Relinux – An easy way to create a Linux distro

Note: I know this post is a mess, I’m sorry. I’ll try to fix it sometime soon

Note #2: Relinux is now dead: https://lkubuntu.wordpress.com/2014/09/14/im-quitting-relinux/

Remastersys has been around for a long time, and though it hasn’t been updated in a long time (EDIT: It was dead, but now he is maintaining it), many people still use it. Remastersys is very closed in what you can do with it (for example, it’s hard to change the splash image), and sometimes you have to edit the code just to be able to change more options that what is given in the remastersys.conf file.

I created 2 systems with it (one personal and one public), and I didn’t like the lack of options, so I decided to make my own script based on it, to give much more customization. Though it is still at a beta stage, it gives many more options, and much more usability.

The goal for relinux is to let someone make his own Linux distro easily, while the goal for remastersys is to make personal distros and backups.

To install, download the latest tar.gz file at https://launchpad.net/relinux. Untar it, and follow the instructions in the INSTALL file.

You can customize the system as much as you would like, except for these limitations (most of which will be removed in a future release):

• It only supports GRUB2, so no BURG or GRUB-Legacy
• It must have an X11 display, since Ubiquity (the installer) requires X11 to run
• You cannot use another installer than Ubiquity
• The compressed filesystem size must be below 4GB (no workaround). It will tell you if it’s over 4GB (compressed), but I recommend that you keep your system size below 6GB (uncompressed).
• It will install metacity, but in 0.3, this is removed.

After you have customized your system at your liking, you will need to create a configuration file. To do this, simply type in a Terminal window:
cp /etc/relinux/relinux.conf ./relinux.conf
sed -i 's:EXCLUDES="\(.*\)":EXCLUDES="\1 '`readlink -f ./relinux.conf`'":g' ./relinux.conf
readlink -f ./relinux.conf
The last command will tell you where the configuration file is located. Edit that file to your liking. Some splash screens are located in /etc/relinux/relinux/splash.

Before you start editing, if you want to save your settings/themes, do this (replace USERNAME by your actual username):

1. Press CTRL+ALT+F3
2. Log in as your normal user
3. Type: sudo passwd
4. Enter a password for root
5. Type: exit
6. Log in as root (with the password you gave for root)
7. Type: usermod -d /etc/skel USERNAME; chown -R USERNAME /etc/skel
   
8. Reboot your system (can be done with the reboot command)

Then you can log into your normal user, and all of your changes to the theme, desktop background, panel configuration etc… will be saved.

Once you have finished editing it, you will want to create the ISO file, so type this into the Terminal window:
sudo relinux fullclean ./relinux.conf
sudo relinux iso ./relinux.conf

The last (and final) step will take a while.

Simply follow the directions (if there are any).

I decided to make a comparison chart with Relinux and Remastersys:

	Relinux	Remastersys
Actively Developed	T	T
DIST/ISO mode	T	T
Backup mode	T (will be removed in 0.4, as remastersys is good for the backup mode, relinux is not)	T
Splash Image Customization	T	F
Can use	T	T
GUI	F (will add in 0.4)	T
WUBI	T	F
Language	BASH (will be Python in 0.4)	BASH

If you have any questions/comments, feel free to leave a comment on here!