I am running Ubuntu 17.10 and I would like to build a completely de-branded ISO of it. This means not just dropping the Ubuntu name from /etc/lsb_release
but also deleting references in the text of the installation program, in the "about this computer" screen and so on.
I've already checked other questions but I do not consider them duplicate because:
- How to de-brand Ubuntu? is very old and it just turned into a bunch of "try this tool" suggestions
- How can I replace Ubuntu branding with my own? is also old and suggests a tool called
relinux
that hasn't seen updates in years - How to customize the Ubuntu Live CD? does mention APT packages (and I know how this works) but not trademarks
Therefore my questions are:
- Starting from a stock Ubuntu 17.10 (or an official derivative), how can I remove references to the Ubuntu trademark and logo?
- What exact packages do I need to uninstall?
- Are there images I need to replace? Are there files I need to edit other than
/etc/lsb_release
?
Please note that I am not interested in removing other names such as Firefox. I am only interested in the name of the distro.
Best Answer
Its not clear whether you intend to distribute the unbranded distro, so apologies if this isn't your intention.
A new distribution with the branding removed would also need to recompile all the binaries from the source code.
https://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/intellectual-property-policy
If you are going to use internally then it's just a job to locate all the text/image references but that isn't simple. All programs handle their text resources in various individual ways, so you aren't going to find it easy to identify all the branding to remove it.
Best to compile a list of everything that you consider 'brand', identify the underlying program delivering it and then you'll just need to start going through the code to find where it gets it from.
good luck