LinuxLive... Save Me
by D4vedw1n
I've been reading 2600 now for a while and have gained a ton of knowledge, learned a new "critical" way of thinking, and want to say thanks! to everyone.
I noticed, though, that many of the articles printed herein require Linux to perform. I've been playing with Linux (and like it a lot) for some time, but some of us are stuck with Windows. Reasons can range from being stuck using school/library computers to your family rejecting the operating system.
You could use dual-boot if you are the "owner" of the machine. This too may become tiresome for both the Windows users and the Linux user (at least it did in my house). You could setup a virtual machine on your PC, but this isn't very portable, and you may not have access to all of your hardware. Our next option is live CD/USB options, but this poses a problem if you want to save information.
I wanted a bootable thumb drive that I could update, easily save to, and treat as my own (not an alternative). I learned this was called persistence and I had found my solution. I found two programs for setting up a persistent thumb drive, LinuxLive (LiLi) (www.linuxliveusb.com), and PenDrive (www.pendrivelinux.com).
I played with both versions enough to familiarize myself with them. They both offer a good variety of Linux distributions, and the ability to download or use a local ISO at the time of setup. LiLi offers the ability to use a CD as well. You then choose what drive to install to. Both versions offered persistence, depending on the distro chosen. Install times were pretty close as well, with PenDrive at 15 minutes and LiLi at 16.5 minutes on my 8 GB thumb drive using a local copy of the BackTrack 5 ISO.
There are two other differences that I liked in LiLi over PenDrive. First was that you can run LiLi's version in Windows as a virtual machine with VirtualBox. Unfortunately at this time the persistence does not work in Windows 7 or Vista, but it does run in those versions. The second thing I liked was found on boot-up. The GRUB loader for LiLi gives you an option for persistence mode. While PenDrive has several options, it doesn't specifically say "persistent." I tested the default mode though, which did appear to have persistence. When I have some more time, I may play with this more, since it appears that the only version of LiLi's BackTrack that has persistence is the one labeled as such.
I've tested a couple of other versions using the LiLi installer, and persistence worked with some and with others it didn't. I didn't test all of the available versions, but I tested a handful of versions I was interested in or familiar with for persistence since that is what I was looking for. Persistence worked with BackTrack, Mandriva, and Mint. Persistence did not work for me on Ubuntu, Knoppix (although it says built in), and Open Suse. Obviously, with our subject matter in 2600, I was very interested in BackTrack and Knoppix, and was a little let down that I could not get persistence to work with Knoppix.
There are a couple of other things that I want to mention. First is that not all versions will work with all computers. I found that BackTrack would work for most Toshiba, HP, and Dell models I have access to. I think one Sony I tested worked, and I wasn't able to get it to work on any Macs (I work in a retail store with about five models for each brand). The second thing I want to mention is to update your image as soon as possible. Just like Windows, Linux updates are important. Third is if you are using persistence, I advise you to find a method for backing up regularly.
Sometimes when the image fails to load on a PC, the image will crash and the drive needs to be recreated. I've had to recreate my BackTrack drive several times because it failed to boot on a laptop and corrupted the drive. Lastly is that at this time you can't dual-boot one of the installations (there's a disclaimer on one of the sites). Once I get a little more comfortable with it, I'm going to play with this though. BackTrack and Mandriva appear to use a GRUB loader, so I may be able to bypass this.
I know that this article is not professional level information, but I hope that it will help at least a few other readers in their pursuit of the hacker spirit and knowledge, and hopefully pique someone's brain for a future article.