lesslinux.org Development Blog

I just added automatic langauge detection, kind of small magic before an internet connection exists.

How does it work? Currently it searches for the last recently used NTUSER.DAT and reads the registry key “Control Panel\International\LocaleName” from there. Of course this requires a windows installation to be present. But since this feature is targeted at some commercial derivates of LessLinux that are sold as rescue systems in various European countries, probably 95% of computers where LessLinux is booted have a windows partition.

If you are booting LessLinux on a machine without windows you might specify

xlocale=de_DE.UTF-8

to skip the selection and predefine a certain locale. The old

lang=de

only works for a limited subset of languages (German, English, Spanish, French, Polish, Russian, Italian, Netherlands).

• lesslinux-search-and-rescue-uluru-20150806-132900.iso

I just prepared a fresh build based on kernel 3.17.4. The biggest difference is that the kernel configuration is now based on Ubuntus 3.16. On the one hand this means many drivers are included that your live system will never need, on the other hand some drivers are known to work better in this configuration. The initrd is now bigger by around 20MB per kernel (kernels are included for 32 bit PAE, 32 bit non PAE and 64 bit). If this is too big for you, tinker around with the kernel configuration for your own builds.

Cairo dock now uses gnome-menus-3. This re-introduces icons and allows a nice search box. A much bigger change is the addition of i3. Start with the additional boot parameter

    xinitrc=/etc/lesslinux/xinitrc_i3

to start with three terminals in i3: One root terminal and two with normal users privileges. I know there are quite some i3 users out there and I would be happy to hear from you and share your experiences.

Grab it here: lesslinux-search-and-rescue-uluru-20141127-055823.iso lesslinux-search-and-rescue-uluru-20141127-164346.iso

Update: I just added i3status and changed the urxvt terminal in i3 mode to a much better readable font.

I just want to introduce a new tool. Fred, the forensic registry editor by Daniel Gillen is included in the latest builds.

FRED, the forensic registry editor allows write access to the registry

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We made some progress in both handling of BLOBs (binary large objects, programs like Google Chrome or TeamViewer that are only available as binary packages. A new feature is the integration of OpenVAS, a vulnerability scanner to detect unsafe devices in your networks. I am especially proud for my wrapper script to start OpenVAS: This does all necessary preparation work, so you do not have to manually download vulnerability definitions or rebuild databases. However, OpenVAS is still fat and occupies more than 1.2GB RAM when started from DVD! So, some preparation is recommended.

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About one and a half years ago I started implementing suport for the possibility to persistently add binary applications to LessLinux. This enables adding closed source binary only software without polluting the open source build tree. BLOB support was used in a commercial derivative to include TeamViewer. Now it is also possible to add Google Chrome – quite some users requested this feature since Chrome has very good multimedia support and implements a remote desktop solution.

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Sorry, no English version yet. You may run “LessLinux Safersurf” in English by changing lang=de to lang=en, but some tools will still use german localization, international builds will follow.

Leser einiger deutscher Computerzeitschriften kennen meine Systeme zum “Sicheren Surfen”. Den Anfang machte das 2009 und 2010 zusammen mit dem BSI entwickelte System “COMPUTER BILD Sicher Surfen”, nach 2011 wurde es etwas still um dieses System, bis mit der NSA-Affäre das Interesse stieg. Ich habe mich daher zur Veröffentlichung einer reinen Open Source Variante entschieden. Wie bisher ist eine Kernkomponente für erhöhte Sicherheit die Verwendung von Mandatory Access Control: Das sorgt dafür, dass nur wenige Prozesse aufs Internet zugreifen dürfen und Prozesse, die aufs Internet zugreifen, dürfen nur eine kleine Auswahl anderer Prozesse starten. Weitere Sicherheitsmerkmale betreffen das Dateisystem: Sowohl das persistent gehaltene Heimatverzeichnis als auch der Auslagerungsspeicher werden stark verschlüsselt.

Das System ist dazu gedacht, auf einen wenigstens 8GB großen USB-Stick installiert zu werden, unter Windows sollte hierfür der Win32DiskImager verwendet werden.

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I just finished building a fresh unstable using kernel 3.15.4. During the boot process no legacy map files for kernel modules are used anymore. So please tell me should booting from USB fail. A major change is that the stage03 build command and git SHA1SUM are now available in /etc/lesslinux/updater (look at the screenshot). This makes checking out corresponding sources and building modified ISOs much easier.

The version from the git tree and the build command are now accessible in /etc/lesslinux/updater.

Download lesslinux-search-and-rescue-uluru-20140707-145441.iso

I am proud to announce a new series. This is called “big fall full” – codenamed “Jabba”. It solves two purposes:

1. Provide a simple way to include all packages that are built in the second stage in the live ISO
2. Give the most simple starting point for building LessLinux and derived distributions

The second big change is that LessLinux development now takes place completely on GitHub. Scroll down to read how these two news fit together seamlessly!

Using Jabba builds

Of course you can use the Jabba builds as rescue system as well or as a nice replacement for the now defunct LFS Live CD, to start building LFS even when you do not have Linux system installed on some hard drive. Jabba builds will be released after major architectural changes or updates of core components like the used default compiler or the C library. This means mandatory releases every six to nine months and maybe convenience releases after updating kernels.

Jabba intentionally uses a really minimalistic user interface. After booting, the GUI consists of just two terminals, one with root privileges and one as normal user. You might start an XFCE- or LXQT-panel, but be warned: there might be many duplicate or non-functional entries in the menus. Thus it is easier most of the time to start needed programs by hand.

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Here we go with a fresh development build. The build and the included software is quite stable, but menus, themes and small stuff need lots of cleanup. Xorg moved to 1.15 and Mesa to 10.1. This allowed inclusion of some games like Quadrapassel that I like to play during data rescue or forensic sessions. A few changes had to be made to be able to compile everything against Glibc 2.19 and Glib 2.40. Some old software that refused to compile against Glib 2.40 was retired, other programs were patched. The kernel used is 3.14.4. More than 150 packages have been update. Cool thing: LXQT has been added. To use it, pass

xinitrc=/etc/lesslinux/xinitrc_lxqt

to the boot command line. It is quite usable but needs some polishing. Connman is included and totally usable if started from the command line. Unfortunately the Connman Gtk+ user interface is affected by a Gtk+. I am quite sure we can fix this for the next stable and then use Connman to replace Wicd. Everyone loves screenshots:

LXQT is now optional

And do not forget the download link: lesslinux-search-and-rescue-uluru-20140528-080923.iso

I just uploaded a fresh development build that uses kernel 3.12. The biggest change however ist the move to Gtk3 for some applications.

The new desktop with some Gtk3 applications

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