According to this document, creation of custom Ubuntu distros is allowed. The document gives a general outline on what to change and modify. There is however a section that confuses me/needs help finding out how to correctly apply.
- File /etc/lsb-release (from package base-files) contains name of
distro, which is used by some tools (for example network configuration
tools) to identify how to handle files. Also the content of this file
(AFAIK) is displayed in console login. Should the contents of this file
(i.e. base-files package) be replaced in derivative distro?This is a tricky one, since the file is used both to tell the user the
name of the distribution and by programs to identify it. The former
should change, but not the latter. Perhaps changing
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION but not DISTRIB_ID is the right thing to do.
This section mentions the contents of /etc/lsb-release to match the name of the distro. It says that the contents of DISTRIB_ID should be changed to match the name of the distro, but also claims that it messes up certain tools. It then mentions changing DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION to the name of your distro. What should I do with this?
Best Answer
Depending on your intention, you may or may not require to modify the contents of
/etc/lsb-release
file for your Ubuntu-based custom distro (or likely defined as "remix").Rationale for lsb-release
From what I understand, the content of
/etc/lsb-release
mainly used for determining whether you can update your packages from existing Ubuntu repositories or not.Below are the supporting examples, which include combined output from different distro based on Ubuntu 12.04 release.
^ Despite Ubuntu official flavours' name are Kubuntu and Xubuntu, these were never used in the content of
/etc/lsb-release
file. This is because the Ubuntu official flavours share and retrieve the same packages from the same repositories like Ubuntu does.^ These Ubuntu derivatives' name are Linux Mint and Trisquel and their names were included in the content of
/etc/lsb-release
file. While they get the sources from Ubuntu repositories, these derivatives host their own packages. Therefore, they can define their own releases.The combined output above (the one from Kubuntu and Xubuntu) already gave us a hint. Only edit
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION=""
and replace the string with"Something 1.0 Else"
. This means you can still update and retrieve packages from existing Ubuntu repositories.Trademark issue
Until few years ago, there was "Ubuntu Trademark Policy" but now it is redirected to this page called "Intellectual property rights policy". Few relevant points have been quoted below:
Based on these, if you intend to build custom or modified version of Ubuntu and redistribute it, you must do rebranding. This means not just
/etc/lsb-release
anymore.But, if you are not redistributing the custom build and wish to update and retrieve packages from existing Ubuntu repositories, then modifying
/etc/lsb-release
as explained should suffice. Otherwise depends on yourself; To which extent you would like to customize the build.