Hacking_and_Penetration_Testing_with_Low_Power_Devices
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32 CHAPTER 3 Installing a base operating system<br />
written for Linux first <strong>and</strong> then ported to other operating systems. The collaborative<br />
open-source environment lends itself to the development of necessary security tools,<br />
such as full-featured wireless drivers that support monitor mode <strong>and</strong> packet injection.<br />
Linux affords the user many choices. A plethora of shells are available. Users are free<br />
to chose from a collection of windowing environments or can forgo a GUI altogether.<br />
Multiple programs that perform common tasks, such as editing text files, are available<br />
to support users’ preferences.<br />
A˚ngstr€om<br />
When you hear the word Ångstr€om, you probably think of the unit of measurement<br />
(10 10 m). Ångstr€oms are used to describe the wavelength (color) of light <strong>and</strong> the<br />
size of small things such as atoms <strong>and</strong> molecules. The Ångstr€om Distribution is also<br />
an obscure Linux distribution used in embedded systems (http://angstrom-distribu<br />
tion.org). The developers of this Linux flavor make a point of saying that it is to<br />
be called the Ångstr€om Distribution <strong>and</strong> not Ångstr€om Linux. The Ångstr€om Distribution’s<br />
attributes are summarized in Table 3.1.<br />
Ångstr€om has shipped <strong>with</strong> every BeagleBoard.org device starting <strong>with</strong> the original<br />
BeagleBoard <strong>and</strong> continuing through the BeagleBone Black (as of this writing, it<br />
was just announced that future boards may ship <strong>with</strong> Debian Linux). This is not surprising<br />
given the background of the BeagleBoard designer <strong>and</strong> what was available<br />
for the ARM-based devices in 2008 when the original BeagleBoard debuted. The<br />
majority of Linux desktops users are likely unfamiliar <strong>with</strong> Ångstr€om. While<br />
Ångstr€om ships <strong>with</strong> all the Beagles, we’ll briefly cover the process of building<br />
Ångstr€om to give you a better feel for this Linux flavor.<br />
Software (including operating systems) for embedded systems is often built<br />
on more powerful desktop systems. This process is known as cross compiling<br />
(more about this in the next chapter). The biggest reason to do this is that many<br />
embedded devices lack the computing horsepower to build software in a reasonable<br />
amount of time. Ångstr€om is built using the OpenEmbedded software framework<br />
Table 3.1 Ångstr€om Distribution<br />
Performance<br />
Package manager<br />
Desktop application repository<br />
support<br />
<strong>Hacking</strong> application repository<br />
support<br />
Community support<br />
Configuration<br />
Comments<br />
Good—built to optimize the Beagles<br />
opkg (similar to dpkg on Debian)<br />
Fair<br />
Poor—intended for embedded Linux<br />
Fair—small community running this distribution<br />
Nonst<strong>and</strong>ard tools are used<br />
Comes <strong>with</strong> the Beagles but is likely completely foreign<br />
to most users