A simple guide to remaster the latest Trisquel 9 iso image

The new Trisquel 9 distro is out and I really think it is great, I have used the "mini" version which supports the fast and light lxde desktop and for this reason is my favorite flavor.
At first view you can see that there is some necessary software missing (Firefox-Abrowser for example) and it can be annoying if you wish to make multi functional installations.
Therefore there are many programs that allow to remaster a distro or create a live iso of your running system..
However I never liked them.. sometimes I fund issues with the size of the iso created (usually too big) and I never trusted 100% its functionality installing it on different PCs

I found out there is a way to "remaster" the original iso manually and including the missing software or making further personalizations.
In this case the result will be 100% clean and it will work like the original iso but with the benefit of your own personalizations.

As Trisquel is based on Ubuntu, the same process documented here will apply: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCDCustomization

This guide is just to recap the process I follow based on my own needs in the easiest possible way.. so let's proceed...

Download it from the official website and then place it on your /home folder renaming it in simply trisquel.iso.
Get the necessary software to modify it with a simple sudo apt install squashfs-tools genisoimage resolvconf

From a new terminal complete the following steps:

mkdir ~/live

cd ~/live

mkdir extract-cd mnt

sudo mount -o loop ~/trisquel.iso mnt

sudo rsync --exclude=/casper/filesystem.squashfs -a mnt/ extract-cd

sudo unsquashfs mnt/casper/filesystem.squashfs

sudo mv squashfs-root edit

sudo cp /etc/resolv.conf edit/etc/

sudo mount --bind /dev/ edit/dev

sudo chroot edit

mount -t proc none /proc && mount -t sysfs none /sys && mount -t devpts none /dev/pts

export HOME=/root && export LC_ALL=C

cd /etc/skel

mkdir Desktop Documents Downloads Music Pictures Public Templates Videos

cd /

At this point you can add all the software you want.

On mine I have done:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

and then:

sudo apt install libftdi1 libftdi-dev libusb-dev libpci-dev subversion pciutils usbutils git build-essential gnat flex bison libncurses5-dev wget zlib1g-dev flashrom
sudo apt install soundconverter squashfs-tools genisoimage resolvconf vlc pitivi libreoffice firefox gdebi wget git curl rsync gimp jami cheese kazam speedtest-cli screenfetch gparted network-manager-openvpn-gnome flashrom
sudo apt install blueman kodi kodi-pvr-iptvsimple lzop gnome-themes-extra xfce4-power-manager pavucontrol
sudo apt install libncurses-dev flex bison openssl libssl-dev dkms libelf-dev libudev-dev libpci-dev libiberty-dev autoconf build-essential libncurses5-dev fakeroot

wich is basically all I need for 1) recompiling,2) music/videos 3)office programs 4)internet stuff

then I have customized the fstab file to have the options "discard" and "noatime" by default running:
nano /lib/partman/fstab.d/ext3

On that file find the lines:

options="errors=remount-ro"

else

options="${options},errors=remount-ro" add (without the quotes) “noatime,nodiratime,” right before errors.

Change it in

options="discard,noatime,errors=remount-ro"

else

options="${options},discard,noatime,errors=remount-ro"


save che changes and exit


Now we need to correctly exit the chroot enviroment:

apt-get clean

apt-get autoremove

rm -rf /tmp/* ~/.bash_history

umount /proc

umount /sys

umount /dev/pts

exit

sudo umount edit/dev

sudo umount mnt

Now we are ready to build the iso of trisquel running from a terminal on your /live folder (previously set):

sudo mksquashfs edit extract-cd/casper/filesystem.squashfs

cd extract-cd

sudo rm md5sum.txt

find -type f -print0 | sudo xargs -0 md5sum | grep -v isolinux/boot.cat | sudo tee md5sum.txt

cd ..

sudo mkisofs -r -V "tr1sq3lm4rc0" -cache-inodes -J -l -b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -o ../tr1sq3lm4rc0.iso extract-cd

cd ..

sudo chmod 777 tr1sq3lm4rc0.iso


At this point you will find the new tr1sq3lm4rc0.iso on your /home folder which in the example above is 1,5 GB, fair enough!

Now simply flash it on a cd/dvd or usb drive (using dd or any other program to do so) and to install it like the normal iso on any compatible pc.

You can also resume your building project or update after a while entering back on that folder and on a terminal:

cd ~/live

sudo mount --bind /dev/ edit/dev

sudo chroot edit

mount -t proc none /proc && mount -t sysfs none /sys && mount -t devpts none /dev/pts

now you can update/upgrade your built or add/remove software

at the end just repeat the steps for exiting on the chroot enviroment and once done then delete the previous built filesystem.squashfs with:

sudo rm ~/live/extract-cd/casper/filesystem.squashfs

You are now ready to build your iso with all the changes and upgrades again simply repeating the steps for building the iso.

For more details and more personalizations options please visit https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCDCustomization