Live Linux CDs: Building and Customizing Bootables

Description

Dream the perfect computer system, then build it to run on a Linux live CD!

 

A Linux live CD is more than just a Linux system you carry around. Start with a live CD that has all your favorite applications. Include and play photo slideshows, presentations, Web content, and music collections. Incorporate your own designs, colors, and images to appear everywhere from the boot prompt to the desktop.

 

When you are done, you have a perfectly customized CD or DVD that can run on almost any PC that you can reboot. In Live Linux® CDs, bestselling Linux author Christopher Negus guides you through the free software tools and toys you need to try out and create specialized Linux live CDs for security, presentations, gaming, multimedia, firewalls, and clustering. It is the first start-to-finish guide to using, creating, building, and remastering your own live Linux distributions.

 

Working from live CD technology on the accompanying DVD, you can

• Boot and run live Linux versions of KNOPPIX, SLAX, Gentoo, Damn Small Linux, and other live CDs
• Burn and boot Linux live CD ISO images of Ubuntu, KNOPPIX, SLAX, MoviX, BackTrack, and more
• Build your own live CDs from instructions based on KNOPPIX (Debian), Fedora, Gentoo, Damn Small Linux, and SLAX
• Create multimedia players that are customized to include your own video or music
• Customize live CD rescue toolkits to analyze and repair data on compromised networks, Windows PCs, and Linux systems
• Configure personal firewalls to protect from Internet intruders
• Control the processing power of a group of computers, using live CD clusters

Whether you want to customize the perfect live Linux for your own use or distribute it to the world, Live Linux® CDs gives you all the knowledge, tools, and software you need.

 

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments  xvii

About the Author  xix

Introduction  1

 

Part I: Beginning with Bootable Live Linuxes  5

Chapter 1: Starting Up with Live Linux CDs  7

Chapter 2: Playing with Live Linux CDs  37

Chapter 3: Customizing a Live CD  73

 

Part II: Creating a Custom Bootable Linux  105

Chapter 4: Understanding How Live Linux CDs Work  107

Chapter 5: Looking Inside Live CD Components  133

Chapter 6: Building a Custom Knoppix Live CD  165

Chapter 7: Building a Basic Fedora Live CD  193

Chapter 8: Building a Basic Gentoo Live CD  223

 

Part III: Making a Specialized Bootable Linux  251

Chapter 9: Customizing a Security Live Linux CD  253

Chapter 10: Customizing a Presentation Live Linux CD  285

Chapter 11: Customizing a Gaming Live Linux CD  301

Chapter 12: Customizing a Multimedia Live Linux CD  325

Chapter 13: Customizing a Firewall Live Linux CD  345

Chapter 14: Customizing a Cluster Live Linux CD  359

 

Part IV: Appendices  373

Appendix A: On the DVD  375

Appendix B: Building, Testing, and Burning ISOs  383

 

Index  401