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Re: Headless "rescue" CD that's Debian based.




On Mon, 10 Jan 2005, ridge wrote:

> Hello all,
> 
> I'm casting about for suggestions or recommendations

biting

> for a Debian-based "rescue" CD that would be
> appropriate for maintenance of a "headless"
> machine--i.e., one with no monitor, keyboard or mouse.
> 
> The machine is configured to boot from CD if one is
> available,

you'd probably have to make your own cd that can
bring your machine onto the network so ssh could work

> so it should be a matter of just popping
> the CD in the drive and flipping a switch.

the switch had to be on in order to get the cd tray out

> The other requirement is that the CD provide root
> access over ssh, either directly or through sudo. 

never allow root access over incoming ssh

	- login as ridge  than su to root

- in order for ssh to happen ..
	- you presumably have network connection
	when it boots off cdrom

	- how do you define your ip# 
	( static ip# or dhcp )
		- presumably written into /dev/ramxxx

	- /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow should have
	different passwd on each machine

	- if you leave /etc/shadon on cdrom,
	than each system has the same login and passwd
	( all machines is hackable if one is )

> Any thoughts?

gazillion 

you're scenario is incomplete so far..

> I've looked through the standard
> Knoppix/Mepis/Ubuntu, but most of them are obviously
> not engineered with this task in mind. There must be
> something that is, right?

you're lookng for a "standalone cdrom"  or "rescue cdrom"
	- gazillion of them too

other things to worry about
	/var/log	- what do you want to do with logging info
	/var/spool .. usually needs to be writeable 

	- writable info will usually be in ramdisk
	/var/log  --> /dev/ramxxx

- which apps do you intend to run "off cdrom" 

- fairly simple to do all that stuff that you're thinking about

c ya
alvin



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