First guide

Users should read this before using Customizer. Details have been moved into separate pages for simplicity.

Contents

Introduction

Three things to know

1. How remastering works in Customizer
2. How to install Customizer
3. How to run and configure Customizer

Ready for remastering?

Introduction

Customizer creates an Ubuntu-based remix using any supported ISO images with absence of full rebranding support.

Three things to know

1. How remastering works in Customizer

Customizer makes remastering easier than these instructions and manual chroot. Still, users should know at least apt-get and some command-line tools.

The general workflow:

1. User installs and runs Customizer on a supported host system.
2. User selects a supported ISO image; Customizer extracts to the working directory.
3. After extract, Customizer checks features available on the ISO image.
4. User can do customization using these features.
5. User rebuilds ISO, which Customizer compresses into a new ISO image.
6. User can test run this new ISO image in QEMU or any virtual machine.

Customizer is a convenient tool for remastering needs. On the contrary, the remastering process itself (step 4) depends on users' initiatives.

2. How to install Customizer

The following method is recommended for host systems with dpkg support. For alternate methods, see Installation page.

First, install optimal dependencies:

sudo apt-get install git build-essential fakeroot make binutils g++ python python-dev python-qt4 pyqt4-dev-tools squashfs-tools xorriso x11-xserver-utils xserver-xephyr qemu-kvm dpkg-dev debhelper qt4-dev-tools qt4-linguist-tools --no-install-recommends

REMARKS Installing python meta package will pull python2.7 anyway. This should remain relevant, as quoted by this Ubuntu Wiki.

Second, download latest release from master branch and install via dpkg:

wget https://github.com/clearkimura/Customizer/archive/master.tar.gz
tar zxvf master.tar.gz
cd Customizer-master
make deb
cd
sudo dpkg -i *.deb

The installation is now complete. If you wish to remove Customizer later, run sudo dpkg -r customizer from Terminal.

3. How to run and configure Customizer

Run the command-line interface (CLI) from Terminal:

sudo customizer -h

Run the graphical user interface (GUI) from Terminal:

sudo customizer-gui

For alternate methods, you can also run the graphical user interface (GUI) from application menu or application launcher of your choice. This method varies according to your Desktop Environment, which is why not shown here.

For basic configuration, edit /etc/customizer.conf file using Text Editor of your choice. This file contains settings which can be configured directly from the graphical user interface (GUI), in the Settings tab.

For additional option, edit /usr/share/customizer/exclude.list file. This file contains listing of least useful files on the extracted ISO image. When user rebuilds ISO, Customizer will delete the files according to this listing.

Ready for remastering?

For basic workflow using Customizer and generic help, visit Tutorials page.