Build Your Own Personal Linux Distro using Lubuntu

If your like me, no Linux distribution or desktop environment suites you just right. I always seem to have to work around something or with something that just doesn't suit me.

Well this is how to have Linux your way.

This is my Light-Weight Distro

Of course, you can use the Psychorat's approach and install Ubuntu his way.

For me, I prefer a different way. Let me show you how I made it.

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First, I start off with a fresh install of Lubuntu 12.04. I use Lubuntu because, first, it gives us great access to the Ubuntu repositories, and secondly, because it comes with the LXDE desktop environment. LXDE is one of the most customizable and easiest configurable desktops Linux has to offer.

OK, I recommend practicing this on a virtual pc, like VMware or Virtualbox. That way if you accidently break it, your main computer is still functional.

So, let's go. The first thing to do after installing Lubuntu, is to open a terminal and type:

# sudo apt-get update

Now let's remove the Lubuntu packages:

# sudo apt-get purge lubuntu*

# sudo apt-get purge lightdm*

# sudo apt-get remove notification-daemon

Now let's install the LXDE metapackage and the lxdm display manager:

# sudo apt-get install lxde lxdm notify-osd

Let's clean up:

# sudo apt-get autoremove

Okay now let's reboot the computer:

# sudo shutdown now -r

To log in, select "other", then type in your credentials and password. Now you should see a "Lubuntu Session not found" error. Letэs eliminate that error. Open the Lxterminal and type the following:

# rm ./.dmrc

For a simple log-in open lxterminal and type the following:

# sudo leafpad /etc/lxdm/lxdm.conf

Scroll down to "userlist" section and change disable=0 to disable=1, now save and close Leafpad.

Okay, let's check our work. Let's log out and back in. If all goes well the "Lubuntu not found" error will disappear and you will have a simple log-in.

Now it is time to make this your own personal distro.

Using Synaptic, install all your favorite software packages and uninstall the ones you might want to get rid of. But be careful because some installed packages are part of LXDE and can't be removed without removing the whole LXDE package. This would not be good.

Now you can make some backgrounds and icons like I did, using LibreOffice Draw and GIMP to really personalize your LXDE desktop.

I first created a Menu icon, which I made to be about 200 x200 pixels. Then I made a horizontal and vertical rectangle using gradients and colors about 80 pixels x 300 pixels to be used for my lxpanel background. I exported them from LibreOffice Draw in .png format. Then I opened them in GIMP and cropped them to their exact shape about 80 x 300 pixels and 200x200 pixels, respectively.

Now just right click on the menu button on the panel and select menu settings. Click browse, and navigate to your saved menu icon and select it. Click OK and close and now you should have a personalized menu button.

Now do the same with the panel. Right click the panel, select panel settings, and then the appearance tab. Select the drop down box beside image, and navigate to your saved panel backgrounds. Click open, then close. Now you have a customized. lxpanel.

Hint: Sometimes your background isn't the right size for your panel size, so use GIMP to scale your background.png file up or down until it renders correctly.

As you can see from the panel settings, you can pretty well customize your panel for any size, location, auto-hide, and add new additional panels. Moreover, from here you can add and remove panel applets.

Now, download some nice wallpaper, right click the desktop, select desktop preferences, click the wallpaper drop down box, navigate to your wallpaper, click close and now it's even more yours!

Hint: If you want a lightwieght composite manager, do this in lxterminal:

# sudo apt-get install xcompmgr

There are many more ways to customize LXDE than I have room to mention here. But my favorite personal distribution I have built contains Emerald, Compiz and Cairo Dock. This combination adds beauty, special effects, and added functionality to LXDE. I even disabled the LXDE panel since I was using Cairo Dock.

Here is my Distro running
Emerald, Compiz and Cairo Dock!

Finally, use Remastersys to create your own live cd!

Believe me! It is really possible to have Linux your way!

Enjoy!

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This is a guest post by Randy Fry