What's involved in a distribution?

[MidnightCommando]

Hi.

I saw a similar thread a while ago on here, but the answer was "LFS" or "Gentoo".

Supposing I wanted to create a custom distribution which I would distribute to others. It would need package management and an installer, and it would need to NOT smack very distinctly of (insert other distro).

Has anyone here ever made a new distribution, and would they be able to direct me to some docs on how it's done, or better yet, chat with me about it sometime?

[wowbag1]

HI, Welcome to the forum.
I am involved in my own personal project for a distro. But I thought I would share my thoughts.
I am modifying an estabished distro. if you like I am working backwards.
I looked at the Linux from Scratch project on the web, which is very good and it really will be as new or different as you want to make it using this.
I chose not to as I was interested in certain compatabilities and for reasons of other projects I have in mind.
So I would say, choose your target for the distro usage and perhaps platform and think carefully what sort of support you are able to give. What repositories to use, documentation.
And I suppose from my own perspective, what makes it unique and why should I or others use it.

[techieMoe]

And I suppose from my own perspective, what makes it unique and why should I or others use it.

That's the most important point I would bring up. There are literally thousands of distributions out there and 99% of them are just "My personal configuration of XXX distro."

You need a clearly-defined group of people to target, and a unique way to handle their problems. Without that, you risk getting lost in the sea of identical distros with different window dressings.

[MidnightCommando]

We're gonna work from a Cross-Compiled (from an OpenBSD box on a Core 2 Quad) LFS

Main problem is packaging system and installer.

Most of the stuff will probably be based on slackware - except we will audit every line of code some time in the future hopefully, and for now at least run a non-standard indent that is easier to read...

The target is users of a certain IRC network I do webdev and IRCOpping for... we wanted to enter the Linux Market.

It's also mainly a learnign experience for us.

[x1a4]

Hi,

You might want to have a look at GoBuntu. It's a minimalist flavour of Ubuntu using only 100% FOSS packages and is meant to provide a base for other free software platforms to build upon.

[MidnightCommando]

Hi,

You might want to have a look at GoBuntu. It's a minimalist flavour of Ubuntu using only 100% FOSS packages and is meant to provide a base for other free software platforms to build upon.

Thanks very much - I'm aware of the existence of goBuntu - but I'd sooner shoot myself in the nether-regions with a .454 Casull then to touch Ubuntu. Also 100% Libre is an issue, I plan to bundle Skype and some of the binary blobs like ATi's fglrx and nvidia's ForceWare for Linux.

We're trying to build from the ground up here, not just "different configuration of $distro" and ... frankly I need some help with the idea of how to set up packages, it's just weird that if you install (from an rpm or deb or tgz-based linux installer) you get packages like binutils, nasm, coreutils, kernel, glibc ... to compartmentalise those which are so closely linked (statically if you don't mind the pun) is not yet something I've figured out - this is where I need the help.