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I wanted to know how to add packages to the Linux kernel and then package it to a ISO or CD for friends. Thanks in advance and please don't point me to LFS - Linux From Scratch!

Jeff Schaller
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user2589636
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  • What have you tried so far? What have you researched? What distro would you like to structure this around? – slm Jul 18 '13 at 01:44
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    Why would you not like us to point you to LFS? –  Jul 18 '13 at 03:59

3 Answers3

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Most of the distros can be used as a base and then customizations can be applied to this base, and written to an ISO.

Fedora

Fedora offers what's called a a "spin" or "respin". You can check them out here on the spins website:

It's pretty straight-forward to "roll your own" versions of Fedora, mixing in your own custom RPMs as well as customizing the UI.

You can even use the tool revisor which is a GUI for selecting the packages you want to bundle into your own custom .ISO. There's a pretty good tutorial here, titled: Create Your Own Fedora Distribution with Revisor.

The primary page for revisor is here:

screenshot of revisor    ss of revisor

Ubuntu

Ubuntu offers this howto on the community wiki, titled: LiveCDCustomizationFromScratch.

For Ubuntu/Debian you also have a couple of other alternatives.

Of these 2, relink seems to be the most promising in both ease of use and being able to create a fairly customized version of Ubuntu.

References

slm
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  • Thanks but how would I do this all from scratch and add packages to my ISO/CD with my custom kernel? Thanks – user2589636 Jul 18 '13 at 02:15
  • @user2589636 - it all depends on which option you go with. For either you'll have to compile you're own version of the kernel and bundle it into a .deb or .rpm file. For your custom packages, you'd have to roll these into .deb or .rpm files as well and put them into the RPMS directory as part of the .ISO file. – slm Jul 18 '13 at 02:19
  • I am totally lost... Can you just please point me to a article on how to make a custom kernel. I just created one with the 'make xconfig' command... And i am now totally lost.. Thank you... – user2589636 Jul 18 '13 at 02:28
  • @user2589636 - which distro did you want to use? I just updated my question to include a GUI called `revisor` that you can use to create custom Fedora ISOs. – slm Jul 18 '13 at 02:29
  • Yes i know i guess i just want a debian like system with apt-get i know you can probably get apt-get on rpm based distros but i heard fedora is a resource hunger OS. And even if i do create my custom ISO/CD with revisor then how will i give my users the source code, it is stated in the GPL and how will i supply that? Thank you. – user2589636 Jul 18 '13 at 02:32
  • Here's a tutorial that shows how to use the tool `remastersys` for making a Ubuntu custom distro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWk7FCevYBU – slm Jul 18 '13 at 02:34
  • Thanks slm i have also tried remastersys, but it has a few errors and problems i always wanted to do it from scratch. – user2589636 Jul 18 '13 at 02:36
  • @user2589636 - there is also [relink](https://launchpad.net/relinux) for Ubuntu. There's a tutorial for it here, titled: [Relinux – An easy way to create a Linux distro](http://lkubuntu.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/relinux-a-way-to-create-a-bootable-iso-out-of-your-system/). – slm Jul 18 '13 at 02:44
  • Thanks i will try it out, Thank you for all the help and i will try it out. And if i have a problem i will report back to you. Thanks again! – user2589636 Jul 18 '13 at 02:45
  • @user2589636 - good luck! – slm Jul 18 '13 at 02:50
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Take a look at Arch Linux.

Arch Linux allows you to build your system from the first floor up. You start with nearly nothing and install packages to your desire.

Take a look at the Arch wiki for installation instructions. Arch makes it easy to create custom installation media.

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One doesn't "add packages to the Linux kernel". Instead what one does is create a custom distro and then distribute that.

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams
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