How To Create A Shift Linux

November 11, 2006

Well, really, you just have to follow these steps:

Setting up the build environment

* Use a Debian based Linux distro [Debian Etch or Debian Sid}

* Add "deb http://www.morphix.org/debian unstable/" to your /etc/apt/source.list

* apt-get update

* apt-get install morphing-tools

* create a folder in your home directory that you want to use to store your Shift? downloads /home/username/shift/shift0.3.1

* additionally, create a folder in your /mnt directory (like /mnt/shiftlinux0.3.1)

* Get a morphix based .iso [or better: just a base .iso, preferably a stable one atm, like 0.5-pre5 or an autobuilded base .iso]

http://www.morphix.org/autobuilds/base/

* Download it to your /home/username/shift/shift0.3.1 folder

* Open a root terminal, guide to that folder in your home directory ( /home/username/shift/shift0.3.1)

* (or whatever folder you want to create in /mnt directory)

*

Creating your own mainmodule

* Use the xml file we have provided to you for Shift Gnome or Flux. Place it in the Shift folder you created in your /home/ username/shift/shift0.3.1 (or whatever folder name you used)

* If you're done with the .xml file [e.g., shiftgnome.xml], type or whatever you like to name them

Now, here is where you have to add wallpapers and such. They need to be placed in the /tmp/libmorphix-xxxxx (random numbers). This file is the image that will be burned to the CD once everything is in place. Look through the folder and you'll see a copy of a complete Shift Linux OS. Modify the files as needed for the wall paper and such. When you are done, you'll need to type:

(or whatever you named your .mod file in the above step)

Building an .iso out of it

* Now, remove the files in /scratch/iso/mainmod

* Copy/move shiftgnome.mod into /scratch/iso/mainmod

*

Finally, you need to add our ShiftNetUp.xml mini-module to the .iso so the network works... to do that, you need to make sure that the ShiftNetUp.xml file has the same version as the shiftgnome.xml (or whatever .xml file you use). Just edit the .xml file as before with Gedit or whatever text editor you use. The commands in the root terminal are:

isomorph --add mini ./ShiftNetUp.mod ./shiftgnome0.3.1.iso ./tmp.iso

mv ./tmp.iso ./shiftgnome0.3.1.iso

[/b]>

Make sure that you are still in your /home/username/shiftlinux (or whatever) folder

We have not had much success with the branding script, but if you want to try, here it is:

* Lastly, the :
The following will be changed

* Grub Titles

* Grub Background

* Username, Hostname

* Boot-up message

* Boot-up background

* Window Manager Wallpaper

Any Graphic file will do. Rebrand.png, Rebrand.jpg or Rebrand.gif The name of the graphics file is important as the script takes Rebrand as the new title for the LiveCD.

We will use these commands

mv ./tmp.iso ./MyMorph.iso[/b]>

* Done. Burn to cd with your favorite burn program or run with "qemu -cdrom shiftgnome0.3.1.iso" in the qemu emulator, for example

Ok... hope that this helps! If you reboot your computer before you complete this, your /tmp/libmorphix-xxxx file will be deleted, and you'll have to start again. I have had no success in saving this file elsewhere and copying it back to the /tmp folder... the permissions get screwed up and when you run the .iso, it won't startx because it doesn't have permission........ So, do this all in one seating (or without turning your computer off).

You are really working between your terminal (as root) and your file manager (creating folders for these files to be created).

KDE XML file:

kdefinal1.xml

Gnome XML file:

finalgnome.xml

Flux XML file:

finalflux.xml

ShiftNetUp XML File:

ShiftNetUp. xml file ishere>

Barney

anShift?/b> are registered trademarks with the Linux Mark Institute (LMI) 2006

neowin_gnome_1.xml