Create Your Own Custom Linux Live CD

I mentioned last week about creating your LiveUSB sticks on the easy. Those of course are the default installs for each distro. What if you wanted to create a custom distro? I haven't tried it on USB, but I now know of a way to make your own custom Ubuntu-based live CD!

Imagine the possibilities! You can take all the stuff you like, and really make it your own! That is the beauty of Linux. It is so damned customizable, and now you can take those customizations, and make your own Live CD really easily too!

Live CD's are so flippin' handy. I use them all the time. They are good for file recovery, emergency backup, password cracking, and other stuff. One of my favorite live CD distro's is Backtrack because of all the hacking tools.

Well, now I can create my own pentesting Linux Live CD, or a Live CD with my common tools without hardly any work at all. How do I do this you ask? Easy! I do it with Remastersys!

There are other tools that allow you to make custom Live CD's. For instance, one that I learned of from my Teacher's blog is call UCK (Ubuntu Customization Kit). For ease of use, and the "no-think" factor I prefer Remastersys though.

What you do is install all your apps on your Ubuntu installation that you want to include in your CD, and remove any that you don't. Make your customizations as far as look and feel (I will let you do your own Googling for that) then install Remastersys, run it and select the dist option. Now go make some coffee while it does its work. Remastersys copies your Ubuntu installation's programs and settings and turns it into the Live CD!

When finished, it will output your CD in iso format in the /home/remastersys/remastersys folder.

Want to check out the one I made? I call it Bauer-Puntu! You can download it here (I had to split it into 9 parts):

Bauer-Puntu Part 1
Bauer-Puntu Part 2
Bauer-Puntu Part 3
Bauer-Puntu Part 4
Bauer-Puntu Part 5
Bauer-Puntu Part 6
Bauer-Puntu Part 7
Bauer-Puntu Part 8
Bauer-Puntu Part 9
Bauer-Puntu MD5 Hash

To re-create the ISO, download the individual files into a folder. In Windows open a command prompt and run the following:

copy /b Bauer-Puntu* Bauer-Puntu.iso

In Linux:

cat Bauer-Puntu* > Bauer-Puntu.iso

Sorry about having to split the files, but you know me. I'm a cheap bastard, and I am not about to pay for file hosting. I like Mediafire, and they cap the file size at 100MB max, so I split the files into 99MB chunks.

Mine came out rather large, so you will have to stick it on a DVD (Sorry about that). I did some customizations on it to get rid of most of the crappy Ubuntu brown ( I didn't get it all, oh well. It's my first release)... Oh yeah, and I installed Kismet, Aircrack and Wireshark on it for some wardriving/packet sniffing fun.

Did I mention, your live CD comes with an installer too? That's right, once you get your live CD the way you like it, you can give it away as your own Ubuntu based distro for your friends and family to install!

What will you put in your custom live CD? Let us know in the comments!

Posted in: custom, live cd, make your own, remastersys