Anil, Pretty neat!
~Joe On 27-Aug-07, at 7:05 AM, Anil Gulecha wrote: > Hi, > > I've been working on adding session persistence on a BeleniX LiveUSB. > The framework is now quite complete and available for testing. Note > that it is still in alpha, but works as advertised on belenix 0.6 and > 0.6.1. > > http://blogs.sun.com/anilg/resource/usbdump-1.9.0.tar.gz > (To Install, boot into belenix LiveCD, untar the above to a temp > dir, and > run the provided 'usbdump' > > > What does this mean to users? > ======================== > -The LiveUSB has a Documents icon on the desktop (/root/Documents). > Anything saved to this location is saved on the USB, and will be > available upon reboot. > > -The user can choose to record the keyboard type, desktop type, screen > resolution and network configuration data for a particular PC and have > them all automatically selected the next time the USB is booted on > that PC. Each PC can have it's own config so you can easily go from > GRUB to your favorite desktop and network setup without any user > interaction. > > -Additionally many settings made around the system are saved. Firefox > bookmarks and plugins, gaim accounts, thunderbird settings, and > settings of your favorite apps, new files created in custom folders, > etc. All of this is easily configurable by editing the 'profiler.list' > file. > > -the save back is implemented using lofi drivers. Once this is > modified to encrypted lofi, this will make for a cool encrypted > liveUSB stick that you can carry out > > How? > ===== > > Download the 'usbdump' script and run it from the belenix LiveCD > environment and follow the onscreen steps. You now have a belenix USB > ready. > > When you first boot a system, you will be asked the usual keyboard, > desktop and X11 setup config. Here are your options: > > -If you are on a PC that you want to save the data changes and various > other settings, run 'session-shutdown' before powering off the PC at > the end of your session. > This will save your keyboard, desktop and X11 settings. You wont be > asked these the nest time you boot up on that particular system. All > the saved data will also be available. > > -If you want to configure network on a system, and want it to be > persistent across reboots, run 'networksetup.sh' in a terminal on that > PC, and follow on screen steps. DHCP, DHCP-noNIS and Static IP are > currently supported. > > -Everything in /root/Documents is saved and is available across > reboot. This folder can also be accessed using the 'Documents' icon on > the desktop. > > -If you do not want to save any settings that you made in the current > session, just poweroff without session-shutdown > > Known issues/limitations and near-future improvements > ============================= > -Encryption! this is the high priority feature to be included to allow > for a secure usb stick along with ubiquitous computing. the change > needed would be to use xlofi instead of lofi. > > -The scripts run and work on my machine. I've tried with 3 different > USBs (kingson 1gb, lexar 1gb and kingston 2gb). However, I expect > usbdump to not work on certain USBs. If you have one such, do contact > me so we can fix the issues. > > -Currently only /root/Desktop is saved back (loop mounted to > /mnt/saveback/Documents) . This can be (quite easily) extended to > /opt/, /opt/csw and > others and we can add the ability to install apps from repositories > like blastwave). > > -I have not tried networksetup.sh with wifi or PCs with more than 1 > ethernet card. the script may require some modification. > > -A better pseudo-PCID for x86 instead of te currently used ethernet > MAC id. > Usbdump wont work on PCs without an ethernet device. > > -This can also me modified to work with LiveCD, by saving back to > the hard disk. > > -Scripts need cleaning up/error handling.. if someone wants to work on > them, let me know and I'll push this up on the todo and also post the > helper scripts. > > -I've left in a lot of 'set -x' in the scripts.. so you will see a lot > of stuff scroll on startup. > > I'll write up a blog entry on all the behind the scenes tech stuff > soon and post it. > > Once stable and more mature, these changes could go back into the > livemedia project (and Indiana?) > > Anil > _______________________________________________ > belenix-discuss mailing list > http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/belenix-discuss > http://groups.google.com/group/belenix-discuss
