Technical manual
Contents
1. ments are the same e To run UniversUSB a usb flash drive recommended 8G or more the host PC must be able to boot from USB and run Ubuntu Linux see Ubuntu System Requirements e To create your ovn UniversUSB same as before plus UniversUSB ISO a host PC with a Linux OS and the UnetBootIn program installed 2 2 Howto use it To make it short e connect your UniversUSB to a PC e boot it from USB and use your system as a normal Linux system e put in the data folder all your NON reserved data e in the private data folder all your reserved data That s all The default login username and password are both universusb 7 8 2 3 A LESS SHORT EXPLANATION 2 3 A less short explanation The configured UniversUSB is very easy to use it comes as a Linux system on USB stick configured in persistent mode it behaves as a standard hard disk installation which means that you can write documents modify settings and they will be saved on the flash drive for the next time you use it as in your desktop PC After you have configured your Dropbox account and your private data folder you will get 2 folders on your desktop a data folder and a private data They are both syncronized by Dropbox on their online server so if you lose your USB flash drive you have an on line backup or you can work on the same data both from UniversUSB flash drive and from your desktop computer if this is connected to the same Dropbo2. some bash programming ideas both to personalize a distribution or other bash scripting tasks 3 2 1 Comments Nothing to say use the comments to explain what you do it will be useful to people who read the script but to the author too if in some years he will need to look at his code 3 2 2 Variables The script uses some variables they are always useful to have a definition in just one place In our script it is used to define some URL and filenames used to build the UniversUSB VERSION 0 1 DEFAULT_USERNAME universusb After the declaration the usage is echo VERSION UniversUSB Technical manual 3 2 THE BUILDING SCRIPT 13 3 2 3 Functions Functions are very useful for repeated code in this case we use it to print logging messages to debug the script the line read p usually com mented out can be uncommented to pause the script and check what is going on One uncomment will enable the pause all along the script function debug echo n Debug echo 1 read p Press Enter key to continue debug Make sure only root can run our script 3 2 4 Package personalization The script comes with some preinstalled packages they are organized in groups INSTALL_LATEX yes INSTALL_DEVEL yes INSTALL_MATH yes INSTALL_STAT yes A specific group of package is enabled if the corresponding variable is un commented to remove a set of packages just comment the correspondinf line Note that w
3. bled without worrying about letting around some unwanted logs and this without giving away your data security or privacy After you have your preferred software and configurations installed and configured you can have your personal working environment everywhere you find a USB bootable PC 1 2 Who uses it The solution can be used by students who need a portable solution with spe cific software tools the initial version contains statistical and mathematical tools but other version can be easily personalized with the building script from having just the tools to browse internet to having some complete set of network troubleshooting tools 1 3 From where does it come from The project derives from CloudUSB now dismissed and is developed at Department of Statistical Sciences University of Padova This is the reason of the initial selection of default software but a personalization can be as easy as inserting in the building script a list of desired software 5 6 1 4 WHAT DOES IT MEAN 1 4 What does it mean The meaning of the Univers USB can be e the UNIVERSe USB e the UNIVERSity USB solution e the UNIVERSal USB solution as you prefer and considering the ancestor CloudUSB project from which this derives we can say that we evolved from Cloud to Universe UniversUSB Technical manual Chapter 2 User Manual 2 1 System requirements UniverUSB is based on Ubuntu http www ubuntu com so the require
4. h script When UniversUSB is used for the first time it needs some configurations which are done by a script called Setup sh This script and some other files are stored in home universusb scripts and a Desktop icon is prepared cat gt DESKTOP_DIR Setup desktop lt lt EOF Desktop Entry Type Application Name Setup Terminal true Exec home DEFAULT_USERNAME scripts Setup sh Icon home DEFAULT_USERNAME scripts blue DEFAULT_USERNAME svg EOF chmod atx DESKTOP_DIR Setup desktop The script will be executed by the user the first time that he will use the USB stick and essentially will set up 1 Dropbox account an existing one or a new one 2 encfs on the private data directory UniversUSB Technical manual 18 3 2 THE BUILDING SCRIPT UniversUSB Technical manual Chapter 4 References EncFS http www argO net encfs EncFS site RemasterSys http www remastersys com RemasterSys site Ubuntu http www ubuntu com Ubuntu site UNetBootin http unetbootin sourceforge net UNetBootin site UniversUSB http www universusb org UniversUSB site 19
5. irectory on the Desktop the user will see and use his plain data but it will be stored on the USB stick and on Dropbox in crypted form 3 2 10 DNS setup Ubuntu uses NetworkManager for network related configurations a useful utility to check what Ubuntu wants to do is nm tool which shows the current configuration Information are kept in etc NetworkManager NetworkManager conf and in particular the DNS info are the line dns dnsmask where dnsmasq is a local service which forwards DNS request to external DNS To have a standard configuration it is possible to add the usual con figuration file etc resolv conf with something like nameserver 208 67 222 222 3 2 11 Remastersys When the installation is complete remastersys is the tool used to build an ISO of the system The ISO is limited to 4G in size for limitation of the tools used by remastersys and the Ubuntu USB booting procedure for more in formations about Remastersys see its website The information about when remastersys is issued are stored in the di rectory home universusb scripts folder in a file whose name keeps the version of the script and the date in which the script started building the UniversUSB in the format yymmgghhmmss UniversUSB Technical manual 3 2 THE BUILDING SCRIPT 17 DATA date ZYAm adLH AM S echo UniversUSB_ VERSION _ DATA gt home DEFAULT_USERNAME scripts UniversUSB_ VERSION _ DATA 3 2 12 The Setup s
6. lain installation The UniversUSB is based on a Ubuntu 13 10 at the moment distribution The initial choice can be different but the building script uses the Ubuntu conventions about configuration files so if you change distribution probably there will be some work to adapt the scripts The same Ubuntu versions have more or less minor changes from version to version so with upcoming releases there could be the necessity to change some script lines After having selected a distribution you just need to install it as you would normally do more or less in this way e Language English or your preferred one e Install Ubuntu e English again the one you use 11 12 3 2 THE BUILDING SCRIPT e Check Download updates while installing e Check Install this third party software e Erase disk and install Ubuntu e Set CET time Rome according to your position e Set keyboard english or the layout you prefer e User Name UniversUSB pc name universusb e new user login universusb password universusb e Ubuntu account Log in later You can personalize the username but the default building script requests that the working user is universusb if you change it change accordingly the building script 3 2 The building script The creation of the UniversUSB starts from a plain Ubuntu installation as we have seen and is personalized with a script in this chapter we see parts of the script which can be useful to see
7. nivers SB The Univers USB solution Gianluca Moro Department of Statistical Sciences University of Padova Gianluca Moro unipd it Revision 20140117 UniversUSB Technical manual Contents 1 Introduction 2 4 LI What Sit esa si kd ek ha OAS 12 Who uses I 00 Coon 1 3 From where does it come from 222 22 22 22 nn LA What does it mean 2222 Co aa a User Manual 2 1 System requirements 22 Howto use itj 2 3 A less short explanation l 2A First DOD 24 lt 4 4 2 5 How to put UniversUSB on USB flash drive 3 Developer Manual build your own UniversUSB oe eras 3 2 The building script 3 2 1 Comments 3 2 2 Variables 3 2 3 Functions 3 2 4 Package personalization 4 3 2 5 string parsing 3 2 6 The repository 3 2 7 Package installation 3 2 8 Background and Firefox home page 4 29 BAMI ca q 2 24 3 2 10 DNS setup 3 2 11 Remastersys 3 2 12 The Setup sh script References 11 11 12 12 12 13 13 14 14 14 15 15 16 16 17 19 CONTENTS UniversUSB Technical manual Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1 What is it UniversUSB http www universusb org is a portable Linux OS installed on a USB stick with a set of predefined but personalizable software You keep your data and your programs in your pocket use them on every com puter with USB boot ena
8. nt then you just need to manually mount the crypted partition encfs home universusb Dropbox private data home universusb Desktop private data UniversUSB Technical manual 10 2 5 HOW TO PUT UNIVERSUSB ON USB FLASH DRIVE 2 5 How to put UniversUSB on USB flash drive UniversUSB is made available as ISO image to store on a USB flash drive you need the Unetbootin tool http unetbootin sourceforge net and the ISO image file The steps are 1 select DiskImage and choose the UniversUSB ISO filename 2 set Space used to preserve file across reboot it is the space you will have available for your personal data configuration try to set to 1000 Mb remember that the base system is 4G and the all must fit in the physical USB flash drive size 3 type USB drive ad destination and set Drive to the drive where the USB flash drive is connected usually the default is correct WARNING if unsure double check the destination 4 just press OK now it will need some time to copy all the needed data UniversUSB Technical manual Chapter 3 Developer Manual build your own UniversUSB The user can build his own UniversUSB to personalize it for some specific task to fit it on a smaller device or just to learn how to do it The process has essentially 3 main steps 1 install a plain Ubuntu Linux 2 personalize with the official building script or with your version of it 3 put the result on a USB stick 3 1 P
9. o have a private data directory mounted by encfs so it is crypted for more information you can see http www arg0 net encfs and stored in its crypted form both on the USB stick and on Dropbox In this way the user is protected both is the stick is lost and on the online storage As a matter of fact Dropbox is just an option other storage services can be used Note the data is stored by EncFS it is the user responsibility to store securely the password otherwise all data is lost Note the password user for the login must be the same used for the EncFS otherwise the automatic mount will not work The PAM module is used to have an authomatic mounting of the en crypted partition The relevant part of etc pam d common auth is cat gt etc pam d common auth lt lt EOF auth sufficient pam_encfs so auth success 1 default ignore pam_unix so nullok_secure use_first_pass auth requisite pam_deny so auth required pam_permit so UniversUSB Technical manual 16 3 2 THE BUILDING SCRIPT auth optional pam mount so auth optional pam ecryptis so unwrap EOF the file will declare that we use the pam encfs so module during the au thentication and in the etc security pam_encfs conf we configure what we want to do essentialy the line universusb home universusb Dropbox private data home universusb Desktop private data v allow_other nonempty which mounts the crypted directory stored in Dropbox private data to a local d
10. riting INSTALL_MATH no will not remove the mathematical packages you need to comment it out as in INSTALL MATH yes This depends on how the variable is used if x INSTALL_MATH x then h s install y packagename fi Each set of packaget is included ina if then fi block and the block is executed if the corresponding varialbe is defined i e has some value every value will make true the condition UniversUSB Technical manual 14 3 2 THE BUILDING SCRIPT 3 2 5 String parsing The problem here is to find the name of the Desktop folder which can change acordingly to localization Look for Desktop name in localized systems if f home DEFAULT_USERNAME config user dirs dirs then home DEFAULT_USERNAME config user dirs dirs XDG_ONLY_DESKTOP_DIR echo XDG_DESKTOP_DIR awk BEGIN FS print NF P DESKTOP_DIR home DEFAULT_USERNAME XDG_ONLY_DESKTOP_DIR else DESKTOP_DIR home DEFAULT_USERNAME Desktop fi debug Desktop directory is DESKTOP_DIR The awk code print NF prints the last fields of the vector that is the name of the Desktop folder in localized system in this way it works both if I run from root root Desktop or from normal user home user Desktop The default option is to use Desktop string 3 2 6 The repository Ubuntu has some predefined repository to download software we want to add some other sources for specific application The solution i
11. s to find the official repository for the wanted application and add it to the standard configuration file etc apt sources list In our case we add repository for Remastersys Dropbox Skype After modifying the sources list file the command apt get update must be issued to update the indexes 3 2 7 Package installation The software personalization is done by installing the desired packages for example apt get install y force yes dropbox The option y and force yes are used to force whenever possible a default YES answer to all the installation question Usually this is a good option only if you know that the installation will go on smoothly UniversUSB Technical manual 3 2 THE BUILDING SCRIPT 15 3 2 8 Background and Firefox home page The UniversUSB background can be personalized by the script with a PNG file in this implementation it overwrite the default background which is stored in usr share backgrounds warty final ubuntu png Firefox can be personalized with a web site home page by cat gt usr lib firefox defaults pref home js lt lt EOF user_pref browser startup homepage DEFAULT_PROJECT_URL EOF This code write everything included between EOF in the configuration file of the browser usr lib firefox defaults pref home js 3 2 9 PAM The core to have an encrypted remote copy of the data is given by e PAM e encfs e Dropbox e mounting the private data encrypted file system The idea is t
12. this will download the Dropbox client you need to be connected to internet to accomplish this step and install it If you have an account use it otherwise create a new account In details 1 ask confirm to install Dropbox say Ok Dropbox client is down loaded and run 2 select the relevant option if you do not have a Dropbox account you can create one otherwise use your account 3 select Typical installation 4 click sometimes on Next 5 now the private data directory is going to be configured for crypt ing say Yes see the consideration in the next paragraph 6 insert your login password 7 all done now restart At step 5 if you never used that Dropbox account with UniversUSB private data when you are asked Do you want to initialize the private data directory Only needed on new Dropbox account answer OK this will create the crypted folder to store your data Set the same password as the login one If you want to use UniversusUSB with a preexistent account already configured to use EncFS just click the No button and you are done NOTE ON PASSWORD The password for login must be the same as the one used for EncFS so if you have an already configured EncFS directory just set the login password equal to the EncFS password It is possible to change the EncFS password with encfsctl passwd home universusb Dropbox private data If the passwords are not the same and for some reason you want to keep them differe
13. x account You could have some perplexities to send your data on a remote server via Internet but in this case you just put your sensitive data in the private data folder this folder is protected by a password the data you put in is crypted locally and sent over the Internet to the Dropbox storage in crypted form The data in the private folder is stored in a crypted format even locally in the USB flash drive and made available only if you login in the system with the correct password Note that if you lose the usb flash drive and someone access your data he will NOT see your private data 2 4 First boot The UniversUSB needs to be configured before you use it The steps you need to accomplish are the following e Boot the UniversUSB flash drive the first time the boot will be some what slower because it has to initialize the persistent data partition e After the boot change the password The default login username and password are both universusb You need to change the password to keep your privacy The password you use to login will be the same used to crypt your sensitive data so choose a good password 1 go to System Settings 2 select User Accounts 3 click on the field of the password the one with big black points 4 write the old universusb password and set a new one UniversUSB Technical manual 2 4 FIRST BOOT 9 5 restart the computer e Run the script Setup whose icon is on the Desktop
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