Manjaro Build Manjaro ISOs with buildiso

Build Manjaro ISOs with buildiso

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Prerequisites

This is a detailed walkthrough of installation and configuration of the tools and build process.

It is a requirement to either download and install the latest version of Manjaro or be running a well maintained Manjaro system. It is vital your system is updated with the latest available kernel and packages.

Install Manjaro Tools

To get started you need to the following packages

user $ pamac install manjaro-tools-iso git COPY TO CLIPBOARD


We will be working with the official XFCE to help you understand what you need to do.

ISO profile

Download the latest ISO profiles

The latest profiles can be found in the Manjaro gitlab. You can download them directly using the command:

user $ git clone https://gitlab.manjaro.org/profiles-and-settings/iso-profiles.git ~/iso-profiles COPY TO CLIPBOARD


ISO profile overview

The ISO profile for xfce can now be found at

user $ ls -l ~/iso-profiles/manjaro/xfce COPY TO CLIPBOARD


Let's take a closer look at the XFCE profile folder (marked above):

desktop-overlay
live-overlay -> ../../shared/manjaro/live-overlay
Packages-Desktop
Packages-Live -> ../../shared/Packages-Live
Packages-Mhwd -> ../../shared/Packages-Mhwd
Packages-Root -> ../../shared/Packages-Root
profile.conf
  • desktop-overlay: After every successful installation of your ISO the files and folders in here will get copied over.
  • live-overlay: Similar to desktop-overlay. Files and folders in here will only get copied over to the LiveCD of your ISO.
  • Packages-Desktop: This file contains packages for the ISO installation. All packages will also get installed on LiveCDs.
  • Packages-Live: This file contains packages, which will only get installed on the LiveCD.
  • Packages-Mhwd: This file contains Mhwd packages important to all Manjaro installations and LiveCDs.
  • Packages-Root: This file contains base packages important to all Manjaro installations and LiveCDs.
  • profile.conf contains basic settings for your ISO installation and LiveCD.

As you have probably noticed, several are only symlinks to the shared ISO profile. It is good practice to never change files or folders in the shared ISO profile. If you ever want to change them, first copy them to your ISO profile folder and delete the symlink.

All folders and files specific to your ISO are in bold. You can change them to your liking.

Modifying an ISO profile

The most common places to tweak and customize an ISO profile are the 3 folders marked above: desktop-overlay, profile.conf, Packages-Desktop:

desktop-overlay

The desktop-overlay folder looks like this:


$ tree ~/iso-profiles/manjaro/xfce/desktop-overlay/etc

../iso-profiles/manjaro/xfce/desktop-overlay/
├── etc
│   ├── fonts
│   │   └── conf.d
│   │       └── 70-no-bitmaps.conf
│   └── lightdm
│       ├── lightdm.conf
│       └── lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf
└── usr
    └── share
        └── icons
            └── default
                └── index.theme


Go to this directory.

user $ cd ~/iso-profiles/manjaro/xfce/desktop-overlay/etc/ COPY TO CLIPBOARD


Then create skel folder. This is where you can clone everything you see on your Desktop Screen to ISO.

user $ mkdir skel COPY TO CLIPBOARD


After the ISO has been successfully installed all files and folder in desktop-overlay folder get copied over to the installed system. This includes settings/config files but also themes and backgrounds/pictures.

All files and folder in here will get copied to the home folder. Most hidden files and their structure in ~/iso-profiles/manjaro/xfce/desktop-overlay/etc/skel/ should be already familiar to you, because your home folder looks very similar.

Clone Custom Wallpaper Desktop

To clone your Custom Wallpaper Desktop. Open a New File Manager and go to this file.

~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-desktop.xml

Change all image directories to where your Custom Wallpaper was located at. For example:

 /usr/share/backgrounds/<YOUR IMAGE HERE>

Example

A sample `xfce4-desktop.xml` can be viewed by unfolding this block

Go to this directory:

user $ cd ~/iso-profiles/manjaro/xfce/desktop-overlay/ COPY TO CLIPBOARD


Then create usr/share/backgrounds and place your Custom Wallpaper at this directory.

user $ mkdir ./usr/share/backgrounds COPY TO CLIPBOARD


user $ cp ~/Pictures/Wallpapers/your-wallpaper.png ~/iso-profiles/manjaro/xfce/desktop-overlay/usr/share/backgrounds COPY TO CLIPBOARD


profile.conf

The full content of an example profile.conf can be viewed by unfolding this block. It is always best to use the latest version instead of copying this one.

This config file contains setting options. All default settings are commented. If you want to change them, uncomment them (remove the # symbol in front) and change it.

The following settings are noteworthy:

  • multilib= setting belongs to the >multilib flag in your package lists. multilib will install basic 32bit libraries on 64bit systems. This increases compatibility for 32bit applications on 64bit systems.
  • displaymanager= sets the display / login manager your system uses. You need to list your display manager in your package list, too.
  • nonfree_xorg= refers to proprietary graphics drivers.
  • netinstall=: do not use
  • chrootcfg=: do not use
  • kernel= lets you set the installed kernel. Do not include any kernels in your package list! This setting is all you need.
  • enable_systemd= let's you set systemd services, which get started on the installed system (and with a similar setting on the livecd).
  • enable_openrc=: do not use

Packages-Desktop

An example `Packages-Desktop` file can be viewed by unfolding this block. It is always best to use the latest version instead of copying this one.

This file contains a list of packages, which will get installed on your installed ISO (XFCE) and the LiveCD (the packages in Packages-Live file only get installled on the live ISO). This is a package list with Xfce specific packages (and packages you like to add to your custom Manjaro ISO) of multiple package lists in your ISO profile. The other package lists are more generic.

You can add or remove package names from this list as you like. You do not need to worry about dependencies when adding package names, just make sure the package name is spelled correctly and the package is available in the Manjaro repositories.

# marks a comment. The rest of the line after the # symbol gets ignored.

Adding AUR packages

If you want to add AUR packages to your ISO, you need to create a online repository and add it to a file user-repos.conf beside your profile.conf.

Only use your own http enabled repo.

[your-repo-name]
SigLevel = Optional TrustAll
Server = http://repo.server.tld/your-repo-name

The article Buildiso with AUR packages: Using buildpkg contains more detailed information on this process.


manjaro-tools.conf

manjaro-tools.conf is the central configuration file for all tools part of manjaro-tools. Only edit the general and the "buildiso" part to not exceed the scope of this tutorial. If you are not sure what and how to edit it, do not edit it. You can always use arguments with the buildiso command later.

By default, the systemwide config file is installed in

/etc/manjaro-tools/manjaro-tools.conf

Best practice is to leave the systemwide file untouched and copy the system wide config to your home directory here:

~/.config/manjaro-tools

If the userconfig is present, manjaro-tools/buildiso will load the userconfig values. Best practice is to leave the systemwide file untouched. By default it is commented and shows just initialization values done in code.

Build your ISO

Build your ISO with the following command:

user $ buildiso -p xfce COPY TO CLIPBOARD


You need to specify the name of your ISO profile after the -p argument. In this case, it is xfce.

If the build process fails with an error, start it again.

Attention: The build process needs at least 10 minutes to complete or much longer when you are using HDDs, slow CPUs, or large ISOs.

When the build process finishes successfully, the ISO file and the package list will appear in this folder:

/var/cache/manjaro-tools/iso/

Example:

You can use arguments with the buildiso command for more build options:

user $ buildiso -f -p xfce -b stable COPY TO CLIPBOARD


  • -f let's you specify if you want the full ISO. If omitted a minimal ISO will be build.
  • -b let's you specify the branch. You can also set this in your manjaro-tools.conf file.

You can find other examples of builds using different arguments for buildiso here.

Cleaning your hard drive

After a successful or failed build, you can get rid of most data (the "raw" ISO with all downloaded packages) by deleting this folder:

user $ sudo rm -r /var/lib/manjaro-tools/buildiso/ COPY TO CLIPBOARD


To clean your system of packages files of packages not installed on your system (this includes all the package files downloaded for your custom ISO):

user $ sudo paccache -ruk0 COPY TO CLIPBOARD


You can also manually look into

/var/cache/manjaro-tools/

and delete folders or files to your liking. If you want to delete all ISO images, package lists, and cached Xorg packages do:

user $ sudo rm -r /var/cache/manjaro-tools/ COPY TO CLIPBOARD


Please remember that all these packages and files are saved for your convenience. If you clean your system like suggested above, you have to download all packages and build all images again the next time you want to build your own Manjaro ISO.

By default, your manjaro-tools.conf file is saved. If you want to delete it, use

user $ rm -r ~/.config/manjaro-tools COPY TO CLIPBOARD



Tips & Tricks

Building a minimal ISO

A minimal ISO is easy to create by modifying an entry in the profile.conf file. Find the section

 # use extra packages as defined in pkglist to activate a full profile
 # extra="false"
 extra="true"

and remove the # mark in front of extra = "false" and add a # in front of extra = "true".

If you prefer not to change this you can always use the -f with buildiso to build a full profile.

See also

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