Create your own Linux distribution with Ubuntu Imager

Have you ever wanted to create your own Linux distribution but don't know where to start? It's easier than you think. Distroshare Ubuntu Imager creates a Live ISO that can be installed from an Ubuntu or derivative distribution.

Distroshare.com, creator of Distroshare Ubuntu Imager, is a website built to allow you to share your customized Ubuntu distribution with others and the process of doing it is incredibly simple.

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Script

In the past, there was a tool called Remastersys that easily created Live CD from the installation system. However, the project has been discontinued for a number of reasons. Even if you have a copy, it can't work as expected in new Ubuntu systems. Although Ubuntu has a very detailed guide on how to create a Live CD using manual methods, the process is long, complex and difficult.

Fortunately, people at distroshare.com automate this process, including it in a bash script. With minimal configuration, anyone can create a live environment with editing a text file and running the shell script.

Ubuntu Imager script of Distroshare is stored on GitHub. To get it, type:

^{wget https: // codeload.github.com/ Distroshare / distroshare-ubuntu-imager / zip / master}

into a command line window. When downloading the file, unzip the zip.

^{unzip d istroshare-ubuntu-imager-master.zip -d / path / to / destination / folder}

In this example, the command looks like this:

^{unzip distroshare-ubuntu-imager-master.zip -d / home / maketecheasier}

Configuration

Once the decompression is complete, you can change the script's directory.

^{cd / extract / path / distroshare-ubuntu-imager-master}

For example:

^{cd / home / maketecheasier / distroshare-ubuntu-imager-master}

Among the files found here, the files to be considered are 'distroshare-ubuntu-imager.config' and 'distroshare-ubuntu-imager.sh'.

You will start by modifying the first file.

^{nano . / distroshare-ubuntu-imager.config}

The first line determines if GTK or Qt needs to be installed for Ubiquity, the installer allows you to install the system directly later.

^{GTK = "YES"}

Change this line with Qt (if you run KDE) to ^{GTK = "NO"} or even ^{GTK = "LEAVEMEALONEWITHTHAT"} .

The next line will be the working directory, this is where ISO is located. In this case is the user's home directory. You can change to any folder that is convenient (but make sure it is an existing directory on the system).

^{WORK = "/ home / maketecheasier"}

You can skip patch, but can't ignore Display Manager. By default, LightDM is the manager that displays the use of Ubuntu vanilla.

^{DM = "LIGHTDM"}

If you run any derivative distribution, you should change the line according to your own settings. (Gnome uses "GDM" and KDE using "KDM", so most derivative versions based on these systems will use such display managers. LinuxMint uses 'MDM' a system. Common derivative).

If you need 'EFI Support', change the lower line to "YES":

^{EFI = "NO"}

By default, the script uses whatever the system kernel is running. By modifying

^{KERNEL_VERSION = $ (uname -r)}

city

^{KERNEL_VERSION = "your-custom-kernel-version-here"}

You can specify any kernel to be used as an old kernel, a newer kernel or even a kernel that you have compiled yourself. Only change this if you know what you're doing. The best way is to leave it at the default settings.

You can specify kernel parameters for the LiveCD:

^{KERNEL_PARAMS = ""}

or for the system you want to install from the Live CD.

^{UBIQUITY_KERNEL_PARAMS = ""}

Finally, you can specify additional packages to be installed. It may be useful to want to keep the image live file as small as possible, but make sure that more software is installed with it. Packages separated by spaces.

^{EXTRA_PKGS = "ubiquity-slideshow-ubuntu"}

The last line allows you to insert a URL for your own notes.

^{RELEASE_NOTES_URL = "https://www.distroshare.com/"}

Run the script

After you've finished editing the settings, run the script.

^{sudo . / distroshare-ubuntu-imager.sh}

The script will do some work. After reading the specified configuration details, it will create the necessary directories, install some additional software (namely ^{xorriso squashfs-tools dmraid lvm2} and ^samba-common ), determine the version of GRUB needed Install and install the Ubiquity distribution (and other components that come with it). Then it will clean up the temporary files, delete the ubiquity to start the system, compress the newly created file system with squashfs, create an md5 checksum and grub entries for the new system and finally set it to an ISO file.

It takes a while for the script to finish running, so you have an ISO image file.

Start ISO

The created ISO image file can be burned to a CD, mounted to a virtual machine, or run directly from the grub. You can also copy it to USB with dd.

^{dd if = live-cd.iso of = / dev / sdX bs = 1M}

^{/ dev / sdX} is the path to the USB drive.

Distroshare Ubuntu Imager is a bash script that is easy to configure and replace Remastersys software, allowing you to create custom Ubuntu easily. After editing the configuration file and running the scripts, you can 'show off' your work on distroshare.com for everyone to see and use.

I wish you all success!