Create Your Own Linux Distro!

Published on July 15, 2008 in General, Software by Rami Taibah

One thing that I would probably have on my “50 Things I Should Do Before I Die” list (remind me to compile that), is create my own distro. And of course all of us Linux geeks would immediately think Linux From Scratch! LFS is definately the way to go, but not all of us have the time or the knowledge (which requires even more time) to go about such project. So for us mere mortals, a project called NimbleX 2 works as a procrastination pill!

What is NimbleX 2?

NimbleX 2 is a website that will create a custom Linux distro based on your needs! They will provide you the iso for only 24 hours, you grab it, and share it with whoever you wish!

NimbleX 2 is based obviously on NimbleX which is a Romanian version based on Slackware. Raiden’s Realm did an extensive review on NimbleX if you are interested.

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe…Not

You will basically have 3 options to choose from. But to be honest I really don’t know why they are giving us options, it just seems for the sake of it! Here let me explain why:

Minimal this option will basically just give you the original NimbleX distro, get it from the horse’s mouse damn it! Why you comin here?

Custom lists all the packages and apps without any recommendations

Recommended exactly like custom but with recommendations.

The first is redundant, the other two are just basically the same except for some check ticks…

Customization…For the Faint of Heart

I will go with the ‘Custom’ option, after all I am 1337 and hardcore, I don’t need no recommendations!

The customizer gives you a selection of tools divided into Office, Games, Network, Graphics, Multimedia, System, Develop, Libraries, and Drivers. You  choose whatever category you think will want/need in your distro of choice. For example, I am not really into Linux gaming, so I will probably leave that out. If you want to use NimbleX2 as an emergency tool, then you probably want to leave Graphics, Multimedia, Games, and Office out, and so on and so forth.

Choose Your Poison

So what kind of apps does this bad baby come with? Here is a quick breakdown:

Office OpenOffice, Koffice, Scribus, Dia, Kdissert, Kile, PDFedit, and Qalculate

Games The Battle for Wesnoth, Globulation 2, SuperTux, Blobwars, Kslide, Tower Topller, Ri_Li, Njam, Ksudoku, Hex-A-Hop, Kamikaze, Bomberclone, Guesso, OpenTTD, and arcade emulators

Network Firefox, Opera, Samba, Remote Desktop, Pidgin, Wireshark, Skype, SIM, Konversation, Thunderbird, Nessus,  OpenVPN, Kvpnc, FreeRADIUS, Tor & Privoxy, Ktorrent, Azureus, Tork, Torbutton, XAMPP

Graphics Gimp, Blender, XaraLx, Inkscape

Multimedia Amarok, Jack $ Qjackctl, Xine-UI, Kino, Lives, Ardour 2, Rosegarden, SoundKonverter, Audacious, FFmpeg

System Virtualbox, ClamAV & KlamAV, WINE, Manpages, Gkrellm, Java Runtime Environment, Gparted, Xkvbd, Fonts-75dpi

Develop KDE Webdev, Firebug, a compile pack, a debug pack, Python, Kdevelop, Gambas, Freepascal, Lazarus, Wxgtk

Drivers Nvidia drivers, WiFi Experimental drivers, and Interl Pro Wireless 3945 drivers

The app packages seem to be a bit dated though. For example OpenOffice is still on 2.3, Firefox on 2.0, and WINE on .9.40

Beauty is Skin Deep

Unfortunately *most* computer users don’t really live by this saying when it comes to choosing their OS. When it comes to OS’es they look for the bling bling and cool factor. Not us Linux users! That’s why this option comes last! And rightly so. NimbleX 2 gives you the option to choose your desktop wallpaper from a preset of chosen categories, or upload your own.

Next you will need to configure your default sound volume, greeting sounds, and KDE sounds. It’s a shame that there is a very revolting spelling error in there!

You will be finally asked to choose your username, root password, and language. Do your really want a screenshot for that? Ya I though so . The configurator will finally provide you with the settings you chose, and recommend tweaks if it thinks something is not right (default voice in my case). You will be greeted with a final note and a burn icon, click that, and you will have your iso in a matter of seconds! You will be allowed to create a distro only once a day though. Since the project is just funded by one person and very old hardware, if you like this, please consider donating! I know I will!