CustomisedIsoImageTools

Revision 5 as of 2007-11-30 23:48:51

Clear message

Please check the status of this specification in Launchpad before editing it. If it is Approved, contact the Assignee or another knowledgeable person before making changes.

Summary

This should provide an overview of the issue/functionality/change proposed here. Focus here on what will actually be DONE, summarising that so that other people don't have to read the whole spec.

Release Note

This section should include a paragraph describing the end-user impact of this change. It is meant to be included in the release notes of the first release in which it is implemented. (Not all of these will actually be included in the release notes, at the release manager's discretion; but writing them is a useful exercise.)

It is mandatory.

Rationale

This should cover the _why_: why is this change being proposed, what justifies it, where we see this justified.

Use Cases

1. The LoCo team in Taiwan wants to distribute a localised iso image of Edubuntu with the language packs for Chinese, Japanese and Korean instead of the default ones.

2. The computer magazine "foo" wants to distribute a branded Ubuntu CD and put their logo into the boot and login screens.

3. A Ubuntu user group wants to exchange some applications on the default CD and redistribute the modified isos under a new name.

Assumptions

Design

You can have subsections that better describe specific parts of the issue.

Implementation

This section should describe a plan of action (the "how") to implement the changes discussed. Could include subsections like:

UI Changes

Should cover changes required to the UI, or specific UI that is required to implement this

Code Changes

Code changes should include an overview of what needs to change, and in some cases even the specific details.

Migration

Include:

  • data migration, if any
  • redirects from old URLs to new ones, if any
  • how users will be pointed to the new way of doing things, if necessary.

Test/Demo Plan

It's important that we are able to test new features, and demonstrate them to users. Use this section to describe a short plan that anybody can follow that demonstrates the feature is working. This can then be used during CD testing, and to show off after release.

This need not be added or completed until the specification is nearing beta.

Outstanding Issues

This should highlight any issues that should be addressed in further specifications, and not problems with the specification itself; since any specification with problems cannot be approved.

BoF agenda and discussion

  • Look into existing tools like UCK and Reconstructor

  • KIWI (http://en.opensuse.org/Build_Service/System_Imaging#KIWI) has limitations

    • Can only modify images that were build by kiwi
    • Would need something like an initial import tool for the default iso to create the xml config
    • Commandline only

  • look into the tools provided by Redhat ([http://revisor.fedoraunity.org/ Revisor])

  • collaborate with Debian - see [http://wiki.debian.org/CustomDebian CDD] - Custom Debian Distributions - tools and discussion on Debian Wiki

  • [http://wiki.debian.org/CDDT Custom Debian Distribution Toolkit] - work in progress

  • Branding
  • Requirements
    • customising LiveCDs and Package based isos
    • have a decent UI which can be scriptable
    • having reasonable recipes for often used tasks
    • reminding users of using a different name when modifying too much of the original iso.
    • facilities to include arbitrary packages
    • gui and command line interface
    • independent of the ubuntu version for as far as possible, easily adaptable to different releases
  • Action
    • get into contact with upstream developers of the mentioned solutions and present them our requirements
    • try out what those tools provide already
    • prepare a summary and post to ubuntu-devel

CategorySpec