2. Custom Live USB Linux Kubuntu on a USB Thumb Drive
tweaked for the general public Aaron Peterson
glowingwire.com catproof.org flammabletopics.org

4. Presentation Goals Describe a live-usb system Introduce some tools
Join forces
Promote
CatProof interfaces
Discoverable interfaces

5. Aaron Peterson Compute Atari 800 / 1200, Apple IIgs, 286, Atari ST
User Interface Design Philosophy
Discoverable
Cat Proof (no accidents please!)
fast for repetitive tasks
Becoming a machinist

6. time use Test My project, Why LiveUSB, Why Kubuntu? basic build 5 min
Parts of a Live System 7 min
How to use compressed file systems 5 min
Key customization points
Distros Options and variations 8 min
Work Around Bugs encountered 12 min
Tweaking KDE 5 min
Drivers – a political and legal issue

7. Who Are You?

8. Who are you? (What do ya know?)
Shell script?
Debian? (Ubuntu, Mint, Knoppix)
APT, Yum? Dpkg?
Booted from a live CD?
Booted from LiveUSB?
Mount?
Edit init, or services?

9. Assumptions
You can read faster than I can talk I don't have to address each bullet
You can use sudo on the command line
You can correct for a few typos and variances from listed instructions
You can google.

10. General
Details will be online or handed out

11. Anatomy and Physiology

12. USB Live More than just Linux on a USB hard drive Advantages:
( live on HD & regular on USB are also possible)
Advantages:
Windows compatible file-system* (get yer data)
Compression (Can I haz more programz?)
Tamper resistant (?) (more layers to muck with)
Revertible (changes only in 1 file)
Easy to transport (rugged, no moving parts)
Giftable premium feel

13. Special Parts Read only compressed file system
Writable persistence file (sometimes)
Unionfs
Boot loader (syslinux)
VFAT formatted volume as base

14. LiveUSB startup bootloader user selects kernel and initramfs initramfs
is loaded into ram, so the disks can be reloaded.
basic hardware detection
mounts the of the base filesysem
passes on options
initscripts
shell / display manager

15. LIVE Usb stick USB Physical Bootloader FAT (MSDOS) Initrd.lz Kernel
Sysfs config
Kubuntu.squashfs /
My Scripts
Persistence File
Shareable Data

16. On boot RAM Bootloader Sysfs config USB Physical Bootloader
FAT (MSDOS)
Initrd.lz
Kernel
Sysfs config
Kubuntu.squashfs /
My Scripts
Persistence File
Shareable Data

17. User set the options RAM Bootloader Sysfs config USB Physical RAM
Kernel
FAT (MSDOS)
Initrd.lz ( / )
Initrd.lz
Kernel
Sysfs config
Kubuntu.squashfs /
My Scripts
Persistence File
Shareable Data

18. What you see RAM 1 Bootloader USB Physical Sysfs config 2 RAM
Kernel
FAT (MSDOS)
Initrd.lz
Initrd.lz
/proc /dev/ /sysfs
Kernel
Sysfs config
Kernel 3 /
Kubuntu.squashfs /
/cdrom/
/rofs
My Scripts
/proc /dev/ /sysfs
Persistence File
Other File Systems
Shareable Data
RAM /TMP

19. Live Usb writing tools Usb-creator-gtk Comes with ubuntu (install it)
start-disk creator
select your file twice, BUG
Usb-creator-qt
Not as up to date, and is more buggy
Unetbootin
had some compatibility problems, seems out of date
Still useful

20. usb-creator-gtk

21. Booting from usb Read the splash screen from your bios
F9, 0, F2, esc, del, F12
May need to remove other removable media

22. Direct competition Multiboot linux ( just learned about here
Manages iso images for you on one drive
Raspberry pi
(Still needs data from a usb drive!)

23. Tangential Competition
The cloud!
Almost everyone should use online backup
LiveUSB works when network is down!
Create a link to ubuntuone.com/files!
Virtual Machines
Enthusiasts don't need usb, or cds anymore!
(Virtualbox, Qemu)
We can try one system on many machines

24. My Project

26. Catproof Kubuntu Remix
Live USB Linux distro
with usability enhancements (catproof)
deliberate action required
to do anything dangerous
or disorienting
No accidents
double clicks for opening files
safe actions still single click
track pad tapping turned off!

27. Origins Start (2004ish) Knoppix CDs as Gifts for friends and family.
Rescue and basic use if main OS is damaged
Games
Cheap, but thoughtful
Go Premium (2012)
USB drives to impress
Daily use
Persistent
Faster, More storage, Durable
Include music and or photos

28. Cat Proof Kubuntu Remix (Live USB)
G for General Audiences:
who like to tinker with computers
who call me for tech support
with cats, touchpads, or reduced muscle control (everybody)
General Goals
Provides High availability of data
Get files off of windows if broken
use any system
Easy to use
Portable Storage

29. Goals Just work (sorry free software purists) Drivers Applications
Shortcuts to key locations
Avoid unintended computer actions.
Turn off tap for trackpads
Double-click to open files
Axe plamsa-netbook
Make it faster by turning off bling

30. gotchas Don't remove the drive while it's running.
They don't even make an error message for that!
(Knoppix can be loaded to ram)
can break if it sticks out

31. Catproofing Turn off track pad tap by default
Turn on double clicking by default
Future
Alias out shell typos
Sanity checking shell
Simulate actions before doing it
Version controlled home directory

32. Screenshots

34. Fullscreen Short mouse travel Widgets are locked down
(also good for one-handed touch screen)
Widgets are locked down
Information dense
uses screen effectively
less scrolling
Organized
everything sorted and contained

36. Common apps at a glance
removable devices listed prominently
a little note to help newbies with vocabulary
labels

38. System Tray
Access to the main usb drive (windows accessable)
TODO this is only writable by root, (will need to mask specific directories as read only)

40. All common default directories shown
(forgot documents folder)

42. With applications BII theme saves screen space
May be the only netbook specific default
Taskbar on left
Shows app name
AND content information
I can read!

44. Full screen apps Windows can cover the main panel
but I can put my mouse over it, and it pops back up.
Would like to always have a thin bar showing though, (can probably do with a second panel under this one)

46. Choices

47. Why KDE? Reconfigurable Notification System Intuitive Icons QT Toolkit
Familiarity (
Try ubiquity – huh?
Try gnome – omg, what happened to my settings?
'nuff said. )

48. Why Kubuntu? Good question! Debian based Familiarity
Major(enough) Other Distributions considered:
Knoppix – Amazing
Suse Studio – Amazing
Mint – Amazing but KDE wasn't available

49. Not Knoppix? Lets you have a persistence file on your HD
Have swap on HD
Has so much cool stuff
Maybe too much
** DVD version Won't fit on 4gb thumb drive**
Many configurable boot options
Tell it what programs to run on load
** Won't work if updated **
**Script to put it on USB drive has to be ran from a running knoppix**

50. Not OpenSuse / Suse Studio?
Amazing!
Customize a distro online,
Try it in your webbrowser
** No persistance file**
** not on a windows USB key ** (unetboot didn't work) (This all May be fixed)

51. Not Linux Mint KDE? Amazing Almost what I want!
Basically a more polished Kubuntu
Customization scripts iffy
** KDE version was not available when I started project**

52. Compromises Security, (knoppix can password protect persistence file)
No Bling
It's too slow
I don't want it anyway
Updatability
Overlay is dirty hack
Will need to package my updates in future.
Will need to set up git.

53. Making Catproof Remix

54. Prerequisites 10-15gb free space Decently fast computer
Internet access
Physical and root access to a running kubuntu system.

55. Recipe Ubuntu Customization toolKit Kubuntu (with KDE) usb-creator-gtk
Custom kubuntu-default-settings
/usr/share/kubuntu-default-settings/kde4-profile
/etc/skel
Commented out plasma-netbook ### from /usr/bin/startkde
Syslinux options, remove maybe-ubiquity from
/syslinux/txt.cfg
More repositories and software
/etc/apt/sources.list
Throwdown some scripts

56. Live Customization Tools
Ubuntu Customization toolKit
Sudo add-apt-repository ppa:uck-team/uck-stable
Supported
Remastersys
Docs indicate based on my live system / for installation
Oem-config-remaster
Documentation not found
By hand
(I would end up writing my own scripts, UCK is already written)

57. filesystem mounting
when initrd gets confused

58. Special File Systems block device data on a file.
Jolliet .iso for cds and dvds.
squashfs
cloop (more complicated to use -- knoppix)
gziped (the initrd is a tar.gz or bz2)

59. Lets get Dirty!

60. Basic steps Download the Kubuntu desktop iso. Install UCK (from ppa)
Follow (almost clear!!) directions
Use chroot command line to customize
Use startdisk-creator-gtk (incl in ubuntu)
Boot from USB drive.

61. Use UCK uck-gui Super easy Redoes everything every time
Uses a chroot, so some programs don't install well
uck-flow is documented, but not available...
(creates user ubuntu, kubuntu uses kubuntu as user)

62. external resource
Show uck tutorial

63. Easy Huh?

64. Inside a running LiveUSB Distro

65. Tools Ubuntu Customization Kit Konsole (terminal app) Vim (editor)
Startup-Disk Creator ( GTK!!! qt is not up to date) sudo apt-get install usb-creator-gtk

66. Ubuntu Customization Kit
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:uck-team/uck-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install uck-gui
uck-flow
cd ~/tmp/ ls

67. The parts Iso file Initrd
Compressed file system (cloop squashfs, cramfs)
Overlay
Ramdisk
Swapfile
Bootloader
Copying tools (dd, startup-disk creator, unetboot)
The Rest is pretty much the same as a regular system

68. Customization process
Download iso
Have linux running
Mount the iso
Mount the compressed filesystem
Extract the contents (or overlay) of compressed
Chroot
Install and modify
Recreate compressed filesystem
Put it back in an iso image
Burn it to usb drive just like a stock usb

69. Lets play with some stuff

70. WARNING I am not an expert on these The purpose is to get you playing
The howto's are really good

71. mount -o loop mkdir -p ~/liveproj/k1/iso mkdir ~/liveproj/k1/sqfs
sudo mount -o loop ~/Downloads/kubuntu desktop-i386.iso ~/liveproj/k1/iso
sudo mount -o loop ~/liveproj/k1/iso/

72. Unionfs Nested filesystems Fun to play with,
could be used in more situations
Lets's play

73. ISO files
mount -o loop
mkisofs
genisoimage

74. UnionFS mount -t unionfs -o dirs=/Under:/Over \ > none /mnt/SeeIt

75. mksquashfs Mksquashfs /home/aaron/somedir somedir.sqfs
Mount -o loop somedir.sqfs somedirm

76. Mount --bind
Moiunt –bind /home/aaron/dir1 /home/aaron/dir2

77. Customization points compressed filesytem major software
anything always the same
Persistance file
(from a running system)
good for one off, or fixing a bug
takes time
may want to do this anyway, because first boot takes longer
can copy the entire usb drive later anyway with DD

78. Customization 2 Syslinux folder initial splash
some boot options like cheatcodes for knoppix
initrd
mount options for initial system
(fmask and dmask for /cdrom/ directory probably need to be added here
virtual terminals
main splash (plymouth) (I don't just not care, I want to see what my system is doing)
may be modified before compression by tool, or unziped and repacked.

79. Customization 3 The USB root folder
embeded scripts that grab from USB root (/cdrom/)
Where to put your content

80. Customize 4 /etc/skel/ old school where settings go.
(look for hidden files (ls -lah)
/usr/share/kubuntu-default-settings/
It was very annoying to find this,
but it makes sense with desktop options
The files themselves
/usr/bin/startkde is just a script, edit out the pain!
if you are using the persistance file just using it saves your own preferences.

81. Victories

82. Victories

83. Victories

84. Advice Buy a fast computer Build UI for small screen (netbook)
Test on many machines (different USB ports even)
File bugs and feature requests! (for KDE and ubuntu) (don't only post on a forum or mailing list)

85. Presentation Files My KDE config folder
Detailed list of steps for UCK command line.
My address and phone number(!)
this odp file
enjoy

86. Fit and finish

87. ideas
Use a virtual machine
uck-flow looks promising (not the gui)

88. The bugs, Bios incompatability.. (upgrade to latest)
Yanking the usb drive is bad news (Knoppix can be loaded to memory!) USB keys break off. (you can use SD cards too on some systems)
Multiple removable drive confusion
(sometimes it starts booting from the correct media, but gets confused half way through)
Prompt for closing TTY sessions,
(must set so they do not automatically log in)

89. Config tips Use dpkg -L to find what files are owned by the app.
Adjust the default apps,
Just because it is installed does't mean it will work.
make a script that runs at boot time to fix some other mistakes/bugs
(have it pull from /cdrom/autostartscript.sh)
use a brand new user to test changes to app,
(Named ubuntu) kdiff

90. TODO Package my files work with uck ubuntu personal repository (PPA)
( Canonical Ltd hooks you up if you have launchpad account)
Set up shortcut keys
(alt space to open window menu, then c to close windows)

91. Thanks My dad Debian, Canonical, Knopper KDE The guy who wrote UCK
6.html
of-kids-playing-with-a-ball-clip-art
Rayka the cat
gears photo

92. Now Go get some ice cream!