lesslinux.org Development Blog

I am proud to present release 1.5 of LessLinux Search and Rescue. This is the first stable, open and free release from a series of rescue and recovery systems previously featured in magazines like Computer Bild. The CD targets both users unfamiliar with linux who are in search of a easy to handle live system as well as administrators or anyone familiar with linux. For the latter group the command line offers tools found on every better rescue system, but also many “cheatcodes” (boot options) to enable netboot or remote administration via VNC. The former group finds some convenient graphical wrappers for typical tasks like resetting Windows passwords or wiping hard disks.

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Please do not think I didn’t work on LessLinux in the last weeks! On September 15th there will be a large press conference, where a new, LessLinux based distribution will be unveiled. Some features of this distribution are now available on current development builds. I am proud to present a development build that nicely demoes this new features:

• ISOhybrid conversion: Starting with version 3.8x of the Syslinux bootloader an ISO image can be prepared to be a valid hard disk image. Isolinux will boot this image in any case. There is one drawback however: A USB thumbdrive with this ISO image does not contain a writable filesystem anymore. Current LessLinux builds include a conversion routine: If sufficient RAM is found, the complete content of the ISO filessystem is copied to RAM during startup, the thumbdrive is reformatted as FAT32 and a Syslinux bootloader is written.

  To test this feature, use dd to copy the ISO to the thumbdrive: dd if=lesslinux.iso of=/dev/sdx. On Windows rename the ISO to .img and use Win32ImageWriter to perform this task.

• Start as Xen domU: With pvops Vanilla kernels getting mature it is possible to boot the same kernel on bare hardware and as Xen domU on the hypervisor. With small changes to the kernel configuration and the startup scripts (to search on Xens harddisks xvda and to open the console hvc0) LessLinux now boots on Xen. The practical usage of this feature will be for development and debugging, but it also offers the possibillity to offer lightweight live distributions as maintenance and rescue systems for hosting environments.

  To boot on Xen you must convert the initramfs files of the Vanilla Kernel 2.6.35.4 to a format that the domU loader understands — basically converting the multiple compressed cpio archives from /boot/isolinux to a single one:

  cat devs.img initram.img i2635vn.img | gunzip -c | gzip -c > initrd.img

  Then use this configuration file to fire up the domU. On pressing the Return key on hvc0 you get a simple shell where you can use ifconfig to determine the IP adress. Then use VNC to connect to the desktop of your LessLinux-domU.

  

Other new features:

• Kernel: 2.6.34.6 is default, 2.6.35.4 is optional
• Firefox: By running /opt/firefox40/lib/firefox/firefox you can start Firefox 4.0b4 with WebM support
• VLC: upgraded to 1.1.4
• Thunderbird: upgraded to 3.1.2, Enigmail and Lighning included

Known bugs:

• USB installation from the boot menu might not work, use ISOhybrid as mentioned above
• Sound will not work when booting Kernel 2.6.35.4
• Shutdown is blind due to some KMS issues
• Truecrypt manually load module fuse before running Truecrypt

Grab it here:

• Download from lesslinux.org lesslinux-search-and-rescue-uluru-20100903-134327.iso

As I mentioned before, “LessLinux Search and Rescue” is intended to be a versatile live system for typical service jobs that have to be done in mixed environments. To make work easier, a service system should be net-bootable and accessible with a remote desktop application. In builds starting with timestamps after 20100526-000000 I included support for both functions:

• Booting the kernel and initramfs with PXE and loading the system ISO with wget by http or ftp
• Starting the desktop with Xvnc instead a local X server

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I apologize for not writing in the last few months. A lot of things happened since:

• Computer Bild Russia had the LessLinux based Sicher Surfen as Cover Disc in January
• Computer Hoi did same same
• Komputer Swiat Poland will follow in the next days
• Computer Bild Germany had a “Banking CD” with a very strict SMACK ruleset in January
• Data Becker uses a LessLinux based burning tool on the cover CDs of Linux Intern

In the meanwhile I am busy upgrading, including new software and opening the development. If you want to help, please grab one of the test builds from download.lesslinux.org/testing/, run it and tell me, what attracts you and what doesn’t fit your needs.

If the testbuild should not start in you language, press “Tab” in the boot menu and change lang=de to lang=en (or ru, pl or es — other languages are just partially supported.

Despite the lack of posts in this blog the work on LessLinux not just continues, but LessLinux even had it’s first big appearance: Computer Bild 19/2009 had a cover mounted CD that was based on LessLinux and co-developed together with the BSI and the TUV Rheinland. The goal was to make a live CD that is easy to use for first time Linux users but also more secure than the general purpose live disk.

Features include:

• Usage of SMACK to allow internet access for certain programs only
• Kernel hardened with PaX to limit the risk of buffer overflows
• Password protection for the access to disks and USB sticks
• Installable on USB thumb drives with encrypted container for the home file system
• Easily updatebale when installed on a thumb drive
• More secure firefox defaults

You might download a developer snapshot from here. Please note: The developer snapshot might contain laxer privileges on some security settings and it is not in the update stream. Default language of the CD is German, you might change it to English by pressing Tab in the boot menu and appending lang=de.

Build lesslinux-20090626-1010.iso lesslinux-20090626-1435.iso fixes firmware loading issues with lots of WLAN cards and adds some new applications (Evince Document Viewer, Gnumeric Spreadsheet, AbiWord, File-Roller):

Here we go again. I just included the base ALSA files, some kernel modules and device nodes to make sure sound is working.

Currently sound is muted after boot, so you have to run alsamixer and use the key M to unmute front and PCM (OO is unmuted). Use the arrow keys to change the volume. It should look like in the screenshot.

You can grab screenshots now by pressing Shift+F12. Screenshots are saved as PNG files in /tmp/screenshot_YYYYMMDD-hhmmss.png.

I included some more firmware for Zydas and Ralink cards, please test if your WLAN interface is detected correctly and can be used with WICD.

Some words according fast boots: You can skip copying to RAM by pressing the TAB key in the boot menu and setting the variable toram=700000 to an insanely high value toram=9999999999. You might also want to skip the hardware protocol (which consumes lots of time) by adding hwproto|hwinfo| to the variable skipservices.

Download build lesslinux-20090625-1240.iso!

Next step: I included the wireless tools, wpa_supplicant and WICD as a graphical frontend. All PCI and USB cards supported by the Vanilla kernel 2.6.29.5 should now be automatically loaded. I re-built the kernel with support for some staging drivers. Firmware for WLAN cards is included for Ralink cards, other firmwares and an update to 2.6.30 should follow in the next days.

Since I do not have included a screenshot application yet, a blurry shot made with my digicam:

Other changes:

• Firefox updated to 3.0.11
• Thunderbird 2.0.0.21 included

Another build, another new tool: mmmm is a simple yet efficient mount manager that clearly shows to which physical drive a volume belongs:

mmmm is built around the XML output of lshw and uses just Ruby and Ruby/Gtk. No DBUS, HAL or Policy Kit required which makes it attractive for builds that try to be as light as possible.

The interface of mmmm is clearly inspired by GtkMount of the Pmagic live distribution, but using the XML output of lshw is a bit more precise than just parsing “fdisk -l”.

TODO: mmmm is very usable right now, but for the future a button to reread devices would be nice.

Please test: Please test the latest build (lesslinux-20090604-1326) and tell me if mmmm correctly finds all your volumes. You might also send me your hardware information, so I can debug possible problems more easily.

Update: A small bug in mmmm prevents extended partitions from being correctly detected. A fixed build lesslinux-20090608-1708 is available.

Another major step is done: An easy to use graphical frontend is added to adjust some final settings before starting into the desktop. The functions currently implemented are:

1. Start of the X-Server to automatically detect the graphics card:

   

2. Install LessLinux to an USB stick:

   

3. Use or create encrypted containers:

   

4. Set the user password:

   

5. Adjust monitor driver and resolution:

   

Currently installation to USB stick and creation of encrypted containers does not do a check of free space. So you have to take care yourself. Besides that those functions work very well.

If you want to help, plese download the latest development build and run it.

Other improvements:

• Many updates of individual packages
• Xvesa not the only Xserver anymore, Xorg with drivers or Ati, Nvidia, Intel and Openchrome added
• Mousewheel now works in Xvesa
• XFCE updated to 4.6.1

Please provide feedback: I would be thankful if you provided me with some feedback regarding graphics and resolution on your hardware. If something does not work perfectly, please describe the problem and send me you hardware information so I can work on a solution. You might prepare an USB stick with an empty folder “hwinfo”. LessLinux writes an archive with lots of hardware information to this folder. Send me the content along with a description of your problem and I will try to solve it.

What’s next: I am now working on separating message strings from the tools to prepare some internationalization. WLAN support also has a high priority and the mount tool should follow soon.

Where to get it: Please download Lesslinux build 20090528-0856 from download.lesslinux.org/testing/