Debian LiveCD
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Introduction
- Sometimes we need to boot Linux without HDD e.g. if you want to experiment with HDD encryption, enable/disable it without causing damage to your data. For such cases we need a LiveCD which doesn't mount HDD at boot.
Creating Initial System with debootstrap
apt-get install debootstrap mkdir livecd debootstrap --arch powerpc squeeze /root/livecd http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian # Grab a beer and reverse some PS3 stuff in the meantime :) # Enter chroot environment mount -t proc none /root/livecd/proc mount --rbind /dev /root/livecd/dev LANG=C chroot /root/livecd /bin/bash export TERM=xterm-color echo "debian" > /etc/hostname dpkg-reconfigure tzdata # Configure network interfaces cat /etc/network/interfaces --- auto lo iface lo inet loopback allow-hotplug eth0 iface eth0 inet dhcp allow-hotplug wlan0 iface wlan0 inet dhcp wpa-ssid ssid wpa-psk psk -EOF- # Configure APT cat /etc/apt/sources.list --- deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian squeeze main deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian squeeze main deb http://security.debian.org squeeze/updates main deb-src http://security.debian.org squeeze/updates main -EOF- aptitude update aptitude install locales dpkg-reconfigure locales aptitude install console-data dpkg-reconfigure console-data tasksel install standard aptitude install binutils gcc make git vim openssh-server sudo wireless-tools wpasupplicant libssl-dev libncurse5-dev aptitude install gcc-spu g++-spu newlib-spu spu-tools aptitude install parted kpartx cryptsetup libreadline-dev libaio-dev libdevmapper-dev libudev-dev # Make SSH server start at boot so we could ssh to our LiveCD update-rc.d ssh defaults aptitude clean rm -f /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules # exit chroot environment exit # Unmount dev and proc umount /root/livecd/dev/shm umount /root/livecd/dev/pts umount /root/livecd/dev umount /root/livecd/proc
Creating Root Filesystem
cd /root/livecd mksquashfs * ../root.sfs
Modifying Root Filesystem
cd /root unsquashfs root.sfs cd squashfs-root # Make your changes mksquashfs * ../root-changed.sfs
Linux 3 Kernel
- We need a Linux 3 kernel with overlayfs support so we could create a tmpfs over our read-only base filesystem.
- Furthermore, we want to compile PS3 HDD driver as module because in this case we can easily change HDD region flags.
See my GIT repos:
- http://gitorious.ps3dev.net/ps3linux/kernel-configs
- http://gitorious.ps3dev.net/ps3linux/kernel-patches-34
- http://gitorious.ps3dev.net/ps3linux/kernel-patches-35
- http://gitorious.ps3dev.net/ps3linux/livecd
Initramfs
See my GIT repo: http://gitorious.ps3dev.net/ps3linux/livecd
BusyBox
- We need a couple of user-space applications to mount filesystems, load kernel modules and so on.
- And make sure you compile BusyBox without any library dependencies.
- I compiled my BusyBox executable on PS3 Linux but you could cross-compile it too but then you need a complete PowerPC toolchain with libc.
http://busybox.net/downloads/busybox-1.20.1.tar.bz2 tar xvjf busybox-1.20.1.tar.bz2 cd busybox-1.20.1 make menuconfig make
Creating Image
# Populate initramfs mkdir initramfs cd initramfs mkdir -p bin dev etc lib/modules/3.5.3 mnt proc sbin sys usr/bin usr/sbin cp ~/busybox-1.20.1/busybox bin/ cd bin ln -sf busybox sh cd .. echo 'sda.* 0:6 0660' >> etc/mdev.conf echo 'sr[0-9] 0:6 0660 @ln -sf $MDEV cdrom' >> etc/mdev.conf cat >etc/modules <<EOF > fat > vfat > isofs > crc-ccitt > crc-itu-t > lzo_compress > udf > squashfs > overlayfs > ps3_gelic > ps3stor_lib > sg > ps3rom > usb-common > usbcore > ehci-hcd > ohci-hcd > usb-storage > EOF for mod in fat vfat isofs crc-ccitt crc-itu-t lzo_compress udf squashfs overlayfs \ ps3_gelic ps3stor_lib sg ps3rom usb-common usbcore ehci-hcd ohci-hcd usb-storage; do path=`find /home/glevand/linux-3.5.3-build/lib/modules/3.5.3 -name $mod.ko` cp $path lib/modules/3.5.3/ done # Create initramfs find . | cpio -H newc -o > ../initramfs.cpio cd .. cat initramfs.cpio | gzip > initramfs.cpio.gz # Make changes to initramfs gunzip initramfs.cpio.gz mkdir initramfs cd initramfs cpio -i -d -H newc --no-absolute-filenames < ../initramfs.cpio
Images
- vmlinux-3.5.3.xz: http://www.multiupload.nl/0R2TP29KZC (MD5 2da491cd3a213cab41797216ef0a2332)
- root.sfs: http://www.multiupload.nl/ANFAPX646J (MD5 e402b631c8317166367f28785c65ba6c)
- Tools available on the root filesystem: gcc, spu-gcc, spuisofs, spuldrfs, ps3vuart-tools, ps3sed and all my other PS3 Linux drivers. Everything you need to compile and test various PS3 stuff.
- In case someone still hasn't figured it out yet, password for root is root and password for glevand is glevand :)
- I enabled DHCP on Ethernet.
- You could use WLAN too but for that you have to modify the root filesystem and configure your SSID and PSK in /etc/network/interfaces.
USB
- Your USB drive should be formatted with FAT32 filesystem.
- initramfs-usb.cpio.gz: http://www.multiupload.nl/OW560Y66Y2 (MD5 c8ae892b68dfd7078415a4a52c440f39)
- Create debianlive directory on your USB drive.
- Put vmlinux-3.5.3 (extract xz archive), initramfs.cpio.gz and root.sfs into this directory.
$ ls -l /mnt/usb/debianlive/ total 257696 -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 6746154 Aug 18 17:44 initramfs.cpio.gz -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 249835520 Aug 18 17:15 root.sfs -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 7288832 Aug 18 17:31 vmlinux-3.5.3 $ ls -l /mnt/usb/ -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 188 Aug 18 17:30 kboot.conf
- And create kboot.conf in the root directory of your USB drive with this content:
debianlive=/debianlive/vmlinux-3.5.3 initrd=/debianlive/initramfs.cpio.gz
CDROM
- initramfs-cdrom.cpio.gz: http://www.multiupload.nl/OT9YTIN8XU (MD5 7b1899301bae7e17be6e16e3d0bd9803)
- debianlive.iso.xz: http://www.multiupload.nl/YNPS0HO4BR (MD5 8eeb188c13919a4f3bbf7e727efef3ee)
mkdir -p iso/debianlive cp root.sfs initramfs.cpio.gz vmlinux-3.5.3 iso/debianlive echo "debianlive=/debianlive/vmlinux-3.5.3 initrd=/debianlive/initramfs.cpio.gz" > iso/kboot.conf cd iso mkisofs -R -J -l -o ../debianlive.iso . cd .. sudo cdrecord -v dev=/dev/sr0 blank=fast sudo cdrecord -v dev=/dev/sr0 debianlive.iso