Custom Distros

Troncoso

Troncoso

VIP Member
Anyone ever build (or attempt to build) their own Linux Distro? I know Bobby is (Nxycharon), but anyone else? I'm looking to gather some material to make a presentation for class. I've found a couple of how-to's, but not really just straight up information on what it involves, where to start, what resources to use, etc. Any info would be cool.
 
I have wanted to, but never really got anywhere with it. Definitely going to watch this thread to see what others can tell us.
 
wolfeking said:
I have wanted to, but never really got anywhere with it. Definitely going to watch this thread to see what others can tell us.
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Considering my poor luck in finding any good info, I'm actually setting my PC now to start working on a Linux From Scratch System. I figure that's the next best way to learn about something.
 
What are you trying to learn about?
If you want to learn more about the linux Kernel, building a custom distro won't help.Unless you make some changes in the kernel like make a new system call or make a new file system.
 
mihir said:
What are you trying to learn about?
If you want to learn more about the linux Kernel, building a custom distro won't help.Unless you make some changes in the kernel like make a new system call or make a new file system.
Click to expand...

I'm trying to learn exactly the topic: What it takes to create your own distro. Not really the steps to make it happen, but what you need and how you go about doing it to be successful.
 
Troncoso said:
I'm trying to learn exactly the topic: What it takes to create your own distro. Not really the steps to make it happen, but what you need and how you go about doing it to be successful.
Click to expand...

Look up linux from scratch. (LFS) is a free online book on how to compile and build your own distro from source code. No respins there.
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

Also, the Debian Live project has a book worth reading, though to make a proper respin with a lot of customizations it's more trial and error.
http://live.debian.net/

Another way that is really popular is starting with whatever distro you like and customizing how you like. Then your can copy over any configs needed in /home/username by copying the settings to /etc/skel.
From there you can use a respin tool like remastersys(for debian) to do the work for you. Problems with this is it leaves you with almost no options to tweak the installer, and customizing the live disc in certain areas is impossible. It's also really hard to use custom kernels with these kinds of tools, a lot of the times the tool is only programmed to work with the generic kernels installed, which is a problem I've run into before.

Hopefully that will at least get you started. :good:
If you have more questions, you know how to contact me. ;)
 
NyxCharon said:
Look up linux from scratch. (LFS) is a free online book on how to compile and build your own distro from source code. No respins there.
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

Also, the Debian Live project has a book worth reading, though to make a proper respin with a lot of customizations it's more trial and error.
http://live.debian.net/

Another way that is really popular is starting with whatever distro you like and customizing how you like. Then your can copy over any configs needed in /home/username by copying the settings to /etc/skel.
From there you can use a respin tool like remastersys(for debian) to do the work for you. Problems with this is it leaves you with almost no options to tweak the installer, and customizing the live disc in certain areas is impossible. It's also really hard to use custom kernels with these kinds of tools, a lot of the times the tool is only programmed to work with the generic kernels installed, which is a problem I've run into before.

Hopefully that will at least get you started. :good:
If you have more questions, you know how to contact me. ;)
Click to expand...

I mentioned above that I was messing with Linux From Scratch. It's a freaking lot of information. How did you go about it?
 
Troncoso said:
Haha. I figured if you did LFS, that you followed LFS. How did you go about starting Adonis?
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LFS is like a stage3 Gentoo build; you compile a kernel custom for your hardware, and compile all source code for your specific hardware. It just makes life a bit easy with emerge, which is pretty much a package manager that helps do it for you.

LFS is literally you download all the source code, build it in a separate environment, and then work up from there. No package manager, no manager at all, besides YOU.


I personally start with a net-install of Debian, and install only the base system.
From there I boot up to the root terminal and then start working from there, only installing and configuring what I need. Use a respin tool, and i'm done.
I'm scrapping that this summer though. Writing my own installer, package manager, etc and using that instead. This method is a good way to ease into building custom distros though. I might do a time lapse of my next one :P
 
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