How to make a Salix OS based distro?

[dimebag]

I am wondering if there is any documentation or any other information that would be helpful in my endeavor to create a Salix OS based distro. Salix OS is a fantastic distro and it would be awesome to use a base. Any help or guidance that can be provided is much appreciated. Thanks!

[Akuna]

Hi dimebag,

That sounds like a worthy project
What do you have in mind?

Depending on your expertise level, a good studying of our svn repo should be helpful. Salix development is totally open & we keep all our working scripts there.

Also most of our active developers/contributors hang in our jabber room (salix@chat.meticul.eu), the peak of affluence is usually in the evenings (European time). Come pay us a visit sometimes.

[dimebag]

Hello Akuna,
Firstly, thank you for your response. This is what I have in mind for my project:

1. Keep the new distro as close to Salix as possible, at least under the hood. I'd like to keep the installer as is, for the most part. The only tweaking I plan to make to the installer is to only offer the "Full Install" option.
2. Use Enlightenment as the desktop environment/window manager (I know this isn't "typical" in Salix, but I do quite like it)
3. Build my own packages for the new distro.

My skills in Linux lie somewhere between novice and intermediate and I am definitely NOT afraid of the CLI. I know creating a new distro based off of Salix is quite a task, but as someone once told me, "The best way to learn how to swim is to be thrown into an ocean full of sharks." I'm willing to swim with those sharks and get bitten here and there. I'll definitely take a look at the svn repo and the working scripts, as well as pay a visit to the jabber room. Is there any other reading material that you can recommend as it relates to building a Salix based distro?

[gapan]

The absolutely easiest way to create another spin, is to launch the live cd, make any changes you want and then create a new iso that will include these changes, using liveclone.

[linus72]

Hello Gapan, JRD, and everyone else
Happy New Year!

I was wondering what is or would be the Salix OS stance concerning Salix OS derivatives?
Not asking for official support, but if a person like me released a live or install cd based on Salix but for a targeted user, would you guys have an issue with that?
Basically, you guys know I made the nFluxOS distros, one of which is slackware current based. Now, being a writer, I am maintaining a derivative of Slackware -current called PocketWriter, which is soley for creative writing, etc.
http://multidistro.com/

However; having it based on Slackware -current, and the fact that Salix OS is more newbie friendly, I thought to base a new version on the Salix OS LXDE 13.1.2 livecd.

Would you guys have any issue with that? The Salix branding, etc is all still there, just many added packages for writers.
Thanks and keep up the great work!

[tsuren]

Hi there,
I cannot speak for others. But I think there should be no problem creating a spin-off. Just I would not think that you need to keep the Salix branding and so on. Once you created your own stuff - so this Pocket Writer OS - I think you can drop off the Salix branding, and just to say it is based on a Salix LiveCD should be sufficient. I think also that this will cause less confusion amongst your Pocket Writer OS users, as I imagine seeing the Salix logo while booting up "Pocket Writer OS" is a little disorientating. (It is not like you are creating a new edition in Salix - Salix Pocket Writer Edition, for instance. So the whole association between Salix and Pocket Writer OS should not be more than that of "based on Salix...")

Happy new year to you as well!

[dimebag]

@gapan: Thank you for the suggestion . However, what I have in mind might be a bit more complicated than that...I probably should have elaborated a bit more in my previous post while being more specific as well. While I do wish to keep the text based installer and only offer the full install option for my new distro (as the only DE/WM will be Enlightenment), I would like the new distro to be more minimalist. For instance, the only apps to be included would be Firefox, LXTerminal, and Wicd. I assume that for what I have planned I simply cannot avoid customizing the Salix install scripts.

[Akuna]

I second tsuren.

This is Free and Open Source Software, everyone is free to use our code as they see fit so long as they do mention it clearly somewhere in the true spirit of the FOSS movement.

If so, it is also important to have a clearly distinct identity from us & offer your very own help support as we cannot be fully aware of all the differences you will introduce or else things could quickly get quite confusing.

I personally think that we can only benefit from having totally independent spin offs. First it shows that Salix is mature & good enough for someone else to base their own work on it. Also, it bring fresh eyes & a different perspective which is always beneficial in most situation. There is no doubt that spin-offs would eventually contribute back to Salix in the ways of new ideas & bug fix processes.

Now everyone is also welcome to put their own project under Salix umbrella (if the project is accepted by Salix team) as some have done recently, but then of course, you will have to join a greater body & follow some already established guidelines & work processes which are meant to guaranty a certain quality level & overall consistency in Salix project. Of course that way you can also benefit more easily from everyone's experience & work in a more cooperative fashion which is truly fun, enriching & educational.

Take your pick!

But that made me think. I'll make LiveClone & the live installer easier to be re-branded and used in a more generic way, at least for Salix/Slackware based distros.

[linus72]

Thanks guys!

There are some differences between the default Salix OS LXDE livecd and PocketWriter Salix
1) PocketWriter is not made with LiveClone, it's made with a modified Linux-Live using JRD's 2.6.33.4-smp kernelive

2) PocketWriter has the Slax scripts xconf and scripts to run the autoexec boot parameters ala Slax such as "autoexec=xconf;telinit~4", etc. It also has the Salix USB PersistenceWizard

3) PocketWriter uses either Lilo or Grub legacy, not Grub2

However; it does not have the Salix Live installer because the Salix Live installer exits with errors because the layout of my livecd differs from the Salix OS livecd. Because of this the user has to use either a console hdd installer I borrowed from SME, which only uses Lilo, or do a manual-install, which is easy but inconvenient.

I also dont have a USB installer except for the Slax scripts bootinst.sh, etc

So, for me the wish list would be a Salix Live Installer that works with the default Linux Live layout (bin, etc,home) .lzms, and a usb installer.

Thanks for all your work!

[JRD]

Yeah go ahead. I agree with tsuren and akuna.

About Salix Live Installer, I do not understand the real problem...but maybe Akuna will understand