Silk Road forums
Discussion => Security => Topic started by: wannabud on December 12, 2011, 09:14 pm
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Hi, I'm totally newbie in this world. Starting to use a live distro now. Ubuntu 11.04 in a liveCD. Still having a HardDrive with Windows, but I'll burn it.
Sometimes I think it could be faster. What's the fastest way to use a live: CD, pen drive or microsd?
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What do you mean by fastest? Fastest way to access? Fastest way to boot up?
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Creating a bootable USB drive is probably the quickest all-around.
Download the ISO of your preferred distro (e.g. Ubuntu Privacy Remix), use something like Unetbootin to create a bootable flash drive. Both booting and running from USB flash should be faster than disc (booting from any other flash memory, including microsd, would be about the same).
Doing it from a disc offers better security, though. You can't write back to the disc you're running linux off of, and it's a bit easier to render the CD unreadable.
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What do you mean by fastest? Fastest way to access? Fastest way to boot up?
Fastest way to boot up and better processing, fastest way to run programs.
I think a Hard-Disk is probably the fastest processing, but I will use just live distro from now on.
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Doing it from a disc offers better security, though. You can't write back to the disc you're running linux off of, and it's a bit easier to render the CD unreadable.
That's what I'm doing now, but I think I could get better processing with a microsd.
I need a external hd to store movies, songs, ebooks too, but will use it just at time to record the things.
Now, I'm using a pure Ubuntu 11.10 live cd. I need to download and install tor and flash plugin every boot. Studying how to prepare a preconfigured livedistro.
But, when I download something at ubuntu livecd, it is stored at RAM just until the new boot. When I turn off the pc, all the downloads is deleted and I don't need to run Cclean or these stuffs?
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Your best bet is to keep a live distro ONLY for doing dubious things with. I run Linux on my machine because I love it, but I keep a seperate live USB with Liberte on it that I use just for doing Silk Road related stuff. You shouldnt be downloading anything with your live distro, keep it only for what it is intended for.
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Don't know. I read about do not use a hard drive (http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=4700.msg39595#msg39595), maybe it's paranoia, but I wanna try. Maybe a hard drive it's not necessary at all.
I can store data at a encrypted external hard drive and hide it with truecrypt and use just a customized live distro with all I need (tor, gpg, flash, codecs, smplayer, maybe a firewall for ubuntu). I'll test another distros later, mint, debian, liberty, privatix, tails.
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There is no harm in having a hard drive for normal day to day stuff, for which you will need your flash codecs, sm player etc. Then set up a live distro on a microsd card (with a USB adapter, obviously) for your TOR stuff. I use Liberte as it is encrypted so even if the feds knock your door down ana manage to find the 10mm square card they cant see what you have been up to. It comes with GPG, TOR, and persistant storage and is all you need to communicate over TOR. No need for encrypted hard drives or anything more. It was designed form the ground up to enable people to communicate securely over TOR in hostile environments, buying drugs is a hostile environment in most countries.
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Why do not insert the microsd directly at the notebook?
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because my netbook doesnt have a microsd slot.
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But, when I download something at ubuntu livecd, it is stored at RAM just until the new boot? When I turn off the pc, all the downloads is deleted and I don't need to run Cclean or these stuffs?
Just to check, nobody answers this question.
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But, when I download something at ubuntu livecd, it is stored at RAM just until the new boot. When I turn off the pc, all the downloads is deleted and I don't need to run Cclean or these stuffs?
Correct.
A livecd is inconvenient in many ways. No updating or installing anything. It's slower than a flash drive.
But being unable to update and install anything protects it from malicious software. Every boot is a clean start.
Shut down power to the computer, and the RAM empties out. No traces left behind.
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Thanks a lot to confirm, man.
Even with some restrictions, it looks perfect to me.