Managing Backtrack, or any Linux distro for that matter

[armedpilot]

I don't know if this is a typo or not, but you might want to comment out the following two lines too, if you're not ejecting the CD.

Originally Posted by xatar

echo -ne "Press Enter to $command "
read junk

[armedpilot]

Not sure it will work perfectly, but take a look at the dir2mo command.

Originally Posted by HTSPilot

Question though. How can I update my liveCD with all this. The Autostart shortcuts, the Atheros fix (svn, Kismet, Aircrack, madwifi), my modified etc.issue and other files. I looked up building modules, but it was rather confusing for me.

[xatar]

Hi,

that was not a typo, my file is exactly as I showed it. However I do know that others have it like armedpilot showed.

Both work, my example will require you to press 'Enter' to either reboot or shutdown, armedpilot's example does not.

You decide.

l8r,

[HTSPilot]

Yea I was looking at the FAQ, but Im a tad bit confused, to be honest. Because Im changing contents that are in the /base modules.

[kimbell]

Originally Posted by HTSPilot

Question though. How can I update my liveCD with all this. The Autostart shortcuts, the Atheros fix (svn, Kismet, Aircrack, madwifi), my modified etc.issue and other files. I looked up building modules, but it was rather confusing for me.

This may do for you. I do not think it will be much diffrent with HDD install... I wonder if you can get it back into a cdrw? http://slax.linux-live.org/forum/vie...light=remaster

[xatar]

I've been playing around with changing the CD files and remastering the ISO image.


Here's what I've got already...





Reboot a machine with BackTrack. Make sure that is has a writable drive with about 700MB of free space.

Log in as root, open a bash prompt and mount your writable drive.

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1

Create a directory in the mounted drive to hold all of the CD's contents.

mkdir /mnt/hda1/newiso

Check the following path, if it does not match exactly, alter it.

/mnt/live/mnt/hdb/*

It could be:

/mnt/live/mnt/hdc/*

Then copy the CD into the newiso directory.

cp -ra /mnt/live/mnt/hdc/* /mnt/hda1/newiso

(depending on the path above!)

This will take a couple of minutes.

cd /mnt/hda1/newiso/base



To autostart leetmode and yakuake:

cd /mnt/hda1/newiso/base

mkdir temproot

mo2dir root.mo temproot

cd temproot/root/.kde/Autostart

ln -s /usr/bin/leetmode leetmode
ln -s /opt/kde/bin/yakuake yakuake

cd /mnt/hda1/newiso/base/temproot

dir2mo root root.mo

cp root.mo /mnt/hda1/newiso/base/

Don't forget to remove the temproot directory and all of it's contents!

cd /mnt/hda1/newiso/base
rm -r temproot



To make the ISO image again.

cd /mnt/hda1/newiso

./make_iso.sh /mnt/hda1/newbacktrack.iso




Now you should have a new .iso file in /mnt/hda1. If you burn that to a CD AS AN ISO IMAGE! you should have the above changes all configured for you.

Do not try to change the inittab file as it screws up the boot process! Take my word for it






Although I am having problems with the new ISO image, it will not boot properly and crashes, then reboots.

Any help would be appreciated.

many thanks,

[TheGreatVirus]

xatar: That would be quite useful if we could simply repack the OS onto a live cd. I have considered trying it myself but since your already on it. Have at it. =)

[HTSPilot]

I think Im doing this right. Copied the contents of the CD to my HDD. mo2dir on etc and root and made my changes. dir2mo the modules back together, upload to my FTP so I can rebuild the ISO and reburn.

Now, as for the madwifi/aircrack/kismet patching, how could I implement that into the LiveCD?

Also, I have a custom splash.bmp for lilo, but there's no boot module. There is a /boot/splash.bmp.gz file, but I've no idea what that is.

Any other fixes I could implement?

[sp1ff]

I want to change the default wallpaper. I tried to do it by creating a new Slax distro with MySlax creator (on Windows) using the BackTrack .iso as the baseline and adding modules and such. On the appropriate screen I entered the new wallpaper I wanted to use. However, when BackTrack boots, it displays that wallpaper for a moment and then the default BackTrack wallpaper takes over. I've tried copying the entire contents of the CD to the HD under an HD install of BackTrack (which works pretty well), did a mo2dir with the contents of the root.mo from the base directory, changed the wallpaper file that is in /root/.kde/share/wallpapers to the wallpaper I want, and then doing a dir2mo and making a new iso with ./make_iso.sh /tmp/new-slax.iso command. I got the default wallpaper anyway - it didn't work. Any clues?

I had a similar experience changing the default bootsplash graphic. I did essentially the same thing, doing a mo2dir with the etc.mo in the base directory, changing the bootsplash .jpg file at /etc/bootsplash/themes/Linux/images/bootsplash-1024x768.jpg to the .jpg graphic of the same size that I want to use instead, and then doing a dir2mo and making a new iso using that module instead. Same thing. The bootsplash didn't change for some reason.

I'm having trouble with the menus too. Whenever I use the menu editor tool with my HD install of BackTrack to add an app to the menu, when I save the menu it gets rid of the original BackTrack menu and puts all of the BackTrack apps in the Lost&Found menu. A bunch of apps that BackTrack did not have in the menu show up all of a sudden. I want to customized menu to go with the customized BackTrack distro that I'm creating for my own use. How do I do it and save it to the LiveCD distro?

I want to kill the KDE startup sound too, or at least change it to something less annoying. Still trying to figure that out.

And another thing, when I try to install a module to the HD installed version of BackTrack using uselivemod, I get an error that says / is not a valid union - can't insert module to union - error inserting module to live filesystem.

[bones]

Originally Posted by HTSPilot

That mixer is rather nice. Cheers. I knew about the 'm' for Kismet, but Im sad because the 6000 comes with audio controls on the front (google some pics) but I also have the Fn functions, and none of them, save the wireless radio and screen brightness work. So I've no control over sound which is the biggest concern. I've yet to try my stand-by and hybernate buttons. *pause* Ok I just did and they dont work. The Fn number keypad doesnt work either. I'm lucky I have an LED battery indicator which flashes when the battery gets low else I wouldnt know when my battery's out of juice.

The FN keys and media buttons are controlled by dell's software which is for windows. It would be nice to get that functionallity.

My 6000's display is too bright and I am trying to figure out how to dim the screen with linux. Any ideas?