Ubuntu Customization Kit, your LiveCD Ubuntu for half an hour without dancing with a tambourine

Installing Ubuntu or using the Ubuntu LiveCD, have you encountered at least one of these problems:
- the need every time after installing ubuntu to reinstall the necessary software, connect additional repositories;
- monotonous and long-lasting adjustment of the appearance of gnome after installation;
- Do you like openbox, lxde or any other desktop, on the basis of which there is no ubuntu distribution;
- Your equipment requires additional configuration and installation of additional drivers after installing Ubuntu;
- LiveCD does not contain the software necessary for your work or, on the contrary, you want to facilitate it by removing all unnecessary.

Or maybe you just want to make an original gift to a friend / girlfriend in the form of a comic, colorful, personally designed, friendly Linux distribution. If you have not heard of the Ubuntu Customization Kit, then let me introduce it to you.

The Ubuntu Customization Kit is a set of scripts created specifically for modifying the Ubuntu LiveCD in detail. Of course, you can do without them, for example, by following this manual , or by using the online reconstractor . But this method is very simple and suitable for a beginner.
And so, we will need the ubuntu distribution (both the desktop version and the server will do), 5GB of free space in the home directory, Internet access for downloading packages and adding new repositories, and the Ubuntu Customization Kit (UCK) itself, which is present in the official repository ubunty (sudo apt-get install uck), but refused to work with the iso image of karmic koala, therefore I recommend downloading the latest version (there is a deb package) from the official site . Starting the application from the standard menu (Applications → System tools → Ubuntu customization kit) or from the uck-gui console, we get the following message "Requirements:
1. about 5 GB of free disk space in / home / exception / tmp
2. Internet access for fetching language packs
3. apt-source line “deb-src archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu karmic main“ enabled (necessary for bootlogo building) ”


Following the recommendation, we follow on.

Here comes the selection of languages ​​that will be available in our LiveCD. And next will be offered a choice of language when loading the LiveCD.
Next, select the Desktop environment for our distribution and LiveCD, you can choose several options.

And then you will need to specify the location of the ISO image of the existing Ubuntu distribution. Following the next step, we will also be asked to name our new distribution.
But then there are two important questions, the first one will ask if we want to use advanced LiveCD editing tools, to which I recommend to answer Yes, as it will be possible to additionally install, remove the necessary packages, and customize the look of the distribution. In the second, it will be proposed to remove Windows components such as wubi, I also refused from them, because I see no point in installing the distribution from under Windows.
After clicking OK, the process of unpacking the ISO file begins and you will be asked to enter your password (it is necessary to mount an iso image in the system). When the unpacking is completed, a new dialog box will appear. At this time, the full contents of the future liveCD file system are located in the ~ / tmp / remaster-root folder. You can modify its content at your discretion. For example, you can transfer your settings by copying the settings files from your home directory to the ubuntu user's home directory on the liveCD system. Of course, you first need to create a home directory for this user, and then give him the right to use the copied files. But it is recommended to start with the installation / removal of packages by selecting the Run package manager, which will launch essentially the usual Synaptic tuned to our future LiveCD. By default, not all repositories are included in it, so I recommend looking into Settings → Repositories and selecting or adding the necessary repositories. After that, you can create, for example, I deleted mono, but I added the necessary wifi drivers for my netbook, video players.
With the programs done, now you probably want to transfer your custom settings to liveCD. This can be done by copying files and folders of the form '.namefile' from your home directory to the home directory of the user ubuntu on a liveCD. But the latter must first be created:

1. sudo mkdir ~/tmp/remaster-root/home/ubuntu

To copy files to a liveCD, you will need superuser rights, so let's launch the file manager with root rights.
After copying the files, you need to assign them to the ubuntu user, which is used by default in the liveCD

1. sudo chown -R 999: 999 ~ / tmp / remaster-root / home / ubuntu

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Everything! If you want to manage the liveCD from the console, select the 'Run console application' in the UCK window if you want to start packing the ISO image - 'Continue building'.

At the end, the program will report in the terminal window about the success of the operation (if successful) and indicate the location of the ISO image of the liveCD (~ / tmp / remaster-new-files / livecd.iso).

In writing this article used materials:
The creeper ;
Ubuntu Community Help .