# Announcing: FreeBSD Custom Build ISO available



## manolis@ (May 14, 2009)

Not sure if this is the best section of the forum to announce this, but it is surely relevant to installing. I've already sent this to the -questions list.

My latest little project is building custom
FreeBSD install discs (DVD sized for desktops, CD sized for servers) with the latest release and updated packages.

I have been experimenting lately with 'make release' and ports'
building using ports-mgmt/tinderbox. I am using a dedicated system forbuilding the base system and packages. The purpose of this experiment (besides the educational value of it) is to allow me to build FreeBSD discs with custom and up to date packages. These will in turn reduce significantly the amount of time required to install new systems (esp.
desktops which need hundred of packages).

Glen Barber, also a frequent of the -questions list, has once again offered (as with the openoffice packages) lots of his webspace and bandwidth,allowing me to host the images so others can also benefit from this work. At this time, the first  image is already uploaded and you can obtain it from this directory:

http://freebsd.dev-urandom.com/iso/i386/xfce-desktop/

This is just short of 1GB and contains the following:

- FreeBSD 7.2-RELEASE base system (standard bootable / installable disc)
- Selection of custom packages that can be installed either during installation via sysinstall or at a later time (again using sysinstall or pkg_add etc).

Here is a short list of packages contained in this: abiword, aspell, bash, bluefish, cdrtools, dvd+rw-tools, firefox3, gimp, gnash, evince, gnumeric, gnupg1, inkscape, pkg_rmleaves, portaudit, portupgrade, rar, unrar, zip, unzip, sudo, ristretto, samba3, thunderbird, wbar, xfce4, some xfce4 plugins, xfburn, xorg, linux_base-fc4

Many other useful packages are also included as dependencies of the ones listed above. This iso does not contain openoffice (to keep the size smaller) and multimedia apps (to avoid licensing problems).

Future versions of the builds may have broader / different selection of packages, depending on the feedback received by the community.

Installation is no different than an official FreeBSD CD, other than when you reach the package selection screen, you will be shown the custom set of packages. The ports tree included in the CD is the one used to actually build the packages. A tarball with the options used is also uploaded at the same location (not all packages where built with the default options).

When you finish downloading, I recommend checking the integrity of the file using the MD5 or SHA256 file that are also present in the download directory. An 'asc' gpg signature file is also present and can be used to verify the authenticity of the download. This is particularly important if you obtain the iso file from means other than the download link supplied here. It is signed with my key (id: 6E0FB494).

Obviously I can built many different images (only 32bit for the moment though), like i.e. a GNOME or KDE4 version. I started up with XFCE since this is not provided by default in the official isos.  I also intend to track the FreeBSD 7.2-RELEASE security branch for the base system.

Feedback, ideas, requests, criticism are all welcome. Please contact me via email or reply to this thread.

Thanks!


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## rbelk (May 14, 2009)

Awesome, thanks manolis@! Are you going to have KDE and Gnome install DVD's? What special are you going to have on the server CD? If you need any assistance I will donate some of my time to help.


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## manolis@ (May 14, 2009)

rbelk said:
			
		

> Awesome, thanks manolis@! Are you going to have KDE and Gnome install DVD's? What special are you going to have on the server CD? If you need any assistance I will donate some of my time to help.



Yes, I plan to create DVDs with the other two major environments. I feel however there is more of a need for 'lightweight' desktop DVDs (hence the XFCE one) as the official isos already contain GNOME/KDE.

For the server CD I'll go for standard Apache, MySQL, PHP5+extensions, webalizer, some mail server (postfix?) and the usual smaller utils (bash, zip, portupgrade etc). I am open to all suggestions on this.


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## alie (May 15, 2009)

Thanks manolis, good work!

Squid Web Proxy Cache also good package for server CD.


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## andreas (May 15, 2009)

Thank you Manolis@, as always, keep up the good work!


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## coolest (Jun 3, 2009)

This is sweet... much more sweeter if open office 3.0.1 are included on the DVD media since it's 4.3GB space. 

It's only a suggestion, this will help us speed things up rather than installing from the ports. It takes more time for my connection :e:beergrin:e


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## vermaden (Jun 3, 2009)

@manolis

Compare your ISO with ISO from here:
http://freebsd-live.org/

You will get some ideas which parts/files you will be able to remove to achieve at least 700mb ISO size.


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## apasajja (Jun 3, 2009)

thanks .. i will try it...

but why the ISO is still larger than Ubuntu Linux? What is it in the ISO that eating much space?


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## coolest (Jun 4, 2009)

Maybe because it contains the following pre-compiled packages.



> Here is a short list of packages contained in this: abiword, aspell, bash, bluefish, cdrtools, dvd+rw-tools, firefox3, gimp, gnash, evince, gnumeric, gnupg1, inkscape, pkg_rmleaves, portaudit, portupgrade, rar, unrar, zip, unzip, sudo, ristretto, samba3, thunderbird, wbar, xfce4, some xfce4 plugins, xfburn, xorg, linux_base-fc4.



I also think that 7.2-release is the most updated release in terms of security patches that's why it's much more bigger in size.


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## graudeejs (Jun 4, 2009)

manolis@ said:
			
		

> Yes, I plan to create DVDs with the other two major environments. I feel however there is more of a need for 'lightweight' desktop DVDs (hence the XFCE one) as the official isos already contain GNOME/KDE.
> 
> For the server CD I'll go for standard Apache, MySQL, PHP5+extensions, webalizer, some mail server (postfix?) and the usual smaller utils (bash, zip, portupgrade etc). I am open to all suggestions on this.



How about fvwm-2-devel? 
I could help with configuring that


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## manolis@ (Jun 15, 2009)

Thank you all for your comments and suggestions.

@vermaden: Thanks for the live FreeBSD link, I will check it out.

Regarding size: This is not a live CD, it is a standard FreeBSD CD (CD1 to be exact) with custom set of packages. Instead of splitting packages to many discs, I decided to include all I wanted to disc1.  And it contains a complete -RELEASE base system. I wouldn't want to cut out any of it.

Obviously I can make it a lot bigger than it is. One obvious candidate for inclusion is OpenOffice.org (though I make separate builds for Openoffice packages which are also available for download). And yes abiword and gnumeric don't cut it for me too.

I am preparing a second build right now - more or less same packages with few exceptions and base system updated to 7.2-RELEASE-p1. I will post when it becomes available for download. 

Oh, and this little project has appeared in Distrowatch Weekly:

http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20090615#news


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## dburkland (Jun 15, 2009)

Thank you for the contribution I'll have to give it a try when I get some free time this week !


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## jb_fvwm2 (Jun 15, 2009)

/mmv/, /yell/, /lookat/
I use the first almost exclusively when copying one or two files.
The second on practically each port build or install
The third as $PAGER to read man pages, and as "less" "more" etc.


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## manolis@ (Jun 16, 2009)

The ISO has been updated and uploaded

The new ISO may be downloaded from here (space and bandwidth courtesy of Glen Barber):

http://freebsd.dev-urandom.com/iso/i386/xfce-desktop/7.2-RELEASE-p1-i386-disc1.iso

Don't forget to check the integrity of the download using the CHECKSUM / signature files provided:

http://freebsd.dev-urandom.com/iso/i386/xfce-desktop/7.2-RELEASE-p1-i386-disc1-iso.CHECKSUM.MD5
http://freebsd.dev-urandom.com/iso/i386/xfce-desktop/7.2-RELEASE-p1-i386-disc1.iso.asc

The following tarball contains the options used to build the ports.
The ports tree on the ISO is the actual one used to build the packages:

http://freebsd.dev-urandom.com/iso/i386/xfce-desktop/options.tar.gz

Note: Updated openoffice.org packages (from the same ports tree) will follow soon.


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## vermaden (Jun 16, 2009)

manolis@ said:
			
		

> @vermaden: Thanks for the live FreeBSD link, I will check it out.
> 
> Regarding size: This is not a live CD, it is a standard FreeBSD CD (CD1 to be exact) with custom set of packages. Instead of splitting packages to many discs, I decided to include all I wanted to disc1.  And it contains a complete -RELEASE base system. I wouldn't want to cut out any of it.
> 
> ...



Congratz with distrowatch mention, it may provide more users to your "distribution".

I think that I misthougth the project target (not being the LiveCD), so its not important how big the install medium is.

OpenOffice is for sure great addition for standart install, IMHO very basic one.

Good luck with work on this project


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## manolis@ (Jun 17, 2009)

Just created a tarball with openoffice.org-3.1.0 and related dependencies, to be used with the XFCE DVD:

http://freebsd.dev-urandom.com/iso/i386/xfce-desktop/openoffice.tar.gz

Instructions are here:

http://freebsd.dev-urandom.com/iso/i386/xfce-desktop/README.openoffice

In reality, all dependencies are already included in the custom DVD. The few extra packages in the openoffice tarball seem to be build dependencies and are not used when installing.


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## sjakke (Jun 17, 2009)

Would it be possible, at some point, to have a webpage where one could just pick and choose a Desktop or WM + apps, and then a ISO would be generated for download?


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## manolis@ (Jun 17, 2009)

sjakke said:
			
		

> Would it be possible, at some point, to have a webpage where one could just pick and choose a Desktop or WM + apps, and then a ISO would be generated for download?



Nice idea, but I doubt I can get the resources for it.  I will create disks with separate DE/WMs though.


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## manolis@ (Jun 20, 2009)

*Announcing Web Site!*

This project now has a website:

http://freebsd-custom.wikidot.com

It will be used as a central hub for information, to provide download links, and also announce new releases (although I will also post about them in the forums and the -questions mailing list).

Thanks to everyone for the comments and support!


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## CyberCr33p (Jun 29, 2009)

Keep up the good work


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## BeautifulFish (Jun 29, 2009)

that is great as i am a desktop user..

do you intend to support more hardware? maybe add usb wifi driver 
especially RTL8187


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## manolis@ (Jun 29, 2009)

BeautifulFish said:
			
		

> do you intend to support more hardware? maybe add usb wifi driver
> especially RTL8187



The custom build is still FreeBSD all the way. It only supports what the base system does - although I can build it with different versions of base (7.2-RELEASE, 7.2-STABLE, CURRENT etc). It will never support anything more (or less) than FreeBSD.

What I will do at some point though, is to include some scripts to effortlessly build a desktop with all required settings (sound card, X configuration, flash plugin etc)


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## mosst (Nov 29, 2009)

manolis@

i just tried your custom build ( http://freebsd.dev-urandom.com/iso/i386/xfce-desktop/8.0-RELEASE-i386-XFCE-27112009.iso )   and it gave me a "The download cannot be saved because an unknown error occurred."

FYI


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