[Pkg-sysvinit-devel] customizing Live CD images

[John Denker]

On 08/02/2010 10:47 PM, I wrote:
> We have been discussing the importance of a unique random-seed
> file each system.  This is important even for systems that boot 
> from read-only media such as CD.
> 
> To make this somewhat more practical, I have written a script
> to remix a .iso image so as to add one or more last-minute files.
> The leading application (but probably not the only application)
> is adding random-seed files.

I just now put up new-and-improved versions of these
software tools, and a web page summarizing the situation.

See
  http://www.av8n.com/computer/htm/fixup-live-cd.htm

Status:
 *) Worst-case customization time:  about a minute on my laptop.
 *) Best case:  Less than 1 second.
 *) The best case is the typical case, if you are making many disks.
 *) The checksums in md5sum.txt are properly recomputed.
 *) Better usage messages, better comments.
 *) The supporting tools are now more robust and more generally useful:
    -- Hacking ISO 9660 images
    -- Hacking md5sum lists.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.