What is remastering Linux?

Hello Everyone!

I'm still a beginner about Linux, but I've installed Linux on VirtualBox and VMware.

1. Right now I want to know what is linux remastering?

2. Can all Linux distros be remastered?

3. What tools are needed for remastering Linux?

4. And finally, where can I get a tutorial or how to do this remastering?

Thank you so much

To answer your first question, Remastering a Linux Distro is about making a Linux ISO that has everything you want /don't want in it and then making it into a bootable ISO. In other words making your own custom Distro or modified Distro.
The process can be quite simple or very complex. Depending upon the Distro in use.
But there are quite a few tutorials on the Web about how to do it. I would however recommend starting simple if you choose to go that route.
Here are a couple Tutorials about it.
This one is for ubuntu.

Create Your Custom Linux Distribution Based On Ubuntu

This is a very straightforward guide to build your own custom Linux distribution based on Ubuntu. Use it to customize Linux according to your needs!

fosspost.org

Click to expand...

https://www.baeldung.com/linux/make-your-distribution

Click to expand...

There are many others out there. good Luck.

To a beginner, the vast choice of Linux Distros can be quite confusing. I advise to go with Ubuntu and when people start asking you to "teach them some Linux", and you frequently freak out about Ubuntus design choices, it might be time to build your own Distro.

That being said, I've been using Linux for MANY years and never did anything in that direction, except one time where I build a iso that automatically installs Debian on a computer with very funky and fancy LUKS disk encryption enabled, because the Developers in the office I was working just couldn't do it by themselves and automating that away was faster than doing it by hand x)

Long story short - if you are new to Linux and just want to learn about it, this is not for you I think. You most likely want to just install Ubuntu, which is the most widely documented and supported Distro for Beginners (and advanced users as well).

Aren't all distros the same? Meaning aren't they all comprised of the same linux kernel with the differences being the particular software packages bundled with the kernel? If so, then, wouldn't a remastered distro actually be a new distro?

sofasurfer said:

Aren't all distros the same? Meaning aren't they all comprised of the same linux kernel with the differences being the particular software packages bundled with the kernel? If so, then, wouldn't a remastered distro actually be a new distro?

Click to expand...

Not quite. One Distro may use one version of the Linux kernel another a different version of the kernel. So your mostly correct. After the Kernel each distro package differing Desk tops, and apps Some differ a bit in their file structure and the way they do package management.
Some use only free open source software, where other may include proprietary software.
This page may explain it better.

https://www.howtogeek.com/132624/htg-explains-whats-a-linux-distro-and-how-are-they-different/

Click to expand...

blunix said:

To a beginner, the vast choice of Linux Distros can be quite confusing. I advise to go with Ubuntu and when people start asking you to "teach them some Linux", and you frequently freak out about Ubuntus design choices, it might be time to build your own Distro.

That being said, I've been using Linux for MANY years and never did anything in that direction, except one time where I build a iso that automatically installs Debian on a computer with very funky and fancy LUKS disk encryption enabled, because the Developers in the office I was working just couldn't do it by themselves and automating that away was faster than doing it by hand x)

Long story short - if you are new to Linux and just want to learn about it, this is not for you I think. You most likely want to just install Ubuntu, which is the most widely documented and supported Distro for Beginners (and advanced users as well).

Click to expand...

Thank you very much for the answer.

I know that as a beginner I shouldn't think about that. But I want to know this for my school assignment. They want me to remaster a linux distro.

I know that as a beginner I shouldn't think about that

Click to expand...

Well don't go that far, I just think its a bit far fetched. You can totally do that if you set your mind to it, it will just take a bit longer and might be a bit frustrating at times.

If thats what you want to do go for it - we're happy to help

Have a look here - https://penguins-eggs.net/

Zoltraak said:

Thank you very much for the answer.

I know that as a beginner I shouldn't think about that. But I want to know this for my school assignment. They want me to remaster a linux distro.

Click to expand...

Can you post the details of the assignment? If the task is to make some trivial change to a distro of your choice just to prove you did it, that's a whole lot simpler than if you need to add some specific functionality to some specific distro.

MikeRocor said:

Can you post the details of the assignment? If the task is to make some trivial change to a distro of your choice just to prove you did it, that's a whole lot simpler than if you need to add some specific functionality to some specific distro.

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Group task
1. Each Group Uses a Different Distro
2. Install and modify the Linux distro
3. Practice Basic Commands and Linux Distro Systems
minimum 5
4. Install the software via the Package Manager and GUI, minimum 5

This is the details of the assignment, I use Google translate because I'm from Indonesia

GatorsFan said:

Have a look here - https://penguins-eggs.net/

Click to expand...

Thank you

kc1di said:

To answer your first question, Remastering a Linux Distro is about making a Linux ISO that has everything you want /don't want in it and then making it into a bootable ISO. In other words making your own custom Distro or modified Distro.
The process can be quite simple or very complex. Depending upon the Distro in use.
But there are quite a few tutorials on the Web about how to do it. I would however recommend starting simple if you choose to go that route.
Here are a couple Tutorials about it.
This one is for ubuntu.


There are many others out there. good Luck.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply

blunix said:

Well don't go that far, I just think its a bit far fetched. You can totally do that if you set your mind to it, it will just take a bit longer and might be a bit frustrating at times.

If thats what you want to do go for it - we're happy to help

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply.

Zoltraak said:

Group task
1. Each Group Uses a Different Distro
2. Install and modify the Linux distro
3. Practice Basic Commands and Linux Distro Systems
minimum 5
4. Install the software via the Package Manager and GUI, minimum 5

This is the details of the assignment, I use Google translate because I'm from Indonesia

Click to expand...

The tasks do not appear to involve "remastering" of a linux distribution, but rather they appear to require the student to "master" some aspects of linux.

It would be a highly unusual, and even an inappropriate task, for a "beginner" in linux to remaster a distribution such as doing something like create one's own distro as mentioned in post #2 which is essentially remastering.

Task number 2 looks like it could involve changing a linux distro by remastering, however the meaning of the term "modify", though achievable by remastering, also suggests so many other possible actions, and actions which are far more suitable for beginners. One could modify by changing the GUI's Desktop Environment, e.g. from gnome to xfce, one could remove X and run the system in the terminal alone, one could install a build and toolchain suite to make the machine a development platform, one could make the machine a server instead of a fully-featured desktop. There are many possibilities.

Task number 3 looks like it's asking for the usage of 5 basic commands. Here are five: cd, ls, mv, cat, pwd. There are numerous others that exist that could replace these.

Task number 4 can depend on the distribution. For example, debian, and the ubuntu family, lubuntu, xubuntu, kubuntu etc. the package manager is the program: apt, which can be used in the terminal, and for the GUI there is the program: synaptic, which can install packages. Other distros have their own package managers.

If there is some misinterpretation here, please point it out so that I can veer back onto the right track.

You may also want to look at these simple lessons about linux.

Home | Linux Journey

linuxjourney.com

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kc1di said:

You may also want to look at these simple lessons about linux.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the reply

osprey said:

The tasks do not appear to involve "remastering" of a linux distribution, but rather they appear to require the student to "master" some aspects of linux.

It would be a highly unusual, and even an inappropriate task, for a "beginner" in linux to remaster a distribution such as doing something like create one's own distro as mentioned in post #2 which is essentially remastering.

Task number 2 looks like it could involve changing a linux distro by remastering, however the meaning of the term "modify", though achievable by remastering, also suggests so many other possible actions, and actions which are far more suitable for beginners. One could modify by changing the GUI, e.g. from gnome to xfce, one could remove X and run the system in the terminal alone, one could install a build and toolchain suite to make the machine a development platform, one could make the machine a server instead of a fully-featured desktop. There are many possibilities.

Task number 3 looks like it's asking for the usage of 5 basic commands. Here are five: cd, ls, mv, cat, pwd. There are numerous others that exist that could replace these.

Task number 4 can depend on the distribution. For example, debian, and the ubuntu family, lubuntu, xubuntu, kubuntu etc. the package manager is the program: apt, which can be used in the terminal, and for the GUI there is the program: synaptic, which can install packages. Other distros have their own package managers.

If there is some misinterpretation here, please point it out so that I can veer back onto the right track.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. And i think you are right about the task number 2. Because the info I get from my school is this.

Remastering Steps

1. Create a logo for initial boot (Photoshop) > slax.png

2. Edit the slax.cfg file > configure the logo menu (Winword)

3. Myslax creator > compile distro

4. Virtual Box > testing distro

5. Burning (power iso / nero )

I think they just change the booting logo screen?. And they use slax Linux.

I personally would NOT use VirtualBox for testing a distro.
OS'es on VirtualBox use Virtual hardware drivers. Virtual graphics cards, virtual hard-drives, virtual networks,
and typically no dedicated Wifi-interface.

So how would you know how it works on "real" hardware? Does it work with Inte, AMD, dd4, ddr5, ssd, nvme,
wifi cards, ethernet NICs, sound cards, Radeon and Nvidia?
If you are going to test it as a "Virtual" OS only. Test it on KVM/QEMU, libvirt, docker, VirtualVox, VMware, Proxmox,
and Cubes.

But to be honest, how many more versions of Linux do we need? There has to be at least 50 flavors of Ubuntu already.