Live USB - CyberMind-FR/secubox-deb GitHub Wiki
🔴 BOOT — deployment and provisioning
What it is for. Boot SecuBox from a USB stick on any x86-64 PC (UEFI or BIOS) to try the whole appliance without installing anything: the internal disk is not written. The image is based on Debian 13 (Trixie) and all packages are pre-installed. To dedicate the PC instead, use the headless installer described in Installation.
From the latest release (current line: v3.0.0-alpha.12, a pre-release):
| Asset | Use |
|---|---|
secubox-live-amd64-trixie.img.gz |
the live stick |
secubox-installer-amd64-trixie.img.gz / .iso.gz
|
headless installer: erases the first disk, see Installation |
SHA256SUMS |
checksums |
sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS --ignore-missing| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| UEFI and BIOS | GRUB with a BIOS boot partition and an EFI system partition |
| SquashFS | compressed read-only root |
| Persistence | changes kept on a dedicated partition |
| Slipstream | all SecuBox packages pre-installed |
| Local interface | kiosk (WebUI full screen) or text console, see First-Boot-Premier-Pas |
# Find your USB device
lsblk
# Flash (replace /dev/sdX with your device: everything on it is erased)
zcat secubox-live-amd64-trixie.img.gz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress
sync- Download Rufus or balenaEtcher
- Extract the
.img.gzto get the.img - Select the
.imgfile, then your USB drive - Click Write / Flash
| Entry | Description |
|---|---|
| SecuBox Live (Kiosk GUI), default | Full-screen browser on the WebUI (secubox.kiosk=1) |
| SecuBox Live | Console mode with persistence |
| SecuBox Live (Console TUI) | Text dashboard (secubox.mode=tui) |
| SecuBox Live (Bridge Mode) | Inline transparent bridge (secubox.netmode=bridge) |
| Safe Mode | Basic video driver, no persistence |
| Install SecuBox to Disk | Lists the internal disks and installs to the one you choose: erases it |
| To RAM | Loads the whole system into memory (the stick can be removed after boot) |
| HW Check | Hardware check |
The live stick is for trying; to install a PC with no screen, use the installer image (Installation).
- Find the address: on the console
hostname -I, or the DHCP leases of your router. Networking is DHCP on the detected interfaces, with a fallback that tries to discover the LAN subnet. - Open
https://<address>/(self-signed certificate: check it is the right machine before accepting). In a VirtualBox NAT VM:https://localhost:9443. - Log in as
admin; the bootstrap password issecuboxand you are asked to change it at first login (details in Installation). - Do not expose a test stick to a network you do not own.
The persistence partition is labelled persistence and holds a union of the root (/ union): user files, configuration, installed packages and logs survive reboots.
- Skip it for one boot: choose Safe Mode, which starts without persistence (or edit the entry at GRUB and remove the
persistenceword from thelinuxline). - Reset it: boot without persistence, then recreate the file system:
sudo mkfs.ext4 -L persistence /dev/sdXN(checklsblkfor the partition number first).
| Partition | Size | Type | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| p1 | 2 MiB | BIOS boot | legacy GRUB |
| p2 | 512 MiB | FAT32 (ESP) | UEFI GRUB |
| p3 | dynamic | ext4 | live system (SquashFS, kernel, initrd) |
| p4 | about 25 % of the image, 512 MiB at least | ext4, label persistence
|
persistence |
| Symptom | What to do |
|---|---|
| The stick does not boot | Enter the firmware (F2, F12, Del, Esc), enable USB boot, disable Secure Boot, try another port (USB 2 is sometimes more compatible) |
| Black screen | Choose "Safe Mode", or press e at GRUB, add nomodeset to the linux line, Ctrl+X |
| No network |
ip link show, sudo systemctl restart networking, sudo dhclient <interface>
|
| No disk offered by the disk installer on a laptop | The SSD may be hidden behind Intel RST/VMD: switch the storage mode from RAID to AHCI in the firmware |
| Persistence not used |
lsblk, then sudo blkid (look for the label persistence) |
git clone https://github.com/CyberMind-FR/secubox-deb
cd secubox-deb
sudo bash image/build-live-usb.sh --size 8G --slipstreamOptions: --no-persistence for an image without the persistence partition. Output in output/.
- Installation - permanent installation, headless installer, VM
- Live-USB-VirtualBox and Live-USB-QEMU - the same image in a VM
- First-Boot-Premier-Pas - the first-boot wizard
- Auto-Load - prepared images that provision themselves
- Multiboot - several systems on one stick
- Configuration and Troubleshooting