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VLMCSD-FLOPPY(7) KMS Activation Manual VLMCSD-FLOPPY(7)
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NAME
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floppy144.vfd - a bootable floppy disk with Linux and vlmcsd(8)
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DESCRIPTION
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floppy144.vfd is an image of a bootable floppy that contains a minimal
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version of Linux and vlmcsd(8). It requires only 16 MB of RAM. Its pri‐
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mary purpose is to run vlmcsd(8) in a small virtual machine which makes
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it easy to use vlmcsd(8) to activate the virtual machine's host com‐
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puter which is not possible in Windows 8.1 and up. The floppy image is
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a standard 3,5" floppy with 1.44 MB storage. It is formatted with a
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FAT12 filesystem. The floppy can be mounted to apply several customiza‐
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tions.
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SUPPORTED HYPERVISORS
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The floppy image has been tested with the following hypervisors:
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VMWare, VirtualBox, Hyper-V and QEMU
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Others are likely to work.
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SETUP
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Create a new virtual machine. Assign 16 MB of RAM. Add a floppy drive
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and attach floppy144.vfd to this drive. Do not create a virtual hard
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disk. Setup the virtual machine to boot from a floppy drive (VirtualBox
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has floppy boot disabled by default). If possible, setup a virtual
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machine with plain old BIOS (not UEFI). If you created an UEFI virtual
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machine, enable the compatibility support mode (CSM) to allow a BIOS
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compatible boot. Set number of CPUs to 1. The Linux kernel is not capa‐
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ble of SMP. Remove IDE, SATA, SCSI and USB support if possible. The
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Linux kernel can't handle this and ignores any devices connected to
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these buses.
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Setup an ethernet card. The following models are supported:
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Intel PRO/1000
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AMD PCNET III
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AMD PCNET32
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VMWare vmxnet3 (paravirtualized driver used by VMWare)
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virtio (paravirtualized driver used by VirtualBox, QEMU, KVM and
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lguest)
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Most hypervisors emulate an Intel PRO/1000 or AMD PCNET32 by default.
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Selecting a paravirtualized driver slightly improves performance. In
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VirtualBox you can simply select virtio in the network configuration
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dialog. VMWare requires that you add or change the VMX file. Use 'eth‐
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ernet0.virtualDev = "vmxnet3"' in your VMWare config file.
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If you are using QEMU, you must also setup a TAP adapter. Port redi‐
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rection does not work to activate your own computer.
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CONFIGURATION
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floppy144.vfd can be customized to fit your needs. This is done by
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editing the file syslinux.cfg on the floppy image. The floppy image
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must be mounted. Under Linux you can simply attach floppy144.vfd to a
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loop device which is mountable like any other block device. For Windows
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you must use some software that allows mounting a floppy image, e.g.
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OSFMount ⟨http://www.osforensics.com/tools/mount-disk-images.html⟩
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OSFMount works under all Windows versions beginning with Windows XP up
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to Windows 10 (32- and 64-bit).
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The default syslinux.cfg file looks like this:
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prompt 0
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TIMEOUT 50
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default dhcp
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LABEL dhcp
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KERNEL bzImage
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APPEND vga=773 quiet initrd=initrd KBD=us LIS‐
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TEN=[::]:1688,0.0.0.0:1688 TZ=UTC0 IPV4_CONFIG=DHCP
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NTP_SERVER=pool.ntp.org HOST_NAME=vlmcsd ROOT_PASSWORD=vlmcsd
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USER_NAME=user USER_PASSWORD=vlmcsd GUEST_PASSWORD=vlmcsd
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INETD=Y WINDOWS=06401-00206-271-395032-03-1033-9600.0000-1652016
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OFFICE2010=06401-00096-199-204970-03-1033-9600.0000-1652016
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OFFICE2013=06401-00206-234-921934-03-1033-9600.0000-1652016
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HWID=36:4F:46:3A:88:63:D3:5F
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LABEL static
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KERNEL bzImage
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APPEND vga=773 quiet initrd=initrd KBD=fr LIS‐
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TEN=[::]:1688,0.0.0.0:1688 TZ=CET-1CEST,M3.5.0,M10.5.0/3
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IPV4_CONFIG=STATIC IPV4_ADDRESS=192.168.20.123/24 IPV4_GATE‐
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WAY=192.168.20.2 IPV4_DNS1=192.168.20.2 IPV4_DNS2=NONE
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NTP_SERVER=pool.ntp.org HOST_NAME=vlmcsd ROOT_PASSWORD=vlmcsd
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USER_NAME=user USER_PASSWORD=vlmcsd GUEST_PASSWORD=vlmcsd
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INETD=Y
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There are two configurations in this files: dhcp (for configuring the
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IPv4 network via DHCP) and static (for a static IPv4 configuration).
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The kernel always boots the dhcp configuration without asking (lines
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'prompt 0' and 'default dhcp'). You can simply change the default con‐
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figuration to static and then customize the APPEND line in the static
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configuration. For more details how to customize the syslinux.cfg file
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see syslinux(1).
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Each APPPEND line contains one or more items seperated by spaces. All
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items are case-sensitive. The following parameters can be customized:
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vga=vesa-video-mode
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Sets the VESA display mode for the virtual machine. The parame‐
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ter is not optional. If you ommit it, you will not see anything
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on the screen. 773 means 1024x768 with 256 colors. See Wikipedia
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⟨https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
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VESA_BIOS_Extensions#Linux_video_mode_numbers⟩ for more video
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modes. Note that all 16 color (4-bit) modes will not work. Use
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8-bit (256 colors), 16-bit (65536 colors), 24-bit and 32-bit (>
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16 Million colors) only. All modes above 1280x1024 are non-VESA-
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standard and vary for all (virtual) graphic cards.
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quiet This causes the kernel not display the its log during boot. You
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may omit quiet but it doesn't make much sense. The boot log is
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actually very verbose and scrolls away from screen quickly. If
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any errors occur during boot, they will be displayed even if
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quiet is present in the APPEND line. You may evaluate the com‐
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plete boot log later by using the dmesg command or the menu on
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/dev/tty8.
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initrd=initial-ram-disk-file
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This defines the initial ram disk that the kernel will read.
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There is only one initial ram disk on the floppy thus leave ini‐
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trd=initrd as it is.
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KBD=keyboard-layout-name
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This allows you to select the keyboard layout. keyboard-layout-
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name is usually the ISO 3166-1 (top level domain) code for a
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country. A list of valid keyboard-layout-names can be accessed
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via the menu system on /dev/tty8 (press ALT-F8). Note, that this
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is a keyboard driver only. There is no Unicode font support in
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floppy144.vfd (due to the fact that the kernel uses a generic
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VESA framebuffer device only). Characters beyond ASCII work for
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Western European languages only but not Eastern European, Greek,
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Cyrillic, Arabic, Hebrew, CJK and other languages. There is no
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need in floppy144.vfd to enter any characters outside ASCII. The
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purpose of the keyboard maps are that you will find characters
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like dash, backslash, brackets, braces, etc. at the usual place
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on your keyboard.
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LISTEN=PRIVATE[:tcp-port] | ip-address[:tcp-port][,ip-address[:tcp-
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port]][,...]
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One or more combinations of IP addresses and optional TCP port
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seperated by commas that vlmcsd(8) should listen on or PRIVATE
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to listen on all private IP addresses only. The default port is
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1688. If you use an explicit port number, append it to the IP
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address seperated by a colon. If you use a port number and the
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IP address contains colons, you must enclose the IP address in
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brackets. For example 192.168.0.2,[fd00::dead:beef]:5678 causes
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vlmcsd(8) to listen on 192.168.0.2 port 1688 and fd00::dead:beef
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port 5678.
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WINDOWS=epid
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Defines the ePID that is used for Windows activations. If you
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ommit this parameter, vlmcsd generates a random ePID when it is
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started.
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OFFICE2010=epid
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Defines the ePID that is used for Office 2010 activations. If
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you ommit this parameter, vlmcsd(8) generates a random ePID when
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it is started.
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OFFICE2013=epid
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Defines the ePID that is used for Office (versions 2013 and
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greater) activations. If you ommit this parameter, vlmcsd(8)
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generates a random ePID when it is started.
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HWID=hwid
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Defines the HwId that is sent to clients. hwid must be specified
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as 16 hex digits that are interpreted as a series of 8 bytes
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(big endian). Any character that is not a hex digit will be
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ignored. This is for better readability.
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TZ=posix-time-zone-string
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Set the time zone to posix-time-zone-string. It must conform to
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the POSIX ⟨http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/
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basedefs/xbd_chap08.html⟩ specification. Simplified time zone
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strings like "Europe/London" or "America/Detroit" are not
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allowed. This has the very simple reason that there is no space
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on the floppy to store the time zone database.
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The string CET-1CEST,M3.5.0,M10.5.0/3 (most countries in Europe)
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reads as follows:
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CET The standard (winter) time zone has the name CET.
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-1 The standard time zone is one hour east of UTC. Nega‐
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tive numbers are east of UTC. Positive numbers are
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west of UTC.
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CEST The daylight saving (summer) time zone has the name
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CEST.
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M3.5.0 Daylight saving time starts in the 3rd month (March)
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on the 5th (=last) occurence of weekday 0 (Sunday) at
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2 o'clock (2 o'clock is a default value).
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M10.5.0/3 Daylight saving time ends in the 10th month (October)
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on the 5th (=last) occurence of weekday 0 (Sunday) at
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3 o'clock.
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If you don't have daylight saving time, things are easier. For
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Chinese Standard Time for example, just use CST-8 as the time
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zone string.
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On a Linux desktop system, you can use a command like
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strings /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/New_York | tail -n1. This
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should return EST5EDT,M3.2.0,M11.1.0. You can use the returned
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string for the TZ=posix-time-zone-string parameter.
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IPV4_CONFIG=DHCP | STATIC
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This determines how you want to configure IPv4 networking. If
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you use IPV4_CONFIG=STATIC, you must supply additional para‐
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maters to the APPEND command line.
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IPV4_ADDRESS=ipv4-address/CIDR-mask
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Use ipv4-address with netmask CIDR-mask for static IPv4 configu‐
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ration. The netmask must not be ommitted. For IPv4 address
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192.168.12.17 with a netmask of 255.255.255.0 use
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192.168.12.17/24. For IPv4 address 10.4.0.8 with a netmask of
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255.255.0.0 use 10.4.0.8/16. This paramater is ignored, if you
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used IPV4_CONFIG=DHCP.
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IPV4_GATEWAY=ipv4-address | NONE
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Use ipv4-address as the default gateway. This is usually the
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IPv4 address of your router. You may specify NONE explicitly for
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no gateway. In this case your virtual machine is only visible on
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its local LAN. This paramater is ignored, if you used IPV4_CON‐
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FIG=DHCP.
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IPV4_DNS1=ipv4-address | NONE
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Use ipv4-address as the primary name server. In home networks
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this is often the IPv4 address of your router. You may specify
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NONE explicitly. If you specified NONE for both IPV4_DNS1= and
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IPV4_DNS2=, your virtual machine cannot resolve host names to IP
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addresses. While vlmcsd(8) works perfectly without DNS servers,
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you must use IP addresses when referring to a host, e.g. for
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specifying an NTP server. This paramater is ignored, if you used
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IPV4_CONFIG=DHCP.
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IPV4_DNS2=ipv4-address | NONE
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Use ipv4-address as the secondary name server. It serves as a
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backup if the primary name server is not available. Home net‐
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works often don't have a secondary name server. In this case set
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this to NONE. This paramater is ignored, if you used IPV4_CON‐
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FIG=DHCP.
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NTP_SERVER=host-name | ipv4-address | NONE
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This sets the name of a time server using the NTP protocol. If
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your virtualization environment reliably provides time, you can
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set this to NONE. Don't use a public time service like
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pool.ntp.org or time.nist.gov if you have a (at least somewhat
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reliable) NTP server in your LAN.
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HOST_NAME=host-name
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Sets the local host name for your virtual machine. It can be a
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single name or a fully-qualified domain name FQDN. If you used
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IPV4_CONFIG=DHCP and your DHCP server returns a domain name, the
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domain part of an FQDN will be replaced by that name. This host
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name or host part of an FQDN will not replaced by a host name
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returned via DHCP. The host name is not important for the opera‐
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tion of floppy144.vfd.
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ROOT_PASSWORD=password
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Sets the password of the root user.
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USER_NAME=username
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Sets the name of for a general user with no special privileges.
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This user can login but can't do much.
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USER_PASSWORD=password
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Sets the password for the user defined by USER_NAME=username.
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GUEST_PASSWORD=password
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Sets the password for the pre-defined guest user. This user has
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the same priviliges (none) as the user defined by
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USER_NAME=username.
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INETD=Y | N
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INETD=Y specifies that inetd(8) should automatically be started.
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That means you can telnet and ftp to your virtual machine.
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OPERATION
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Diskless System
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The floppy144.vfd virtual machine is a diskless system that works
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entirely from RAM. The file system is actually a RAM disk that is cre‐
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ated from the initrd(4) file on the floppy image.
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Anything you'll do from inside the virtual machine, for instance edit‐
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ing a config file, will be lost when you reboot the machine. So, if you
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ever asked yourself if rm -fr / (root privileges required) really
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deletes all files from all mounted partitions, the floppy144.vfd VM is
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the right place to test it (Yes, it does).
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The VM uses a RAM disk, because the Linux kernel had to be stripped
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down to essential features to fit on a 1.44 MB floppy. It has no floppy
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driver, no disk file system drivers and no block layer (cannot use
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disks of any type).
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System startup
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The kernel boots up very quickly and the init script (/sbin/init) waits
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5 seconds. In these 5 seconds you can:
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Press 'm' to manually enter the time zone and the IPv4 parame‐
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ters. These will be queried interactively.
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Press 't' to manually enter the time zone only.
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Press 's' to escape to a shell.
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If you don't want to 5 seconds for continuing the init process, you can
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press any other key to speed things up. At the end of the init script
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you should see thatvlmcsd(8) has started. You should also see the IP
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addresses and all user names and passwords.
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Logging into the system
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There are 5 local logins provided on /dev/tty2 to /dev/tty6. To switch
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to these logins, simply press ALT-F2 to ALT-F6. To return to the con‐
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sole on /dev/tty1, press ALT-F1. If inetd(8) is running you can also
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use telnet(1). This allows you use a terminal program (e.g. putty) that
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can utilize your keyboard layout, can be resized and has full UTF-8
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support. The local terminals support US keyboard layout only. Please be
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aware that telnet(1) is unencrypted and everything including passwords
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is transmitted in clear text. There is not enough space for an ssh
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server like sshd(8) or dropbear(8).
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The floppy image only provides basic Unix commands. Type busybox or ll
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/bin to get a list. The only editor available is vi(1). If you don't
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like vi, you may transfer config files via ftp(1) edit them with the
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editor of your choice and transfer them back to the floppy144.vfd VM.
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The menu system
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You'll find a menu system on /dev/tty8 (press ALT-F8 to see it). It
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allows you performing some administrative tasks and to view various
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system information. It is mainly for users that do not have much expe‐
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rience with Unix commands.
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1) (Re)start vlmcsd
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Starts or restarts vlmcsd(8). This is useful if you changed
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/etc/vlmcsd.ini(5).
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2) Stop vlmcsd
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Stops vlmcsd(8).
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3) (Re)start inetd
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Starts or restarts inetd(8). If inetd(8) is restarted, current
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clients connected via telnet(1) or ftp(1) will not be dropped.
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They can continue their sessions. This is useful if you changed
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/etc/inetd.conf(5).
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4) Stop inet
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Stops inetd(8). All clients connected via telnet(1) or ftp(1)
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will be dropped immediately.
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5) Change the time zone
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Just in case you missed pressing 't' during system startup. This
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also restarts vlmcsd(8) if it was running to notify it that the
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time zone has changed. Restarting vlmcsd(8) allows currently
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connected clients to finish their activation.
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k) Change keyboard layout
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This allows you to select a different keyboard layout.
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6) Show all kernel boot parameters
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Shows all parameters passed to the kernel via syslinux.cfg. If
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you experience any unexpected behavior, you can use this to
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|
check if your APPEND line in syslinux.cfg is correct. The output
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|
is piped through less(1). So press 'q' to return to the menu.
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7) Show boot log (dmesg)
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|
Shows the boot log of the kernel. The output is piped through
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|
less(1). So press 'q' to return to the menu.
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8) Show TCP/IP configuration
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|
Shows the TCP/IP configuration, listening sockets and current
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|
TCP and UDP connections. Useful, if you problems with net con‐
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|
nectivity. The output is piped through less(1). So press 'q' to
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|
return to the menu.
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9) Show running processes
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|
Shows all processes including memory and CPU usage. Display will
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|
updated every second. Press 'q' or CTRL-C to return to the menu.
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|
s) Shutdown
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|
Shuts down the floppy144.vfd virtual machine. Proper shutdown is
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|
not required. It is ok to use a hard power off in your virtual‐
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|
ization program.
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r) Reboot
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Reboots the floppy144.vfd virtual machine. Proper reboot is not
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|
required. It is ok to use a hard reset in your virtualization
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|
program.
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|
PERMANENT CHANGES OF INITRD
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If you want to change any file or script of the file system (e.g. the
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|
init script /sbin/init or /etc/vlmcsd.ini), you'll need to mount the
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|
floppy image, unpack the initrd(4) file, make any modfications you
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|
like, create a new initrd(4) file and copy it to the mounted floppy.
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|
To unpack the initrd(4) file you'll need xz(1) (or lzma(1) on older
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|
|
unix-like OSses) and cpio(1). These can be installed using your package
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|
manager on all major distros. It is ok to use the BSD version of
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|
cpio(1). No need to get the GNU version for BSD users. Provided the
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|
|
floppy is mounted in /mnt/floppy do the following:
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|
|
Create an empty directory
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|
|
mkdir ~/vlmcsd-floppy-initrd
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|
|
cd into that directory
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|
|
cd ~/vlmcsd-floppy-initrd
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|
|
Unpack initrd
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|
cat /mnt/floppy/initrd | unlzma | cpio -i
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|
After applying your changes build a new initrd(4) file:
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|
|
cd into your directory
|
|
|
cd ~/vlmcsd-floppy-initrd
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|
|
Create the packed file
|
|
|
find . | cpio -o -H newc | lzma > /mnt/floppy/initrd
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|
Do not try to use 'lzma -9' to achive better compression. The kernel
|
|
|
can't read the resulting file. While customizing the initrd(4) file
|
|
|
works on almost any unix-like OS, it does not work on Windows even not
|
|
|
with Cygwin. The reason is that the NTFS file system can't handle uids
|
|
|
and gids. These cannot be preserved when unpacking the cpio(1) archive
|
|
|
to NTFS. If you use the WSL subsystem of Windows 10 Redstone (Anniver‐
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|
|
sary Update) and later, you must make sure to unpack the initrd(4) file
|
|
|
to a directory on VolFs (normally everything that is not mounted under
|
|
|
/mnt). The initrd(4) file can be on a VolFs or DriveFs.
|
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|
FAQ
|
|
|
On what distro is the floppy image based?
|
|
|
None. Besides the boot loader ldlinux.sys, there are only three bina‐
|
|
|
ries: The Linux kernel bzImage, busybox(1) and vlmcsdmulti-x86-musl-
|
|
|
static. bzImage and busybox(1) have been compiled with carefully
|
|
|
selected configuration parameters not found in any distro. This was
|
|
|
neccesary to fit everything on a 1.44 MB floppy.
|
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|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Why is a rather old Linux kernel (3.12) used?
|
|
|
Linux 3.12 is the last kernel that can be booted with 16 MB of RAM.
|
|
|
Beginning with Linux 3.13 it requires much more memory (about 80 MB) to
|
|
|
boot. The floppy image is regularly tested with newer kernels. Every‐
|
|
|
thing works except that you need to assign much more main memory to the
|
|
|
virtual machine.
|
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|
|
|
|
|
|
Can the floppy be booted on bare metal?
|
|
|
Basically yes. However, only Intel Pro/1000 and AMD PCNET32 ethernet
|
|
|
cards are supported by the kernel. In addition there is no USB support
|
|
|
compiled into the kernel. That means you can only use an IBM AT or IBM
|
|
|
PS/2 keyboard which are not available on newer hardware.
|
|
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|
|
FILES
|
|
|
syslinux.cfg, vlmcsd.ini(5)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
BUGS
|
|
|
IPv6 cannot be configured with static or manual parameters.
|
|
|
DHCPv6 is not supported.
|
|
|
´ip route add ...' does not work. Use 'route add ...' instead.
|
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|
|
AUTHOR
|
|
|
floppy144.vfd has been created by Hotbird64
|
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|
CREDITS
|
|
|
Linus Torvalds et al. for the Linux kernel
|
|
|
Erik Andersen et al. for the original uClibc
|
|
|
Waldemar Brodkorb et al. for uClibc-ng
|
|
|
Denys Vlasenko et al. for BusyBox
|
|
|
H. Peter Anvin et al. for SYSLINUX
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
SEE ALSO
|
|
|
vlmcsd(8), vlmcsd.ini(5), initrd(4), busybox(1), syslinux(1)
|
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|
Hotbird64 June 2016 VLMCSD-FLOPPY(7)
|