Debian LIVE CD
Hello all...
I am new to this group (just signed up today) but I am have two problems:
1. Creating a LIVE CD with Debian Testing
2. PXE/TFTP Boot server within a M$ DHCP Environment
I come from a M$ background (hey, had to get my start somewhere and it is paying the bills) but frequent the *NIX environments but I am by no means as comfortable with Debian as I am M$. Unlike a lot of M$ and/or *NIX folks I do swing both ways and know there is a time and place for each NOS. Although each can act on their own without any problems as well.
So...with that said here is my dilemma. I was tasked with creating a Live CD for a company. The requirements are here:
1. LIVECD (totally new for me but I love to learn)
2. No interaction with the Hard Disk (memory driven like Knoppix/Morphix) Possibly diskless systems.
3. Auto-Login
4. Only TSClient or Rdesktop (which will auto launch on boot)
5. Custom Desktop images and layout
6. Ability to boot from a PXE enabled TFTP server
So what do I do...I HATE RED HAT LINUX and will not EVER use it again. Not since the licensing/pay-per came into play. If I was to do only console work I would do FreeBSD but I need GUI and lightweight with access to a good repository. Also, down the road there may be more architectures involved...in walks, no, CRASHES, DEBIAN...I chose Debian for several reasons but the main reasons are: many supported architectures, 10,000+ packages, ease of package management and IT IS NOT 'PAY HAT'.
Ok...let's start with the Debian build first.
:: Debian LIVECD ::
I have everything configured and it looks great...I have a base Debian install, X, Fluxbox (custom menus, background, styles, etc), gdm, tsclient, ETC...
First, I tried iBuild but when I try to build the system I keep getting errors that files already exist...it is the 'proc' dir where the files already exist and I can not delete this folder (How do I remove this folder?). Ok...give up on iBuild.
Second, I have been playing with the Morphix Tools...it builds an image but when I look at the ISO that I build it is empty. The size is about 130MB but when you try to boot from it nothing happens and when I try to extract it OR try to look in it using WinRAR nothing is there.
Does anyone know of a 'PROPER' guide that they can point me to for building LIVECD's? I do not even mind building it fully manually. I love learing new things and I think this would be a VERY valuble lesson to learn. I would even write up a step by step doc on how to do it if I had the info on how to do it properly. Like I said, I am new to the LIVE scene but am liking it ALOT and have been to quite a few sites including the Debian LIVE site.
Now the PXE/TFTP Boot stuff...
:: PXE/TFTP Boot ::
I currently have a M$ DHCP server. Options 66 & 67 are set.
I have a Debian basic build with SYSLINUX and TFTP-HPA installed
Configured the TFTPBOOT stuff.
I can NetBOOT and get to the Boot: prompt but I can not type anything at the prompt nor does it seem to pick up the initrd.gz nor the linux files which are in the main TFTPBOOT folder, the only thing I can get to happen is create a 'default' file in the pxelinux.cfg folder and one level up a default.txt file which is the menu to show up. It also seems like the TIMEOUT option in the default file is not working. It just waits about 5 minutes all the time and then reboots the box. I have the default option as LOCALBOOT but sometimes it doesn't even do that...it just fails. I have downloaded the netboot.tar.gz (I think) from the Debian website and everything that is there is pretty much everything I have on my system. Also, I can not get the F* keys to work within my default file.
Two questions I guess...Is there a problem with syslinux running on Debian? Should I be using PXELinux instead of syslinux?
Any help on these topics would be great. Suggestions are fine...I can Google just a well as the next person.
I would like to have this completed by this weekend but I think that time is coming too fast to get it done. The big thing is the LIVECD...if I can at least get this working I can install a PXE server on my M$ DHCP Server and get this working easy enough, I just wanted to be able to document both a Debian only install as well as an integrated solution. Once I get all of this done I will have no problem posting a link to my work so others can comment and/or try it out.
Sorry for the long winded message and Thanks in advance to all,
Stephen Yorke
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