This tutorial will guide you through the process of remastering Damn Small Linux (DSL), using DSL.

If you are not familiar with DSL you can read about it here Damn Small Linux.

Note: This HowTO uses DSL version 2.4

Preperation

You will need:

• A copy of DSL
• Free space on a linux partition
• 250mb of RAM (More is better)

Step 1

Boot DSL from cdrom.

Mount the partition you plan to use. In this example will use hda1.

Step 2

Create working directories.

cd /mnt/hda1;
mkdir source newcd newcd/KNOPPIX

copy the necessary files to newcd

cp -Rp /cdrom/boot newcd;
cp -Rp /cdrom/lost+found newcd;
cp -Rp /cdrom/index.html newcd;

Copy the source files to the right directory

sudo cp -Rp /KNOPPIX/* source
cp -Rp /KNOPPIX/.bash_profile source

Step 3

Go though the source filesystem and set things up the way you want them. For example you could copy some background images or remove some icons.

Here are some interesting remastering tricks:

• etc/skel/.fluxbox - This is where the desktop icons are stored.
• Removing Unwanted Software
• Remove Dillo Popup
• /usr/share/fluxbox/backgrounds to change/add backgrounds

The boot Logo

The boot logo: The boot image is logo.16 and is a lss16 format image. To start make a 16 color image you want to use. The image must be 640x480 or less. 640x400 leaves room at the bottom for the boot prompt. Save the image as a bmp format. Then run:

bmptoppm mylogo.bmp > logo16.ppm
ppmtolss16 < logo16.ppm > logo.16

Extentions

Place your .dsl and .uci extentions into the newCD/ directory and DSL will automatically find them on boot.

Change the cheatcodes or default boot options:

Would you like your version of Knoppix to always mount your permanent home directory or load some driver without providing the cheatcode? Then step right up and edit syslinux.cfg

Step 4

Create the custom compressed image file

sudo mkisofs -R source |\
create_compressed_fs – 65536 > \
newcd/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX

Create the iso-file as follows

sudo mkisofs -no-pad -l -r -J -no-emul-boot \
-boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -b \
boot/isolinux/isolinux.bin -c boot/isolinux/boot.cat \
-hide-rr-moved -o mydsl.iso newcd

References

Also see DSL Section Damn Small Linux

Remastering DSL: http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/talk/node/160

Additional Remastering info: http://www.pcc.com/staff/phil/remasterdsl.txt

More Info: http://www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/twiki/bin/view/Linux/RemasteringGuide?skin=print.pattern

Change Boot Screen: http://www.knoppix-std.org/doc-customize.html