Based on the guides at the following links: live-usb (broken link) and the Spanish tutorial on Debian Live (broken link), which is a tutorial for the old version of live-helper called live-package, or this other tutorial (broken link) that explains how to remaster the live-cd.

Live-helper is a framework that allows you to create a live-cd or live-usb based on a Debian system.

You need a machine with enough disk space to build the live system; 3GB of space is enough.

  1. Install live-helper:
aptitude install live-helper
  1. Create a directory to work in:
mkdir live-usb
  1. Change to the working directory.
cd live-usb
  1. Create the configuration for building the live-usb.
lh_config -b usb-hdd -d lenny --mirror-bootstrap http://debian.velug.org.ve/debian/ --mirror-chroot http://debian.velug.org.ve/debian/ --mirror-binary http://debian.velug.org.ve/debian --username Usuario --iso-publisher "Ernesto Crespo" -l es --security disabled --hostname live-usb --bootappend-live "locale=es_VE.UTF-8 keyb=es" --packages-lists "gnome gdm iceweasell-i10n-es-es iceweasel pidgin openoffice openoffice.org-writer openoffice.org-l10n-es myspell-es evince less mc module-assistant wireless-tools printconf hpijs foomatic-db-gutenprint cupsys-bsd foomatic-filters-ppds hplip foomatic-db-hpijs cupsys cupsys-client cupsys-driver-gutenprint foomatic-db-engine vim-full "
  1. Build the image.
lh_build
  1. Copy the binary.img image to the pendrive. If the device is identified as /dev/sda, run the following command.
dd if=./binary.img of=/dev/sda bs=1M

7.1. Test the iso. If it is a live-cd, run:

qemu -cdrom binary.img -boot d

7.2. If it is a live-usb, run:

qemu -hda binary.img -boot c

This process creates an image called binary.img for USB devices. It defines the repository to use, the live user name, a description of the person publishing the live system, the locales to use and the keyboard layout at boot time of the live system; finally, it defines the list of packages to include in the live-usb.

If you want to create a live-cd, keep in mind that the maximum size a live-cd can have is 700MB, so the environment configuration is the following:

lh_config -b iso -d lenny --mirror-bootstrap http://debian.velug.org.ve/debian/ --mirror-chroot http://debian.velug.org.ve/debian/ --mirror-binary http://debian.velug.org.ve/debian --username usuario --iso-publisher "Ernesto Crespo" -l es --security disabled --hostname live-cd --bootappend-live "locale=es_VE.UTF-8 keyb=es" --bootstrap-flavour minimal --apt apt --linux-flavours 486 --binary-indices disabled --memtest disabled --apt-recommends disabled --packages-lists "gnome gdm iceweasell-i10n-es-es iceweasel pidgin openoffice openoffice.org-writer openoffice.org-l10n-es myspell-es evince less mc module-assistant wireless-tools printconf hpijs foomatic-db-gutenprint cupsys-bsd foomatic-filters-ppds hplip foomatic-db-hpijs cupsys cupsys-client cupsys-driver-gutenprint foomatic-db-engine"

The options in a different color will reduce the size of the live-cd since a minimal image will be built, apt-get will be used instead of aptitude, the kernel for the 486 architecture will be used, the binary indices are disabled, as are the installation of memtest and apt recommendations.

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