Creating a Distribution of Linux

I started reading the Linux from Scratch document, and it just seemed like there was too much work, for what you get out of it. I was wondering if there is any other way to create your own distribution of Linux, without reading that exact document. If anyone knows, post it here, so others can know as well.

To create a completely new distro, it will not be easy. IMO its best to stick to something already there, but something you have to build from the ground up, like Gentoo, which is basically the distro that you make it to be.

So you want to make a new version of linux without having to read.

Good luck with that.

It sounds like building a distro is more work than you are ready for. And that's the easiest way I know of going about it.

It really does depend on how serious you are about making your own distribution, my friend.

If you really want your OWN, full blown, completely separate from all other distributions then you need to go all the way with Linux From Scratch or similar.

You can also repackage many distros with specific customizations:
VLOS is a customized Gentoo distro
Overclockix is a custom Knoppix version

And there are many others. Repackaging an existing distro is still a lot of work, but less than creating your own entirely.

If what you want is merely to have a custom operating system on your computer...well, any distro CAN do that, but minimal ones like Slack make it easier: nothing but a bare system is installed for you, essentially.
Gentoo goes Slack one further by not only having YOU decide just about everything that gets installed but also making you choose which compilation options to use and how to optimize all the code.

Decide exactly how committed you are and what you want- linux can help you achieve your goal, but one way or the other you will have a lot of reading to do.

I'm not quite sure you understand what it means to create a distribution. Generally, it means producing a set of software to make available to everyone else so they can download it and install linux. This is a task for very advanced users only. This is not something the average desktop user needs to do.

If you really want to know about making distros, talk to Arkaine, as he produces Overclockix. One option in making a distro is to do as he did and customize an existing distro. Overclockix is a derivative of Knoppix, which is in turn based on Debian. No single person could really create a distro as comprehensive as Debian or Gentoo. About the closest is Slackware, which is maintained by one guy, but it doesn't have the same package repositories that other distros use, which cuts down on the work quite a bit.

stage 1 gentoo is essentially a system built from scratch

after the system is built you can port your package manager of choice to it and set the features you want

you can even remove portage if you really want to....

But no matter how customized your gentoo install is, it's still gentoo and not a new distro.

Before trying to create a new one you should ask yourself: what will my distro to better then all those others out there? Why will mine be the best of all?

If you can answer this question, you can decide how to do it, e.g. customizing an existing one or creating a new one literally from scratch. It should also give you a pointer how to do it and which things to look out for.

I think OSGentoo's point is that what he is really looking for is not to create his own distro, but rather to create a highly customized linux install on his PC. I think he was just using the wrong terms.

Gentoo is customized enough for me.

It would be nice if gentoo allowed you to install precompiled binaries through portage. I know portage has the capability, but there just aren't many precompiled packages out there in the repositories. This would make gentoo much more of an option on older/slower systems.

It would be nice if there were more prebuilt packages, but at least some of the major packages that would take a long time to build already have precompiled packages. (OOo, Firefox, etc.)

MRD said:

It would be nice if gentoo allowed you to install precompiled binaries through portage. I know portage has the capability, but there just aren't many precompiled packages out there in the repositories. This would make gentoo much more of an option on older/slower systems.

Click to expand...

You could always learn python (if you don't already), and start making some serious contribution. But from what I've heard...writing .ebuilds for gentoo is a nightmare, and the code for them is quite lengthy.