NOTE: Please keep in mind that there are many different ways to achieve this same result using various loop and ramdisk methods, read this with a separate window to jot down your comments and suggestions... this is ongoing for me so any help would be appreciated!
This is my first post and I plan on making this topic an official HOWTO with www.tldp.org.
I have been into the computer security scene since 1990, but I realized that I had very little experience with the various LInux, Unix, and alternative Operating systems out there.
I have a CD-RW drive but being a struggling computer security researcher I had no money for blank cd-recordables. What follows is how I managed to install various operating systems on my computer (1 hard drive) without having to burn to a CD the ISO and then boot from that.
I first partitioned my 120GB harddrive into 10 partitions, the 2nd partition is a small swap and the last partition is extra large because it holds all the ISO images..
I then wrote a small shell script to automatically download (I love wget!) the following.
OpenBSD
IpCOP
Libranet
Arch-Linux
Fire
Local Area Security
Packet Master
Devil-Linux
FreeBSD
Knoppix
Helix
Gentoo
Yoper-Linux
NetBSD
RedHat
Slackware
The script also downloaded Installation manuals and md5 checksums.. (let me know if I should post... its pretty unsophisticated ;)
I installed Slackware (personal favorite) on hda1 using my last blank CD-R, note that I do not have a separate boot partitino. (Should I?). I also installed grub on the MBR. I love grub, if you read through the man pages and all info you can find about grub, you can learn a whole lot. Grub has much more features and capability than lilo, even though lilo comes installed by default with slack.
I organize my kernel situation as follows... In my /boot directory, I mkdir KERNEL, CONFIG, MAP, INITRD and that is a good way for me to keep my kernels and everything organized.. Another good way is a separate dir for each new kernel.
Since Arch-Linux is a solid distro, I'll use that as a first example.
The first thing to do is to mount the downloaded ISO image so we can use it as if it were an actual CD.
mount -t iso9660 -o ro,loop=/dev/loop0 cdimage /mnt/cdrom
Where cdimage= the ISO image. EX. /usr/local/src/ISO/Linux/Arch-Linux/arch-0.6.iso
This mounts the iso as /mnt/cdrom.
Next you need to copy /mnt/cdrom to a separate partition for the booting process. So mkfs.ext2 /dev/hda9. ( I prefer reiserfs or even XFS to ext but if you use something other than ext2 you could run into some problems because some of the installation kernels and initrds don't include support for reiserfs and so can't recognize the files. Although you could use mkinitrd to create a new initrd with reiserfs support, that might be pushin it IMO... ;) I use the 9th partition consistently for this. I know there is a "right" way to copy the /mnt/cdrom files so everything stays the way it is supposed too, using tar or cpio, but I'm lazy so I just do cp -rp.
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(What is the tar or cpio commands to copy with correct permissions etc??)
So you mount the 9th partition as whatever, say /mnt/hd and then copy the files. Now what?
Now edit your /boot/grub/menu.lst file to include the specific options to boot arch-linux installation.
A good idea is to find the isolinux.cfg file somewhere on the distro cd, this will tell you what to include in the menu.lst.
This should be self-explanatory. The root (hd0,8) is pointing to partition 9. So the rest of the commands start from partition 9.
When you experience problems, remember you can always edit the grub boot options by typing 'e' and then edit the section. Also, a good idea is to include several variations in your menu.lst so you can easily try other ways to boot efficiently. And, remember to read up on all the installation guides that come with your distro, specifically, hard-disk installs.
There are special cases, Gentoo, has a semi-new compressed filesystem called squashfs. BTW, this is AWESOME, so check it out. It has to be compiled into the kernel, so some work is in order, but use this recompile to optimize your kernel. You can get the squashfs patch for almost any kernel. I use the latest stable 2.6 kernel. Squashfs is incredible and although I don't think you need it to install from ISO, you do need it to expand the livecd.squashfs filesystem that comes with the cd.
A nother' tip is the shell that is provided if you experience problems, typically busybox or ash. The key tools to get you going from here is mount and chroot. Sometimes you will need to manually create a simulated file system and then chroot into it. For instance, you might have to create boot, etc, bin, directories on the target partition.
I generally install each OS onto the next partition (careful of the logical partition) and add it to my menu.lst after install. A good idea is after installation, copy the kernel and initrd(if there is one) to the slackware(or whatever) boot partition on hda1. I copy kernels to /boot/KERNEL/ and initrd's to /boot/INITRD, then menu.lst is more organized...
You then need to add an updated section to your menu.lst (just comment out the install section for later)
Here is the finished arch-linux section from menu.lst
########################################################
title Arch Linux 6
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 ro root=/dev/hdc3
########################################################
This doesn't use my convenient boot/KERNEL/vmlinuz26 as you can tell by setting the root to partition 3.
***NOTE: Make a backup of MBR using dd and save to floppy, also backup the partition table to floppy, using cfdisk or parted. And boot disks (I use 1 with grub, and 1 with slack, and tomsbootdisk) will invariably come in handy. Tomsbootdisk is recommended, and make the grub boot disk when you install grub. install to floppy.
The final result after some fun experimenting, is when I boot, I have a cool grub boot screen come up with the option to boot into whatever OS I want, this is handy for multiple reasons. One good thing to do after this is to port scan and vuln scan each OS, after you update of course. Write this stuff down and you will know the weaknesses/strengths of the various OS's.
I can boot a custom Firewall, snort, or multiple honeypots using this procedure, as well as a graphical kde environment with a kernel optimized for graphics and my processor/architecture, or an environment devoted to forensics or even an environment suitable for programming.
BONUS: I recently did a search for 100% free email with either pop or imap access for remote retrieval, and I was looking for storage space, here are the results of my search... I know you'll enjoy the free storage.
Each one of these you can access without web interface, each one is 100% free, each one has special features. (note, I am no affiliate! :)
www.fusemail.com 100MB
www.bluebottle.com 250MB
www.cashette.com 100MB (plus name a price for spam, like $0.50 for each spam and you get paid.)
P.S. Some of the cooler alternative operating systems are BeOS 5, EOS, ER_OS, V2_OS, and my personal favorite Menuet. Menuet is 100% assembly graphical operating system that fits on a floppy. Its f'in money!
This should be a good enough example to get you started, this kind of thing should be learned and not just copied... Knowing how to do this stuff could prove to be exceptionally useful... ;)
Also, it is possible to install windows on a partition other than 1 using grub. Check out the hide and unhide commands. OR, you could install windows, then use the ntfs tools (ntfsresize) from sourceforge to resize the partition, and then use dd to move the partition elsewhere, and if you can find the block that you moved it to, use grubs' block command to load it, or what I do is use the map command to trick windows and then use the chainloader command. The chainloader command can also be used to boot windows if it is somewhere besides the 1st partition. like chainloader +1004 (this would be used if windows partiton starts at 1004)
Also check out Plan 9 OS, it looks like an ideal candidate for this method. http://plan9.bell-la...ions/index.html
[edited]-NO, do not try this, get comfortable with unix variants first.
P.S. If you are using windows, STOP IT. You'll never get anywhere with windows... its just nice to have for those rare (especially these days) cases where you need to use it.
Also, it is possible to install windows on a partition other than 1 using grub. Check out the hide and unhide commands. OR, you could install windows, then use the ntfs tools (ntfsresize) from sourceforge to resize the partition, and then use dd to move the partition elsewhere, and if you can find the block that you moved it to, use grubs' block command to load it, or what I do is use the map command to trick windows and then use the chainloader command. The chainloader command can also be used to boot windows if it is somewhere besides the 1st partition. like chainloader +1004 (this would be used if windows partiton starts at 1004)
P.S. If you are using windows, STOP IT. You'll never get anywhere with windows... its just nice to have for those rare (especially these days) cases where you need to use it.
To say you'll never get anywhere using Windows is a ridiculous statement. For one, you can get a shit load of jobs if you know how to setup, administer, secure, or program on Windows Platforms. I would be willing to say a lot more chances then with *Nix. I share your sentiments about it compared to linux operating systems, but lets not make ridiculous statements.
I was talking about in regards to my post (multi os, boot managers, everything I discussed) and info-sec in general. Sorry for the confusion, thats my bad, thanks for letting me know, and you make a very valid point.
I would question any use of windows other than to learn about it.. I know how it is, you get used to the simplicity of windoze.. It becomes a handicap. For me, the only reason I use windows is to stay up to date on the latest dozer developments and to use the tools for pen-test/vuln-test that are specific to the dozer platform and those tools are basically just windows-specific like the windows security tester.. Things to check windows.
I would never recommend or use a windows pc or server but you are definately right in saying there is a LOT of money to be made in the windoze arena.
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Bill Gates recently stated that in 10 years, linux/unix/bsd/etc will be just as prevalent as winblowz.
Windows also offers cygwin, and I really enjoy using vmware on it.
From a security standpoint(my main issue with dozer) I just simply cannot afford to be running windows. I have configured XP pro so many different ways and secured it as best I could in a very paranoid manner, and no matter what, it was broken into every single time.
And the scariest part is, those that were breaking in weren't some lamers using metasploit (which I love, great programming) they were utilizing kernel level stealth rootkits and using my usb devices to propagate their malware after a thorough cleansing(zeroing) of the hard drive.
I tried for about a month using about 10 different firewalls (free, and commercial) and 10 different anti-virus progs, and all the anti-trojan software available (TDS-3 --gotta love that) . Every single program... found...nothing. Totally useless against the boys at rootkit.com, at first, vice would turn up the problems, then the hackers got wise and fixed that. Then after a few days online, it would be rooted and I'd perform forensics on it and find major issues. It is just way to easy to hack or crack windows and I refuse to waste my time and data.
The only way I stayed secure was to use a second pc as a firewall with snort.
If you have a windows pc, I bet its infected, and I bet the only way to know for sure is to boot from a readonly disk or cd with forensics on it like Fire.(the distro--excellent BTW)
Windows simply does not compare at all for any of the topics in my post, lacking almost the ability to do any of the things mentioned.
Sorry but I get real passionate about my first love (windows for workgroups). ;)
Yep, just trying to say that you don't always have a choice. Regaurdless of how awesome *Nix can and could be, there is areas where it doesn't measure up to Linux (albeit not many), and the big unfortunality of Windows trying to make everything so cupcake to use is that they have not considered security along the way.
I may have an idea that may help you, i came upon this fact when messing around with vmware.
Vmware has this option that will allow you to use a physical harddrive for the virtual machine. Originally i was messing around with coding my own os and being unable to make a virtual hardrive with the kernel.bin on it(so i could load it with grub), i opted to make another partitiion which i stuck my kernel.bin on. It worked fine and i used the grub floppy image to load it.
One day i messed up and forgot to have it boot from the floppy image(in vmware) and to my suprise, or it shouldnt have been a suprise, my bootloader appeared(i was dualbooting linux and XP). Curious i chose linux, i was in XP at the time. To my suprise linux booted fine and i only had to reconfigure my hardware. I found this very interesting.
How can this help you? If you could make another partition, you could in theory Make a linux partition, while remotley connected to windows. Then load up vmware, use the physical hardware, then just install it in vmware. Preconfigure everything in vmware, then as a final touch, reboot with a preconfigured grub with linux in remote admin enabled.
Just a thought, i have never done it, but in theory it could work, this goes out to all you people who say its impossible.
I personally did not dare choosing XP in the vmware, i dont have the courage. I'd Imagine running the same OS 2 times would have dire consequences so i will hold off on it for now. Nonetheless, i found this vmware thing very intriguing
I haven't tried the latest vmware, but pretty new. hint.. edonkey...
In vmware I remember it gave the option to use a physical disk, but there was a warning about it could be dangerous. When they say physical... do they mean a partition or an actual IDE/SCSI drive??
Also, I found when working with vm, that it was often times faster just to use the pre-made virtual drive... esp. for quick installations, to see what it would be like when you installed it.
Vmware is actually a smarter way to test the various Operating systems out there. Especially if you are new to nix flavors. VM does allow you to specify an ISO image as a CD-rom, and then it allows you to boot from that, so it is definately a much easier method than what I was suggesting in my post.
The main reason I suggest an alternative way, is I haven't seen it suggested anywhere before, and the special knowledge you take away after successfully installing via my suggestions, is invaluable. IT helps break the OS down and really get to the point where hardware and software first start to collide.
You also probably know that the makers of grub stopped development, to work on the next generation of boot loaders.... Prepare for some really exciting stuff coming from them!! (I think if you do some searching you can find out a lot more via their CVS ;)
What is up with this "trial forum" ?? Is it anything like the "real" forum?
I sure hope not.
Not only did none of my questions get answered... but not that many people even checked this thread out. The few of you who do check this out... Try some of the stuff I mentioned... and welcome to a new area of hacking.
In vmware I remember it gave the option to use a physical disk, but there was a warning about it could be dangerous. When they say physical... do they mean a partition or an actual IDE/SCSI drive??
They mean individual partitions. I have a setup like this on one of my machines:
1) install base OS (windows - IDA f/Linux didn't exist when I did this!)
2) install Linux on another set of partitions
So now you have a regular dual-boot setup.
Then, install VMWare into the base OS, and teach it about all the partitions of the other OS. The end result: you can boot Linux inside Windows, or outside it when you need to. Of course, /dev/hda might not actually be the same physical device in both instances, so there is usually a little reconfiguration to do when booting standalone. You also need to disable snapshots etc and just use the partitions as persistant disks.
What is up with this "trial forum" ?? Is it anything like the "real" forum?
I sure hope not.
Not only did none of my questions get answered... but not that many people even checked this thread out. The few of you who do check this out... Try some of the stuff I mentioned... and welcome to a new area of hacking.
you didnt ask any questions. you made an informative post on multi OS installations :) only question i saw was a clarification of physical disk and here is the answer direct from vmware faq.
A physical disk directly accesses an existing local disk or partition. You can use physical disks if you want GSX Server to run one or more guest operating systems from existing disk partitions. Physical disks may be set up on both IDE and SCSI devices. At this time, however, booting from an operating system already set up on an existing SCSI disk or partition is not supported.
Next you need to copy /mnt/cdrom to a separate partition for the booting process. So mkfs.ext2 /dev/hda9. ( I prefer reiserfs or even XFS to ext but if you use something other than ext2 you could run into some problems because some of the installation kernels and initrds don't include support for reiserfs and so can't recognize the files. Although you could use mkinitrd to create a new initrd with reiserfs support, that might be pushin it IMO... ;) I use the 9th partition consistently for this. I know there is a "right" way to copy the /mnt/cdrom files so everything stays the way it is supposed too, using tar or cpio, but I'm lazy so I just do cp -rp.
Quote
(What is the tar or cpio commands to copy with correct permissions etc??)
Here are some extra things I picked up earlier today..
For more help on this general topic, search www.tldp.org for a nice *guide* about creating an OS.
create iso from dir:
=====================
mkisofs -RJ -o image.iso /directory
copy a CD to iso:
=================
dd if=/dev/cdrom of=image.iso
or
cat /dev/cdrom >image.iso
burn an iso with cdrecord --scanbus returning 1,0,0:
================================================
cdrecord -v dev=1,0,0 image.iso
A couple months ago, I stumbled across two incredible programs that I have used over and over again in awe. After getting over my greediness of wanting to keep them to myself.. here you go.. enjoy!
The original native OS system CDs are disappointing -- not to mention Windows 98 or Windows NT/2000, and even Windows XP, only now can you realize and control initial system installs. OEM CDs lack the hard disk partitioning tools, system restore and other useful tools. Although there are others who have created these "all in 1" CDs, these are built by some specialized man who doesn't know exactly what you want or need. These CDs are also of a general nature not to mention huge and lengthy to download. These MultiBoot CDs being sold by others may not satisfy the individual needs or demands you require.
EasyBoot is an integrated tool to create MultiBoot, Menu driven CDs & DVDs with native language. It has the ability to automatically produce boot image files, and generate the ISO file as well. Using your CD/DVD Recording software such as Nero or Roxio to Record the ISO, you get a bootable CD/DVD that completely belongs to you. You can customize it with your company's name or slogan or even use it for your clients.
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UltraISO
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Along with the large capacity hard disk popularity, people were already used to coping compact discs to CD/DVD image files, generally used is the famous ISO 9660 international standards format, therefore CD/DVD image files are called ISO files. Because the ISO file retained complete data information of the compact disc (including compact disc boot information), you were allowed the convenience to use commonly used CD/DVD burning software (for example Nero-Burning ROM ) to record the disc with your CD-R/RW or DVD-R/RW over and over forever, it can also be used directly through Virtual CD/DVD-ROM drive software (for example Daemon-Tools ) .
UltraISO is a ISO CD/DVD image file creating/editing/converting tool , it can directly edit the CD/DVD image file and extract files and folders from it, as well as directly make ISO files from your CD/DVD-ROM or hard disk. At the same time, you can maintain the ISO bootable information, thus creating your own bootable CD/DVDs. You now have the power to make and edit your own ISO files, and then burn them to CD/DVD for your own needs.
UltraISO is in sole possession of the intellectualized ISO document format analyzer, it can process at the present time almost all types of image files, including ISO and BIN, it may even support new image files which are yet to be created. UltraISO can open these image files, directly extract files and folders, edit it and convert other image files to the standard ISO format.
UltraISO uses the double window unification user contact interface, you have the choice to only use the quick buttons and/or the mouse Drag & Drops, you can handle any CD/DVD image file easily.
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===============================
There are free trials available for all products.. If you are on a budget.. there are warez versions availabe.. a better alternative is to see if the serial crackerz have beaten the leatest version. I like crackspider.
Budget or no budget, my recommendation is to Buy the programs.
===============================
Some Uses Ive Explored:
-Copying all my system CD's and install CD's to my HD.
-Modifying my XP Restore CD's to be current and streamlined with XP SP2 and include my favorite windows programs.
-Creating a custom grub boot CD with extra and unique capabilities.
-Viewing the construction of all major Operating System's Boot Loader Code and related code.
Suggestions for use:
-Read the product documentation thoroughly
-Get a good hexeditor/viewer
-Read a bunch of threads in the forum
-Begin use
===============================
Don't forget to check out the forum for tutorials and answers to every question. http://forum.ezbsystems.net
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