Labels: dapper, edgy, kqemu, Linux, qemu, ubuntu

You can carry GNU/Linux in your pocket with a functional, quick, and useful USB pen drive distribution. Pen drives are faster than CDs, and the small distros that fit on them don't require huge amounts of memory for the operating system and applications.

Slax is a powerful and complete bootable distro based on Slackware, equipped with kernel 2.6, ALSA sound drivers, Wi-Fi card support, X11-6.8.2 with support for many GFX cards and wheel mice, and KDE 3.4. Slax uses the Unification File System (also known as unionfs), which enables you to write whatever you want into the pen drive. Bundled software includes KDE, the KOffice office suite, GAIM for chat, the Thunderbird email client, and the Firefox Web browser.

Slax comes in a variety of versions. You can get a minimal version of Slax called Frodo, without big applications, that fits in 41MB, or choose among the 200MB standard editions such as Killbill (which I use) or PopCorn.

Configuration files

Slax allows you to modify your environment and save the changes to a single file with the configurations. The list of directories saved and restored include /etc, /root, /home, and /var. After saving your session, you can later run it and use the same environment configuration as before, without having to reconfigure every detail.

Slax even lets you upload configuration files to the Web. With this option, the next time you boot Slax from wherever you are, you can get the file from the Web. To use this feature, boot Slax with the parameters boot: slax webconfig=YourPassPhrase where YourPassPhrase is the secret passphrase you will use to protect your data. There are some limitations with this system. You can save only 8MB in each session, and the list of saved directories does not include every directory of the operating system.

Ready to give Slax a try? Download an ISO image file and Syslinux, which you need to make the USB stick bootable.

Before you install Slax to your pen drive, I suggest you partition your pen drive in two -- one portion for the operating system and the other for data. You can set the partitions as you wish, using cfdisk or another partitioning utility. You need to set up a partition for the operating system in the pen drive, with FAT16 as the filesystem. Plug the pen drive in the machine but don't mount it. If you don't know where your pen drive is, type dmesg and check its output for the mentioned USB device. Then run cfidk /dev/sda where /dev/sda is the pen drive. Create a new partition, give it FAT16 format, and write the changes. Unplug the pen drive, plug it in again, and try cfdisk /dev/sda again to check that the partition exists and has the correct settings.

Installing Slax in the pen drive

Now you choose between two options. You can mount the downloaded ISO image of Slax and follow a few steps, or you can burn the ISO image file to a CD-ROM and use the Slax Installer application. I suggest the first approach, because are some little things you must do to get Slax in the pen drive ready. To do so, create a directory -- say /slaxUSB -- on which to mount the ISO image file of Slax, then mount the ISO image:

mount -o loop slax-killbill-5.0.5.iso /slaxUSB/

Now, as root, mount the formated USB device:

mount -t vfat /dev/sda /mnt/sda/

Note that /mnt/sda/ can be any directory you want to use. Copy the entire contents of the directory mounted with the ISO image to the place where you have mounted the pen drive:

cp -ra /slaxUSB/* /mnt/sda/

The -r argument specifies a recursive copy including every directory, and the -a preserves as much as possible the structure of the data in the USB.

Now you need to copy some files in the folder /boot/ of the mounted pen drive to the root of the pen drive so you can boot from it:

cd /mnt/sda/boot/
cp vmlinuz /mnt/sda/
cp initrd.gz /mnt/sda/

Move to the directory where the memory stick is mounted -- in this case /mnt/sda/ -- and change the name of the file isolinux.cfg to syslinux.cfg. Edit the just-renamed syslinux.cfg and delete /boot/ or boot/ from the lines that contain vmlinuz and initrd.gz -- for example, /boot/vmlinuz and /boot/initrd.gz. This changes the location of the files vmlinuz and initrd.gz, making them visible to the bootloader at the time of boot.

Finally, use whereis to check whether you have Syslinux installed. If not, download and extract it to a directory, then run:

syslinux -s /dev/sda

Where /dev/sda is the location of your recent modified Slax with all the files.

Now, reboot your computer, enter the BIOS, and change the boot order. Set USB-ZIP as the first one, then the hard drive, and so on. If your machine is old it's possible that it won't let you boot from USB, in which case you can use a boot diskette or CD, or use Slax as a live CD.

Other USB distros

In addition to Slax, you might care to try Damn Small Linux, Puppy Linux, or Feather Linux, all distros that take up less than 60MB of disk space.

Personally, I'm happy having Slax on my pen drive. It's both functional and fun.

Labels: Install linux from linux, Linux, Slackware, Slax, Syslinux, tutorial

1. Install QEMU:
   apt-get install qemu
2. Create a (resizable) image which will hold Windows XP. The installer chokes if the image is smaller than 1.2 GB or so, but that's not too much of a problem; the "qcow" image format will only take up as much space as is really needed, so the image will be very small in the beginning (not 1.2 GB big!).
   qemu-img create -f qcow /path/to/xp.cow 1300M
3. Insert the install CD, and install Windows in the QEMU image:
   qemu -hda /path/to/xp.cow -boot d -cdrom /dev/cdrom -m 384 -localtime

4. Wait.
5. After the install has finished, shut down the QEMU/Windows; from now on you can boot it (without having to insert the CD anymore) with:
   qemu -hda /path/to/xp.cow -boot c -m 384 -localtime -k de -usb

Type "qemu -h" for more options.

Labels: debian, installation, qemu, tutorial

The virus is a proof of concept file infector that will infect iPods that are running ipodlinux only, your safe if you run a default Apple firmware ipod. Unlike malware for your PC and Mobile this new virus is not set to be popular, there are limited ways you can infect your iPod with this and it targets the geek that installs ipodlinux on their iPod.

It is however a typical proof of concept, it seems that it is a little temperamental and will not function all the time, but as the blog of the author states he only had his iPod to test it out on. Plus with ipodlinux being extremely experimental especially on 5th generation iPods you can understand why this proof of concept is less than stable.

This proof of concept virus it seems was written by someone called FreeOn who is part of a group called DoomRiderz. We suspect the number of copies of this iPod virus out there are limited to those sent to the Anti Virus companies, but as the author says on his blog he plans to release the code and binary after the DoomRiderz ‘zine’ release. In the mean time we have the picture from the author showing the virus running.

Labels: Ipod, Ipod Linux, IpodLinux, Linux, malware, virus

Before installing iPodLinux, make sure your iPod is supported! If you try to install Linux on any of the unsupported iPods, there's a much higher chance of error or unworkability; tread carefully, and don't come crying to us when you think your iPod is broken. (It's not.)

Computer Connection

In order to install Linux on your iPod you first need to make sure your system is configured to connect to your iPod. If you are using Mac OS X, it is most likely already configured. If you are using Windows, make sure iTunes lets your iPod show up as a disk drive in My Computer.

Disk Mode

Connect the iPod to your computer and make sure it shows Do not disconnect on the iPod's screen. This is called Disk mode. The iPod should enter Disk mode automatically once connected. If it does not, for 1-3G iPods you can force it to enter disk mode by rebooting your iPod (hold down menu and play/pause for a few seconds (until the screen blanks out), and then quickly hold down rewind and fast forward). For later generation iPods, you can enter disk mode by holding down menu and select for about 5 seconds and then switch quickly to select and play/pause
once the screen display changes.

Components

iPodLinux consists of several components, some of which are currently being migrated from their original versions to second generation versions. Here is a overview of the components involved:

• The Boot Loader. There is the original version which silently boots either the Apple firmware or Linux, choosing the other by pressing the Rewind key at startup. There is also a new version 2 which offers a menu with many more options, including support for Rockbox loading.
• The Kernel. There is mainly one version that hasn't been changed in a while, which is stored in CVS and which you can download as a prebuilt file. There is, however, a side project on an improved kernel, which you may alternatively install once you have had success with the default kernel.
• The Userland is a set of files and folders providing the basic functionality to using Linux on the iPod. It contains a shell, the /etc/rc startup file, among others. The default shell may be sash, a very dumb shell. You might want to install the Minix shell as a replacement.
• Podzilla is the main user application for iPodLinux, being similar to what you use on a Apple-driven iPod: You get a graphical menu from which you can launch tools, change settings, browse music etc. There exists the original monolithic podzilla, which only supports older iPod models, and the new modular podzilla 2, which supports all current iPod models and allows adding new modules easily.

Partitioning

Linux needs a file system that supports Unix-style permissions.

WinPods use the FAT32 format, which is not adequate for Linux. Therefore, you need to add another partition, e.g. ext2, to install Linux on. This may require that you reformat your iPod, losing all your stored data on it. Make sure you have a backup of your iPod files before installing iPodLinux on it. The easiest way to add a ext2 partition to your WinPod is to use Installer 2, which takes care of the partitioning for you.

MacPods, on the other hand, use the HFS+ format, which Linux can be run from. Hence, you can simply store the Linux files on a MacPod from a Mac OS computer by copying them using the Finder or the cp in a command shell. You may have to use chmod +x on select files (/etc/rc and /sbin/* after the copying to make them executable.

Recommended Installation Procedures

There are several methods for installing iPodLinux. Here is a brief list of your options:

• Using the new Installer 2 is probably the easiest solution to get a quick start. It is currently only available for Windows and Linux, not Mac OS X, though. Also note that it's still in development, and may not fully work in all corners yet. It is a good idea to use a "fresh" iPod, meaning that if you have already done any kind of modification to your iPod and the installer isn't working for you, you should go here: http://www.apple.com/ipod/download/ and get the restore/upgrade software and use it to return your iPod to a workable state.

• Mac OS X users should try the new Mac Installer. That one is still under development as well, though.
• If you had success with the basic installation, you can switch to using the latest Loader 2manual installation instructions. with the Installer. You can also do it by hand with the

• Note: Before installation, make sure that the path to your installer contains ONLY English letters. Otherwise, for instance, if you have Russian letters, installation will end with an error

Starting iPodLinux (and Apple's)

Eject (or unmount) your iPod from your PC, then reboot the iPod using the Key Combinations if it doesn't reboot by itself after the installation already.

Important: When you had connected your iPod to your PC, do not reboot the iPod while it says do not disconnect, because that might have the bad effect that the modifications you made to the iPod get partially lost. Make sure you eject the iPod so that it says ready to disconnect before you reboot it!

When the iPod restarts, it'll show first the usual picture of an apple, then it should either:

• Show a picture of the original happy Mac, and after another few seconds should be back in the normal Apple software.
• Show a picture of a penguin, after which it will boot into Linux.
• Show a menu with choices such as Apple OS and iPodLinux.

In the first two cases, you have the original loader installed - hold down the << (rewind) key after a reboot and before either the Mac or the penguin picture appears to have the alternative software loaded.

In the latter case, you have Loader 2 installed. Use the << and >> keys to select an item from the menu and press the center button to select it.

If you chose to boot into Linux, podzilla should start. It may show a few messages which you have to dismiss with the center button, and then you have a menu interface similar to that of the original Apple software.

Now you are ready to explore iPodLinux. See the Documentation page for further pointers.

Note that if you have a WinPod, you'll not be able to see the newly installed Linux files from your Windows PC. See Accessing ext2 to learn how to access those linux files and folders.

If you want to copy new items to the iPod, you'll have to get it into disk mode again, just like before. iPodLinux does not offer its own disk mode - you have to reboot it into Apple's software for that.

What if something goes wrong?

Be sure to have a backup of your music before installing iPodLinux (while Installer 2 offers to make a backup for you, that does not include your files on the iPod but only Apple's iPod firmware)! If anything goes wrong, you can always use Apple's handy Firmware Restore Utility (http://www.apple.com/ipod/download/) to reinstall Apple's iPod operating system (called firmware). This will remove iPodLinux and make your iPod work the same way it did when you bought it. If you follow the directions exactly, the worst case scenario is to lose your music and settings.

If you attempt to install iPodLinux on an unsupported iPod it is possible that the Apple restore utility will not be able to restore your iPod. In this case follow the instructions on the troubleshooting page.

Labels: install linux from windows, Ipod Linux, IpodLinux, tutorial

First, download the latest version of Feather Linux USB edition. You should now have a file called feather-0.x.x-usb.zip, where 0.x.x is the current version. Unzip that file to your USB drive – you can do this in Linux using the unzip command, or using Winzip in Windows.

Then run syslinux, which will install the bootloader needed for Feather Linux to be able to boot from the USB drive. Syslinux can be downloaded from kernel.org, and you can find out more about it at http://syslinux.zytor.com. Make sure to use syslinux 2.11, as later versions do not function properly in the way Feather requires. Under Linux, you would type:
syslinux /dev/sda1
if your USB drive is usually found at /dev/sda1, and in Windows type:
syslinux.exe E:
if your USB drive is found at E:. That should make your USB drive bootable, and now you can run Feather Linux.

If this doesn't work, try downloading the Debian “mbr” package and using that to install an MBR on the USB drive (this will delete everything on your USB drive!) . Then create a vfat filesystem (use mkdosfs /dev/sda1) and follow the above instructions.

Labels: Feather Linux, tutorial