Creating Custom Ubuntu Live-CD With Remastersys
Posted by admin on February 19th, 2008 
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Install Remastersys in Ubuntu
The Remastersys repository needs to be added to your /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list
Paste the following into the sources.list:
# Remastersys
deb http://www.remastersys.klikit-linux.com/repository remastersys/
Save and exit the file.
Update the source list using the following command
sudo apt-get update
Install remastersys using the following command
sudo apt-get install remastersys
This will complete the installation
Using Remastersys
In order to learn how you can use remastersys, run
sudo remastersys
remastersys Syntax
sudo remastersys backup|clean|dist [cdfs|iso] [filename.iso]
remastersys Examples
1) to make a livecd/dvd backup of your system
sudo remastersys backup
2) to make a livecd/dvd backup and call the iso custom.iso
sudo remastersys backup custom.iso
3) to clean up temporary files of remastersys
sudo remastersys clean
4) to make a distributable livecd/dvd of your system
sudo remastersys dist
5) to make a distributable livecd/dvd filesystem only
sudo remastersys dist cdfs
6) to make a distributable iso named custom.iso but only if the cdfs is already present
sudo remastersys dist iso custom.iso
cdfs and iso options should only be used if you wish to modify something on the cd before the iso is created. An example of this would be to modify the isolinux portion of the livecd/dvd
Creating An ISO Image
To create an iso image of your installation, simply run
sudo remastersys dist
This will create an iso image called customdist.iso in the /home/remastersys directory. The dist option makes that your personal folder (e.g. /home/ruchi) will not be included in the iso image. You might have to insert your Ubuntu installation CD during the process.
This is how the end of the process looks:
[...]
92.16% done, estimate finish Wed DEC 28 15:31:25 2007
93.39% done, estimate finish Wed DEC 28 15:31:25 2007
94.62% done, estimate finish Wed DEC 28 15:31:24 2007
95.85% done, estimate finish Wed DEC 28 15:31:24 2007
97.08% done, estimate finish Wed DEC 28 15:31:25 2007
98.31% done, estimate finish Wed DEC 28 15:31:25 2007
99.54% done, estimate finish Wed DEC 28 15:31:25 2007
Total translation table size: 2048
Total rockridge attributes bytes: 3950
Total directory bytes: 9094
Path table size(bytes): 54
Max brk space used 0
406890 extents written (794 MB)
/home/remastersys/customdist.iso is ready to be burned or tested in a virtual machine.
Check the size and if it is larger than 700MB you will need to burn it to a dvd
796M /home/remastersys/customdist.iso
Clean Up
After you’ve burnt the iso image onto a CD/DVD, you can run
sudo remastersys clean
to remove all temporary file created during the iso generation as well as the /home/remastersys directory.
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February 19th, 2008 at 3:15 am
Hell yea mate! thanks.
April 5th, 2008 at 2:33 am
Thank you very much.
Very nice article.
May 5th, 2008 at 11:53 am
I would like to download this program but repository doesn’t work any more I thought that I was doing something wrong, but when i paste the path for repository in firefox it say 404. So something must be wrong with this
repository or server.
May 5th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
I have found other repository:
deb http://www.linuxmint.com/repository romeo/
May 19th, 2008 at 10:46 am
try this way:
gksu gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
add:
# Remastersys
deb http://www.remastersys.klikit-linux.com/repository remastersys/
at the end.
sudo apt-get update
and after that on with installation…
May 30th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Nice guide..Thanks a LOT for this…
Sorry for n00b Question but I want to save new ISO to a custom location instead of /home/remastersys
How can I do that ??
June 13th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Hell yeah,
Just what I was looking for.
Can’t wait to give it a try
July 15th, 2008 at 6:42 am
Hi. Nice guide for remastersys.
I am using remastersys in creating ubuntu based customized work. I compiled my kernel and created a new vmlinuz. Now I booted into my new compiled kernel image and then created an live dvd using remastersys.
I burn it in DVD and boot it from DVD. it entered into live cd mode. But it stops with a screen,
==============================================
BusyBox v1.1.3 (Debian 1:1.1.3-5 Ubuntu7) Built-in shell (ash)
Enter ‘help’ for a list of built-in commands.
(initramfs)
==============================================
I dont know where I m doing mistake.
Help me to resolve my problem.
-Prakash
July 25th, 2008 at 3:19 am
I’m am having the same problem …. I can use remastersys fine makes the iso i burn it …. when i go to boot it it get to the boot menu … then after i make any selection… it starts to do what i pick (eg. start safe gfx mode) then it drops me to an ash shell …. never evern seen this shell before until now ….. the md5 cheaks up so i’m not sure …… one thing i did notice this time when i booted in i have a new kernnel in my menu … guess it updated …. would that have some thing to do with it maybe ….
any help in this matter would be greatly aperasheated —
lol mind my spelling
Thanx in advance DarkNet
July 25th, 2008 at 3:25 am
sry i guess i should have added it dose the same in VBox OSE
July 25th, 2008 at 4:55 am
lol using hardy 8.04 sry about the choppy posts feel free to merge them ……. sry writting these on my breaks from work and attemping to slove the issue as well and if i do slove it i’ll put how i did it here.
July 25th, 2008 at 10:44 am
so i got it to work thou it boots very slowly but it works! what i did is purged all extra linux images so i was left with one then reran remastersys then instead of droping me to ash it said error 15 file not found … so i copied linux-2.6.24* and initrd.img-2.6.24* to the remastersys casper dir …. and moded the grub menu.1st accordingly then ran remastersys again but only making the image. …. i can post the commands if anyone needs them lazy now
Namaste
July 25th, 2008 at 10:51 am
lol tired to … can the mod change copied linux-2.6.24* to vmlinuz-2.6.24* Thanx
July 31st, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Just wanted to say thanks! I found this site while looking for something else, but it works perfectly!
September 1st, 2008 at 9:40 am
Unfortunately ‘Remastersys’ is not working for Ubuntu 8.04-amd64!
September 24th, 2008 at 10:21 am
criboo is a n00b remastersys worked fine for me on 8.04 AMD64
October 3rd, 2008 at 5:05 pm
A very pleasant surprise! Second try on AMD64 system worked.
Incredibly valuable product.
First try experience may help others. I forgot I was experimenting with Compiz-Cube and used that system to Remaster. When booted I had all the effects of the Cube but nothing but white pages. By accident I noticed the Advanced Desktop Effects worked on the blank pages. I tried to us CL1 (CTL-ALT-F1) to fix the video driver but that requires a reboot. I could not figure how to remove the Advanced Desktop Effects from the command line so I rebooted the system shutdown the Advanced Desktop Effects and remastersys that configuration. It works fine but I cannot install the ATI drivers.
Thanks again!