Asterisk Live! CD Readme.
*******************************************************************************

Author : Andy Powell                              Date: June 2004
Contact: asterisk-live@automated.it


This CD image is SERIOUSLY ALPHA - Please don't be stupid with it.


The asterisk live! cd contains a bootable minimal linux operating system 
and a copy of asterisk.

*******************************************************************************
*******************************************************************************

Getting Started:
============

Put the cd in your cdrom drive and reboot your pc...


*******************************************************************************
*******************************************************************************


Boot sequence
============

1. The CD boots from a pseudo floppy disk image which prepares a ramdisk

2. The system is copied to ramdisk

3. /etc/sysinit is executed which 
                      a) remounts the root directory in the ramdisk
                      b) executes /etc/load_eth0.sh to try to locate any ethernet cards
                      c) executes /etc/load_usb which modprobes for usd devices
                      d) executes /etc/updateconfigs which searches for a USB device (usually sda1)
                          (see advanced for the files searched for by updateconfigs).

4. If no USB device was located then the default options are used ie you must either activate dhcp
using 

dhcpcd eth0

or edit the network configs manually or via the netconfig command (dhcp via netconfig will not work)
                      

*******************************************************************************
*******************************************************************************


Advanced
========


You can Use a USB CF card reader/USB key to store your configs, these will be loaded at
boot time after which the USB device is then unmounted. The key or CF card should
be formatted as vfat.

For this to work there must be a directory on the card/key called

astlive

astlive can contain (some, all or none) of the following directories:

networking
asterisk
sys

but it must contain a file called

.config

The contents of this file are of little regard - you can use touch for this if you like,
or simply add config date information inside.

The asterisk directory contains all the .conf files that should be updated from
your USB device. It may also contain the file 

s.asterisk

If this file exists then asterisk will start automatically at boot. (after all scripts are
run)

The networking directory can contain all, some or none of the following files:

hostname
hosts
ifcfg-eth0
network
resolv.conf

If you don't know what they are for, talk to someone who does.

This directory may also contain the file

s.dhcp

If this file exists then the dhcp client will start at boot. If the network config
files exist then they will be copied and the network will be started.

The sys directory contains specific system files for update.

passwd
shadow
ssh_host_dsa_key.pub
ssh_host_rsa_key.pub
ssh_host_key
sshd_config
ssh_host_key.pub
ssh_host_dsa_key
ssh_host_rsa_key

if the file

s.sshd

exists then sshd will start at boot allowing remote logins. If the file

userinit

exists then it will be copied to /etc and executed from there. This 
is where you can add your own commands/scripting that will run at boot.

The CF card is still mounted at this point and is unmounted when all
scripts are complete.


******* CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION *******
******* CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION *******
******* CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION *******

Since we are using vfat for simplicity and to allow you to test with any existing
CF/USB device you should be aware that files on the card/key are UNPROTECTED.

Effectively the permissions are +777 - readable and writeable by anyone. If you
copy files to the ram disk via the userinit script make sure that you modify
the permissions.

******* CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION *******
******* CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION *******
******* CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION *******


*******************************************************************************
*******************************************************************************


TODO


security - start probing, no security testing done!

check for Digium cards automatically and load drivers (this needs
to be done manually or via the userinit script)

add the ability to install to hdd and not use CD or CF/USB

Release a kit so users can build their own CD's


*******************************************************************************
*******************************************************************************

26.06.04

Added nano for the weak and feeble who can't cope with vi
Added wget.
Removed mount.smbfs and mount.smb - not required.
Removed bdisk and cdrom directories.

Changed libncurses.so.5, libncurses.so.5.3, libncurses.so.5,libncurses.so.5.3
libreadline.so.4.1, libreadline.so.4.2, libreadline.so.4.3, libuuid.so.1.2 to
symlinks rather than having multiple versions.. doh!