Build Debian/Ubuntu LiveCD

2016-07-06

Note that this article introduces how to build Debian/Ubuntu LiveCD iso image from scratch. With this method, you have great flexibility to customize the LiveCD.

However, if you only want to customize the LiveCD a little bit. Such as adding some packages for installation, or changing the preseed configuration, you can refer to DebianCustomCD, Simple-CDD and LiveCDCustomization

Debian Jessie

# within Debian jessie
git clone git://anonscm.debian.org/git/debian-live/live-build.git
cd live-build
git checkout debian/4.0.5-1
dpkg-buildpackage -b -uc -us
cd ..
sudo dpkg -i live-build_4.0.5-1_all.deb

sudo apt-get install -y live-images
cp -r /usr/share/live/images/standard .
cd standard/
lb config --source false # optional, would be faster if not build source
sudo lb build
# here we got live-image-amd64.hybrid.iso, about 417MB
# refer to http://cdimage.debian.org/mirror/cdimage/archive/8.6.0-live/amd64/iso-hybrid/debian-live-8.6.0-amd64-standard.iso.log for more information

Ubuntu Xenial 16.04

Automatically build with ubuntu-defaults-builder

sudo apt install -y ubuntu-defaults-builder
sudo apt install -y syslinux-utils
ubuntu-defaults-template myconfig
cd myconfig/
dpkg-buildpackage
cd ../
ubuntu-defaults-image --package myconfig_0.1_all.deb --components main,restricted,universe,multiverse

# here we got binary.hybrid.iso and livecd.ubuntu.iso

build with ubuntu-cdimage

TODO:

Manually build with live-build (Not working right now, might need hooks to allow booting)

# First, set up the build tools and workspace.
# The scripts require that you work in /build

sudo apt-get install -y genisoimage syslinux-utils # tools for generate ISO image
sudo apt-get install -y memtest86+ syslinux syslinux-themes-ubuntu-xenial gfxboot-theme-ubuntu

sudo -i
apt-get install -y livecd-rootfs
mkdir -p /build/chroot
cd /build
cp -a /usr/share/livecd-rootfs/live-build/auto .

# All the hard work is done with live-build (lb command)
# and we have to configure it with environment variables

export SUITE=xenial
export ARCH=amd64
export PROJECT=ubuntu
export MIRROR=http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/
export BINARYFORMAT=iso-hybrid
export LB_SYSLINUX_THEME=ubuntu-xenial

# Now we can have live-build set up the workspace

lb config --initramfs-compression=gzip 

# And finally, start the build

lb build

Ref: [1] https://code.launchpad.net/~semiosis/livecd-rootfs/fix-for-1565985/+merge/298305/comments/768010 [2] Ubuntu live filesystem builds moved to live-build [3] LocalizedCDImageTools - Ubuntu Wiki [4] ISO with l10 preloaded for LoCo + UEFI [5] UbuntuStudio/Seeds - Ubuntu Wiki [6] Building large-scale Ubuntu derivatives using seeds - Google Docs [7] ReleaseTeam/CDImageSetup - Ubuntu Wiki

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