unetbootin

[Joep L. Blom]

As more and more system on the market don't have any floppy drives
anymore, wouldn't it be a good idea to make a leaf-distribution that can
be stored on an USB-stick (e.g. with unetbootin). Of course the BIOS
must be prepared to use the USB-port to boot from but modern BIOSystems
can do it.
Maybe a suggestion to look into?
Joep

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[Giovanni Franza]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Joep L. Blom wrote:
> As more and more system on the market don't have any floppy drives
> anymore, wouldn't it be a good idea to make a leaf-distribution that can
> be stored on an USB-stick (e.g. with unetbootin). Of course the BIOS
> must be prepared to use the USB-port to boot from but modern BIOSystems
> can do it.
> Maybe a suggestion to look into?
> Joep
>
Some years ago, I did a similar thing.
I formatted a usb pen and then copied all on it.
Only things to have are usb modules and scsi modules into boot/modules
(referenced in /boot/etc/modules) and, then the correct disk name
(mailny sda0) into syslinux.cfg. The thing was soo simple that i cannot
prepared noting (but there are a little howto in italian at
http://leaf.mgeng.com/leaf-on-a-key/LEAF-on-a-key.html - it is in
italian bit it contains module list that can be useful - warning: this
is for an older bering, but I hope it can of help)

HTH

Giovanni

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[Gordon Bos]

I'm thinking syslinux can boot from USB and the Bering distribution does
include an initrd with USB support.

But the whole point of having a floppy bootable system is that you can
write inhibit floppy disks. Therefore, IF someone hacks into your system
he can never make any permanent changes. Regretfully most flash memory
devices out there don't incorporate such a write inhibit switch.

Gordon

Joep L. Blom wrote:
> As more and more system on the market don't have any floppy drives
> anymore, wouldn't it be a good idea to make a leaf-distribution that can
> be stored on an USB-stick (e.g. with unetbootin). Of course the BIOS
> must be prepared to use the USB-port to boot from but modern BIOSystems
> can do it.
> Maybe a suggestion to look into?
> Joep
>

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[Joep L. Blom]

Giovanni Franza wrote:

> Some years ago, I did a similar thing.
> I formatted a usb pen and then copied all on it.
> Only things to have are usb modules and scsi modules into boot/modules
> (referenced in /boot/etc/modules) and, then the correct disk name
> (mailny sda0) into syslinux.cfg. The thing was soo simple that i cannot
> prepared noting (but there are a little howto in italian at
> http://leaf.mgeng.com/leaf-on-a-key/LEAF-on-a-key.html - it is in
> italian bit it contains module list that can be useful - warning: this
> is for an older bering, but I hope it can of help)
>
> HTH
>
> Giovanni
>

Giovanni, thanks for the reply. It's nice somebody already did it. In
reflection, I think also that unetbootin is an overkill as Leaf installs
itself already.
However, with an old motherboard (as I have) I have to take refuge to
the trick using a floppy with initrd, ldlinux.sys and linux and use that
as a bootstrap to load the rest of the packages from an USB stick (until
my floppydrive crashes!).
In my case protection (about which Gordon wrote) is not a problem as I
unmount the usb-stick after the installation: just let it in place.
After e.g. a power-out the system starts again as it is a memory only
system and the floppy (also unmounted after system start) starts as soon
as the power is back.
Joep

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[Giovanni Franza]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Gordon,
nowadays there are a lot of SD-Cards which have this kind of switch
some of them can be bought with an usb adapter.
What about using this sort of equipment?

Regards

Giovanni

Gordon Bos wrote:

> I'm thinking syslinux can boot from USB and the Bering distribution does
> include an initrd with USB support.
>
> But the whole point of having a floppy bootable system is that you can
> write inhibit floppy disks. Therefore, IF someone hacks into your system
> he can never make any permanent changes. Regretfully most flash memory
> devices out there don't incorporate such a write inhibit switch.
>
> Gordon
>
> Joep L. Blom wrote:
>> As more and more system on the market don't have any floppy drives
>> anymore, wouldn't it be a good idea to make a leaf-distribution that can
>> be stored on an USB-stick (e.g. with unetbootin). Of course the BIOS
>> must be prepared to use the USB-port to boot from but modern BIOSystems
>> can do it.
>> Maybe a suggestion to look into?
>> Joep
>>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Open Source Business Conference (OSBC), March 24-25, 2009, San Francisco, CA
> -OSBC tackles the biggest issue in open source: Open Sourcing the Enterprise
> -Strategies to boost innovation and cut costs with open source participation
> -Receive a $600 discount off the registration fee with the source code: SFAD
> http://p.sf.net/sfu/XcvMzF8H
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/leaf-user
> Support Request -- http://leaf-project.org/
>
>

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[Giovanni Franza]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Joep L. Blom wrote:

> Giovanni Franza wrote:
>
>> Some years ago, I did a similar thing.
>> I formatted a usb pen and then copied all on it.
>> Only things to have are usb modules and scsi modules into boot/modules
>> (referenced in /boot/etc/modules) and, then the correct disk name
>> (mailny sda0) into syslinux.cfg. The thing was soo simple that i cannot
>> prepared noting (but there are a little howto in italian at
>> http://leaf.mgeng.com/leaf-on-a-key/LEAF-on-a-key.html - it is in
>> italian bit it contains module list that can be useful - warning: this
>> is for an older bering, but I hope it can of help)
>>
>> HTH
>>
>> Giovanni
>>
> Giovanni, thanks for the reply. It's nice somebody already did it. In
> reflection, I think also that unetbootin is an overkill as Leaf installs
> itself already.
> However, with an old motherboard (as I have) I have to take refuge to
> the trick using a floppy with initrd, ldlinux.sys and linux and use that
> as a bootstrap to load the rest of the packages from an USB stick (until
> my floppydrive crashes!).

So you only need to load corect modules at the boot as for booting from
usb but you only have to put on the floppy syslinux, initrd and a little
more: allt the remaining on the usb device.

> In my case protection (about which Gordon wrote) is not a problem as I
> unmount the usb-stick after the installation: just let it in place.
If somebody can login into the system he can moount the usb, better to
usa an usb with lock-switch (as, for example, a SD cerd into an usb adaptor

> After e.g. a power-out the system starts again as it is a memory only
> system and the floppy (also unmounted after system start) starts as soon
> as the power is back.
> Joep
>
Regards

Giovanni

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Open Source Business Conference (OSBC), March 24-25, 2009, San Francisco, CA
> -OSBC tackles the biggest issue in open source: Open Sourcing the Enterprise
> -Strategies to boost innovation and cut costs with open source participation
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> http://p.sf.net/sfu/XcvMzF8H
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> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/leaf-user
> Support Request -- http://leaf-project.org/
>
>

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[Gordon Bos]

That would be the first thought. Both MMC and the full size SD cards
have the write inhibit switch. Only problem is that I don't know of any
card reader that allows booting from the inserted flash memory.

So to us this you'd need one of those IDE to CF adapters and then insert
a CF to SD adapter. That would make the SD memory act like it's an IDE
disk. For a stand-alone solution this would probably be the best way to
do it.

Myself I use a CDRW to boot from and currently still have a floppy drive
attached to store changes. From time to time I rewrite the CDRW with the
new config files from the floppydisk. I hardly make any changes anymore
though and the next change will probably be switching over to PXE boot.

Gordon

Giovanni Franza wrote:

> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> Gordon,
> nowadays there are a lot of SD-Cards which have this kind of switch
> some of them can be bought with an usb adapter.
> What about using this sort of equipment?
>
> Regards
>
> Giovanni
>
> Gordon Bos wrote:
>> I'm thinking syslinux can boot from USB and the Bering distribution does
>> include an initrd with USB support.
>>
>> But the whole point of having a floppy bootable system is that you can
>> write inhibit floppy disks. Therefore, IF someone hacks into your system
>> he can never make any permanent changes. Regretfully most flash memory
>> devices out there don't incorporate such a write inhibit switch.
>>
>> Gordon
>>
>> Joep L. Blom wrote:
>>> As more and more system on the market don't have any floppy drives
>>> anymore, wouldn't it be a good idea to make a leaf-distribution that can
>>> be stored on an USB-stick (e.g. with unetbootin). Of course the BIOS
>>> must be prepared to use the USB-port to boot from but modern BIOSystems
>>> can do it.
>>> Maybe a suggestion to look into?
>>> Joep
>>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Open Source Business Conference (OSBC), March 24-25, 2009, San Francisco, CA
>> -OSBC tackles the biggest issue in open source: Open Sourcing the Enterprise
>> -Strategies to boost innovation and cut costs with open source participation
>> -Receive a $600 discount off the registration fee with the source code: SFAD
>> http://p.sf.net/sfu/XcvMzF8H
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> leaf-user mailing list: leaf-user@...
>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/leaf-user
>> Support Request -- http://leaf-project.org/
>>
>>
>
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--


Gordon Bos
Q-RY Solutions
Martinus Nijhofflaan 2
2624 ES  Delft
The Netherlands
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Q-RY Solutions is distributeur van Pervasive Software en draagt zorg
voor consultancy, levering, ondersteuning,installatie en training.

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[Joep L. Blom]

Gordon Bos wrote:

> That would be the first thought. Both MMC and the full size SD cards
> have the write inhibit switch. Only problem is that I don't know of any
> card reader that allows booting from the inserted flash memory.
>
> So to us this you'd need one of those IDE to CF adapters and then insert
> a CF to SD adapter. That would make the SD memory act like it's an IDE
> disk. For a stand-alone solution this would probably be the best way to
> do it.
>
> Myself I use a CDRW to boot from and currently still have a floppy drive
> attached to store changes. From time to time I rewrite the CDRW with the
> new config files from the floppydisk. I hardly make any changes anymore
> though and the next change will probably be switching over to PXE boot.
>
> Gordon

Gordon,
I agree that an USB-stick with write-lock switch is the best solution. I
am, however, not so afraid for intrusion.If somebody want to access this
USB stck (for what?) he has to mount something he doesn't know to exist,
guessing the password, all through a firewall. I think it requires a
very dedicated and determined hacker! Moreover, to reach the rest of the
network he needs to guess the ssh-passwords and keys and guess the ports
(I use internally not the standard ssh-ports).
Moreover, on the firewall no sensitive data are present.
I have thought about encrypting all files which contain "sensitive"
(personal) information, but my paranoia doesn't go that far!
I have thought also about the CDRW route but I find it too cumbersome
and the CDR of the system (a 12 year old K8) is already long gone.
Joep

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[n22e113]

On 2/24/2009 04:45, Joep L. Blom wrote:
> As more and more system on the market don't have any floppy drives
> anymore, wouldn't it be a good idea to make a leaf-distribution that can
> be stored on an USB-stick (e.g. with unetbootin). Of course the BIOS
> must be prepared to use the USB-port to boot from but modern BIOSystems
> can do it.
> Maybe a suggestion to look into?
> Joep
>
Please refer to the following:
http://leaf.sourceforge.net/doc/buci-usbhdd.html
I am using the 3.1 Bering-uClibc_3.1_usb_bering-uclibc-iso.bin.img.gz at the moment and it works great.
Cheers,
Kwon


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