Introduction

Image building will be performed with ubuntu-defaults-builder tools. The Italian team developed some side tools for simplifying the debugging and test procedures, since the ubuntu-defaults-image command builds the image every time from scratch and takes about one hour.

Image building

Install ubuntu-defaults-builder and dpkg-dev packages. Italian image will be create using defaults from ubuntu-defaults-it package available through a PPA.

For creating a i386 image run the following command:

 $ ubuntu-defaults-image --ppa  ubuntu-defaults-it-team/ubuntu-defaults-it  --locale it --components main,restricted,universe --release precise --arch i386

For sharing the image you will need also to use the md5sum command for calculating md5 and the apt://zsync package for allowing people to download only the changes in you image with zsync.

Additional tools

All the additional tools are available through bazaar. If you want to test manual changes in the chroot before applying it to the packages you can follow steps in order. For installing those tools in an ubuntu installation you can placing it in a /bin directory inside your homedir. Don't forget to add execution permission to them.

ubuntu-defaults-binary

Builds the image starting from a chroot created with a previous ubuntu-defaults-image step. It needs a cleaning step before, that can be performed manually with the ubuntu-defaults-binary-clean command or automatically if by ubuntu-defaults-binary itself.

ubuntu-defaults-binary-clean

Cleans the directory where ubuntu-defaults-image created the ISO image allowing to work manually inside the chroot for troubleshooting and creating a new image with ubuntu-defaults-binary step.

ubuntu-defaults-chroot

It sets up a proper chroot enviroment, start it and clean it after the operations.

HOWTO: Manual chroot operations

Following the steps for manual operating in the chroot for experimenting/debugging purpose.

Image building

First step is about building the image with the original tool:

 $ ubuntu-defaults-image --ppa  ubuntu-defaults-it-team/ubuntu-defaults-it  --locale it --components main,restricted,universe --release precise --arch i386

Cleaning binary step

The ubuntu-defaults-image is made with the live-build command. Internally it's based on three steps: bootstrap, chroot and binary. For changing something inside the chroot and create the image again you need to clean the binary step already performed first:

 $ ubuntu-defaults-binary-clean

Operating the chroot

For jumping inside the chroot and working on the image tree you can launch the following command:

 $ ubuntu-defaults-chroot

It will automatically keep clean your enviroment. While inside the chrooted enviroment you can perform changes like install/remove/upgrade packages. When you're done type exit for going back host enviroment.

Creating binary image

For creating the ISO image again, based on the existing chroot you can use the ubuntu-defaults-binary command:

 $ ubuntu-defaults-binary

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