How can we make Porteus better?

[azrielle]

How about adding a Fluxbox and/or a Calibre option to your custom desktop build page?
BTW, I REALLY appreciate the inclusion of PloP and Opera. PloP saved my "bricking" of my Win7 OS; have been using Opera since 2009 as my browser of choice.

[francois]

Opera is available here:
http://dl.porteus.org/x86_64/current/modules/

[Bogomips]

As for documentation, doing a search can throw up a lot of topics with outdated information. I would just have a forum section for topics in which relevant current information has been provided. In this respect have bookmarked quite a few topics, do not know if others have also been bookmarking, which could then be copied to this section and locked. So anyone seeking information on something specific could search this section of the forum and be assured that whatever found, is of current.value.

[fullmoonremix]

Salutations...

IMHO... it might be a good idea to add a USM "Create a module from a folder" option in the (file manager) right click menu.

Best Regards...

[brokenman]

Ah, I believe this already exists in all versions.

[fullmoonremix]

Salutations...

in the right click menu

Only the USM has the "Create" option. Aside from conversion... the current PcMan/SpaceFM (XFE???) right click "menu" options are simply (de)activate... (un)mount... and "Extract Porteus module".

Best Regards...

[fullmoonremix]

Salutations...

NUMA?...
http://oss.sgi.com/projects/libnuma/
http://webwarper.net/ww/~av/slakfinder. ... e=#results
http://pkgs.org/debian-sid/debian-main- ... 4.deb.html

Perl JIT?...
http://pkgs.org/debian-sid/debian-main- ... l.deb.html

It can be compiled (installed?) natively using CPAN.

I compiled foxtoolkit just now and will check out xfe to see how it would go with openbox.

It's in the USM repo... but if you compile it w/ UPX you could make it smaller.
http://webwarper.net/ww/~av/slakfinder. ... e=#results
http://webwarper.net/ww/~av/slakfinder. ... e=#results

Best Regards...

[ncmprhnsbl]

Only the USM has the "Create" option. Aside from conversion... the current PcMan/SpaceFM (XFE???) right click "menu" options are simply (de)activate... (un)mount... and "Extract Porteus module".

its there but hard to find...
the thing is that in file managers, rightclick on a folder gives a context menu that doesnt include "Build Porteus Module.." option...
if you click "choose" at the bottom of this menu(or is it "open with"?) and then find "Build Porteus Module.." in the apps list .... this does the trick..
having a first layer association for folders might vary a bit for different filemanagers.... but maybe the .desktop file can handle this?
or MIME type association?

[francois]

I would move the /root and /home folders out of the changes folders in case of corruption of the changes folder.

[Jack]

I would move the /root and /home folders out of the changes folders in case of corruption of the changes folder.

As long as you don't lose any data you put in there. If not then that would be a great idea.

[Ed_P]

I would move the /root and /home folders out of the changes folders in case of corruption of the changes folder.

To minimize the impact of such a situation I make backups of my changes save.dat file. Doing something similar with the changes folder might be wise also.

[brokenman]

I would move the /root and /home folders out of the changes folders in case of corruption of the changes folder.

Not really an option since the majority of changes that people want to keep are in these folders.

[fullmoonremix]

Salutations...

Perhaps? Snort (software and/or... Fail2ban ???

http://webwarper.net/ww/~av/slakfinder. ... e=#results
http://webwarper.net/ww/~av/slakfinder. ... e=#results

IMHO... not a panacea or utopia (because Moore's Law always gets the last word). However as they say... "half a loaf is better than none @ all".

Best Regards...

[brokenman]

The first is for people interested in security and data analysis. The second is for servers. I fail to see why we should implement these into Porteus.

[fullmoonremix]

Salutations...

Markds vast security knowledge raised many interesting contingency questions in this thread...
http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php? ... login+root

Porteus is " Secure by design "...
However... it's " Attack surface " could be smaller and more contingent (see... Defense in depth (computing )

Consider this... any non-static writable media is vulnerable to rootkits...
So although Porteus is secure (eg. modular/compressed... runs in ram... and can boot from an ISO image) most boxes (BIOS/firmware) and media (USB sticks) are not.

The Porteus site encourages the use of removable storage media.
Unfortunately... this kind of storage is by default "insecure by design".

The whole idea of "secure by design" means malicious code is not relevant.
If it is present (even in the BIOS) it cannot execute if the media is static (cd/dvd aka. " Data at rest ") or easily "phone home" if the traffic is challenged.

Well... many people will say "my removable media is brand new and right out the package". That may be true. What is also true is...
if you do not have intrusion protection if you are using non-static media you could end up with a subverted BIOS (or worse?).

There is a good chance unless you take precautions (like using static media and/or a hypervisor or Docker...
"container" to sandbox your browser) you might find yourself booting into a compromised desktop.

Pls Note: The above suggested applications can be configured for either analysis (IDS) or IPS filtering.

The reasons for using an IPS are the same as using a firewall (Porteus would also be improved if it's firewall default were set to.. "ON"). So... unless you close ALL your ports or work offline...
the bottom line is... you are better off using a firewall with an IPS than without in the event the firewall is breached.

Pls Note: Adaptive Domain Environment for Operating Systems (Adeos) could also help reduce Porteus's attack surface and improve it's reliablity (see... Fault tolerance )

Best Regards...