In the past, antiX was remastered from MEPIS. Since development of antiX-12, antiX is no longer remastered off MEPIS nor older versions of antiX. It is built from scratch. This helps with consistency.

So, here follows how it is built.

Summary of the process.

1. debootstrap download
2. make necessary changes to start the build of a live iso using a set of templates
3. install necessary apps and reconfigure/set locales
4. purge unwanted apps from debootstrap
5. download all the files for each version by running a script
6. reconfigure console-setup, keyboard, tzdata
7. set up live user and password and root password
8. clean up files.
9. build the linuxfs squashfs file
10. make the live iso.

Specific details to follow.

Now the specifics.

1. debootstrap is done via a script, but it can be done manually.
This is the basics.

mkdir chroot-$VERSION-486
cd chroot-$VERSION-486
mkdir new-iso new-squashfs
debootstrap testing new-squashfs
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://ftp.gr.debian.org/debian"
linktext was:"http://ftp.gr.debian.org/debian"
====================================


where $VERSION is core/base/full or whatever you want to call it.

2. make necessary changes to start the build of a live iso using a set of templates
Firstly we need to set up the templates for each version.
I will upload a set of tar files for this so users can download them.
The template files are copied to chroot-$VERSION-486

3. install necessary apps and reconfigure/set locales (all alias are in etc/bash.bashrc)

We chroot into chroot-$VERSION-486 folder by using the alias 'ch'
We mount proc and sysfs using alias 'mp' 'ms'
apt-get update using alias 'agu'
apt-get install bash-completion locales initramfs-tools
dpkg-reconfigure locales

4. purge unwanted apps from debootstrap

apt-get purge vim-tiny vim-common tasksel tasksel-data traceroute netcat-traditional manpages libsqlite3-0 libxapian22 iputils-ping info aptitude-common aptitude

5. download all the files for each version by running a script

cd into home and run the build_$VERSION script. (eg ./build_base.sh)

The build_$VERSION script is simply an apt-get install followed by a list of apps and libs used in each version of antiX).

6. reconfigure console-setup, keyboard, tzdata

We need to reconfigure console-setup, keyboard, tzdata

dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration - keep default options
dpkg-reconfigure console-setup - I use fonts to include Greek, vga
dpkg-reconfigure tzdata - I set to Europe/Athens

7. set up live user and password and root password

adduser demo (demo when prompted for password)
passwd (root when prompted for password)

8. clean up files

delete contents of /home
delete /var/log files and anything in /tmp

apt-get clean to remove the debs from var/cache
updatedb to update the database of all installed apps and libs
'ins' alias to write a text file of all included apps and libs.

9. build the linuxfs squashfs file

We need to get out of the chroot environment using the following aliases and exit.
'up'
'us'
exit
We clean up some more using the following aliases.
'rmn'
'rml'
'rmo'
'rmi'
'rme'
'rmd'
'rmc'
'rmlf''
'af'
'rma'

Now we build the xz compressed squashedfs file called linuxfs using the alias
'mkxz'

10. make the live iso

cd new-iso
'mkgb4' alias for base


All the aliases are in etc/bash.bashrc file that gets copied from the template. have a look there for the exact command.

Added: Sept 16

I'm going to upload a simplified set of scripts that does all this.

Here is a link to the build_antiX_scripts tarball.


========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://www.mepisimo.com/antix/Tarballs/antiX-12/"
linktext was:"http://www.mepisimo.com/antix/Tarballs/antiX-12/"
====================================


You run just one script (to begin with) to do all the above in post one.
Make sure you read the README file before doing anything.
Make a backup of all your important data as well, just in case.

Enjoy!

WOW! This is incredible! (In the good sense)

I need to upload a newer version of the scripts to include 64bit and some errors in the present scripts.