Other Help Topics :: ReMastering HOWTO for DSL



Hello All,

I've gone through all the pages of this post once and am still a little lost for what I want to do.  Let me describe what I want to do and then hopefully someone can help me in the right direction or convince me that DSL is not the solution for me.

I want to create a bootable CD that will start the Apache HTTP server (eventually I'd like to add Tomcat but for now the httpd is enough).  The web content that Apache will serve (i.e. DocumentRoot) will be a NFS mounted directory.  In addition to Apache I would like ssh/sshd, iptables, syslogd (for remotely logging information), and sendmail (so status emails can be sent from the box).  The CD will need to have fixed IP address information set.  I will NOT be using a hard drive, or USB key drive for any customization information, I want it all to be in the CD.  The boxes I plan to use this on have a great deal of physical memory (2+ GB) so I would like the installation to load entirely into a ramdisk if possible in order to speed operation.

Beyond the few programs above, and the associated subprograms and libraries needed to run them I don't really need anything other than usual simple tools (i.e. BusyBox type stuff).  I don't need X or any window managers, I don't need a browser or an email client or a chat client, etc.

I DO need to be able to restrict access to the root account via password/sudo so I need to be able to set the root password prior to burning the CD -- again I need everything ready to go off the CD with no customizations once it's booted.

DSL seems like the best place to start since it's already stripped down, but I've read about all the problems people have had adding programs and libraries that aren't in it by default.  So is this something that I can do?  If so, which how-to(s) should I concentrate on using?  If not, are there any suggestions on what I should look into?
Look at this. http://lamppix.tinowagner.com/ It may do what you want. There is a related one called Xampp too, http://www.apachefriends.org/en/index.html
doobit,

Thanks for the links.  Unfortunately it looks like Xampp is more of an install onto hdd concept, rather than a live CD.  Now lamppix looks interesting, but it's kind of scary that it hasn't been updated in almost 2 years.  I guess what I'm trying to do is figure out how to recreate Lamppix myself using whatever version of Apache that I need.  I'm going to drop an email to the lamppix author to see if he/she can give me a how-to for making my own lamppix-like product from a DSL or full Knoppix baseline.

Any other input on this from the DSL group would still be appreciated.
Hello AkosPrime!

I'm pretty sure You could use DSL for the purpose described before. There is an apache module that can be used. I'm not to familiar with servers so I can't be of much help but I wish You all luck.

Have fun guys,
meo
AkosPrime, xampp isn't just for hard drives.  If you have enough memory you can run it from a liveCD with no hard drive at all!  I see from the free command I'm using 558 Meg of memory right now, if that helps.  All I had to do was to download the xampp-linux-1.5.2.tar.gz file from Apache Friends website and then run

sudo tar -xzvf xampp-linux-1.5.2.tar.gz -C /opt/
sudo /opt/lampp/lampp start

Then looking at localhost with firefox showed the startup page.  I also could have then run

sudo /opt/lampp/lampp security

to add passwords and such to lampp.  It was all very easy and quite painless.

Remastering with xampp wasn't so painless untill I learned the trick.  Follow meo's instructions, stopping before the first mkisofs command.  Run the tar command only put the files in the source directory's opt instead of the root of your running system:

sudo tar -xzvf xampp-linux-1.5.2.tar.gz -C source/KNOPPIX/opt/

I got an error where lampp couldn't open files until I added a line

sudo cp -rp /KNOPPIX/opt/lampp /opt/

to the /opt/bootlocal.sh file of the remaster.  For whatever reason when the files get copied from /KNOPPIX the first time they sometimes have different users and groups.  The correct ones are in the remaster, the startup process is where they get changed.

Now add your web pages to source/KNOPPIX/opt/lampp/htdocs and your cgi stuff to source/KNOPPIX/opt/lampp/cgi-bin.  

Changing default passwords, and adding users and groups to the remaster requires you do use the chroot command to change the root to source/KNOPPIX/ and then use the normal commands (exit to exit the changed root and return to normal):

sudo chroot source/KNOPPIX/
passwd
passwd dsl
adduser frisbee
vi /etc/sudoers    # if those users should be allowed root access through sudo
exit

Then continue remastering as normal.  Not so bad at all.  Although, you might just untar the xampp package each time if you want to.
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