Documentation: secure-slinux-server-v0.2.0dev-i586-cd-v1.iso
AUTHOR: Sebastian Faulborn
DATE: 2006/03/20
LICENSE: GPL (the software packages contained on the live cd each have their own GPLish license)
SYNOPSIS: Installation of ISO image of the Secure-SLinux installation, rescue, live and demo cd!
Table of Contents:
Download
Installation
Requirements
Booting into Secure-SLinux from cd
Selecting the resolution and colour depth
Selecting the keyboard
Login
Using the live cd
Using the mouse
Starting the network
Ejecting the live cd
reboot/shutdown
Compiling Secure-SLinux from source
Writable directories
Memory usage
Download:
Download the most recent ISO image from here.
Installation:
Burn the ISO image with your favored cd burning tool onto a cd.
Note:
you to append data at the end of the cd (eg. the binary archive for SSLX-Server) which
makes a nice installation cd
Requirements:
Secure-SLinux does not support languages which use non-latin characters.
All documentation (man-pages, info manuals) is in English.
Booting into Secure-SLinux from cd:
Insert the live cd and turn on your computer.
After a few seconds, the grub bootloader should display a menu listing
several different display modes with which you can start Secure-SLinux.
Selecting the resolution and colour depth
The first entry (standard) boots into the kernels default mode which should be compatible
with all video cards.
The other entries (fbWIDTHxHEIGHTxDEPTH) show display modes using framebuffers. Your
video card must be VESA 2.0 compatible to use these modes. Most video cards sold over
the last 5 years should work.
Try Booting with the highest colour depth (24bit). If you get an error message that your BIOS
does not understand the selected mode, reboot ([ctrl]+[alt]+[del]) and try 16bit or 8bit.
Your computer should now continue the boot process and load the kernel. If you chose one of the
framebuffer modes, you will see a coloured tux penguin at the top of your screen.
Selecting the keyboard
You will be asked to select your keyboard. The menu lists the names of directories and files
found in "/usr/share/kbd/keymaps/i386". Choose the path which suites your keyboard.
For Germany you would select "qwertz" (6) followed by "de-latin1-nodeadkeys.map.gz" (3).
The live cd will always use the font "lat1-16" which will suite English, German and most European
languages. Independant of your keyboard settings you should always be able to access all 26 latin
letters and all special characters which you will need as an administrator. You may not be able to access
all of your language's special characters, though.
Login
Your computer should now have finished booting into Secure-SLinux. The kernel should have found your
network adapters and possibly your SCSI hardware (if any). You will be presented the mini-help which
reminds you of the most important commands.
Using the live cd:
You can always find the mini-help at "/root/Secure-SLinux-README.txt".
Using the mouse
The live cd should recognise most mice attached to PS2. There are still problems with USB mice.
You can copy with the left button and paste with the center button (or right button for 2 button mice).
If your mouse does not work and you know how to configure gpm, configure "vi /etc/sysconfig/mouse" and
restart gpm with "/etc/rc.d/init.d/gpm restart".
Starting the network
By default, the live cd does not start the network. It is usually not required and you cannot assume that
a server environment runs a DHCP server. However it is straight forward to configure the network
manually.
Edit "vi /etc/sysconfig/network-devices/ifconfig.eth0/ipv4" and set ONBOOT to "yes". Insert your IP, Gateway and
Broadcast. If the netmask is not "255.255.255.0" also change the PREFIX accordingly (the prefix represents the
number of 1's at the beginning of the netmask). There is no need to configure a DNS server - the live cd
comes with its own DNS server.
Now restart the network with "/etc/rc.d/init.d/network restart".
You can test the network with "ping web.de". There is the "lynx" text web browser which can be used
to read HTML documentation. You can download files with "wget", "ncftp" or "scp". You will have
a lot of other network commands available.
Iptables will automatically be set to protect you from all unauthorized connections from the outside.
Ejecting the live cd
Ejecting the live cd is one of the most important features. Most live cd's cannot be ejected once you
boot from them since the linux kernel holds on to a media if there is an application running which holds
on to a file on the media or even if the current directory points to the media.
A lot of care was taken in making sure that the SSLX-CD can be ejected at almost any point in time. You
will have most common commands available when you have removed the cd, but for sophisticated work or
shutdown you should mount the cd.
To mount the live cd:
Mount another cdrom:
where [device of cdrom] will be "/dev/hdX" and X=a,b,c or d. If you insert the cd into the boot drive, you
can find out the device name by entering "cat /etc/device-livecd".
reboot/shutdown
The live cd will be automatically ejected.
Compiling Secure-SLinux from source
The live cd is an excellent choice for compiling Secure-SLinux from source.
You must have at least 256MB RAM (512MB recommended). You also must create a swap partition on your
harddrive (partition type 82), format it with "mkswap /dev/hdXY" and activate it with "swapon /dev/hdXY".
Note:
Writable directories
Since a cdrom is by its very nature a read-only media, it is impossible to write to some of the directories.
The Secure-Slinux live cd is specially tailored such that most directories can be written to. The
read-only content in some directories is linked to a compressed squashfs image on the cdrom.
Basically this means that you can access "/", "/root", "/etc", "/var" etc. as you would an a harddisk which
is necessary if you want to compile Secure-SLinux from source since the compile scripts will create some
directories and links on the root filesystem.
Memory usage
When you boot from the live cd, it will use about 45MB for its processes and 20MB for the compressed ramdisk.
When you have swap enabled (such as when compiling Secure-SLinux from sources), the 20MB used by
the ramdisk will eventually be freed and placed onto the swap partition. So the live cd does not
consume more main memory than when you were using a harddisk based distribution.
The time needed for compiling Secure-SLinux from the live cd will be the same as if you were using
a harddisk based distribution since most commands used during compilation will be cached in the linux
IO memory so that the cdrom will not be accessed most of the time.
