Can you customise linux

5 Tools to Easily Create a Custom Linux Distro

With so many Linux distros out there, you are probably wondering why someone would want to create their own distro instead of getting a ready-made one. While in most cases a ready-made distro is fine, if you want to have a distro that is 100 percent tailored to your needs, you may have to create your own.

With the right tools, creating your own Linux distro isn’t as hard as it seems, though it takes time for sure. There are many tools for the purpose – some of them are universal, and some of them are distro-specific. Here are a few of them.

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1. Linux Live Kit

Linux Live Kit is a tool you can use to create your own distro or back up your system. It prefers Debian but fortunately can be run on other distros as well, provided it supports aufs and squashfs kernel modules. Linux Live Kit has a very short and sweet wizard on how to build a distro – just follow the steps and you are done. The entire process happens within the confines of a bash script that grabs all your system files and plops them into a bootable ISO, recreating whatever you’re running into a live image.

If you want to take your entire system with you on a USB stick, you won’t need to scroll down any further. Linux Live Kit is probably the easiest tool to do this with.

2. Linux from Scratch

If you want to have absolute control on what is included in your distro and have lots of free time, you can have a look at the Linux from Scratch project. LFS has very extensive documentation and is a great learning resource about Linux in general, not just about how to create your own distro. Linux from Scratch allows you to build your own customized Linux system entirely from source code.

LFS is not exactly a tool like others on this list, but you can still use it for the same purpose – to create your own Linux distro (and to learn a lot about Linux as a whole).

3. Customizer

Customizer isn’t under active development anymore, but that, according to its developer, is because it is considered stable. It is another tool with which you can remix Ubuntu, and it also supports different Ubuntu flavors, like Xubuntu and Kubuntu. A critical restriction, though, is that the host system under which you are using it should share the same release number and architecture as the guest system you are remixing.

4. MX Snapshot

If you’re looking for an in-distro tool that can easily reproduce your entire system from a GUI, look no further than MX Linux’s own MX Snapshot. Although this locks you into using MX, you just might find switching to this distro worth it (check out our review of MX Linux here) if an easy-to-use snapshot ISO creator is that important to you.

In a few clicks and with some patience, MX Snapshot automates the entire distro packaging process for you, dropping your custom distro into an ISO file for you on your Home directory. Convenient!

Although MX Linux is based on Debian, unfortunately, you will not be able to use MX Snapshot for other distros because it looks for files that are specific to this one.

5. Archiso

If you’re an avid Arch user, you may have used snapshotting tools and might even be using the BTRFS file system to back up your data. But did you know that all Arch-based distros have access to a nifty little tool for creating ISO files?

Known as archiso, this command line tool will create a complete ISO of Arch Linux including any custom extras you’d like to add in its configuration files. The Wiki in the link provides a wealth of information on how to properly configure archiso to do what you want.

Although the tool doesn’t just plop your system into a bootable image, its features allow for an incredible amount of customization, including the installation of applications your system doesn’t currently have. It even includes a portable virtual machine to test your image!

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are so many of these Linux creation tools command-line based?

In this list, most of the tools require some use of the command line, which may be a bit intimidating for newer users of Linux. Archiso is an especially difficult one, but if you’re used to Arch Linux, it may not be a surprise.

At the same time, you might notice that the two GUI tools here (Customizer and MX Snapshot) are essentially one-stop shops that don’t offer a significant amount of flexibility from the interface itself. In general, command-line tools offer far more advanced features and personalization, making the process of learning how to use them well worth it for some people.

Which of these Linux creation tools is the easiest to use?

From a pure ease-of-use perspective, MX Snapshot takes the cake. However, if you want something that doesn’t lock you down to one distro or even one family of distros, Linux Live Kit is hands-down the most usable.

How do I install these custom Linux distros on a new system?

If you’re looking to re-base your personal Linux distro on another machine, all you have to do is format its boot drive and clone the entire USB stick onto it. You may have to reconfigure “/etc/fstab” and other configuration files to properly reflect the configuration of the new machine, but if you’re accustomed to working with your system files, it shouldn’t take longer than a few minutes.

Miguel has been a business growth and technology expert for more than a decade and has written software for even longer. From his little castle in Romania, he presents cold and analytical perspectives to things that affect the tech world.

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Can Linux be customized?

Linux is undoubtedly the most customizable operating system on the planet. Unlike the alternatives, where you can customize the desktop experience with a wallpaper and perhaps a set of icons in Linux, you can replace the entire desktop environment if it doesn’t look and work the way you’d like.

To access the desktop appearance settings, go to Menu > Preferences > Appearance or Menu > Control Center > Personal > Appearance. The window that opens shows three basic tabs which are Themes, Backgrounds and Fonts.

Is the Linux operating system customizable?

Linux is all about freedom of use, freedom to customize, and more. You can even create your own. Custom Linux operating system and name it as «Your OS name». In this post, we will list some of the important tools to create your own custom Linux operating system in 2021.

Can Ubuntu be customized?

Through the eight basic configurations described in this article, you can customize your Ubuntu 18.04 desktop to yourself according to your preferences. This will give you the feel of a personal desktop instead of the default desktop that Ubuntu provides.

What can you customize with Linux?

Use these five methods to customize your Linux desktop environment:

• Adjust your desktop utilities.
• Change the desktop theme (most distributions come with many themes)
• Add new icons and fonts (the right choice can have a surprising effect)
• Redesign your desktop with Conky.

Does Rainmeter work on Linux?

Rainmeter will run on Windows 7 (Service Pack 1 and Platform Update required) and higher. … Rainmeter is not available for non-Windows systemsincluding Mac OS and Linux, and there are no plans to support these operating systems.

What is the most customizable operating system?

Linux is so customizable that you can shrink a Linux operating system down to 50 Megabytes and still be fully functional.

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Give your Linux Desktop a Clean and Professional Look

In this article,
I’m going to show you how you can give your Linux Desktop Look Clean and Professional look in just a few steps. You’ll learn how to customize your Linux desktop look by using GNOME in any Linux distros.

I’ll show you how to customize your Linux desktop background, choose a brand new custom cursor, and add finishing touches to give your desktop that polished look, and Many more Linux customization things…

Give your Linux Desktop a Clean and Professional Look:

There are several ways to achieve a clean and professional look on a Linux desktop. Here is how you can customize your Linux desktop look:

Instructions:

1. Gnome Installation on a Linux:

While some Linux distributions come with the GNOME desktop environments pre-installed, not all do. For example, Ubuntu comes with the GNOME desktop environment by default, while other distributions such as Linux Mint or Fedora come with different desktop environments such as Cinnamon or KDE Plasma.

sudo apt install gnome-shell

• During installation, you will be asked to choose a display manager. You can choose either GDM or LightDM
• Once the installation is complete, log out of your current session.
• On the login screen, select “GNOME” as your desktop environment.

Alternatively, you can switch to GNOME from the terminal by running the command:

sudo systemctl start gdm3

That’s it! The GNOME desktop environment should now be installed on your system.

2. Gnome Customization Tools:

Install Gnome – Tweaks to get the best customization features
Install the gnome-tweaks desktop environment by running the command:

sudo apt install gnome-tweaks -y

Now after installing the tweaks also install gnome-extensions by running the command:

sudo apt install gnome-extensions

3. Gnome Customization:

Now follow the instructions shown in the video to customize Gnome 🙂

4. Theme

For icons, you can use any of your favorite icon themes but for this customization, We are using:
Reversal theme (For Icon)
Tokyo Night GTK Theme (For app Interface)

5. Conky (Widgets) and Wallpaper:

Firstly we have to install Conky on Linux, Run the following command:
NOTE: it can be different in other Linux distros.

Then download the conky and wallpaper file and follow along with the tutorial.
Conky Theme – (PosInTech)
Wallpaper – (PosInTech)

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