Free bootable usb stick software for linux

Linux on a Stick is an attempt to make a Live-CD/USB-Flash server Linux distro. At its heart is a very small and simple Linux distro that boots off CD/Flash and runs from RAM (Ie no spinning hard drives of death).
This approach allows us to strip the OS to its very basic components, which minimizes the amount of resources required. This distro is targeted towards Server administrator who are familiar with Linux, its only configuration method is the command line.
Enhancements:
- Linux kernel 2.4.33 was replaced with 2.6.18.8.
- A USB booting problem that would prevent it from booting on some BIOSs (Namely AMI) was resolved.
- The ARDIS iSCSI target was replaced with the Enterprise iSCSI target (v0.4.14).
- The Open iSCSI initiator (v2.0.754) package with kernel modules is included.
- The distribution now boots on more than just Intel CPUs.
- Userland tools (v3.6.19) and kernel FS support were included for ReiserFS and XFS.
- The PHP CLI is included in php-5.2.0 in root.gz initrd.

Borg Live is a bootable CD-Rom containing a GNU/Linux operative system, that permits you to boot directly from the CD, without the need of an hard disk installation .
The system is based on Slax , the Slackware Linux Live CD.
Main features:
- Kernel 2.4.24 with Openmosix clustering support
- X Graphical system
- XFCE Window Manager
To use the Live CD , you need:
A Computer PC-Compatible ( not a MAC one )
A Bios that permit to boot from the CD drive
A Pentium III ( or AMD equivalent ) or better CPU
64 Mb RAM
A CD-Rom or DVD unit
A Mouse ( better if PS2 or USB )
# Instructions for the first boot
1) enable BIOS to boot from Cd-rom
2) Insert the Cd
3) Take a look at the boot options , just when the image appears , pressing F1
4) ( Write down your desired options if any , then ) Press Enter
5) Login as root , no password

makebootfat is a command line utility able to create bootable USB disks for Linux and Windows using the FAT filesystem and syslinux.

makebootfat is the most advanced tool available able to make bootable USB disks. Its able to autodetect/partition/format/populate the USB disk in a single step without any user interaction.

Its also able to create disk images which are compatibles with all the three standards USB-FDD, USB-HDD and USB-ZIP at the same time.

To use makebootfat you probably need also syslinux or FreeDOS

loonix-live is a bootable CD containing the Linux operating system. loonix-live runs Linux directly from the CD (or USB) without installing.


The Live CD described here is based on the gentoo Linux distribution and uses the Unification File System (also known as unionfs), allowing a read-only filesystem to behave as a writable one, saving all changes to memory.

loonix-live was created with the help of Tomas Matejiceks Linux live scripts. Tomas is also the developer of slax a slackware based live cd.

Catux-USB is a distribution created by CaTuX, an association of GNU/Linuxs users from the central area of Catalonia.

This distribution is not just one more, but it has a distinguishing feature: it can be executed from any Pendrive (or any USB storage device, even the low capacity ones.

Once it has been executed and the hardware detected, you will have a totally normal distribution, based on Debian through Knoppix and ready to do all the apt-get you want.

PIC USB Framework is a USB application framework dedicated to Linux (on the host side) and to the PIC 18F4550 family of microcontrollers (on the device side).
PUF includes: a bootloader that can flash the PIC application through the USB, a PIC demo and its corresponding application on the host side, and docker, the host-side flash programming utility.
The PUF also contains gputils and sdcc as cross-building tools, and odyssey 0.4vasco as a parallel port PIC programmer.
Enhancements:
- sdcc optimization flags are now switched on by default.
- A component library (including a console mechanism and a small real time scheduler) has been added to help building user applications.
- Tools have been upgraded to automake 1.9.6, autoconf 2.59d, sdcc snapshot 4482, odyssey 0.5, and gputils 0.13.4.
- The applications size has been optimized.

pam_usbauth is a module for PAM allowing end-users to locally authenticate via USB storage devices. USBAuth currently supports user-dependent authentication via password-hashing as well as one-time-password mechanisms, which make the verification process via USB-dongles much more secure. In addition, USBAuth comes with USB device serial checking support, so attackers wont be able to grab and copy your device easily (if this is the case, the device will be rejected).

Install instructions for Debian

1.Download the Debian package.
2.Install as root, by typing dpkg -i usbauth_0.2-1_i386.deb.
3.Use the program uapasswd for activating USBAuth. You may have a look at the manpage of uapasswd(1) for detailed instructions, but the following command will configure USBAuth for user root. The USB device is located at /dev/sda1:

uapasswd -u root -p mypassword -d /dev/sda1 -d /dev/sdb1 -w -o if you wish to use USB device ID binding, get the serial number of your USB storage device out of /proc/bus/usb/devices, and call:

uapasswd -u root -p mypassword -d /dev/sda1 -d /dev/sdb1 -w -o -s serial -c

4.Follow step 5, below .. (configuration of PAM to use pam_usbauth.so in /etc/pam.d/)

How shall I use it?

1. Download the source

2. Compile and install (both done via "make") as root (you need to have PAM development files and libraries, as well as OpenSSL installed)

3. Get a USB storage device. You can use every writeable USB-stick device, but Id recommend to make an extra partition, 1024k is more than enough. Be sure you know which device/partition this is (e.g. /dev/sda1). The selected partition doesnt need to be formated, the data will be in written RAW format onto the device - this means, you also dont have to mount it. Not now, and not when actually using pam_usbauth for authentication. Be aware, that you can still use all other partitions on the device for storage!

4. To generate the config file, call at least "./uapasswd -u username -p cleartextpassword -d /dev/sda1 -w". uapasswd must be called as root, because it needs to have write permissions either on the USB device, and on the config file in /etc. Check the manual page for more options, there are severl nice features available.

WARNING: The device which is given first, will be used for writing! Dont choose a device where real data is stored, like harddisks!

(4b. Alternatively, you can manually edit /etc/usbauth.conf; for syntax see this file)

5. Set up the applications you want to use with the module, changing the files for the programs youd like to use with usbauth in /etc/pam.d/. Normally, such files define something like:

auth sufficient pam_unix.so, or
auth -auth

Just comment this line, and write:

auth sufficient pam_usbauth.so

Id strongly recomment to accept a Unix-fallback, so you can still get access with your normal password:

auth sufficient pam_usbauth.so
auth sufficient pam_unix.so
auth required pam_deny.so

Please note that, as long as pam_usbauth is in alpha state, it may be more secure to use:

auth sufficient pam_unix.so
auth sufficient pam_usbauth.so
auth required pam_deny.so

Then, pam_unix (the standard passwort authentication) will be used at first. If you want to get authenticated via USB, just type a blank password and PAM will try the next module in queue. This makes sense, because if you are in the very unlikely situation to download an unstable source from SVN and pam_usbauth.so is corrupt, PAM may not switch to the next module (pam_unix) and youd be not able to use the application anymore if you havnt direct root access to /etc when doing this. However, this case has never been reported and should be very, very unlikely to happen.

(5b.) If you have used the -w switch, uapasswd has hopefully already written the data to your USB device. If not, save your key (or the hash value of your key; whatever is defined in /etc/usbauth.conf) in a plain text file with carriage-return/line-feet at the end, with the format "USBAUTH passwordhash", and call dd if=yourfile of=yourdevice. This will not work when uapasswd has been called with -o, using one time passwords.

pam_usbauth now comes with a daemon called usbauthd by SVN Rev20. USBAuthd recognizes if USB devices, which have a predefined serial at /etc/usbauth.conf, are plugged in or plugged out. In the config file, you may specify the following two options:

action plugin any_shell_command...
action plugout any_shell_command...

You may specify up to 10 commands for each, plugging in and plugging out events. This may be useful to automatically lock the screen if the USB device is plugged out, for example. However, any command can be binded to those events.

A sample configuration file including the new options, may be found here. Note: usbauthd is alpha, I didnt have the time yet to really test it out (but it cant harm your system, just relax).

Note: If you have something like action plugout xscreensaver-command -lock in your config file and it doesnt work, keep sure that the user who calls usbauthd has the permission to open up connections to X, otherwise the command will fail (but you wont get an error message).