[BRLTTY] Linux on USB drive that supports BRLTTY?

[Jason White]

Mike Keithley <mkeithley at pobox.com> wrote:
> I need a Linux rescue distro on a USB thumb drive so I can manage my laptops
> which don't have Linux. I'd like a console-based system with the necessary
> USB modules For a USB/serial converter so I can use my PowerBraille display
> with BRLTTY. 

Try GRML and see its wiki for instructions for use with BRLTTY.

Alternatively, install Debian to the drive and only select the packages that
you want. GRML should be easier, however, since it is already designed as a
rescue system.

You can boot GRML as a live CD and then run the included scripts to install it
to the drive. Again, it's all on the wiki. I haven't installed GRML myself; I
run it from a CD when I need it, which isn't often (all my machines are Linux
systems and the only situation in which I need a rescue environment is when I
or a package maintainer has made a mistake that renders a machine unbootable,
which doesn't happen often).

As an aside, I needed GRML a few months ago when crackers were trying to
compromise my machine. I was worried they might have managed to get in, thus I
booted into GRML to carry out checks. Fortunately, they hadn't exploited
anything, though they were sending lots of packets in from various hosts and
probing ports - mostly Windows-related ports, as it turned out - very likely a
script that performed random probes and attacks against machines on the
network. They also took rather a long time to give up, despite the "port
unreachable" replies that my machine sent back.