View Full Version : Reconstructor: Ubuntu Live CD creator/customizer
UbuWu
August 4th, 2006, 11:05 PM
http://reconstructor.aperantis.com/
Reconstructor is a Live CD creator for Ubuntu Linux.
It uses the Ubuntu Linux Live CD as a base, and then allows customization of boot screens (usplash), gnome settings, and software (you can also use the chroot environment to make other changes before creating the live cd).
Reconstructor does not create separate distros. It keeps the solid Ubuntu foundation, and just allows for customization. For example, create a custom Live CD with blender, inkscape, etc. included for a friend in graphics, or simply use reconstructor to re-brand your environment (wallpaper, fonts).
Reconstructor is written in python and is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL)
Works great!
kostkon
August 4th, 2006, 11:09 PM
Wow!! Great project!!
Thanks for the info!
ubuntu_demon
August 6th, 2006, 03:22 PM
Here's a related thread :
easy GUI based custom ubuntu cd creation tool
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=5981
ehazlett
August 6th, 2006, 05:16 PM
im glad to see people using it... it has also been translated to French, Brazilian Portuguese, and is being translated to Basque/Spanish. i am glad to finally be able to give something back to the ubuntu community... ;)
thanks all...
evan
John.Michael.Kane
August 6th, 2006, 05:27 PM
I tested it, and can say that it does work quiet nicely. though i understand it's still under dev,and might be still rough around the edges. It is still great work.
richbarna
August 6th, 2006, 07:23 PM
I tested it, and can say that it does work quiet nicely. though i understand it's still under dev,and might be still rough around the edges. It is still great work.
I have no use for it personally, yet. But I put a post on my blog about it as it looks like a good idea.
I also see that Arnie boy's Automatix-Bleeder is coming along nicely, especially if a newbie has an nvidia or ati card problem but wants all the eye candy.
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=225967&highlight=arnieboy
ubuntu_demon
August 6th, 2006, 07:33 PM
I blogged about this here :
Reconstructor: a Live CD creator for Ubuntu Linux
http://ubuntudemon.wordpress.com/2006/08/06/reconstructor-a-live-cd-creator-for-ubuntu-linux/
John.Michael.Kane
August 6th, 2006, 07:39 PM
richbarna I just wanted to test it to see how it worked. me personaly i use the standard distro. though i can see this being of use for those who may want to make a custom live distro with whatever programs/services they need,and don't need. same holds true for automatrix that has come along ways too, and theres users who may not want to get their hands dirty with the CL yet so these tools may fill this void. most linux/ubuntu users will eventualy have to mess with CL as there maybe something that theres no gui for.
Mathias-K
August 6th, 2006, 08:09 PM
Seems like an absolutely brilliant idea. Subscribed! :)
caldevil
August 6th, 2006, 08:21 PM
When we install through this live cd, do the customizations get installed too?
jc87
August 6th, 2006, 08:35 PM
Sounds great , i was looking for something like that for a while;)
Maybe now we start having a bunch of customized Ubuntu isos all over the web , even more freedom of choice:-D
richbarna
August 6th, 2006, 10:36 PM
richbarna I just wanted to test it to see how it worked. me personaly i use the standard distro. though i can see this being of use for those who may want to make a custom live distro with whatever programs/services they need,and don't need. same holds true for automatrix that has come along ways too, and theres users who may not want to get their hands dirty with the CL yet so these tools may fill this void. most linux/ubuntu users will eventualy have to mess with CL as there maybe something that theres no gui for.
You probably won't believe this SD-Plissken, but I have just installed PClinuxOS and only opened the terminal to see how pretty it was. It is the first non-cli os that I have installed.
Obviously with so much going well, and so little to fix, I am trying very hard to break it at the moment. Still no success.
John.Michael.Kane
August 6th, 2006, 11:06 PM
richbarna you might have point there are distro's out there that allow the user the option to not have to muck about the CL. PClinux does seem to be one of those distro's that is working toward that. though there will always be endusers who will want to use the CL.
d3x7r0
August 9th, 2006, 02:59 PM
When we install through this live cd, do the customizations get installed too?
Now there is something I want to know aswell. It would be great to be able to create a custom cd with everything I need and use it as a quick system restore option :)
John.Michael.Kane
August 9th, 2006, 03:28 PM
d3x7r0 and caldevil the live-cd is giving you a picture of what you get upon install.so the custom stuff should carry over to your install.
ehazlett
August 12th, 2006, 06:37 AM
yes, the customizations get installed to the hard drive when using the installer... sorry for the late response... ;)
MetalMusicAddict
September 15th, 2006, 08:24 PM
ehazlett. I must thank you a TON! I have been wanting something like this since Warty. I love nLite (http://www.nliteos.com/) for windows and Reconstructor lets me work on Ubuntu. Awesome. :)
Would this work on the "Alt" cd? I have many questions. If I post here will you answer or should I email?
punkinside
September 15th, 2006, 11:46 PM
What we really need is something like the mklivecd or whatever command the PCLOS guys have, I dont really know how that works, but I have heavily customized everything there is to customize, and I would like to get my ubuntu just right and then go, ok! in case I FUBAR everything i'll create some iso's that will install my system again...
EDIT: i know there are a few threads about "backup your system" and all but those are bandages to what we should be really doing... a norton ghost type thing but for creating a live CD that could install also. It would be really cool to go around with a live CD of MY ubuntu, not just the same ol' default.
maniacmusician
September 15th, 2006, 11:52 PM
What we really need is something like the mklivecd or whatever command the PCLOS guys have, I dont really know how that works, but I have heavily customized everything there is to customize, and I would like to get my ubuntu just right and then go, ok! in case I FUBAR everything i'll create some iso's that will install my system again...
EDIT: i know there are a few threads about "backup your system" and all but those are bandages to what we should be really doing... a norton ghost type thing but for creating a live CD that could install also. It would be really cool to go around with a live CD of MY ubuntu, not just the same ol' default.
that's not very possible...there's a limited amount of space on a CD and "your" ubuntu probably exceeds that by a lot, with all the apps and stuff. maybe if we start doing LiveDVDs, that'll be possible.
PartImage is a program that is sort of norton ghost-like. at least it can be used in that capacity.
punkinside
September 15th, 2006, 11:58 PM
That may be true, but anyhoo theres a bunch of stuff that I dont really use, i normally remove those programs. So MY ubuntu would probably fit in a liveCD so I could just go around with the apps I really need and then all the other stuff I could install afterwards programs in the repos are not a problem, Its things like java and codecs and all the changes ive made in gnome etc. Still a real backup could actually take more cd's thats not a problem many distros have several CD installs
maniacmusician
September 16th, 2006, 01:21 AM
that's true...you can do the multi-cd approach with PartImage. here's a link
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/partimage.html
spockrock
September 16th, 2006, 04:43 AM
This is an amazing tool. Thank you very much...
PryGuy
September 16th, 2006, 05:07 AM
Amazing!
A DEB package please...:-\"
3rdalbum
September 16th, 2006, 07:55 AM
Since it's updated so often, I'd prefer a 3rd party repository to a .deb package. But hey, it's so brilliant, I wouldn't even mind looking at their website every day to check when a new version comes out :-)
punkinside
September 16th, 2006, 06:16 PM
that's true...you can do the multi-cd approach with PartImage. here's a link
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/partimage.html
Thanx! I'd still be nice to make a live CD though :D
I'm gonna try and look into that PCLOS thingy see what I can find out about it.
spockrock
September 17th, 2006, 07:25 AM
sorry is there a guide to creating a proper pcx file??
also no matter what I do it seems the my 16 colour indexed 640x400 pngs converted to so's never work.
MetalMusicAddict
September 17th, 2006, 05:05 PM
that's not very possible...there's a limited amount of space on a CD and "your" ubuntu probably exceeds that by a lot, with all the apps and stuff. maybe if we start doing LiveDVDs, that'll be possible.
If your customized disk exceeds CD size you can use a DVD. Ive just tested this.
Thanx! I'd still be nice to make a live CD though :D
You can make one with this. :)
Ive spent the better part of this morning playing with this and its AWESOME!!! Im still learning all the stuff you can do. I have to actually learn the proper commands for gconf so I can set some panel sizes and add things to it. There is a terminal to do stuff like this.
I have a disk so far customized with this so far:
A all black theme. Theme, Icons, Wallpaper and such.
All repos opened up with one for Listen added.
These apps installed: (added with apt-get line)
listen smbfs sysv-rc-conf nautilus-actions grip lame easytag gimp-data-extras gimp-dcraw gimp-svg xchat bittornado-gui gnome-raw-thumbnailer mail-notification gdesklets linux-image-686 xine-ui gparted acroread acroread-plugins faac f-spot gimp-data-extras lame-extras libdvdnav4 libdvdread3 unrar vlc vlc-plugin-alsa gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg joystick mozilla-thunderbird
Fully updated with dist-upgrade.
Flash, Java and media codecs.
Other little tweeks.
The disk has worked great as a live DVD and on install. Definatly use ubuntu-6.06.1-desktop-i386.iso and not 6.06. I kept having problems with installing from the disk. Mainly GRUB.
If you like to tinker this app is TOTALLY for you. Im going to make customized/updated disks for each of my machines. :) Reconstructor also looks to work on 64-bit Ubuntu also. I have yet to test. I also plan on testing this with Xubuntu.
punkinside
September 17th, 2006, 06:44 PM
Dosent this compress anything? A default ubuntu install is, of course, larger than 700 MB. How'd you go about doing all those things?
MetalMusicAddict
September 17th, 2006, 06:51 PM
The disk has worked great as a live DVD and on install.
1.13 gig DVD to be exact.
reluttr
September 29th, 2006, 01:09 PM
so tell me... Is there anyway to run this app through the live cd?
raublekick
September 29th, 2006, 03:54 PM
this looks pretty awesome! any interested in making a version for Kubuntu? you really wouldn't even need to change the front end, just the backend to work with Kubuntu stuff. Don't know how hard it will be, but maybe tonight after work I'll check out the source and see what's up with it.
vilto
September 30th, 2006, 05:38 AM
i have a problem after customizing using reconstructor......
1)some of the icons are not visible like homefolder,terminal caluculator,etc.....
2)when i tried to login as root it says somthing like
unable to lookup live cd via gethostbyname()
3)login error saying
Could not load icon
Details: Failed to open file '/usr/share/icons/OSX/scalable/apps/evolution.png': Permission denied
other than this everything looks fine
to note i have changed the live cd user name and password .....did this created the problem??
here is the screenshot
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/6889/vijpf6.th.jpg (http://img89.imageshack.us/my.php?image=vijpf6.jpg)
luisbg
June 29th, 2007, 08:53 PM
Awesome project!
What would be very cool is that it also added all the system configurations... /etc/modules, kernel used, xorg.conf, /etc/rc.local, etc...
This would be very useful for those of us using laptops. Since after making a clean install we have to spend a while (sometimes even days) to get everything working, configurated to perfection. All hardware supported, all our little tweaks, power consumption to it's minimum, etc...
my two cents,
luis
bobbocanfly
July 2nd, 2007, 11:58 PM
Wow! Reconstructor is *amazing*. This is one of the things i like most about Linux/OpenSource. YOu can do pretty much what you want to Ubuntu, make it look dead good by default, while still having the solid Ubuntu base. Plus its free and legal.
Cant wait to make some new LiveCDs in this
smartboyathome
July 3rd, 2007, 12:01 AM
I use UCK (Ubuntu Customization Kit). It is not only more straight forward, but (to me) has a better interface (and doesn't have all the flaws of Reconstructor).
rsambuca
July 17th, 2007, 08:46 PM
I really don't know too much about this, but I have a couple of questions:
1. Will Reconstruction work on 64-bit ubuntu?
2. If it does, could it be used to create a 64-bit ubuntu iso with the 32-bit firefox automatically installed (possibly with java/flash)?
smartboyathome
July 17th, 2007, 08:59 PM
1. I think it can, but you would have to install it as a 32 bit application
2. You would have to wget, configure, and install it all through the terminal.
Azriphale
October 6th, 2007, 10:37 PM
I have been trying for hours to remaster the Ubuntu Live disc, and after looking for more instructions on how to do so, came across your tool. And finally I have a working live CD! Thanks for a great and easy to use tool!
darkmaster
October 16th, 2007, 08:05 PM
Unfortunately, this doesn't work well with the Ubuntu Gtusy Gibbon Live CD.
There's no apparent way to set username and password of the Live but I need to do it. How could I solve my problem? How can I change username and password, so that after login I can still use ubiquity and the likes?
zahris
April 8th, 2008, 12:27 PM
i'm currently remastering Ubuntu 7.10 using Reconstructor 2.7..
evertything works great.. but after the instalation the ubiquity packages are still installed, unlike normal ubuntu instalation. i can still access the installer in System > Administrations > Install
is there anyone know how the packages can be automaticaly uninstalled after the instalation to the harddrive?
when i use the normal ubuntu live-cd for instalation, i see that. packages such as ubiquity and gparted is already uninstalled.
can anybody help me?
thanx
capink
April 8th, 2008, 04:20 PM
i'm currently remastering Ubuntu 7.10 using Reconstructor 2.7..
evertything works great.. but after the instalation the ubiquity packages are still installed, unlike normal ubuntu instalation. i can still access the installer in System > Administrations > Install
is there anyone know how the packages can be automaticaly uninstalled after the instalation to the harddrive?
when i use the normal ubuntu live-cd for instalation, i see that. packages such as ubiquity and gparted is already uninstalled.
can anybody help me?
thanx
The live cd tree contains two files: /casper/filesystem.manifest & /casper/filesystem.manifest-desktop. The first file contains a list of all packages installed in the live cd filesystem (including casper, ubiquity, ....). The second contains the same list of packages minus those you would like to uninstall after the instalation to the harddrive.
Ubiquity compares the two files and decides what packages to remove. So make sure the any package you want to remove is not included in /casper/filesystem.manifest-desktop.
zahris
April 9th, 2008, 09:35 AM
The live cd tree contains two files: /casper/filesystem.manifest & /casper/filesystem.manifest-desktop. The first file contains a list of all packages installed in the live cd filesystem (including casper, ubiquity, ....). The second contains the same list of packages minus those you would like to uninstall after the instalation to the harddrive.
Ubiquity compares the two files and decides what packages to remove. So make sure the any package you want to remove is not included in /casper/filesystem.manifest-desktop.
okay thanks... i'll try it
:)
darkmaster
September 23rd, 2008, 06:48 PM
The live cd tree contains two files: /casper/filesystem.manifest & /casper/filesystem.manifest-desktop. The first file contains a list of all packages installed in the live cd filesystem (including casper, ubiquity, ....). The second contains the same list of packages minus those you would like to uninstall after the instalation to the harddrive.
Ubiquity compares the two files and decides what packages to remove. So make sure the any package you want to remove is not included in /casper/filesystem.manifest-desktop.
Unlickily, I'm not able of having this tip working.... I tested it in Hardy now for exampel with my OpenGEU... I still have this issue, see here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/273382
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