Fort Worth Linux Users Group Discussion Board

Sorry it took me a while to finish out this tutorial. I have gone through it a few more times and added a ton of material to my original outline to help those who might use it. Of course, anyone who saw the craziness of that presentation I did can understand why I made my list much more detailed and clear. Of course, even with the things that went wrong, I was able to transition to a completly different system and do the full presentation with little difficulty. It is not difficult to create your own Live CD with Debian Live! Ready to create your own?

I am going to be starting with a basic Debian system. I have used this procedure with Debian Lenny (Current Testing), and Ubuntu Hardy (current release). Debian Etch (current Stable) can be used, but you will need backports and few other updates. Please read the Debian Live website for building on Etch. You can build an Etch Live CD (as I am about to show), but to do it on Etch requires a bit more finess.

Step1)
If you do not have a local repository, I highly recommend you proceed with this step and create one.

If you have a local repository, you can use that and skip this step. If you really don't want to use a local repository, you can also use the purge function: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLive/FAQ#h ... f6e95f53ba

1.A)
The first thing you will need to do is install a repository manager. There are several out there but I recommend apt-cacher.

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apt-get install apt-cacher

1.B)
Now we need to modify it.

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vi /etc/apt-cacher/apt-cacher.conf

* The following is a series of personal preferences. It is important to note a few details and to properly adjust for your setup.
I like having the directory in /home as I usually have the most space there. Regardless of where you put it, make sure you have plenty of hard drive space and that the folder is accessible by the proper user and group.

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cache_dir=/home/apt-cacher
group=www-data
user=www-data


Change this if you want your email displayed.

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admin_email=root@localhost

I prefer to run on port 9999. Should you choose not to, this is where you can find out what port you will be running on or set it to a port of your choice. This will be important later as your mirror will be http://yourip:daemon_port/debian/. Therefore with this setting, my mirror is: http://10.5.35.214:9999/debian/.

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daemon_port=9999

Depending on the setup and your network structure, you may want to do this. For this tutorial, I am not. Just want you to be aware that it is here.

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allowed_hosts/denied_hosts=

Server mapping. Very important that this is configured properly. You need to have a valid server to pull files from. This can be expanded quite a bit and is very useful, but it goes beyond this tutorial. I am just going to use the one listed above and nothing else (security updates will still come from security.debian.org). A list of mirrors can be found here: http://www.debian.org/mirror/list

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path_map= debian ftp.debian.org/debian

Now save out of the file (if using vi then type :wq).

1.C)
Now we need to create the directory and the permissions as we set within that file

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mkdir /home/apt-cacher; chown www-data:www-data /home/apt-cacher

1.D)
Now to set apt-cacher to start on boot up

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vi /etc/default/apt-cacher

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AUTOSTART=1

Save and quit (:wq).

1.E)
Start apt-cacher

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/etc/init.d/apt-cacher start

On first start you will probably see messages like the following. They are OK.

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Starting Apt-Cacher: apt-cacherWarning: /home/apt-cacher/private missing. Doing mkdir(/home/apt-cacher/private, 0755)
Warning: /home/apt-cacher/import missing. Doing mkdir(/home/apt-cacher/import, 0755)
Warning: /home/apt-cacher/packages missing. Doing mkdir(/home/apt-cacher/packages, 0755)
Warning: /home/apt-cacher/headers missing. Doing mkdir(/home/apt-cacher/headers, 0755)
Warning: /home/apt-cacher/temp missing. Doing mkdir(/home/apt-cacher/temp, 0755)
Warning: /var/log/apt-cacher/access.log missing. Creating.
Warning: /var/log/apt-cacher/error.log missing. Creating.


Step 2) Install the Live CD helper scripts

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apt-get install live-magic

Step 3) Configure and prepare the environment with lh_config

3.A)
I have created the folder /home/live to work in. I will reference back to this directory occasionally, so if your directory differs then make sure you change the commands accordingly.

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mkdir /home/live; cd /home/live

3.B)
The configure script, lh_config, accepts several parameters which may be useful to you. I am only going to cover the ones of interest for this tutorial and at the end of this section (3.B) I will show you how your command should look with these options. Please see the links at the end of this post for more options.

Change the IP to match your own local apt-cacher mirror (run ifconfig if you do not know your IP). The bootstrap and chroot are for when you are building your Live CD. The chroot command is not needed for Ubuntu and may cause problems under Ubuntu.

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--mirror-bootstrap "http://10.5.35.214:9999/debian/" --mirror-chroot "http://10.5.35.214:9999/debian/"

Once you have a Live CD, your mirror may not be available. This will replace the /etc/apt/source.list with a good mirror. Again, a list of mirrors can be found here: http://www.debian.org/mirror/list. So add:

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--mirror-binary "http://ftp.debian.org/debian/"

Choose your desktop environment. Your choice will directly determine your CD size! You can choose XFCE, Gnome, or KDE

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-p xfce-desktop

http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLive/Examples

Choose your Debian version (at the time of this writing: Etch=Stable,Lenny=Testing,Sid=Unstable). Due to the constantly changing nature of Sid and Lenny (Unstable and Testing respectively), I highly recommend sticking with Etch unless you know you need Sid/Lenny. When Lenny is released, you will want to update your live cd.

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-d etch

http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLive/Examples

Choose the hostname and username for the LiveCD

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--hostname StackLive --username stack

http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLive/FAQ#h ... d19318d022


If you want memtest86+ add this line. You can remove it if you do not wish to have it.

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--memtest memtest86+

To build a USB thumbdrive image add the following. If you are building a CD, do not worry about this step.

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-b usb-hdd

http://alioth.debian.org/~lamby-guest/l ... l#id243560

Your command should now look similar to this:

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lh_config --mirror-bootstrap "http://10.5.35.214:9999/debian/" --mirror-chroot "http://10.5.35.214:9999/debian/" --mirror-binary "http://ftp.debian.org/debian/" -p xfce-desktop -d etch --hostname StackLive --username stack --memtest memtest86+

3.C) Add packages you wish to install. I am providing a list of packages I prefer to have installed.

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vi config/chroot_local-packageslists/packages

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smartmontools
hddtemp
htop
vim
kazehakase
openssh-server
clamav
rdesktop
atanks


Step 4) Build Live CD
This next step will take some time. Especially the first time.

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lh_build

Step 5) Testing the build
You will need to transfer files so ssh, ftp, or whatever you want will be needed. I will use ssh. If you have another ssh server you want to use, substitute here. I will be using Qemu for testing the iso images. You can use whatever emulation software you want as other programs like VMWare server will do just fine.

5.A)

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apt-get install qemu openssh-server

5.B) You will need to change the IP of the following to suit your needs. You will also need to change the memory (-m 256) to be more/less for you.

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qemu -m 256 -cdrom binary.iso -boot d -redir tcp:4222:10.0.2.15:22

http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLive/FAQ#h ... 79dd350520


5.C) Now customize the layout however you desire, but DON'T reboot it yet. Your changes will not last! Once you are done configuring and changing the desktop background or whatever, copy your /home/ on your liveCD to your system.

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scp -r /home root@YourHost:/home/live/config/chroot_local-includes/.

5.D) Back on your system (not the live CD) edit the following file. Do remember to change your user name and make it executable!

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vi /home/live/config/chroot_local-hooks/01-change_owner.sh

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  #!/bin/sh
  chown 999:999 /home/stack -R


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chmod +x /home/live/config/chroot_local-hooks/01-change_owner.sh


http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLive/FAQ#h ... 79dd350520

Step 6)Rebuilding
Back on the command line in your /home/live directory, you will need to clean up the build before you can rebuild. Do be aware that this will delete your binary.iso! If you want to keep it, copy it out somewhere else!

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lh_clean
lh_build

http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLive/FAQ#h ... b9dcbd343b


Now retest your liveCD (Step 5.B). If it works, burn off the iso. If there are still changes to do, then rebuild!

If you have a problem, please post and I will do what I can to help out.

Have fun!
~S~

Useful links
http://debian-live.alioth.debian.org/

Customize Artwork
http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLive/Howto/Custom_Artwork

Configure Splash Screen
--syslinux-splash 'config/binary_syslinux/splash.rle'

Examples
http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLive/Examples

[Edit #1] Typos fixed thanks to Bob Cox
[Edit #2] lh_config clarification thanks to Paul Cartwright

I came across something this morning that I thought was relivant and might be of interest to some.
http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/200 ... 02142.html

Have fun!
~S~