This is the configuration tree for:
Debian UWA ICPC Contestant Environment
A software called live-build can be used to automatically build images from this configuration tree.
live-build can be obtained from http://live-systems.org/devel/live-build/. On Debian based systems, live-build can be installed with:
live-build can be used to build this image with the following command executed in this directory::
More information about live-build and the Live Systems project can be found on its homepage at http://live-systems.org/ and in the manual at http://live-systems.org/manual/.
This Debain Live USB configuration is based on the Debian xfce-desktop configuration available at http://live.debian.net/gitweb/?p=live-images.git. The main changes are:
- Disable installer and root access.
- Install compilers, interpreters and editors required for the competition.
- Remove unneeded software to safe space.
Full details of the changes can be made by downloading the xfce-desktop configuration and using diff.
This is a script that runs lb config and auto-generates most of the configuration files in config/. Main changes:
- Disable building source ISO.
- Disable memtest.
- Change apt to aptitude (allows removing unneeded software).
- Append boot parameters to:
- Disable Debian installer.
- Change hostname and username.
- Change timezone.
- Disable root access.
See man lb config for documentation on the lb config command and its options.
These are syslinux configuration files that determine the options in the bootloader. Main changes:
- Set a timeout.
- Disable menu items for failsafe live environment, installer, and advanced options.
- Immediately boot live environment.
- Disable editing boot options.
These are lists of packages to be installed. Main changes:
- Remove installer.
- Remove unneeded desktop software (e.g. libreoffice).
- Install programming languages for competition.
- Install editors and IDEs.
The icpc-contestant.list.chroot and icpc-languages.list.chroot comprise the main changes relative to the base Debian install.
Additional software can be installed by adding to the lists here.
These are files to be included in the Live USB environment. They are added after the packages in config/package-lists are installed, and will overwrite any files that are already present. Main additions:
- Desktop shortcuts to DOMjudge server and on-the-day resources.
- XFCE configuration file to hide filesystem desktop shortcuts (i.e. filesystems belonging to the computer the Live USB is booting off)
Additional files could be added here to, e.g. configure firewall rules or printing services.
These are scripts that are run after the packages in config/package-lists are installed and the files in config/includes.chroot are added. Main addition:
- Run
update-alternativesto set the default Java VM and compiler to Java 7.
Additional scripts could be added here to, e.g. configure firewall rules or printing services.
To build an image:
The image will be saved as binary.hybrid.iso. This image is ready to be burned to a CD or copied to a USB device.
To clean up after a previous build:
This will remove the chroot environment and some cache files, but keep the package cache (i.e. downloaded .deb files) so they don't need to be downloaded again.
Divide a USB stick into two partitions:
- A FAT32 partition to store the read-only Live USB environment. Size accordingly.
- An ext4 partition to store persistent data. The label for the partition must be
persistence.
Use an appropriate tool to create a bootable Live USB using the first partition, e.g. unetbootin (Linux) or Universal USB Installer (Windows). Once the bootable Live USB is created, on the Live USB partition edit the file isolinux/live.cfg and add the persistence option to the end of the append line.
On the root of the persistence partition, create a file called persistence.conf. This configures which directories on the Live USB will be persistent. See man persistence.conf for more details.