How could i build my own Linux Operating System ?
Sunday, June 20th, 2010 at
07:25
I am programming applications, writing documents, making graphical projects and allot more. I have allot of data that i feel insecure to leave on Windows XP.
I want to create a very secure Linux and to find a way to encrypt my data.
I am still going to use my windows xp but i will make a 3rd partition for the use of Linux.
So, can you help me with this ?
Tagged with: graphical projects • Linux • partition • programming applications • secure linux • windows xp
Filed under: Linux Applications
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Sounds like you don’t really need/want linux at all – what you need is some drive-encryption software.
Check out TrueCrypt. It will let you take that extra partition and create an encrypted volume in it. It’ll show up like a drive letter that you can only access with a password. The encryption is on-the-fly, meaning that you can open and close documents/files in-place, and the computer will encrypt/decrypt them automatically. When you’re done with the files, you can lock it back up again.
Installing linux and file encryption on the drive won’t help you much – you will have to shut down windows and reboot into linux to access it, which won’t help you, since your files are probably created in windows. The process of encrypting/decrypting would be a pain since you’d have to boot into linux, decrypt, copy the files to a temporary location, boot back into windows, use the files, copy them back to the temporary location, boot back into linux, and re-encrypt them.
Linux Mint or Ubunto Desktop Live cd
All you need to do is find a distro you like, download the image, burn it to a CD and install it to that partition.
The site to learn about distros is:
http://www.distrowatch.com
Most people would recommend Ubuntu, but you can look at Mint, Fedora, Kubuntu and lots of others. Linux is very secure out of the box, and there are a couple of things you can tweak to make it better, but there’s a ton of information on the net about all that.
Just find a distro to install first, get comfortable with it, and add the encryption stuff on later on.
If you mainly want security you should look into selinux. It is a aeries of modukles that can be added to nearly any linux distro that greatly enhances security.
See the links below.
Good luck
Hey you! So you want to take on making a Linux distro, huh? Look into a very compact form of Linux called Damned Small Linux:
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/
This is one of the smallest and most compact versions of Linux. In order to create a distro, you have to be familiar with the Linux Kernel.
The Linux Kernel is updated constantly and Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux is the head of this organization of open developers:
http://www.kernel.org/
This is the place that you have to start at and study in order to know how to build a Linux distribution. If you don’t understand the Linux Kernel, you cannot get anywhere with building a distro.
See some of these helpful references for help on building you distribution:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/os-lfs/index.html
http://www.webpromo-inc.com/linuxsite/distro7.asp
http://www.developertutorials.com/tutorials/linux/build-linux-distribution-050706/page1.html
http://www.linuxjournal.com/?q=article/6889
http://axiom.anu.edu.au/~okeefe/p2b/buildMin/buildMin-1.html
You can Google other helpful sites by using the term:
"How to Build a Linux Distribution"
Jim