On Sat, 18 Sep 2010 14:19:15 +0100 Clement Lefebvre <debian@linuxmint.com> wrote: > The second thing is about the live-installer. We mentioned it was > designed with Debian in mind and developed in a way that it could be > adopted by other distributions, including Debian itself. Ikey, could you > go through the configuration of the installer and how it would be useful > to others? We'll probably end up with forks on github.com and that's > cool (that way we'll all merge what we like and leave what we don't > need), but if anyone identifies changes related to branding... i.e. > things that are Mint specific and shouldn't be there, please don't > hesitate to give me a shout so we can remove them or package them > separately. ==Branding of live-installer== The only branding as such within live-installer comes from its images and the configuration file. For branding purposes the following images would require replacement: /usr/share/live-installer/live.png /usr/share/live-installer/live.svg /usr/share/icons/live-installer.png /usr/share/icons/live-installer.xpm The first two icons are used inside the installer, the last two are used for menus (XPM for older menu systems). The desktop shortcut is copied automatically by live-* packages, by taking on the same filename as the .desktop provided by Ubiquity. /usr/share/applications/live-installer-launcher.desktop ==Configuration of live-installer== All configuration of live-installer is done via its config file, located: /etc/live-installer/install.conf Here is the contents of the one we use: # Defines the distribution name and version.. [distribution] DISTRIBUTION_NAME=Linux Mint Debian Edition DISTRIBUTION_VERSION=1.0 # Installation specific paths etc. [install] LIVE_MEDIA_SOURCE = /live/image/casper/filesystem.squashfs LIVE_MEDIA_TYPE = squashfs LIVE_USER_NAME = mint The DISTRIBUTION_* fields are used to brand the installer. the LIVE_ fields are very important. LIVE_MEDIA_SOURCE tells live-installer exactly where it can find the compressed filesystem when its running from the live medium, and LIVE_MEDIA_TYPE tells live-installer which format to expect the file to be in, for mounting purposes. LIVE_USER_NAME also had to be present in our case as the installer removes the live-user from the target system. (We fought many live-* bugs) ==Launching live-installer== The installer can be launched via several means. Assuming the live-medium contains a modern desktop such as Gnome, KDE or Xfce, the live-installer-launcher.desktop file can be used to launch it. Alternatively one can use the script found at /usr/bin/live-installer This is the traditional windowed installer, which runs from the live desktop. However another method of execution exists, provided by /etc/init.d/live-installer. If one was to provide the boot parameters "install text", then live-installer launches full-screen with no live desktop. "text" is required to disable the display manager, and "install" activates the following script: /usr/lib/live-installer/standalone-dm.py At the moment it is a very simple script, doing the minimum amount of effort required to launch X and metacity. We needed a Window Manager present as the installer does make use of dialogs on occassion. This script could very easily be modified to suit the needs of lighter distributions, i.e. those using Xfce or OpenBox. ==Room for improvement== Due to the relatively new nature of the project, the package removal etc. is hardcoded into /usr/lib/live-installer/installer.py presently making it suitable only for Debian systems and its derivatives. However, it would be incredibly easy to either rewrite the calls that are made, or even modify the package to call an external script/library for OO-orientated package management, which could be further implemented by each distro using it for their specific needs I hope I've covered the rebranding/configuration stage in enough detail, if not please tell me what exactly you are wanting to know and I'll reply asap. Kind Regards, Ikey Doherty <ikey@linuxmint.com>
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