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Remaster Kit Documentation

Remaster-Kit is a shell script that allows users to easily remaster the ZevenOS LiveSystem or other Ubuntu-based distributions. It extracts the contents of an ISO image into a working directory where the LiveSystem can be modified by adding or removing packages. Changes are applied by entering a chroot environment within the working directory. Finally, Remaster-Kit rebuilds the filesystem image and ISO to include the modifications. Typical commands include create, chroot, clean, and build, with create extracting the ISO and chroot entering the remastering environment.

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303 views

Remaster Kit Documentation

Remaster-Kit is a shell script that allows users to easily remaster the ZevenOS LiveSystem or other Ubuntu-based distributions. It extracts the contents of an ISO image into a working directory where the LiveSystem can be modified by adding or removing packages. Changes are applied by entering a chroot environment within the working directory. Finally, Remaster-Kit rebuilds the filesystem image and ISO to include the modifications. Typical commands include create, chroot, clean, and build, with create extracting the ISO and chroot entering the remastering environment.

Uploaded by

estudiocodec
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Remaster-Kit Documentation

by Carsten Rohmann & Leszek Lesner


1. What is RemasterKit?

RemasterKit is an application that lets you easily remaster the ZevenOS LiveSystem or any
other Ubuntu based Linux distribution. It is based upon a shell script using the tools mount,
mkisofs, mksquashfs and chroot.

2. How to use it ?

First of all you will need a working directory and the proper LiveCD iso file. To create a
working directory for an iso file just enter the following command as root
(this is only an example):

remaster-kit create TestProject /home/myname/downloads/zevenos.iso

This command will create the folder TestProject, located in the root directory of the Linux
system, and will start extracting the iso file and the including LiveSystem into this folder. The
newly created folder TestProject will show several subfolders:

• edit,
• extract-cd,
• mnt,
• squashfs
• and a link to the zevenos.iso file.

Whereby the subfolder called edit contains the LiveSystem root directory.

You will need root rights, of course, to modify the LiveSystem within the subfolder edit. You have
the choice of:

a) either changing the background and the configuration files


b) or using RemasterKit to execute a changeroot command in order to get directly into the
LiveSystem. Being within the LiveSystem, feel free to add or remove software with the
package managers apt-get, aptitude or dpkg.

To perform the changeroot you have to switch back to the folder called TestProject (using the
command cd). Enter there the following command:

~/TestProject$ remaster-kit chroot

The command prompt will change then (something like /#) to indicate that you now are working
as root in the LiveSystem environment (within the subfolder edit). You may now add or remove
carefully (!) software with apt-get, aptitude or dpkg.
Be aware that not all actions will work correctly in the LiveSystem environment. Starting the
Xserver for example is highly not recommened unless you know how to prepare the
environment and how to clean up everything after having done your changes.

Once you have applied all desired changes to the LiveSystem, you need to re-pack the
LiveSystem into the filesystem.squashfs image and re-build the final iso file. Additionally, the
filesystem.manifest needs to be re-written in order to reflect the software packages included in the
new LiveSystem. Remaster-Kit will do all this automatically for you and even will create a md5
checksum.txt for your iso image file. It's up to you to burn it and to share it with others.

To quit the changeroot environment, execute the following command:

/# exit

And the changeroot session will be finished.

All you need for building the iso file is to execute the following command within the project
folder:

~/TestProject$ remaster-kit build VolumeName remastered-zevenos.iso

This will create an iso image file called remastered-zevenos.iso which is labeled VolumeName.
(Note: VolumeName cannot contain spaces)

3. A listing of typical commands:

create
will create a project directory, will mount the iso file and will copy all the content into the
folder extract-cd. Afterwards the filesystem.squashfs will be mounted and will be copied to
the folder edit

chroot
will perform a changeroot: the superuser root will switch to the LiveSystem environment
(which is located in the folder edit). Root will be able to modify the system, for instance to
install some new programs using an existing internet connection or to delete programs
which are not suitable any more.

clean
will unmount the temporary directories in the TestProject folder and will delete them
afterwards

remove
will delete the TestProject folder completely

4. Warning

Do not remaster LiveSystems with Kernels below 2.6.29 as the squashfs version will not be
compatible with them.

5. Where to get the source of remaster-kit? How to edit it?

As Remaster-Kit is a simple shell script. The source is included and located in /usr/bin/.
The shell script can easily be modified by any text editor.

6. Remaster-Kit is under a BSD license

Remaster-Kit is provided under the BSD license and therefore can be modified and redistributed
without any permission, for commercial purposes as well as for free usage. A commercial
redistribution without the source code is granted as well. If you wish to redistribute Remaster-Kit
be aware of the specific dependencies: chroot, mkisofs, mksquashfs.

7. Important folders in the LiveSystem

There are some special folders in the LiveSystem you might want to edit. Here is a selection of
the most important ones:

Path Describtion Notes


/etc/skel stores the default profile and put default configs for users
config of every user which will here
be created
/usr/share/icons stores the global icon themes put new icon themes here
/usr/share/themes stores the global gtk-themes and put new mouse cursor themes or
mouse themes gtk-themes here
/usr/share/sawfish/themes stores the global sawfish put new window decoration
window decoration themes here

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