Hello,

I've been trying KDE Neon out and really like it. I've got a question regarding the possibility of producing a customised live USB version - is this the right place to ask about this?

Probably best to give a little detail behind why first (just in case there's a smarter way to solve this as well!):

I was at a computer conference recently and especially with beginners (but not exclusively) there were lots of cases where workshops needed specific dependencies installed and this often wasn't the case. My simple idea for next year was to look at a "conference live USB" - side-step the issues of what people currently have on their laptops by distributing a USB stick set up to run as a live USB (I'm mainly thinking live rather than actually installing). The USB would be a mainstream Linux OS but with just a few relevant tools and ideally a load of Python virtual environments for each workshop pre-installed. There's a tonne of other useful stuff / links etc we could put on there too, but the main aim would be to get them up and running during the workshops and then when they went home they could still use it for a bit or more likely focus on getting their existing installation to work with the dependencies (at their leisure)

Anyway, I think the sort of thing I'd need to do is either 1) find a respin tool or 2) figure out how the original distribution is being done and add my steps to that.

Regarding KDE Neon, I'm just getting myself up to speed on it, but what options are there for this sort of approach?

Given it has an Ubuntu base, I wondered if some of the respin tools for that would work (although many of them seem a little old/unmaintained/generally don't inspire confidence!)

And for the Neon distro build process - I've no idea how complex this is (perhaps I'm being over-optimistic?!) or where to learn more about it. Any pointers on where to look or who to contact?

My secondary hope is that as well as making more productive sessions it may well give people a taste of the convenience and power of Linux and KDE (especially to various Windows users who show up and then struggle!) I'm not 100% set on basing this on KDE Neon, but it seemed to have the right characteristics to look slick and impress people plus having the Ubuntu base so as not to put off beginners (I found Ubuntu a great place to start learning when first tried Linux years ago; although I now use Arch I suspect it wouldn't be wise to push that on a load of newbies!!)

Hope that isn't too long winded. Any help and advice greatly appreciated

Many thanks,
Neil

I remember earlier on for other live USBs (at least the writer tools like unetbootin or usb-creator) had an option to make/enable "persistence" while writing the image to USB, so that you can boot off the USB then install/customise to your hearts content and then on the next boot you have all that stuff available.

Not sure if this is still a possible alternative to what you are looking for - might be worth looking at the USB writer tools out there.

Thanks vishalrao, that sounds plausible, I'll investigate as you suggest (and your way certainly sounds easier than one of the other approaches I found which suggests mounting the ISO and using a chroot environmentt to amend things directly within the ISO!)

This is actually very easy to do, the problem will be with the computers at the conference, you will have to figure out the appropriate key codes, like f8 or esc or twist your fingers into pretzles hitting five keys at the same time. to get the computers to allow booting from a usb. And, there is also the whole UEFI thing..

The method is really very simple.

The very first time i did it was when I was hot and heavy into the "old style" #! years ago, I still have the cds, and they still install, I use them just for nostalgia sake, but I've made "respins" of a lot of OS's and they are sitting in a box for me to use if needed. The original "old groaner" was ReMasterSys, but it has gone by the by and is no longer in the repos. However, guess what, it was still making bootable live cds up until a few years ago, things have just become too complicated for the old workhorse. Tony, if anyone remembers, did yoeman's work making it.

A) There are various Ubuntu apps for making your own live cd as a "respin" I will allow you to let your fingers do the walking through Synaptic, The big thing there is to make sure that the respin is not "larger" than the original OS, so, the thing to do is to remove some big apps such as maybe an Office suite and then install it later onto the USB if you need it/them.

B) After you have made the "bootable .iso" WITHOUT data and after removing any large apps, burn it to a DVD.

C) Obtain the largest USB drive that you can afford or want so that you have someplace to put stuff from the conference. Format it to EXT 4 don't know if your particular OS will install on FAT 16 or 32 but it should install on the previous mentioned.

D) Place the DVD in the tray and turn the computer off with the tray open.

E) Open the side of the computer and unplug the data cable to your hard drive while it is UNpowered.

F) Power on the computer and use whatever keys you need to "boot from the DVD" and close the try, if you do not already have "boot from cd" in the startup sequence for the hardware.

G) After your "spin" / bootable .iso has got it's skirts together and is running,.....THEN.... pop in the usb drive. and WAIT for the DVD to find the usb drive.

H) start the install sequence and since the OS only has the usb drive upon which to install, it will........install....easy peasy.

I have several OS's on usb drives even back to an ANCIENT PinGuy! lol,

This has NEVER failed me, just sayin'.

woodsmoke

try systemback.
(ppa:nemh/systemback)