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Byzantium Live Distro: Difference between revisions

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==Goals==
==Goals==
* Will be documented.
** A Creative Commons-licensed book will be made available with the Byzantium distribution as well as separately
** Will explain the finer points of setting up a mesh, as well as accompanying projects (such as dialup gateways and long-haul transports).
** Will be translated into as many languages as possible.
* Widely compatible.
** Users need to be able to boot their desktop/laptop/netbook from Byzantium media and set up a node.
** As little fiddling with network drivers as possible.
* Rapidly deployable.
** Users need to be able to configure their Byzantium node rapidly and with little assistance.
** Emergency situations.
** Control panel aims to be as self-documenting as possible.
* Aims to protect confidentiality of traffic.
** Opportunistic IPsec?
** All services default to SSLv3/TLSv1.
* Aims to protect integrity of traffic.
** SSLv3/TLSv1.
* Meshes should grow without the direction of a central authority.
** Anyone can set up a mesh node.
** Anyone can set up services on the mesh.
** Services packaged by default can be managed (activated and deactivated) from the control panel
** Services packaged by default will come preconfigured with secure defaults and a mobile-friendly theme where appropriate.
** This is a calculated risk.  The threat models of Tor and I2P take this into account as well.
* Byzantium nodes need to be rapidly clonable.
** One copy of the live distribution needs to become many on demand.
** Nodes need to be clonable without taking the node down.
* Persistent storage has to be an option.
** Built into [http://porteus.org Porteus].
*** save.dat file
*** removable media
*** media Porteus is installed to


==Features==
==Features==

Revision as of 02:25, 7 July 2011

Description

We are building a portable live Linux distribution based on Porteus Linux. Porteus itself is a fork of Slax that has been brought up to date with Slackware 13.37 and uses a 2.6.38.8 kernel. Porteus can use binary packages from Slackware 13.37.

Goals

  • Will be documented.
    • A Creative Commons-licensed book will be made available with the Byzantium distribution as well as separately
    • Will explain the finer points of setting up a mesh, as well as accompanying projects (such as dialup gateways and long-haul transports).
    • Will be translated into as many languages as possible.
  • Widely compatible.
    • Users need to be able to boot their desktop/laptop/netbook from Byzantium media and set up a node.
    • As little fiddling with network drivers as possible.
  • Rapidly deployable.
    • Users need to be able to configure their Byzantium node rapidly and with little assistance.
    • Emergency situations.
    • Control panel aims to be as self-documenting as possible.
  • Aims to protect confidentiality of traffic.
    • Opportunistic IPsec?
    • All services default to SSLv3/TLSv1.
  • Aims to protect integrity of traffic.
    • SSLv3/TLSv1.
  • Meshes should grow without the direction of a central authority.
    • Anyone can set up a mesh node.
    • Anyone can set up services on the mesh.
    • Services packaged by default can be managed (activated and deactivated) from the control panel
    • Services packaged by default will come preconfigured with secure defaults and a mobile-friendly theme where appropriate.
    • This is a calculated risk. The threat models of Tor and I2P take this into account as well.
  • Byzantium nodes need to be rapidly clonable.
    • One copy of the live distribution needs to become many on demand.
    • Nodes need to be clonable without taking the node down.
  • Persistent storage has to be an option.
    • Built into Porteus.
      • save.dat file
      • removable media
      • media Porteus is installed to

Features

ToDo

Packages built for Byzantium

  • CherryPy - Porteus and Slackware don't package it so I made one for us. It's been checked into Git.
  • pySetupTools - Required for installing some Python modules.
  • Mako - Python HTML templating system.
    • Dependency of the control panel.
  • Git - Converted Slackware v13.37 package.
  • Curl - Converted Slackware v13.37 package.
    • Dependency of git.
    • Note: To make git work without "error setting certificate verify locations" errors, you need to run the following command as the root user: git config --system http.sslcainfo /usr/share/curl/ca-bundle.crt

Links

Place links relevant to any part of the process of making this livedistro here.

Porteus Official Website Processes for building Porteus packages.

Timeline