Banksy 3 - aka "The Personator"

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Sylvander
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#106 Post by Sylvander »

OK...
Easy-Peasy...JOB DONE. :D
As per your instructions.
Typing this from my new Banksy3 CD-RW ---> Firefox ESR 17.0.8.
i.e.
1. Additional "Palemoon 27.6.2 (32 bit)" installed. [no problems]

2. Replaced old "/opt/b3personator/b3burnimp" with latest copy downloaded today and unpacked. [no problems]

3. Placed blanked CD-RW in optical drive ready for burning and clicked on b3impersonator icon on desktop. [new CD-RW burned with no problems]
Does the program automatically finalise the burn, so no more can be burned unless first blanked?

It's amazing how easy the doing of this is, provided you know how.

The newly installed [additional] Palemoon appears to work just fine [at banking website for example], and so does the existing Firefox, so I now have a choice of two functioning Browsers.

I'm beginning to think it might be a good idea to use this as my number-1 Puppy.
I normally don't save any session changes to Slacko anyway.
Although if I did make any changes in Banksy3, it would involve a simple re-master which is more time-consuming I guess, than simply/quickly saving changes, but then it IS more secure.
Banksy3 provides extra choice I suppose.
Any thoughts?

It's a FABULOUS thing? :D
GOOD WORK.

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greengeek
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#107 Post by greengeek »

Sylvander wrote:OK...
Easy-Peasy...JOB DONE. :D
As I have said before - many thanks Sylvander for giving it a try and persisting with this. You are the best tester anyone could ask for :!:
3. Placed blanked CD-RW in optical drive ready for burning and clicked on b3impersonator icon on desktop. [new CD-RW burned with no problems]
Does the program automatically finalise the burn, so no more can be burned unless first blanked?
As far as i can recall I have only ever used CDR's for the burn - and the programme does finalise (and fixate) those. I simply don't know how it handles CDRW. (However if you feel like more testing..... :twisted: )
It's amazing how easy the doing of this is, provided you know how.
Thanks, thats nice to hear. My aim was to make it easy for newbies to get a puppy running with consistent personalised behaviour - without having a savefile that is corruptible.
Although if I did make any changes in Banksy3, it would involve a simple re-master which is more time-consuming I guess, than simply/quickly saving changes, but then it IS more secure.
Banksy3 provides extra choice I suppose.
Any thoughts?
Yes i find the "impersonator" stuff quicker and easier than remastering - although it needs to be said that this method is not the equal of remastering. This method makes it simple to ADD personalisations quickly, but remastering is a better option if you need to REMOVE stuff. For example if you wanted FF17 completely deleted from the main sfs to make things smaller, then remaster is the way to achieve that.

As always - many thanks for testing!

Sylvander
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#108 Post by Sylvander »

greengeek wrote:However if you feel like more testing.....
OK, so what would I need to do?

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greengeek
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#109 Post by greengeek »

I think a useful CDRW test would be like this:

- Boot a personalised banksy from CDRW
- Add the new b3burnimp into /opt/b3personator
- Add some personalisations that identify this as a second attempt at personalisation eg: maybe a document placed in /root and called "personal2" would be sufficient to indicate whether or not the original CDRW succeeds in being overwritten.
- Click the impersonator icon on the desktop and see what happens.

I can imagine some possible outcomes:

1) The impersonator script (displayed in terminal) throws up some error saying the CDRW cannot be updated (most likely situation)

2) The script burns to CDRW successfully, including the "personal2" file - which would become visible after the next boot.

3) The script tries to burn to CDRW but this fails for some reason and the CDRW becomes unbootable.

Hopefully you have more than one CDRW and don't risk losing your original personalisations...

I need to get my skates on and release an updated b3imp_generic iso.
There are a couple I did not release yet so the newest will probably be RC8 or thereabouts.

Sylvander
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#110 Post by Sylvander »

Completed latest test.
RESULT:
No changes were recorded to the CD-RW.

METHOD:
1. Booted my latest Banksy3.

2. Removed the Banks3 CD-RW, placed a blank CD-RW in the drive, and clicked "b3impersonator" link on desktop to burn the session to make a 2nd copy of my latest Banksy3 CD-RW.
That completed OK.

3. Rebooted, and tested this 2nd latest Banksy3 CD-RW.
It booted fine, and functioned well.
e.g. Palemoon worked at my banking website.

4. Made new "/root/Personal2" file with some text content.

5. Tried to burn a 3rd copy of this latest Banksy3 session, but it failed to burn anything to the 2nd/filled/not-blanked/booted CD-RW.
i.e. The CD-RW that was used to load the session.

6. How do I know this?
a. The burning program tried to find a blank CD-RW by opening and closing the drawer.
b. The session terminated too early to have burned much of anything.
c. When I rebooted the CD-RW, There was no "/root/Personal2" file existing.

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greengeek
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#111 Post by greengeek »

Sylvander wrote:4. Made new "/root/Personal2" file with some text content.

5. Tried to burn a 3rd copy of this latest Banksy3 session, but it failed to burn anything to the 2nd/filled/not-blanked/booted CD-RW.
i.e. The CD-RW that was used to load the session.

6. How do I know this?
a. The burning program tried to find a blank CD-RW by opening and closing the drawer.
b. The session terminated too early to have burned much of anything.
c. When I rebooted the CD-RW, There was no "/root/Personal2" file existing.
Hi Sylvander - if I interpret your results correctlly then that indicates that this is working as you would like - is that correct?

in other words - you were able to create the personalisations to CDRW and use them successfully, but there was no way to accidentally overwrite those changes using impersonator. (same behaviour as a CDR that has been burnt, finalised and fixated)

However - perhaps I am misunderstanding? Did you WANT impersonator to overwrite (and modify) the CDRW without you manually blanking it?

Sylvander
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#112 Post by Sylvander »

1.
greengeek wrote:...this is working as you would like - is that correct?

in other words - you were able to create the personalisations to CDRW and use them successfully, but there was no way to accidentally overwrite those changes using impersonator. (same behaviour as a CDR that has been burnt, finalised and fixated)
Correct.
Plus there's no way for someone to hack into a running session, and save malicious changes by burning them to disk, correct?

2.
greengeek wrote:However - perhaps I am misunderstanding? Did you WANT impersonator to overwrite (and modify) the CDRW without you manually blanking it?
NO!

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greengeek
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#113 Post by greengeek »

Sylvander wrote:Plus there's no way for someone to hack into a running session, and save malicious changes by burning them to disk, correct?
True. Having an unwritable disk is a good security feature. (especially if you eject it during online activities)

Sylvander
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#114 Post by Sylvander »

greengeek wrote:...especially if you eject it during online activities.
It would be good if the OS reminded the user to do that right after booting to the desktop.
I keep forgetting to do it.

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greengeek
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#115 Post by greengeek »

Sylvander wrote:It would be good if the OS reminded the user to do that right after booting to the desktop.
I keep forgetting to do it.
Unzip the attached script and chuck it into the /root/Startup directory.

(You can test it first by just unzipping it anywhere and clicking it. Doesn't do anything except pop up a reminder that the user must click to dismiss. No harm done)
:)
Attachments
zzzzzCDejectPROMPT.gz
(117 Bytes) Downloaded 338 times

Sylvander
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#116 Post by Sylvander »

Job DONE. :D

1. Booted into my latest Banksy3, downloaded your file to my Banksy folder on my Flash drive, extracted it using Xfe, copied it into /root/Startup.

2. Tried to run it using ROX, but it complained that no program was set to open a file of this type.
I think I fixed that by setting the EXE attributes to the file.
Then it ran OK.

3. Remastered, rebooted, and the reminder was displayed once at the desktop. :D

Thank you. :D

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greengeek
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#117 Post by greengeek »

Sylvander wrote:2. Tried to run it using ROX, but it complained that no program was set to open a file of this type.
I think I fixed that by setting the EXE attributes to the file.
Then it ran OK.
My apologies, I thought I had made the script executable before gzipping it but it appears not.
3. Remastered, rebooted, and the reminder was displayed once at the desktop. :D
Excellent - glad it worked.

Just one question: "remastered" or "impersonated" ??
:D

Sylvander
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#118 Post by Sylvander »

greengeek wrote:Just one question: "remastered" or "impersonated" ??
:D
"impersonated".
Which in my mind means "Remastered".
Else, what's the meaning of "impersonated"?

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greengeek
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#119 Post by greengeek »

Just a minor difference in semantics - although it is significant to my mind because the layering of banksy is different to normal pups:

"Remastering" means to expand, modify, then repackage the main puppy sfs (eg puppy_b3imp_banksy3.sfs)

"Impersonating" means letting the impersonator script capture your modifications and repackaging them into the personal sfs which sits on top of and is separate to the main puppy sfs. (ie the personal sfs is the "top layer" which overrides the main sfs like a cloak)

This is more obvious when working with an HDD frugal installation - where the separate puppy sfs and personal sfs can be seen. When working with CDs the separate sfs files are not so visible unless you are mounting the iso for the purposes of looking what's in there.

Other pups do not have the "personal" sfs layer - therefore they force you to use one of the following options:

1) Create a writable save file or folder. (insecure)

2) Remaster the main puppy sfs that was released by the dev. (tricky to understand and achieve)
I don't generally like that method as it means you end up with main sfs files that are named the same as the sfs originally released by the dev, but having different contents.

The way banksy is set up is to allow the user to avoid remastering (because that is too hard), avoid having writable save files (because that is too insecure and unstable) yet still be able to create a "locked in" personalised puppy easily. The personalisations are "read only" and easy to achieve - leaving the main banksy sfs untouched.

Clear as mud.

In other words - you did not "remaster" - because you did not need to go through all that unnecessary drama. You simply used the desktop icon to "impersonate" your running system and copy it direct to CD. So much easier!!

The main banksy sfs is unchanged, but your personal sfs now contains the new personalisations concatenated with the previous ones.

Sylvander
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#120 Post by Sylvander »

greengeek wrote:Clear as mud..
No, you explain it well, and I believe I understand.
And "Impersonating" rather than "Remastering" seems to me to be a very good way of achieving the goal.

Mind you, if you were to test my understanding by asking me questions, would I pass the test?

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greengeek
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#121 Post by greengeek »

Sylvander wrote:Mind you, if you were to test my understanding by asking me questions, would I pass the test?
Yep I reckon you would. You persisted to the point of having a bootable CD so that demonstrates a good understanding. And a lot of the refinements in banksy resulted from your comments and queries in the first place. Even if you don't know the sizes of the nuts and bolts you've definitely swung the spanner.

I still have some open questions that you asked a couple of years ago - like for example - can a swap partition retain information that is a security risk? My gut feeling is yes but I just haven't proved it yet.

It's on the list for future testing.

Rainy winter days on the way so hopefully more time ahead...

RC8 is uploaded and ready to go
(no need to upgrade - it only adds the new impersonator script you just tried and also a new Grub4Dos which improves frugal install that you don't need because you use CD boots)

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greengeek
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#122 Post by greengeek »

b3impersonator newest version uploaded here:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/jvfr3v9un ... 8.iso/file
http://www.mediafire.com/file/nduav18kq ... 5.txt/file
md5=c8a28f45dec4cebd255b2093f6bcb33c

Has newest impersonator script which adds the following:
- ability to append latest personalisations to previously created personal sfs
- ability to burn new CD/DVD which contains previous CD/DVD's personalised stuff plus any new personalisations added in current session.

Includes newer version of Grub4dos that better handles boot setup of frugal installations.

Updated sns script displays networks in order of signal strength.
Last edited by greengeek on Sun 27 May 2018, 18:15, edited 1 time in total.

belham2
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#123 Post by belham2 »

greengeek wrote:b3impersonator newest version uploaded here:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/jvfr3v9un ... 8.iso/file

Has newest impersonator script which adds the following:
- ability to append latest personalisations to previously created personal sfs
- ability to burn new CD/DVD which contains previous CD/DVD's personalised stuff plus any new personalisations added in current session.

Includes newer version of Grub4dos that better handles boot setup of frugal installations.

Updated sns script displays networks in order of signal strength.

Hi Greengeek,

Mucho gracias on this latest version.

Can you post what the md5/sha1/sha256 or sha512 should be or provide a download of it?

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greengeek
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#124 Post by greengeek »

My apologies, i should have added it to the iso link. Will do that now.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/nduav18kq ... 5.txt/file

md5=c8a28f45dec4cebd255b2093f6bcb33c

RickGT351
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#125 Post by RickGT351 »

Sylvander wrote:
greengeek wrote:...as long as you put it where it is supposed to go...
Where is that?
I'm unable to find an existing file with the name "b3burnimp".
All the files in /opt/b3user get burnt on to a cd or dvd when you make a new one with the b3personator button on the desktop.
If you want to use the palemoon browser, have pupzip put the files in that directory
Last edited by RickGT351 on Sat 17 Nov 2018, 14:16, edited 2 times in total.

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