Re-mastering Knoppix for the MYSEA testbed

Abstract

When a computing environment is operating in a multilevel mode, where users have different clearances, and data exists at multiple levels of classification, supporting commercial-grade operating systems and applications is a major challenge. The Monterey Security Architecture (MYSEA) at the Naval Postgraduate School is a proposed solution. A testbed has been developed to research and prototype the architecture. One part of the architecture requires thin clients -- workstations with no ability to save data or state locally. One approach to provide a reasonable thin client in the short term is to boot an operating system from optical media, such as a CD or DVD. Knoppix is an open source effort that provides a pre-packaged bootable Linux operating system on CD. However, the current version of Knoppix does not provide the configuration and applications required for the MYSEA testbed. This document provides a generic process for re-mastering (or re-packaging) the Knoppix CD, as well as the specific steps for producing a Knoppix CD that is usable in the MYSEA architecture.