Paranoid Penguin - Customizing Linux Live CDs, Part II

Appendix

Here's the complete procedure I described last month for adding and removing packages in a custom Ubuntu live CD, in the form of a raw list of all commands described in this article. The $ prompts indicate commands executed as an unprivileged user; the # prompt shows commands that are executed by root:

00-$ dd if=/dev/cdrom of=./ubuntu-7.10-desktop-i386.iso

01-$ mkdir -p ./isomount ./isonew/squashfs ./isonew/cd
↪./isonew/custom

02-$ sudo mount -o loop ./ubuntu-7.10-desktop-i386.iso ./isomount/

03-$ rsync --exclude=/casper/filesystem.squashfs -a ./isomount/
↪./isonew/cd

04-$ sudo modprobe squashfs

05-$ sudo mount -t squashfs -o loop
↪./isomount/casper/filesystem.squashfs ./isonew/squashfs/

06-$ sudo rsync -a ./isonew/squashfs/ ./isonew/custom

07-$ sudo cp /etc/resolv.conf /etc/hosts ./isonew/custom/etc/

08-$ sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list ./isonew/custom/etc/apt/

09-$ sudo chroot ./isonew/custom

10-# mount -t proc none /proc/

11-# mount -t sysfs none /sys/

12-# export HOME=/root

13-# apt-get remove --purge `dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Package}\n'
↪|grep openoffice`

14-# apt-get remove --purge `dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Package}\n'
↪|grep gimp`

15-# apt-get update

16-# apt-get install tor privoxy

17-# apt-get dist-upgrade

18-# apt-get clean

19-# rm -rf /tmp/*

20-# umount /proc/

21-# umount /sys/

22-# exit

23-$ chmod +w ./isonew/cd/casper/filesystem.manifest

24-$ sudo chroot ./isonew/custom dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Package}
↪${Version}\n' > ./isonew/cd/casper/filesystem.manifest

25-$ sudo cp ./isonew/cd/casper/filesystem.manifest
↪./isonew/cd/casper/filesystem.manifest-desktop

26-$ sudo mksquashfs ./isonew/custom
↪./isonew/cd/casper/filesystem.squashfs

27-$ sudo rm ./isonew/cd/md5sum.txt

28-$ sudo -s

29-# cd ./isonew/cd

30-# find . -type f -print0 | xargs -0 md5sum > md5sum.txt

31-# exit

32-$ cd ./isonew/cd

33-$ sudo mkisofs -r -V "Ubuntu-Live-PrivateSurf" -b
↪isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat -cache-inodes -J -l
↪-no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -o
↪~/Ubuntu-Live-7.10-PrivateSurf.iso .

Resources

The TrueCrypt Home Page: www.truecrypt.org

Tombuntu's “Disk Encryption with TrueCrypt 5 on Ubuntu” HOWTO: tombuntu.com/index.php/2008/02/07/disk-encryption-with-truecrypt-5-on-ubuntu

Some hints on automatically mounting a TrueCrypt 5.0 volume as your home directory on Ubuntu systems: ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=645247

Mark Longair's enlightening “HAL and Device Management”, a concise and helpful introduction on how GNOME automounts devices: www.mythic-beasts.com/~mark/random/hal