From: karthikbalaguru on
On Dec 28, 11:09 pm, karthikbalaguru <karthikbalagur...(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
> On Dec 28, 9:35 am, Aragorn <arag...(a)chatfactory.invalid> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > On Monday 28 December 2009 05:20 in comp.os.linux.setup, somebody
>
> > identifying as karthikbalaguru wrote...
> > > On Dec 28, 4:00 am, Aragorn <arag...(a)chatfactory.invalid> wrote:
>
> > >> If USB boot is supported on the target machine, then there are
> > >> various tools in various distributions for making a bootable USB
> > >> stick from which you could then scan the system, but none of those
> > >> USB-based distributions would then be designated virus scanners, so
> > >> you would probably have to add the antivirus software to the USB
> > >> stick manually. It can be done, but it's quite a bit of work.
>
> > > This sounds great . This will surely be helpful :-) :-)
> > > I think, this approach can be tried out. I need to check for the USB-
> > > based Free distributions and need to check for the method to add the
> > > Free antivirus software to the USB stick.
>
> > Mandriva is a distribution which is available on a USB stick, and there
> > are some others as well.  
>
> I checked Mandriva website, yeah they
> are providing on USB stick based linux, and since
> it is a full fledged linux, i think the virus scanners
> might be supported without much hassles !
> But it is not free :-(
>
> Lemme know if there is any other USB Stick
> based linux flavour that is available for Free ?
>

http://www.linux.com/distrocentral/distronews/8221-comparing-linux-usb-flash-disk-distros
This seems to have some good pointers to
start with.
DSL and Puppylinux seem to be very good.
Nothing like setting up Ubuntu as it is a full
blown linux.
Pendrive linux seems to have started from
Mandriva and unlike Mandriva Linux, i think
this is also Free.

> Also, lemme know if there is a USB stick
> based linux flavour that would support virus
> scanners ?
>
> No clear info from internet so far.
>

A)
Ubuntu based USB has Synaptic Packet
Manager system that could be used to install,
remove, configure, or upgrade software packages,
browse, sort and search the list of available
software packages, manage repositories, or
upgrade the whole system.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SynapticHowto

I think, this can be used to get the virus
scanner onto the USB stick once the Ubuntu
is up from the USB stick. Need to check.
But,
No clear method is available on the method of
addition of new software. Any ideas ?

B)
In Puppy linux, i found specific statements
that convey that one can use antivirus that is
built-in or can be installed in Puppy.
http://puppylinux.org/main/index.php?file=Overview%20and%20Getting%20Started.htm
But, did not get a clear link on the method
of addition of new application to it. Any ideas ?

C)
Pendrivelinux also seems to be full
blown linux, and the virus scanner can
be installed just as this application is installed
in the below link -
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=8465858
Lemme know if this Pendrivelinux method fine
as conveyed in above link ?

> > As I gather, the cost is not too high, but
> > alternatively, you can do it yourself using a freely downloadable
> > distribution and a USB memory stick you already own.  There are HowTos
> > about it on the web. ;-)
>
> Thinking on similar lines, i got an idea to try a
> Floppy based linux instead of USB.
> I know of MiniRTL(based on busybox) that did
> not have dependency on HDD except for the RAM
> (Even the RAM requirement is very minimal).
> Other than that, there are other flavours like
> 'Tomsrtbt', Asmutils based 'a-Linux' and various
> other Busybox based flavours. But,they are all
> Floppy based.
> But, floppy drive is not available in that machine :-(
>
> Does tomsrtbt support USB stick based boot up ?
> I may check with the tomsrtbt user list regd this.
> Incase you have any information w.r.t tomsrtbt
> you can lemme know.
>
> Another query that pops in my mind is
> that these minimal versions/flavours of linux
> might not have lot of features. They might be greatly
> stripped and hence not sure if they would be able to
> provide all required support for virus scanner or similar
> tools !!
> Any thoughts on this ?
>
> Incase these minimal versions are not suitable
> for existing along with virus scanning utility in
> the USB stick, do lemme know.
>
> > > Can you lemme know the steptrs/links that talk in detail about this ?
>
> > Google is your friend. ;-)
>
> Yeah, need to search/check the HOWTos in the
> internet to setup my own USB Stick based Linux
> so that it is Free . After that, the method to have the
> virus scanner on it should be tried out. I think
> this should be just straight forward just like having
> any other application on embedded linux.
>
> > >> On the other hand, you should be able to pick up a cheap second-hand
> > >> internal CD or DVD drive somewhere and mount it in the machine with
> > >> the broken CD player.
>
> > > Yeah, this is another good idea, but in the current scenario, this is
> > > ruled out due to various reasons.
>
> PS - Have looped in comp.os.linux.embedded
> to get their thoughts also as  it is going towards
> that direction also interms of footprints,utilities
> in FD based linux, USB stick based linux ,
> Tiny linux flavours having support for virus scanner
> etc.
>

Thx in advans,
Karthik Balaguru
From: Hans-Peter Diettrich on
karthikbalaguru schrieb:

>> Mandriva is a distribution which is available on a USB stick, and there
>> are some others as well.
>
> I checked Mandriva website, yeah they
> are providing on USB stick based linux, and since
> it is a full fledged linux, i think the virus scanners
> might be supported without much hassles !
> But it is not free :-(

I'm also interested in a free (maybe trial) version of a Linux on an USB
stick. Some time ago I tried to install such a system myself (BartPE?),
but couldn't make it work with my machines. Now I don't know whether
it's a matter of the software or of my BIOSes, why I couldn't boot from
the stick :-(


>> As I gather, the cost is not too high, but
>> alternatively, you can do it yourself using a freely downloadable
>> distribution and a USB memory stick you already own. There are HowTos
>> about it on the web. ;-)

Can you give a concrete link, or an search key?

DoDi
From: G on
In article <80080394-814b-40b1-9b50-
dda4741053ba(a)q2g2000yqd.googlegroups.com>, karthikbalaguru79(a)gmail.com
says...
>
> On Dec 28, 4:00 am, Aragorn <arag...(a)chatfactory.invalid> wrote:
> > On Sunday 27 December 2009 22:01 in comp.os.linux.setup, somebody
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > identifying as karthikbalaguru wrote...
> > > On Dec 27, 11:59 pm, Aragorn <arag...(a)chatfactory.invalid> wrote:
> >
> > >> On Sunday 27 December 2009 14:34 in comp.os.linux.setup, somebody
> > >> identifying as karthikbalaguru wrote...
> > >> > I am looking for a Linux-based application that could scan
> > >> > computers by accessing them via network. (Especially the
> > >> > systems(windows based systems) that cannot be booted).
> >
> > >> How on earth are you going to access a computer _which_ _cannot_ _be_
> > >> _booted_ over the network?  A network connection which shares
> > >> filesystems over the network for scanning requires at least a minimal
> > >> running operating system on the target machine.
> >
> > > Yes, it is a valid question. I am exploring various ways.
> >
> > > The problem is, one of the infected windows machine's CD/DVD
> > > drive does not work . So, i was exploring alternate ways like
> > > using rescue CD remotely/remote techniques from a remote machine
> > > that has a CD/DVD drive (though i was aware of the chances
> > > of its availability was very less).
> > > Any ideas ?
> > > For example, in linux there is a 'kickstart installation' technique
> > > that will enable automated installation of Red Hat Linux on
> > > indivdual computers based on the answers in the file in the
> > > server. Similarly, is it not possible to boot windows remotely
> > > so that rescue CD can be used on similar lines to recover it ?
> >
> > I suppose you could try a PXE boot, but the BIOS has to support it, and
> > Windows has to support it as well.  On the latter, I have no
> > knowledge - I don't do Windows, sorry - so you would have to ask about
> > that in a Windows group, or via the Microsoft Knowledge Base.
> >
> > > One thought is to dis-connect the non-working CD/DVD drive
> > > and connect a working CD/DVD drive temporarily to fix this
> > > issue. But, that is ruled out due to various reasons.
> >
> > At the moment it seems like you have no alternative.
> >
> > > Is there no other way except for replacing the CD/DVD
> > > drive in that windows machine and trying with the rescue CD ?
> > > No way to avoid the replacement of CD/DVD drive ?
> >
> > Not that I can think of, unless you've got some external USB storage
> > device that the system can boot from - again, this is BIOS-dependent.
> >
> > If USB boot is supported on the target machine, then there are various
> > tools in various distributions for making a bootable USB stick from
> > which you could then scan the system, but none of those USB-based
> > distributions would then be designated virus scanners, so you would
> > probably have to add the antivirus software to the USB stick manually.
> > It can be done, but it's quite a bit of work.
> >
>
> This sounds great . This will surely be helpful :-) :-)
> I think, this approach can be tried out. I need to check for the USB-
> based
> Free distributions and need to check for the method to add the Free
> antivirus software to the USB stick. Can you lemme know the
> steps/links that talk in detail about this ?
>
> > On the other hand, you should be able to pick up a cheap second-hand
> > internal CD or DVD drive somewhere and mount it in the machine with the
> > broken CD player.
> >
> Yeah, this is another good idea, but in the current scenario, this is
> ruled
> out due to various reasons.
>
> Thx in advans,
> Karthik Balaguru

I've been partial to Fedora for a long time. So here's one for you to
check out.

https://fedorahosted.org/liveusb-creator/
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_create_and_use_Live_USB

I've never used, but have heard many good impressions of DSL.

http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/

And here's a little more info.

http://www.linux-live.org/
From: Aragorn on
On Monday 28 December 2009 19:09 in comp.os.linux.setup, somebody
identifying as karthikbalaguru wrote...

> On Dec 28, 9:35 am, Aragorn <arag...(a)chatfactory.invalid> wrote:
>
>> On Monday 28 December 2009 05:20 in comp.os.linux.setup, somebody
>> identifying as karthikbalaguru wrote...
>>
>> > On Dec 28, 4:00 am, Aragorn <arag...(a)chatfactory.invalid> wrote:
>>
>> >> If USB boot is supported on the target machine, then there are
>> >> various tools in various distributions for making a bootable USB
>> >> stick from which you could then scan the system, but none of those
>> >> USB-based distributions would then be designated virus scanners,
>> >> so you would probably have to add the antivirus software to the
>> >> USB stick manually. It can be done, but it's quite a bit of work.
>>
>> > This sounds great . This will surely be helpful :-) :-)
>> > I think, this approach can be tried out. I need to check for the
>> > USB- based Free distributions and need to check for the method to
>> > add the Free antivirus software to the USB stick.
>>
>> Mandriva is a distribution which is available on a USB stick, and
>> there are some others as well.
>
> I checked Mandriva website, yeah they
> are providing on USB stick based linux, and since
> it is a full fledged linux, i think the virus scanners
> might be supported without much hassles !
> But it is not free :-(

Of course not - last thing I heard nobody was giving away USB sticks for
free yet. ;-)

> Lemme know if there is any other USB Stick
> based linux flavour that is available for Free ?

You are not going to find one, since USB sticks cost money. Most
distributions do however have the necessary tools for creating a
USB-stick-based GNU/Linux distribution, and some may even have
preconfigured and automated utilities to do such a thing for you.

> Also, lemme know if there is a USB stick
> based linux flavour that would support virus
> scanners ?

Google is your friend.

> No clear info from internet so far.

Then you didn't look well enough. ;-)

>> As I gather, the cost is not too high, but
>> alternatively, you can do it yourself using a freely downloadable
>> distribution and a USB memory stick you already own.  There are
>> HowTos about it on the web. ;-)
>>
>
> Thinking on similar lines, i got an idea to try a
> Floppy based linux instead of USB.

Well, good luck with that then. The 2.6 kernel doesn't even fit on a
floppy anymore, so you'd be stuck with an old kernel, which may not
support all of your hardware. For instance, I don't even know whether
2.4 supports SATA hard disks.

> I know of MiniRTL(based on busybox) that did
> not have dependency on HDD except for the RAM
> (Even the RAM requirement is very minimal).
> Other than that, there are other flavours like
> 'Tomsrtbt', Asmutils based 'a-Linux' and various
> other Busybox based flavours. But,they are all
> Floppy based.

If they are floppy-based, then they will certainly not hold any decent
antivirus software, given the size of such software suits.

> But, floppy drive is not available in that machine :-(

Then why even consider it? ;-)

> Does tomsrtbt support USB stick based boot up ?

That is not what it was designed for, but in theory, you should be able
to make a bootable USB stick with the contents of that CD, yes. On the
other hand, you'd be far better off with a more complete distribution,
e.g. Knoppix.

> I may check with the tomsrtbt user list regd this.
> Incase you have any information w.r.t tomsrtbt
> you can lemme know.

I can't really help you with that. I've only used it once or twice, in
order to detect hardware errors on one of my machines.

> Another query that pops in my mind is
> that these minimal versions/flavours of linux
> might not have lot of features. They might be greatly
> stripped and hence not sure if they would be able to
> provide all required support for virus scanner or similar
> tools !!
> Any thoughts on this ?

Yes, that is what I wrote higher up already. You'd be far better off
with a "real" distro. There are several live-CD based distros, and
other distros allow you to make a live-CD with a few simple
mouseclicks, or a bootable USB stick. Look here and see whether you
can find something to your liking:

http://www.distrowatch.com

> Incase these minimal versions are not suitable
> for existing along with virus scanning utility in
> the USB stick, do lemme know.

They will probably not have such scanners "on board", so you'd have to
add them yourself. The simpler the base you start from, the more work
you'll have at producing a bootable USB stick with a working distro
*and* a virus scanner.

> PS - Have looped in comp.os.linux.embedded
> to get their thoughts also as it is going towards
> that direction also interms of footprints,utilities
> in FD based linux, USB stick based linux ,
> Tiny linux flavours having support for virus scanner
> etc.

USB sticks and floppy disks are not "embedded Linux". Embedded
(GNU/)Linux is what you find in routers, cellphones and satnav systems,
i.e. the "system on a chip" approach. Such systems usually don't come
with antivirus software, and most of the time those devices are
configured to not work as if they are complete UNIX systems.

For instance, a Linksys WRT router has a Linux-based system in firmware,
but other than approaching it via a webbrowser to make a few changes to
the settings, you can't do much with it, since the device was never
designed for any other purposes than being a router. Alternative
firmware downloads do exist, but they really *are* alternative, i.e.
you'd have to install it yourself. And for your intended purposes, the
issue is moot.

--
*Aragorn*
(registered GNU/Linux user #223157)
From: karthikbalaguru on
On Dec 29, 1:08 am, markhob...(a)hotpop.donottypethisbit.com (Mark
Hobley) wrote:
> karthikbalaguru <karthikbalagur...(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> > Lemme know if there is any other USB Stick
> > based linux flavour that is available for Free ?
>
> Ubuntu provides a utility to create a bootable USB stick.
>
>
>
> > Also, lemme know if there is a USB stick
> > based linux flavour that would support virus
> > scanners ?
>
> Ubuntu provides clamav.
>

Great ! This is interesting.

I searched for setting up ubuntu in USB stick
and the below link -
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/usb-x-ubuntu-610/

Another link that claims the installation of ubuntu
in USB stick from Live CD is below -
http://www.techbuzz.in/installation-of-ubuntu-in-a-usbflash-drive-from-the-live-cd.php

Does clamav come by default after following
the procedures mentioned in the below link ?
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/usb-x-ubuntu-610/

Or, should we need to add clamav by setting
up the network/internet once the ubuntu is up from the
USB stick ?

Thx in advans,
Karthik Balaguru