[SATLUG] Decision-based ISOs

[Greg Willden]

Thomas King wrote:

> OK, subject is a bit vague, but stay with me. Has anyone seen or 
> programmed a Linux distro where the resulting ISO has only the 
> programs (including Kernel version) based on 
> questions/drop-downs/whatever on a website? The thought is to have a 
> custom ISO distro based on what the customer wants, such as Galeon vs 
> Mozilla, 2.4 vs 2.6, etc., build it at the web's server (or whatever 
> server dedicated for this), then offer the result to the customer as a 
> download. Of course, there are some things that simply would be 
> defaults, such as a way to manage downloads, but even that can be a 
> choice (apt-get vs RedCarpet vs yum vs whatever) with no "none" 
> option. Instead of 3-4 CD's (such as for Fedora and Mandrake), it may 
> only be one CD since it theoretically won't require to hold 
> applications that won't be used.


Perhaps Knoppix may have something to offer here.  I see a few problems
with it but you may find it interesting.

To create a custom Knoppix distro you:
A) Copy the root filesystem from the CD to a place on your hard drive.
B)  chroot into that new directory tree.
C)  Use the Debian tools (apt, aptitude, whatever...) to
add/remove/upgrade packages
D)  Exit the chroot environment and
E)  Run the scripts to create the ISO image from the directory tree.

I think that it would be possible to do this in an automated fashion as
long as you don't have any problems during C or E.
Regards,
Greg