Development/Creating a Shift CD

Fast Introduction

Foreplay

• Use a Debian based Linux distro [preferably Debian sid, aka unstable, but every recent one should do]
• Get a morphix based .iso [or better: just a base .iso, preferably a stable one atm, like 0.5-pre5 or an autobuilded base .iso]
• Create a folder in your home directory that you want to use to store your Shift downloads (for example, /home/username/shift/shift0.3.1
• Open a root terminal and type mount -t iso9660 -o loop MorphixBase.iso /mnt/shiftlinux0.3.1 (or whatever folder you want to create in /mnt directory)
• Type cp -a /mnt/shift folder you created/* /path/to/the/extracted/stuff [I use /scratch/iso]

Setting up the build environment

• Add “deb http://www.morphix.org/debian ./” to your /etc/apt/source.list
• apt-get update
• apt-get install morphing-tools

Creating your own mainmodule

• Use the xml file we have provided to you for Shift Gnome or Flux. Place it in the Shift folder you created in your /home/ username/shift/shift0.3.1 (or whatever folder name you used)
• If you’re done with the .xml file [e.g., shiftgnome.xml], type “mmaker shiftgnome.xml shiftgnome.mod” or whatever you like to name them

Now, here is where you have to add wallpapers and such. They are located in the /tmp/libmorphix-xxxxx (random numbers). This file is the image that will be burned to the CD once everything is in place. Look through the folder and you’ll see a copy of a complete Shift Linux OS. Modify the files as needed for the wall paper and such. When you are done, you’ll need to type:

module-builder /tmp libmorphix-xxxxx ./shiftgnome.mod (or whatever you named your .md file in the above step)

Building an .iso out of it

• Now, remove the files in /scratch/iso/mainmod
• Copy/move shiftgnome.mod into /scratch/iso/mainmod
• make-iso /scratch/iso shiftgnome0.3.1.iso
• Done. Burn to cd with your favorite burn program or run with “qemu -cdrom shiftgnome0.3.1.iso” in the qemu emulator, for example

Finally, you need to add our ShiftNetUp.xml mini-module to the .iso so the network works… to do that, you need to make sure that the ShiftNetUp.xml file has the same version as the shiftgnome.xml (or whatever .xml file you use). Just edit the .xml file as before with Gedit or whatever text editor you use. The commands in the root terminal are:

morphmini ./ShiftNetUp.xml ./ShiftNetUp.mod isomorph –add mini ./ShiftNetUp.mod ./shiftgnome0.3.1.iso ./tmp.iso mv ./tmp.iso ./shiftgnome0.3.1.iso

Make sure that you are still in your /home/username/shiftlinux (or whatever) folder

Ok… hope that this helps! If you reboot your computer before you complete this, your /tmp/libmorphix-xxxx file will be deleted, and you’ll have to start again. I have had no success in saving this file elsewhere and copying it back to the /tmp folder… the permissions get screwed up and when you run the .iso, it won’t startx because it doesn’t have permission…….. So, do this all in one seating (or without turning your computer off).

You are really working between your terminal (as root) and your file manager (creating folders for these files to be created).

External Links

Gnome XML file
Flux XML file
ShiftNetUp XML File
The Morphix handbook