Easy linux from the source

8 Tools to Easily Create a Custom Linux Distro

When there are so many Linux distros out there, you are probably wondering why someone would want to create their own distro instead of getting a readymade one. While in most cases a readymade distro is fine, if you want to have a distro that is 100 percent tailored to your needs (or your mum or dad’s needs), you may have to create your own custom Linux distro.

With the right tools, creating your own Linux distro isn’t as hard as it seems, though it takes time for sure. There are many tools for the purpose – some of them are universal, and some of them are distro-specific. Here are eight of them.

Also read: VIM Keyboard Shortcuts Cheatsheet

1. Linux Respin

Linux Respin is a fork of the now discontinued Remastersys. Years ago, Remastersys was one of the most popular tools to create your own Linux distro and/or a backup of your OS. Linux Respin doesn’t offer as much as Remastersys used to, but still it does a great job if you are using a distro it’s available for. Linux Respin is available for Debian, Mint and Trisquel only, which kind of limits its popularity. What I don’t like about this tool is its almost nonexistent documentation.

2. Linux Live Kit

Linux Live Kit is a tool you can use to create your own distro or back up your system. It prefers Debian but fortunately can be run on other distros as well, provided it supports aufs and squashfs kernel modules. Linux Live Kit has a very short and sweet wizard on how to build a distro – just follow the steps and you are done.

3. Ubuntu Imager

Ubuntu Imager is a good tool to create your own Ubuntu-based distro. It’s not the only such app for Ubuntu, but since it’s a good one, I chose to mention it on this list. I am not going to review it in detail because we already have a very detailed how-to with instructions for installation and operation.

4. Linux from Scratch

If you want to have absolute control on what is included in your distro and have lots of free time, you can have a look at the Linux from Scratch project. LFS has very extensive documentation and is a great learning resource about Linux in general, not just how to create your own distro. Linux from Scratch allows you to build your own customized Linux system entirely from source code. LFS is not exactly a tool like others on this list, but you can still use it for the same purpose – to create your own Linux distro (and to learn a lot about Linux as a whole).

5. Slax Modules Tool

If you are looking for an easy-to-use tool and like Slax – a lightweight distro based on Slackware, you are lucky because they have an online tool to pick the modules you would like included in your distro. I’ve used this tool in the past numerous times when I wanted to create a lightweight live system for friends of mine, and it works like a charm. Browse through the categories of software, pick the apps you want and add them to the build. Don’t worry if you miss a thing or two, as you can always add more apps after you build and run it.

Note, though, that this approach is considered old and deprecated, and for newer versions of Slax it’s suggested you use apt to install software instead of relying on modules.

6. Live Magic

Live Magic is one more Debian tool for distro creation. It can create CDs, USBs, and netboot images. It’s much simpler to use than some of the other apps on this list, such as Remastersys, but it does not use your running system to build the image. Instead, follow a wizard and choose your configuration options as you go. The program will pull the packages from your repositories and install them into your image.

7. Revisor

Another great tool with which you can create your own distribution, Revisor allows you to put your own spin on Fedora. It was initially intended as a GUI to release build tools but evolved to enable users to create customized distributions.

Revisor allows the creation of Installation Media for permanent installation of the distribution on a computer, live media, from which you can boot and use the distribution without making permanent changes to the computer, virtualization media, for use in virtual guests in Xen or KVM, and utility media, that can incorporate programs to help recover data or deal with problems in the operating system.

8. Customizer

Customizer isn’t under active development anymore, but that, according to its developer, is because it is considered stable. It is another tool with which you can remix Ubuntu, but it also supports its different flavors, like Xubuntu and Kubuntu. A critical restriction, though, is that the host system under which you are using it should share the same release number and architecture as the guest system you are remixing.

These tools for creating your own custom Linux distro should help you. Their level of complexity (and power) varies, but we’ve tried to include both easy-to-use apps and apps that give you more power. For more Linux tips, see our guides on how to repair a corrupted USB drive in Linux and how to install .deb packages in Arch Linux.

OK’s real life started at around 10, when he got his first computer — a Commodore 128. Since then, he’s been melting keycaps by typing 24/7, trying to spread The Word Of Tech to anyone interested enough to listen. Or, rather, read.

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Easy linux from the source

Easy Linux from the Source

Calculate Linux является оптимизированным дистрибутивом, предназначенным для быстрого развёртывания в корпоративной среде. Он основан на проекте Gentoo и обладает многочисленными предварительно сконфигурированными функциями.

Calculate Linux делится на три направления — версия для ПК и ноутбуков (Calculate Linux Desktop), серверная версия (Calculate Directory Server) и дистрибутив для самостоятельной сборки системы (Calculate Linux Scratch).

Все версии дистрибутива распространяются в виде загрузочного livecd образа с возможностью установки на HDD, USB-Flash либо USB-HDD.

Особенности¶

Для гуру¶

• 100% совместимость с Gentoo.
• Непрерывная Rolling-release модель обновлений включающая только проверенные пакеты.
• Свой репозиторий бинарных пакетов для каждого дистрибутива, скомпилированных с необходимыми зависимостями.
• Поддержка установки на USB-Flash или USB-HDD с ext4, ext3, ext2, reiserfs, btrfs, xfs, jfs или fat32.
• Фирменные утилиты Calculate для создания своих версий дистрибутива или наглядной модификации доступных сборок.

Для бизнеса¶

• Готовое клиент-серверное решение в связке Calculate Directory Server и Calculate Linux Desktop.
• Быстрое развертывание на предприятии с поддержкой установки из DVD, USB-Flash или PXE.
• Полноценная работа в гетерогенных сетях. Пользователи Calculate Linux Deskop и MS Windows совместно используют сетевые ресурсы Calculate Directory Server.
• Поддержка модификации дистрибутива, включая состав ПО и настройки.
• Локальное и удалённое управление системой при помощи фирменных утилит Calculate.

Релизы¶

Дистрибутив выпускается с интервалом в 2-3 раза в год. Номер версии дистрибутивов включает год и месяц выхода, нумерация ведётся с 7.6. Доступны еженедельные Stage образы со всеми последними изменениями. Версия Stage образа состоит из года, месяца и дня.

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How to build from source code in GNU/Linux

Most repositories for many GNU/Linux distributions have mass amounts of software and packages available within them; it’s becoming more and more rare you are required to build anything from source (unless you use Gentoo), however, many users are left unaware of how to do so if the need ever arises.

This tutorial will show you from beginning to end, how it’s done. I use Arch Linux, so little quirks may arise that are slightly different from distributions like Ubuntu, but the process is nearly identical, except when fulfilling dependencies comes into play.

Note: This tutorial will be done almost entirely within the command line, so be prepared to get your hands a little dirty and have a terminal window open!

We are going to build Pidgin, from source. Pidgin is a popular multi-protocol chat client, used to connect to multiple different chats at once, such as Skype and Facebook Messenger (There is an article here on Ghacks, showing how to connect to those very two)

Pidgin is available in most distribution repositories, but I thought we would build it, since it’s simple, easily done, and won’t get super complicated for your first time building.

Step 1: Download the source

First thing we need to do, is get our sourcefiles! You can grab them from here.

Once those are downloaded, pop open your terminal and navigate to your Downloads folder (or wherever you downloaded that tarball to)

Next, we need to unpackage the archive, we do this via the ‘tar’ command

the -x tells tar to extract the file

the f tells tar to read the archive content from a file, like our pidgin-2.12.0.tar.bz2

next, we cd into the directory

Next, we need to configure the source code for our machine, and ensure that we have all the necessary dependencies required to build the source.

Typically this is done simply by typing ./configure, however, I know that pidgin is going to error if you do that because most distributions do not have the necessary packages to compile two parts of Pidgin: required for TCL support (an older programming language rarely used anymore), as well as packages needed to support ‘meanwhile’, which is needed for using Pidgin with “Sametime,” an IBM instant messaging service/product.

So, unless you specifically need support for TCL or Sametime, we are going to tell our system to disable building those packages into Pidgin, therefore bypassing our need to fulfill those requirements to configure the application!

• ./configure —disable-meanwhile –disable-tcl

if everything goes well (as it did on my very minimal Arch Linux install, so users of more robust distributions also ‘shouldn’t’ run into issues), you’ll get a bunch of scrolling text on the screen, eventually telling you:

configure complete, now type ‘make’

. Which is exactly what we do next

You’re going to see a whole bunch of text absolutely flood your terminal at this point. You on the other hand are going to go get a coffee, walk the dog, or post that image on social media you’ve been wanting to post and kept putting off; this is going to take a few minutes (it took around 5 minutes or so on my laptop)

Once that’s finally finished, the last step is to install Pidgin!

When the wall of text is finished, so are you!

Note: I had to log out and back in, before Pidgin showed up in my applications menu. If you don’t see it, try that.

1. Download the source file and extract it.
2. Run ./configure
3. Run make
4. Run sudo make install

Final Words

That’s it! That is the basics of compiling applications from source. Some applications are done a little differently, but that is another topic for another day; you’ll find this process is the same for many, many programs. So, enjoy!

About Mike Turcotte-McCusker

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Comments

>unless you use Gentoo
Or funtoo, crux, calculate, exherbo and list goes on.
Article doesn’t mention negative effects from building from source instead of using your distro package manager solution (and no word about checkinstall for all debian-based system out there, sigh). Also, one of most important part is actually start ./configure –help and look at options before building anything, most important part being install your build-from-source software anywhere, where is doesn’t collision with your package manager (i.e. /usr/local; /opt), so at least ./configure –prefix=/usr/local need to be pointed out.

More details is always usefull I think.

Ha ! I’ve been waiting for this article for years. Not saying I will actually convert to Linux and start building from code, but I’ve never seen anyone addressing the problem and trying to explain people what it’s about.

Maybe this exists on Linux sites, but when you’re a Linuxist you’re supposed to already know about all that anyway.

Even the first paragraph is news to me — never mind the details about how to do it.

Anything that makes Linux something else than a watering-hole for sectarian fanatics has to be welcome.

I started using Ubuntu in 2007 as a student with no previous exposure to Linux – I just liked that it was free and decided to give it a try. I don’t remember where I saw it (probably on the Ubuntu forums), but I came across a tutorial for compiling from source in my first few days. I migrated to Arch once I had learned the Linux ropes and was ready for a more technically-elegant distro. 🙂

All that to say, I think you’re overstating how difficult it is to find Linux answers.

Let me clarify. It’s not as much about the difficulty of finding Linux answers if you’re really trying (that implies you’ve already made the jump). I don’t know about that, because I’m not using Linux (apart from briefly dipping a toe).

It’s about explaining Linux basics to non-Linux users. Such as : not only there’s less software available, but you’ve got to compile it yourself. OK, but many Linux programs are now pre-compiled, so that makes it easier (although it’s still, on the whole, more difficult). And by the way, if you need, or want, to compile them yourself, here is what it roughly looks like (spare me the details, please). What’s a tarball ? Can you speak english ? etc.

In place of that, what we usually get is : you’re a cunt for not using Linux ! use Linux, you dickhead ! you’re killing kittens if you’re not using Linux ! What ? you don’t even know what building from source is ? educate yourself, you dummy ! and so on.

After reading the first comment, I wanted to reply to it. Same when I read the second comment here.
Instead, I’m adding this as a freestanding comment.

It’s tough to balance “let’s educate and generate enthusiasm among potential DIYers” vs “mentioning ‘negative effects’, caveats, gotchas, etc”. At the very VERY least, an introductory article like this should cite multiple “For further reading” links.

idunno Arch. Are the instructions provided in the article technically correct? tar -xf . (I would expect to explicitly pass a commandline arg which instructs “preserve permissions when untarring.) Even _if_ the default behavior of tar, in an Arch system is to preserve permissions, as a BestPractice, I would still instruct explicit declaration of that arg… besides, it’s reasonable to expect that 99+ percent of the ghacks readers are NOTnotNOT using ArchLinux (nor will be, any time soon).

Clairvaux, I continually find that “supposed to already know about all that” doesn’t hold true

I’m constantly, eternally, forced to scour docs, manpages, stackexchange/stackoverflow, due to changes across versions of (program, build system, dependent libraries) as well as differences between various linux distributions. One size does _NOT_ fit all; tweakamundo is usually required. Quick, simple example: build n install a given gnome app… only to discover that it doesn’t show up in your (xfce, openbox, etc) desktop menu. Why? Because the selfish?dumbass? developer included instructions within .desktop launcher file: “ShowOnlyIn=Gnome”

I’m a serious linux afficionado, yet at the same time, have learned to embrace the motto:
LINUX IS FREE (if your time is worthless)

If this article had been framed as (titled as):
TIL (aka “today I learned”) Howto compile Pidgin in ArchLinux
I would say “kudos”… but framed as a general HOWTO BUILD STUFFS IN LINUX, it’s woefully inadequate (and quite likely misleading, in terms of requisite details)

– LINUX IS FREE (if your time is worthless) –

Very nice, and very probably true (that slight disclaimer because I haven’t been there myself — yet).

N.B.: Arch seems to be one of the difficult distros…

Clairvaux: Really? Allthough you do admit ‘because I haven’t been there myself’… Most people would get by fine when switching from Windows using the repositories, and there is plenty of information for those who want to get into compiling, unless you are using vague search terms and reading ancient articles by those who want to grandstand?

Thanks for the article Mike.

Thank you for illustrating my point so perfectly. I just wrote :

“In place of that, what we usually get is : you’re a cunt for not using Linux ! use Linux, you dickhead ! you’re killing kittens if you’re not using Linux ! What ? you don’t even know what building from source is ? educate yourself, you dummy ! and so on.”

And here you come out of the woodwork, trying the best you can to convince everybody that Linux aficionados are obnoxious, arrogant individuals always attempting to pick up a fight about nothing.

It’s sad enough that people get sectarian and aggressive about subjects such as politics, race or religion, but trolling a thread where the most life-engaging issue is the choice between two different technologies for a personal computer… Have you considered taking up boxing, to channel your aggressivity ? At least, you would get a chance to take up a beating in return for dishing it out.

Whatis “ancient articles by those who want to grandstand”?

an example of “undisclosed quirks” and the “need to continually, eternally, forced to revisit docs”:

During build, it pukes and spews an “error in makefile” message. What. All i did was add one simple line. Search, search, search… an hour later discover that a leading Tab character is expected (4 spaces instead a Tab character is what made the build fail. Seriously. Yeah.) Oh, but end-of-line TRAILING spaces ARE permitted… ‘cept on tuesdays?

(doorbell)
HEY, JUST LEAVE IT ON THE PORCH. THANKS.
Don’t have the energy right now to wade through the heap of dead kittens between here and the door.

I got to admit the arch linux forums are pretty brutal to newbs. Trial by fire. Luckily they make Manjaro, a few tradeoffs and I never have to talk to them. On topic, I appreciate someone is bothering to write stuff about linux and Martin is providing a format. I myself would probably not try to take on such a vast topic as how to build stuff from source in linux, but it does get the ball rolling, thank you.

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