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Neonatox Live Boot

From-scratch Live ISO builder

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Description

From-scratch Linux Live ISO builder. Designed as an educational and experimental project that demonstrates, step by step, how a complete Linux system boots, detects hardware, mounts a real filesystem, and hands control to systemd.

This project intentionally avoids high-level frameworks (like dracut or live-build) to expose the real boot mechanics.

Features

  • ✓ BIOS and UEFI boot with GRUB
  • ✓ Complete system in SquashFS
  • ✓ Writable live system with OverlayFS
  • ✓ Minimal initramfs with BusyBox
  • ✓ Explicit hardware detection
  • ✓ Early keyboard support (USB HID, PS/2)

Tested compatibility

Distro USB Ventoy
Alpine 3.22 ✓ ✓
NeonatoX 2025 ✓ ✓
Ubuntu 24.04 ✓ ✓

Usage

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/cargabsj175/neonatox-live-boot.git

# Customize background if desired
# cp your-image.png iso/background.png

# Build BusyBox (as normal user)
./build-tools.sh --busybox

# Generate ISO (as root)
sudo ./build.sh

# Result in: output/neonatox-202X-x86_64.iso

Why this exists: Most live systems hide complexity behind tooling layers. Neonatox Live Boot intentionally does the opposite. During development, many common assumptions proved false.