What are good ways for newbie to start changing Linux source code to make new Linux Distribution?
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I am doing Under Graduation in CS Major, have medium level knowledge in C, C++, and Java and also learned some operating system concepts (as they are in my course syllabus). I have heard that one can customize Linux Distribution (say Ubuntu) as we wish by changing its source code and can make whole new Linux Distribution. I have downloaded source code of linux kernel from http://www.kernel.org website. But by seeing it.... I am not able to understand anything, there is so many directories, ... files within files (as I think there would be one single large programme). I want to do this as college project also and I want to contribute to linux by making necessary change in it. But after asking this question on some of the site... they said that linux source code is very huge. You may try minix. Now I am very much confused. Please give me suggestions with detail that how should i start this journey (of changing source code to make own Linux Distribution) with necessary steps, along with some beginner level books.
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Answer:
Linux From Scratch (LFS) is a project that provides you with step-by-step instructions for building your own custom Linux system, entirely from source code. http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/
James Reed at Quora Visit the source
Other answers
Changing Linux source code and making a distribution are really two different projects. You can always make substantial changes to the source code without doing all the infrastructure work of building the entire distribution. See http://kernelnewbies.org/ for a good introduction to working on the kernel.
Don Marti
Making Linux Distribution doesn't have to do anything with Linux Kernel Programming. Both are very different. I am in a process of creating mine. So, here's what I did. 1. There are a hell lot of softwares you would need to create Linux Distro. Some minimal are Linux Kernel and GNU Libraries and Tools. Go Linux From Scratch and you will get a good idea of how to create a minimal Linux Distro. 2. After that, install some softwares including X Windows System, GTK+ 3 and GTK+ 2, Glib, Qt etc. to run a minimal graphical environment. You can try Beyond Linux from Scratch for that. Now, you are having a minimal Linux Distro which can run most of the graphical programs. Now its your choice what to do, either you can make your own Installer like we have Anaconda for Fedora or start installing other softwares like GNOME, KDE etc. What you also need is a package manager RPM or DEB or your own may be and a package management tool like yum or apt. There are many things other things to do. These are just a bare minimum. PS :- This is the way I can think of. There are many other ways too. It will be good if you can think of any other way and let me know.
Abhinav Jangda
You could make a clean install of a current distro (say Ubuntu), modify the code or components to your liking and then create a redistributable for you friends: http://www.remastersys.com/ On a more advanced note, you could being with arch linux: http://www.archlinux.org/ On a slightly more advanced note, you could try gentoo: http://www.gentoo.org/
Vikram Kamath
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