Constructor Linux iso builder

Why ?

I would like an ubuntu/debian distro with enlightenment as window manager. It should focus on security and privacy, in the end. Also, an education-oriented variant whould be nice to have.

What is here so far

• a builder script which spits out an iso
• livecd mode
• system is installable using ubuntu's ubiquity installer
• templates for multiple variants (e17, e19, mate, xfce, gnome-shell)
• bugs

What is missing

• a more mature builder
• variant customizations
• documentation

Status of variants

• mate

  • lacks proper package selection
  • template is still broken

• xfce

  • some panel customizations
  • lacks proper package selection

• e17

  • uses packages from ubuntu repos
  • some panel customizations
  • mathing E17gtk theme
  • lacks proper package selection

• gnome-shell

  • lacks proper package selection
  • considered pre-alpha

• e19

  • uses packages from bodhi's repos
  • ubiquity behaves strangely (bodhi's customizations ?)
  • mathing E17gtk theme
  • lacks proper package selection
  • considered pre-alpha

How to build an iso

git clone https://github.com/educatie/constructor.git
cd constructor
./build.sh VARIANTNAME

• This will build a new iso (called constructor-BUILDNR-VARIANTNAME_amd64.iso)
• must run on an *ubuntu64 14.04 system
• make sure to have at least 4GB free disk space
• make sure to run the build script as root (as it requires mount/chroot privileges), on a partition which supports setuid files (needed for the suid files in the chroot environment).
• variant exists in the variants/ directory

Variant structure

A variant is a folder (in variants/) which has the following structure :

• resources/ - a folder which holds files which will be copied onto the target system
• packages.list - a list of packages which will be installed on the target system
• variant.sh - a script which is ran after all the packages have been installed. You can put customization code here, if you need to

Under the hood

• based on Ubuntu 14.04 (might work on debian also though it uses ubiquity)

The build steps

• create a minimal base system
  • debootstrap into the chroot directory
  • copy /etc/hosts, /etc/resolv.conf (needed for apt-get)
• copy resources (variants/VARIANTNAME/resources/) to the newly created system. These may include:
  • etc/apt/sources.list (for extra repos one might need)
  • usr/share/themes/... (gtk themes)
  • /etc/skel/... files (.xinitrc, .gtkrc-2.0, .config, ...). There will be places in the user's home directory, both on the livecd as well as the target system
• chroot into that system and run the configuration script (customize_chroot.sh)
  • mount /proc, /sys and /dev/pts
  • import apt keys (for ubuntu extras or others)
  • install dbus, kernel
  • install and configure casper (livecd tool)
  • configure plymouth (startup "theme")
  • install some console tools (mc, ...)
  • install xorg, xinit, xterm (we need these for now, for ubiquity-gtk)
  • install variant speciffic packages (from variants/VARIANTNAME/packages.list)
  • optionally run speciffic variant customization code (from variants/VARIANTNAME/variant.sh)
  • unmount /proc, /sys, /dev/pts
• create an iso image
  • create an image directory where to store the iso content
  • copy kernel binaries, memtest86
  • copy isolinux conf files
  • configure casper (remove ephemeral livecd packages from /casper/filesystem.manifest-desktop)
  • compress the chroot directory (mksquashfs) and put it in here
  • calculate md5sum files
  • build the iso (mkisofs)
• cleanup
  • remove the image directory
  • remove the chroot directory, if no process uses chroot/dev
• increment the build number (in variants/VARIANTNAME/build)