Creating a Derivative - How hard can it be?

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sml
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Creating a Derivative - How hard can it be?

#1 Post by sml »

How easy is it to create a derivative?

It appears one could just customise the desktop, add a few packages, then just hit the old 'Remaster Puppy Live-CD' button and then publish your new distro!?

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ttuuxxx
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#2 Post by ttuuxxx »

Well as a "remaster Derivative" goes thats the easier way, you can also do the unleashed method.
But just remember when it ask you to check temp/root
go there and delete root from the temp directory and then go to the actual root and copy it there. That will give you 100% remaster, if you don't do it that way, you'll lose some settings, icons, applications etc.
also make sure you delete any private data or it will be copied.
delete your thumbnails if you have it enabled. etc
ttuuxxx
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dinky
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#3 Post by dinky »

Also if you make any changes within /etc (using pebble for instance) you may need to copy them over, not all changes from /etc are kept. Piece of piss really. Rebuilding from unleashed isn't all that hard either once you get the hang of it. Puppy is the only project I know that not only supports new work based on it, but actively encourages it. Enjoy!
~dinky

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#4 Post by KF6SNJ »

I think the hardest part is trying to create something useful and yet distinctive. It can take weeks, if not months to get it right. I am still working on a few bugs before I release the next ISO of my project. So, don't be too disappointed if your first ISO doesn't work out quite right or if after you release that first ISO you realize you have about a dozen other things you either could or should have done. Pace yourself and be realistic. You never know, you might create something that really catches people's attention. Just try and have fun.
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john biles
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#5 Post by john biles »

Hello sml,
I can tell you with building TEENpup is that you can expect to spend weeks finding the application you want in your remaster and then spend time testing it all. I have spent days finding stuff and testing it and it will never end up in the finally remaster and all that time has been lost.

TEENpup is a labor of love so to speak and as soon as it's not I'll stop doing it.
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J-Bob
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#6 Post by J-Bob »

well, it's more than just that.

you need to know what you want to add, what functionality you want, and the size range to keep it within.

and you want to make it different from standard puppy by a good amount, either by size, look, function, or even the core utilities.

like my puplet for example. it's about 30MB bigger than puppy, use icewm-lite, wbar, custom tk scripts and even offers basic multiuser functionality. but it's still a little to similar to regular puppy.

i would recommend looking at what seems the best for your puplet, but to also test it's iso through either using a cd-rw or virtualization to make sure it works. then finding a place to upload it.

and i have constantly been searching for places to upload my puplet, and the one i used for 01 and 02 only seems to like windows (but that was when bobpup used the no-flash addon, so it might work). but i heard that caneri offers space for people to host packages and puplets at puppylinux.ca.

and that's basically how to make and release a puplet in about 5 pseudo-paragraphs.

- J-Bob
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polymath
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#7 Post by polymath »

I use the unleashed method, and it isn't really hard skills-wise, but it requires a whole lot of testing, debuging, and modding text config files. I use QEMU (w/KQEMU) to do my testing, and that saves a lot of times on burning files and restarting (not to mention a crapload of CDs), etc.

One disadvantage of the Unleashed way is that i had to mod the scripts that build puppy to get what i wanted out of it. I'm really satisfied, though, and adding packages takes all of 30 seconds once you have a .PET, plus 30 minutes to build puppy (on a fast computer, but if you add a whole lot of packages it can take longer).

Yeah remaster is easy, but you have to be really careful with your setup and the files you have in it, and it can eventually get confusing not having your puplet seperated from your normal puppy.

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