Using apt-get with BitDefender Rescue CD

You can use a BitDefender Rescue CD, which is a a live CD using Knoppix Linux, to boot a Windows system without using Windows in order to scan the system for viruses and other malware. Knoppix Linux is based on Debian. You can determine which version of Debian is being used by looking in /etc/debian_version.

The BitDefender Rescue CD comes with some software aside from the BitDefender anvirus software. For instance, Mozilla Firefox and Partition Image are also on the live CD. But you may want to add other software as well. Knoppix Linux uses binary packages in .deb format, which can be downloaded and installed with the apt-get utility that will be accessible once you boot a system from the live CD. For an explanation of .deb files, see Deb files or Debian Packages. You can view a list of available Debian packages at view package lists.

Let's suppose the package you want to install is tcpstat, which reports certain network interface statistics much like vmstat does for system statistics. tcpstat gets its information by either monitoring a specific interface, or by reading previously saved tcpdump data from a file.

Before you use apt-get to install the package you wish to use, you will need to create some directories that apt-get expects to be present, but which aren't present when you boot from the rescue So right-click on the desktop and select Terminal (as root) to open a terminal window then enter the commands shown below.

root@Knoppix:~# mkdir /var/lib/apt/lists
root@Knoppix:~# mkdir /var/lib/apt/lists/partial

root@Knoppix:~# apt-get install tcpstat
E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (2 No such file or directory)
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), are you root?
root@Knoppix:~#

The problem is that the /var/lib/dpkgk directory doesn't exist, so I need to create it as well. I'll also create the other directories and files that dpkg expects (see Using dpkg with BitDefender Rescue CD).

root@Knoppix:~# mkdir /var/lib/dpkg
root@Knoppix:~# mkdir /var/lib/dpkg/info
root@Knoppix:~# mkdir /var/lib/dpkg/updates
root@Knoppix:~# touch /var/lib/dpkg/status
root@Knoppix:~# touch /var/lib/dpkg/available

If you see messages, such as the following, you can edit /etc/apt/sources.list and comment out the entries that lead to the errors.


W: Couldn't stat source package list http://people.debian.org ./ Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/people.debian.org_%7easac_experimental_._Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory)

In the example above, I saw "Couldn't stat source package list http://people.debian.org ." In /etc/apt/sources.list, I saw the following:

So I commented out the to lines referring to http://people.debian.org by placing a "#" at the beginning of each line.

But I was also seeing lines, such as the following, in the output when I ran apt-get.


W: Couldn't stat source package list 
http://security.debian.org stable/updates/contrib Packages 
(/var/lib/apt/lists/security.debian.org_dists_stable_updates_contrib_binary-i386_Packages)
 - stat (2 No such file or directory)

So I ran apt-get update. apt-get update does not upgrade packages, it just updates information from repositories listed in /etc/apt/sources.list.


Reading package lists... Done
W: GPG error: http://security.debian.org stable/updates Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 9AA38DCD55BE302B
W: GPG error: http://security.debian.org testing/updates Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 9AA38DCD55BE302B
W: GPG error: http://ftp.ro.debian.org stable Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 9AA38DCD55BE302B NO_PUBKEY 4D270D06F42584E6

To rectify that problem, I used the commands below. The gpg --keyserver wwwkeys.eu.pgp.net --recv-keys 9AA38DCD55BE302B command uses the gpg utility to query the PGP keyserver wwwkeys.eu.pgp.net for the PGP key corresponding to key id 9AA38DCD55BE302B and to import that key. The apt-key command manages apt's list of trusted keys adding the key just imported to the GNU Privacy Guard (GPG) public keyring for the root account to apt's list of trusted keys.

root@Knoppix:# gpg --keyserver wwwkeys.eu.pgp.net --recv-keys 9AA38DCD55BE302B
gpg: requesting key 55BE302B from hkp server wwwkeys.eu.pgp.net
gpg: /root/.gnupg/trustdb.gpg: trustdb created
gpg: key 55BE302B: public key "Debian Archive Automatic Signing Key (5.0/lenny) <ftpmaster@debian.org>" imported
gpg: no ultimately trusted keys found
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg:               imported: 1  (RSA: 1)
root@Knoppix:/home/knoppix# gpg --armor --export 9AA38DCD55BE302B | apt-key add -
OK

root@Knoppix:~# apt-get install tcpstat
Building dependency tree... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  gcc-4.4-base libc6 libgcc1 libpcap0.8
Suggested packages:
  locales glibc-doc
Recommended packages:
  tcpdump
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  gcc-4.4-base libc6 libgcc1 libpcap0.8 tcpstat
0 upgraded, 5 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 4691kB of archives.
After unpacking 11.7MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Y
WARNING: The following packages cannot be authenticated!
  gcc-4.4-base libgcc1 libc6 libpcap0.8 tcpstat
Install these packages without verification [y/N]? y
Get:1 http://ftp.ro.debian.org testing/main gcc-4.4-base 4.4.1-1 [110kB]
Get:2 http://ftp.ro.debian.org testing/main libgcc1 1:4.4.1-1 [72.9kB]
Get:3 http://ftp.ro.debian.org testing/main libc6 2.9-23 [4367kB]
Get:4 http://ftp.ro.debian.org testing/main libpcap0.8 1.0.0-2 [117kB]         
Get:5 http://ftp.ro.debian.org stable/main tcpstat 1.5-2 [24.3kB]           
Fetched 4691kB in 9s (495kB/s)                                                 
E: Cannot get debconf version. Is debconf installed?
debconf: apt-extracttemplates failed: Bad file descriptorSelecting previously deselected package gcc-4.4-base.
(Reading database ... 0 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking gcc-4.4-base (from .../gcc-4.4-base_4.4.1-1_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package libgcc1.
Unpacking libgcc1 (from .../libgcc1_1%3a4.4.1-1_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package libc6.
Unpacking libc6 (from .../archives/libc6_2.9-23_i386.deb) ...
Matching libraries: /UNIONFS/lib/libc.so.6

Another copy of the C library was found via /etc/ld.so.conf.
It is not safe to upgrade the C library in this situation;
please remove the directory from /etc/ld.so.conf and try again.
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libc6_2.9-23_i386.deb (--unpack):
 subprocess pre-installation script returned error exit status 1
Selecting previously deselected package libpcap0.8.
Unpacking libpcap0.8 (from .../libpcap0.8_1.0.0-2_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package tcpstat.
Unpacking tcpstat (from .../tcpstat_1.5-2_i386.deb) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libc6_2.9-23_i386.deb
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/man: -16K
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
root@Knoppix:~#root@Knoppix:~#

Even though I saw some error messages, such as "dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libc6_2.9-23_i386.deb (--unpack)", the package was installed and I was able to use tcpstat.

You can see information on a package you've installed with the aptitude command. Aptitude is an advanced command line front-end for APT.

root@Knoppix:~# aptitude show tcpstat
Package: tcpstat
New: yes
State: unpacked
Automatically installed: no
Version: 1.5-2
Priority: extra
Section: net
Maintainer: Luk Claes <luk@debian.org>
Uncompressed Size: 98.3k
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.7-1), libpcap0.8 (>= 0.9.3-1)
Recommends: tcpdump
Description: network interface statistics reporting tool
 tcpstat reports certain network interface statistics much like vmstat does for system
 statistics. tcpstat gets its information by either monitoring a specific interface,
 or by reading previously saved tcpdump data from a file.

Tags: admin::monitoring, interface::commandline, protocol::ip, qa::orphaned,
      role::program, scope::utility, use::monitor, use::viewing

If a package isn't installed, you will see "State: not installed" in the output from aptitude.