -f livecd-ng-1.1.ebuild
ebuild livecd-ng-1.1.ebuild digest
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~x86" emerge livecd-ng-1.1.ebuild

then you will need to edit /root/.livecd-ng
And add the following:
CD_DISTDIR=/usr/portage/distfiles
CD_PORTDIR=/usr/portage
CD_TEMPROOT=/home/home20/livecd/tmp
CD_STAGELOC=/home/home20/livecd/download

Obviously choose a partition for the TEMPROOT and STAGELOC that have
enough space free. For the minimal profile, this will be about 1.5Gb

Once you have done this you should be able as root to run:
Either
A - To generate an ISO in one step
cd /etc/livecd-ng
livecd-ng minimal all

B - To generate an ISO in multiple steps
cd /etc/livecd-ng
livecd-ng minimal fetch
livecd-ng minimal build
livecd-ng minimal enter - Used to make changes to the livecd system
livecd-ng minimal initrdbuild
livecd-ng minimal initrd
livecd-ng minimal auxcp
livecd-ng minimal clean - Use with care will make the ISO smaller but
will make it harder to modifiy the tree and regenerate - This step is
not required.
livecd-ng minimal cloop
livecd-ng minimal isogen

If anyone has any problems with the above please do contact me or noltha
and we will do what we can to help.

Kind Regards,
Daniel.

[garrontmo]

This explanation worked great for creating a standard cd, and even worked great for creating a cd with some extra apps. I do have a couple of questions. How can I customize the kernel? I need to compile in one more option. Also, I tried to make some changes that were not done permanently. I copied /etc/init.d/net.eth0 to /etc/init.d/net.eth1 and when I booted the cd, /etc/init.d/net.eth1 was gone. Any help would be appreciated. Basically, what I'm trying to do is create a custom router that runs shorewall, dhcpd, ssh, and possibly ntop.

Thanks,
Garron Moore

[DanBUK]

I do have a couple of questions. How can I customize the kernel? I need to compile in one more option.

If you take a look at the settings file in the profile, you will see the default kernel name/etc near the middle, look at the KERNCONFIG=kernel-config-2.4-latest that is the name of the kernel config that is used for the kernel. You can modify that and rerun kernbuild, initrd.

Also, I tried to make some changes that were not done permanently. I copied /etc/init.d/net.eth0 to /etc/init.d/net.eth1 and when I booted the cd, /etc/init.d/net.eth1 was gone.

What I'd suggest here is, "enter" the chroot, make all required changes(ie add eth1 in init.d, run rc-update, etc) then run "cloop" and "isogen". That should work, problem for me is I have been working on the next version, lots of changes.
ALSO I have added a project page with a link for a bug tracking system for the version of livecd-ng I have been working on. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE use the bug tracker. If there are repeated problems/questions I will end up making a howto.
URLS: http://livecd.lockedbox.net/ & http://bugs.lockedbox.net/

Cheers,
Daniel.

[DanBUK]

Hi All,
I have been working on the livecd-ng script for the last 3-4 weeks. I have been modifiing quite a lot and due to this I've forked it, new name: fb-livecd. (fb = freebox, the dev server that currently is hosting it)

The project page is at: http://livecd.lockedbox.net/

I cannot remember what features were in the 1.1 version I put as stable a couple of weeks ago, but the 1.2 version which has just been packaged has the following features:

Multi kernels/initrd's from kern configs in the profile
isolinux.cfg auto generation based upon number of kernels (args from settings)
Autodetection of hardware inc X(nvidia,ati, or xfree), sound, scsi, mouse, net
DHCP on net dev found
root pass is auto scrambled on boot, drops to root console
support for non gentoo distros(it wgets a portage snapshot - package db)
A clean-list that is run on the loop whilst its being made, therefore your chroot stays complete.

And I'm sure some other things i have forgotton about.

Cheers,
Daniel.

PS. If you have problems using the newer script please do submit a bug report at http://bugs.lockedbox.net/

[Rooney]

Hi All,
I have been working on the livecd-ng script for the last 3-4 weeks. I have been modifiing quite a lot and due to this I've forked it, new name: fb-livecd. (fb = freebox, the dev server that currently is hosting it)

The project page is at: http://livecd.lockedbox.net/

I cannot remember what features were in the 1.1 version I put as stable a couple of weeks ago, but the 1.2 version which has just been packaged has the following features:

Multi kernels/initrd's from kern configs in the profile
isolinux.cfg auto generation based upon number of kernels (args from settings)
Autodetection of hardware inc X(nvidia,ati, or xfree), sound, scsi, mouse, net
DHCP on net dev found
root pass is auto scrambled on boot, drops to root console
support for non gentoo distros(it wgets a portage snapshot - package db)
A clean-list that is run on the loop whilst its being made, therefore your chroot stays complete.

And I'm sure some other things i have forgotton about.

Cheers,
Daniel.

PS. If you have problems using the newer script please do submit a bug report at http://bugs.lockedbox.net/

any chance of a repost on where i can get the ebuild and tar as the site is notmlonger there.

[bin-doph]

Hi,

did anybody of u run this on a box with 2.6.x-kernel? since the ebuilds for cloop are all checking for 2.4.x kernels this seems a bit stragen... I tried using original sources from http://developer.linuxtag.net/knoppix/sources/ but some try to open /usr/src/linux/conf.vars (which do not exist in any version of my kernels) or die's during build. The website say's cloop works on 2.6, I haven't seen it running anywhere ...

any experiences with that issue?

thx
-fe

[DanBUK]

Hi,
It's been a while since I have been using the forums/Gentoo so here is a little update. Lots has changed in my life but you don't want to here all about that(briefly Moved twice, changed jobs twice. Enough of that!)

EDIT:
Install Instructions: http://freebox.f-451.net/install.html
Portage Overlay: http://freebox.f-451.net/portageoverlay.tar.bz2
fb-livecd 1.2: http://freebox.f-451.net/fb-livecd-1.2.tbz2

I have not tested this with the current 2004 version of Gentoo so I'm not sure if it is broken, I know it worked with the 1.4 but the init side of things might have changed.

When I get some time I shall look into getting it to work.

Does anyone know if the tool that the Gentoo devs were working on for livecd's came to fruition?? I cannot remember what it was called. And I think it was going to be GUI based.

Cheers,
DanBUK.

[digitalb0y]

do you man the Catalyst project
http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/releng/catalyst/ but it has no gui

[DanBUK]

Indeed that was what I was thinking of.

I have not yet tried using it. Does anyone have any comments on it? Easy to use? Ease of modification of builds?
What does it allow for customisation?

Cheers,
Dan.