Hacking_and_Penetration_Testing_with_Low_Power_Devices
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
36 CHAPTER 3 Installing a base operating system<br />
Table 3.3 Gentoo Linux<br />
Performance<br />
Package manager<br />
Desktop application<br />
repository support<br />
<strong>Hacking</strong> application<br />
repository support<br />
Community support<br />
Configuration<br />
Comments<br />
Excellent—everything is custom compiled<br />
Portage<br />
Good—better on desktop version<br />
Good—better on desktop version<br />
Good<br />
Somewhat different from other popular distributions but<br />
fairly easy<br />
By default, everything is built from source, which can yield<br />
excellent performance, but package installation tends to be<br />
time-consuming<br />
the many packages that comprise a full Gentoo system. If a package is in the repositories,<br />
it is easily built using Portage by issuing the comm<strong>and</strong> emerge . Things get a bit more interesting if a package is not available from the Gentoo<br />
repositories.<br />
The process for installing Gentoo on a Beagle is different from the desktop installation.<br />
For starters, you need a desktop Gentoo system <strong>with</strong> a microSD reader before<br />
you can install Gentoo on a Beagle. The desktop Gentoo computer is used to create a<br />
microSD card <strong>with</strong> Gentoo on it for the Beagle. Details of the installation process can<br />
be found at http://dev.gentoo.org/armin76/arm/beagleboneblack/install.xml. As<br />
<strong>with</strong> the desktop edition, installing Gentoo is a bit more involved than most other<br />
Linux variants.<br />
First, required building tools must be emerged. Second, a cross compiler must be<br />
built. Third, a copy of the U-boot bootloader (complete <strong>with</strong> patches) must be downloaded<br />
<strong>and</strong> built. Fourth, a kernel must be downloaded (including firmware), configured,<br />
<strong>and</strong> built. Fifth, the microSD card must be formatted. Thankfully, a script is<br />
provided for this task. Sixth, a basic root filesystem must be downloaded <strong>and</strong> transferred<br />
to the microSD card. Seventh, a Portage snapshot must be downloaded <strong>and</strong><br />
copied to the root filesystem on the microSD card. Eighth, a number of items (root<br />
password, networking, filesystems, hostname, system services, etc.) must be configured.<br />
Ninth, the kernel <strong>and</strong> U-boot must be transferred to the microSD card. Finally,<br />
the Beagle can be booted from the microSD media <strong>and</strong> further packages may be<br />
emerged.<br />
Building a Gentoo system can take several days. The reward for this extra effort is<br />
a finely tuned system. You might also be entitled to some bragging rights among the<br />
local techie population. Most common desktop applications can be found in the Gentoo<br />
repositories. Other distributions provide better support for penetration testing<br />
applications, however. Building applications can be a time-consuming process.<br />
For these reasons, Gentoo might not end up as our first chose as a base for our penetration<br />
testing Linux distribution.