"Untrackable" cheatcode should be implemented

[BlackRider]

Hello, men.

I have noticed that, when Porteus boots, it mounts every readable partition in the host computer with full read-write access.

This is not needed at all. In fact, I think is no good. The point of Live distributions is that they are not invasive and leave no traces in the host computer after use. Mounting everything read-write and activating the swap automatically is not what I call "not invasive".

I know that Porteus is not a paranoid oriented (read security oriented) distribution, but a cheatcode for a "untrackable" mode should be availible at least.

I am thinking about something like Knoppix's "forensic" mode. Ideally, in "untrackable" mode, no swap or partitions would be mounted unless asked by the user, and only under conditions imposed by the user.

[Hamza]

Just use nohd and noswap cheatcodes.

Topic Solved ?

[BlackRider]

GOOD NEWS:

nohd prevents Porteus from leaving any track in the hard drive.

BAD NEWS

The reason because nohd prevents Porteus from writting to the disk by accident is that nohd prevents Porteus from booting.

I have tested it with copy2ram. I have to test without copying Porteus to the memory.

Topic Solved ?

[fanthom]

@BlackRider
'nohd' is designed to work when you are booting from CD.
you can still use it for booting from usb stick (or hd) but then you need to use it with conjunction with 'from_dev=/dev/sdXY' cheatcode to tell linuxrc where exactly your porteus installation resides. only partition containing /porteus folder will be mounted (for obvious reason: it's required for booting) and the rest will be untouched.

Cheers

[BlackRider]

It still refuses to boot, even with from_dev=xxx.

As I have said, I have only tried with copy2ram enabled. It is to test without it.

I must say again that nohd is extremely good keeping the user from writting to disk.

Posted after 14 hours 52 minutes 28 seconds:
What a weird thing, now it works!

I have tried this cheatcodes again in the same computers, with the same flash, under the same circunstances... it did not work 24 hours ago but now it works!

[Hamza]

Normally, You just need to use Porteus as LiveCD with Always Fresh Mode and use "nohd" and "noswap"

[brokenman]

I had no trouble booting with nohd from_dev and toram. (32bit)

[colchaodemola]

How can i use nohd and noswap if i loopback mount the ISO from grub2 in my usb stick ?
It never found the iso if i use nohd cheatcode

[brokenman]

Please give an example of your boot line. Are you using the from_iso= cheat?

[fanthom]

How can i use nohd and noswap if i loopback mount the ISO from grub2 in my usb stick ?

ughhh... - didn't expect such configuration
not sure how Grub2 deals with that loop mount but i have a kinda tricky idea:
a) boot porteus as normal (without nohd cheat)
b) run 'grep -A1 boot /var/log/porteus-livedbg' command in console
c) use the output with 'from_dev=' cheat. Example: "nohd from_dev=/dev/device_from_command_above"

i'm wonder if that will work for you

@brokenman
didn't test but nohd should work with from_iso out of the box.
i think Grub2 has it's own ISO booting implementation (same as grub4dos). i'm wonder how it works...

[colchaodemola]

Please give an example of your boot line. Are you using the from_iso= cheat?

linux (loop)/boot/vmlinuz from_iso=$isofile ramdisk_size=6666 root=/dev/ram0 rw copy2ram noauto autoexec=xconf

[Hamza]

How could you include a variable in the bootline..this is not bash code? The command used in boot line are used as plain text and not parsed like in bash/sh scripting.

[brokenman]

Yeah thats a tricky configuration. Why running from a loopback?

Code: Select all

linux (loop)/boot/vmlinuz from_iso=$isofile ramdisk_size=6666 root=/dev/ram0 rw copy2ram noauto autoexec=xconf

Not sure but i am assuming you are using Porteus v1.0. If you are using Porteusv1.1 then remove the ramdisk reference and try complete path to ISO file with the from_dev mentioned by fanthom. Good luck, let us know if you succeed.

[colchaodemola]

Yeah thats a tricky configuration. Why running from a loopback?

Code: Select all

linux (loop)/boot/vmlinuz from_iso=$isofile ramdisk_size=6666 root=/dev/ram0 rw copy2ram noauto autoexec=xconf

Not sure but i am assuming you are using Porteus v1.0. If you are using Porteusv1.1 then remove the ramdisk reference and try complete path to ISO file with the from_dev mentioned by fanthom. Good luck, let us know if you succeed.

Im running from a loopback because i got a few fs corruption not long ago , and since iso is readonly everything appears be ALWAYS ok.

i tried porteus 1.1 with:

linux (loop)/boot/vmlinuz from_iso=$isofile nohd from_dev=/dev/sdb1 rw copy2ram noauto

linux (loop)/boot/vmlinuz from_iso=$isofile nohd from_dev=/dev/sloop0 rw copy2ram noauto

none works. Never finds the image :/

[fanthom]

@colchaodemola

Im running from a loopback because i got a few fs corruption not long ago , and since iso is readonly everything appears be ALWAYS ok.

xzm modules are also read-only so corruption should not happen untill you use 'changes=' cheatcode.

none works. Never finds the image :/

show us your full grub2 config.

also:
did you try to boot without nohd cheatcode? does it work then? what about 'grep -A1 boot /var/log/porteus-livedbg' command which i asked you before?