ISO config help

Angry Dog

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Hi everyone,

I consider myself new to Linux but have used it actively as my main OS for a while. Only reason i went back to win10 is my work software that will only work with windows. However I am training myself to become a programmer and have a few friends. But as you all know we cannot always get together.

So i want to create ISO i can use with a VM. It must not boot into the operating system GUI. It must only open IntelliJ and start team viewer as a service. This will allow my friends and i to figure some code out on the fly without getting any expensive services going. the idea is to host the VM booting from the ISO but not install anything. This way we can have a clean start every time and just copy paste the working code to a doc if needed.

Not loading the GUI for the operating system might save some ram i hope.

So here is the idea

ISO loads

> critical services >
> teamviewer starts as a service "i think it is possible to start it with a set password and run as a service"
> IntelliJ starts giving us a work environment. I will have direct KVM to the VM but my friends "just two of them" can then get KVM via teamviewer as far as i understand this can work not sure.

any ideas to make this work will be nice i never configured my own ISO before.

i am thinking to use Linux puppy or Mint as they are not resource heavy. Since it is a VM i would like to keep the ram for IntelliJ as it will need it for the runtime.

So any ideas on this would be seriously helpful.

i know this is a stupid idea if you have a better one please share.

Thank you for reading.
 
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This iso that you want to create, do you want to create it from files that are already on your HDD?
 
This iso that you want to create, do you want to create it from files that are already on your HDD?

I can yes, Since the post i investigated how people are building custom ISOs on YouTube. Since i am dealing with capped internet i will only download what i need next month. Yea Unfortunately LTE is my only option and capped internet is a thing with our ISPs. Anyhow i digress...

So i will be downloading mint get to run on a VM as smoothly as possible. It is my understanding you can boot into the GUI when needed so i will see how that works. But from the command line i should be able to start teamviewer and IntelliJ. However if successful i will look into a script or something like that to get things started automatically. If successful i need to test how many people can connect via teamviewer at any one time. i only need two connections.

But you must be wondering why an ISO? Well my friends are people i know from the net and yes to a degree i do trust them BUT i rather run a VM because i know for a fact teamviewer has a rat. Having it live on a ISO that will not install anything and once unmounted it WILL clear everything it is just added security on my side.
 
I will go trough this step by step when successful i will post it here.
 
capped internet is a thing

Now *that* sucks. You mentioned having some friends, maybe they can take care of the downloading for you?

Many businesses have reasonably speedy public wireless. Go grocery shopping, park close to the store, download the images while you're shopping for bananas? If the public library is open, put on a mask and head down there after queuing up the files you need? Get an external drive and go visit a buddy who doesn't have a capped connection? (Bring beer.) Find someone online that you trust, send them an external drive and have them send it back to you (postage paid)?

I have slow internet, but not capped. I still manage to download about a TB/month.
 
Now *that* sucks. You mentioned having some friends, maybe they can take care of the downloading for you?

Many businesses have reasonably speedy public wireless. Go grocery shopping, park close to the store, download the images while you're shopping for bananas? If the public library is open, put on a mask and head down there after queuing up the files you need? Get an external drive and go visit a buddy who doesn't have a capped connection? (Bring beer.) Find someone online that you trust, send them an external drive and have them send it back to you (postage paid)?

I have slow internet, but not capped. I still manage to download about a TB/month.
Yea it is the nature of the beast here. Even our public Wifi facilities have a soft cap per customer. The thing is our internet is of the most expensive in the world. As an example IF i had access to fiber cable it will cost me $120 US for a 10Mb down and 5Mb up line. But i digress.

This is what i have learned so far.

i can turn a VM into an ISO.

This is important for the following reasons:

1> i can keep a "Main VM" and keep it up to date and generate an ISO periodically.
2> i can add function to the VM and generate new ISO when needed.

All in all not a bad deal so far. I found good instructions on how to boot services and will check them out as soon as my VM is set up and ready.

But all and all very useful. I will be able to build a couple of tools for myself later on.
 
As an example IF i had access to fiber cable it will cost me $120 US for a 10Mb down and 5Mb up line.

Ouch. I have DSL and it's 12 down with 1.5 up, except it's really about 1 up and if I saturate my upload it kills my download speed. It's like $45/mo.

Anyhow, if you run into trouble AND you stick around the forum for a bit as an active participant, I suspect myself and others would be willing to send you an SD card of USB thumbdrive in the mail. (Assuming your country would let such a thing through customs.)
 
Ouch. I have DSL and it's 12 down with 1.5 up, except it's really about 1 up and if I saturate my upload it kills my download speed. It's like $45/mo.

Anyhow, if you run into trouble AND you stick around the forum for a bit as an active participant, I suspect myself and others would be willing to send you an SD card of USB thumbdrive in the mail. (Assuming your country would let such a thing through customs.)

Thank you, It is really kind of you. However I suspect I will have what I need by Monday if not earlier. See among our many "problems" is power. But my ISP do provide me with a separate cap after midnight. They call this "night cap" data. Now i hardly ever use it and allow my systems to update during 12:30 AM to about 4:30 AM to stay within their specification.

I suspect a late night or two will give me the basic resources what i need to get this project started.

However i am really getting tired of every website cookie popup. It is just another force agreement that in my opinion should be made universally illegal. No is an answer that they can also get use to.

So to add to my project will be a browser. This means i will try to create an ISO that will just start a browser. Once i am done and turn the VM off, all their lovely cookies goes away. Come to think of it, this little project might actually be very handy in the end.

We will see how this goes.
 
So to add to my project will be a browser. This means i will try to create an ISO that will just start a browser. Once i am done and turn the VM off, all their lovely cookies goes away. Come to think of it, this little project might actually be very handy in the end.
There's a Linux distro that does that already: https://porteus-kiosk.org/index.html#about
Porteus Kiosk is a free to use, lightweight Linux operating system which has been restricted to allow only use of the web browser. Furthermore, the browser has been locked down to prevent users from tampering with settings or downloading and installing software. When the kiosk boots it automatically opens Firefox or Google Chrome browser to your chosen home page. The history is not kept, no passwords are saved, and many menu items have been disabled for total security. When the browser is restarted, all caches are cleared and it reopens automatically with a clean session to ensure no trace of history is left.
 
Once i am done and turn the VM off, all their lovely cookies goes away.
Firefox has a simple checkbox setting to delete cookies and site info when you close Firefox. Other browsers may have something similar.

Settings > Preferences > Privacy & Security > Cookies and Site Data
 
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It must not boot into the operating system GUI. It must only open IntelliJ
I am not a programmer, but Wikipedia says IntelliJ IDEA needs a Linux distribution that supports Gnome, KDE, or Unity Desktop Environments. Is this the same thing you are talking about? It sounds like it may be a possible conflict in your goals.


i am thinking to use Linux puppy or Mint as they are not resource heavy.
There is a big difference in resources needed between Puppy and Mint. But another problem, if my information about IntelliJ above is correct, is that neither Puppy nor Mint offer Gnome, KDE, or Unity desktops directly. You can add a different desktop (at least on Mint), but that brings more work to you and more complication to your project.
 
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I am not a programmer, but Wikipedia says IntelliJ IDEA needs a Linux distribution that supports Gnome, KDE, or Unity Desktop Environments. Is this the same thing you are talking about? It sounds like it may be a possible conflict in your goals.

If i have to run the Desktop Environment alongside Ubuntu then i have to do it. See in the end of the day it would have been nice to have just the Intellij running BUT it is still about security if one of my friends want to use a rat on me they will only get the VM to mess with and in the end that is what counts. Protecting myself. So i believe you are correct here this will not be exactly as i plan but it will still offer me protection so i feel it is a reasonable compromise
 
Firefox has a simple checkbox setting to delete cookies and site info when you close Firefox. Other browsers may have something similar.

Settings > Preferences > Privacy & Security > Cookies and Site Data

Yes the function exist but in the end of the day, if i run into a website that gives me more then just cookies then i can get rid of whatever infection it did give me without having to run a million antivirus scans, and other scans as well. So in all honesty i like the idea of having an VM i can just turn off and it clears "everything" even infections. That to me is valuable.
 
So in all honesty i like the idea of having an VM i can just turn off and it clears "everything" even infections.
I'm not sure how you mean this. Switching off a VM will not clear cookies or viruses... you would have to remove the VM each time, and then build a new one. But a VM should stop the spread of any virus or malware to the rest of your system... unless (or until) the bad people learn how to escape from the VM.
 
you would have to remove the VM each time, and then build a new one.
Not necessarily. Depending on the virtualization software, a VM can be used as a template to create many others, then remove those when needed while keeping the original one.
In QEMU, derived images can be created from a VM which functions as the base, these can be modified at will while keeping the base image intact.
It is possible to create snapshots too, which can be deleted and the base won't be affected
In VBox, just like in QEMU, snapshots can be created too
A similar process to that of QEMU derived images can be accomplished in VBox as well by cloning the VM

So there's no really need to remove a VM just to create it all over again when you have all these techniques, tools and options at your disposal. :)
 
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I'm not sure how you mean this. Switching off a VM will not clear cookies or viruses... you would have to remove the VM each time, and then build a new one. But a VM should stop the spread of any virus or malware to the rest of your system... unless (or until) the bad people learn how to escape from the VM.

It comes down to the situation. If you boot running a ISO image and it just loads in your memory like most Linux distributions can do it doesn't install anything on the computer so when the VM is stopped effectively the ram gets cleared and anything that was cashed is wiped. Because the ISO is read only at this point nothing can get written back onto the ISO file.

Also you can create a VM and call that one "main" and then just generate a clone from it. Most VM software allow you to create clones so you can always keep a clean copy as well. I know Virtual Box can do this easily.

However here is the important part. Upon creating the VM make sure it has its own separate network as well. i got myself an inexpensive router and isolated it from the rest of my network. Used a USB WiFi to connect from the VM to the isolated router. that way it can protect me against network attacks. i made sure the router is on a different IP and subnet this way not even wire shark can see the other network. there is no way for it pass a virus to my other network.
 
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Follow-up Finally got my hands on Linux Mint. But the download was very strange. It kept on stopping so i had to pause and restart all the time and finally at about 3 AM got the ISO. Also grabbed the other one for the browser will explore both of them today.
 
Follow-up Finally got my hands on Linux Mint. But the download was very strange. It kept on stopping so i had to pause and restart all the time and finally at about 3 AM got the ISO. Also grabbed the other one for the browser will explore both of them today.
Once you have everything in place; Linux up and running, I recommend that you install aria2, which is a command-line download helper tool you can use to, well, download files. It's easy to use and very fast as well as lightweight in resource usage. To install in Linux Mint, just open a terminal and run
Code:
sudo apt-get install aria2
It's just a few Kbs. To use it, open a terminal and type aria2c followed by some link or a .torrent file or a .txt file name containing either a list of links or .torrent file names, i.e.
Code:
aria2c http://mirrors.evowise.com/linuxmint/stable/20.1/linuxmint-20.1-cinnamon-64bit.iso
Using a .torrent file
Code:
aria2c https://linuxmint.com/torrents/linuxmint-20.1-cinnamon-64bit.iso.torrent
If for any reason the download stops or gets interrupted, just re-run it and it will continue from the point it was before stopping. Read here for more options and usage examples https://aria2.github.io/ and this is a nice tutorial to get you started too https://calomel.org/aria2.html
 

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