Hello

I'm currently checking the (few) major Linux distros localized for French that I can burn onto a USB keydrive to run Linux without a hard drive (ie. not as an alternative to a CD to install Linux). At this point, it's pretty much down to Ubuntu, Mint, and Fedora.

After booting from the USB key, I need to remove apps I don't need (eg. LibreOffice) and add a couple I do need (Gparted, etc.), and remove all references to installing Linux on the hard drive (eg. Ubuntu displays a "Welcome to Linux: Install, Run" type of screen + shortcut on the desktop).

I know of the following four tools to turn a running Linux into an ISO that I could then use to burn new USB keydrives with that customized Linux:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remastersys
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstructor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mklivecd
http://sourceforge.net/projects/re-linux/

Before investing time learning about a tool, if you have experimented with those (and possibly others I should know about), which would you recommend? Ideally, it should work with any Linux distro.

Thank you.

check out slax. you can make distro inside webbrowser now.

Thanks, but Slax doesn't have enough traction ("The latest version of Slax is 6.1.2, which was released on 4 August 2009".)

I prefer to rely on a distro with lots of developers in case I get stuck with a bug.

Remastersys works well. I've used it with Debian 6.0.3 and the Ubuntu version of remastersys with several distributions including Mint. I've also used mylivecd with PCLinuxOS. I don't know about Reconstructor of re-linux, haven't tried them. Mylivecd and remastersys are used to remaster installed systems.

I've never done quite that, but it sounds like Clonezilla and MondoRescue would produce the same results ie bootable copy of the amended install, inc Os+user areas.

It looks like someone could be picking up where Slax left off, if the Slax project dies.
I dunno, I may give some wrong info. Distrowatch reports Slax being dormant.

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=porteus

Thanks for the feedback.

I use CZ to restore partitions from image files, but it doesn't look like it supports saving an installer system into an ISO that can then be used to create addition USB keydrives.

I'll play with Remastersys, and if I can't get it to work as planned, will check the alternatives.

When I had to do something like that I went with a Debian base install, then added all needed software and used Debian Live to make a Live version from that OS.
Still have to research how to make a live Slackware.

You might like to consider the live CD version of Salix. It has LiveClone that will generate a live iso image based on a running system and install-on-USB.sh which creates usb installers from the iso file.

http://people.salixos.org/tsuren/doc...tml/index.html