Build and customize your own Sage Debian Live USB

Select modules

Most existing modules are selected by default. You can unselect some by removing them from the MODULES variable. Available modules are located in the ./modules/ directory. Note that some modules depend on some other modules, so you do not need to add them explicitely (though it does not harm), for example the mathematics/sagemath module depends on the mathematics/latex module.

Link to the correct files

Some modules require some external files.

• If you plan to use the sagemath module, you should provide a sage binary tarball that runs on the target distro (selected by the DISTRO variable) for the SAGE_LOCATION variable. You should also provide a link to a directory containing some pdf documentation for the SAGE_DOC_DIR variable.
• If you plan to use the bootloader module, you should provide a file for the BOOTLOADER_ISO variable. One that works is the following slightly modified version of plopkexec.iso.

Deeper customizations

If, compared to what is in the existing modules, you only want to add a few Debian packages, you can do it by adding them to the PACKAGES variable in your custom config file:

PACKAGES+=' <package1> <package2> <package3>'

If you want to do something deeper, you should create your own module. For this, create a custom module, as a directory ./modules/<my_module>/. You can have a look to existing modules to get some hint on how it works.

In this directory, add a file deploy.sh that contains the commands that deploys the module by tuning the config directory of the Debian Live. Some functions (which are defined in the macros.sh file) may help you in this task:

• If you want to add some packages that are included in Debian, just add the line

  add_packages "<my_custom_title>" "<package1> <package2> <package3>"
  

• If you want to add some localized packages, see for example the add_packages_l10n function used in the packages module.

• If you want to add an external .deb file (be carefull to also add the required dependencies), just ad the line

  add_deb "<path_to_your_deb_file>"
  

• If you want to add a <file_path> to some <target_directory> of the booted key with <chmod> permissions, just add the line

  add_file_path <file_path> <target_directory> <chmod>
  

  Note that if you want to add some files to the user's directory, you should add them to the /etc/skel directory whose content will be copied to the user's homedir during the first boot of the live system.

• If you want to add a <file_name> that belongs to your module's directory to some <target_directory> of the booted key with <chmod> permissions, just add the line

  add_file_name <file_name> <target_directory> <chmod>
  

• If you want to add a launcher to the desktop whose icon will be stored to <target_directory>, create the <launcher_name>.icon.svg and <launcher_name>.desktop in your module directory, and add the line

  add_launcher <launcher_name> <target_directory>
  

• If you want your module to depend on another module, just add the line

  load_module <module>
  

• If you want to add a hook script that will be run a root, create a file <hook_file_name> (which must end with either .chroot or .binary wether you want it to be executed during the chroot or binary phase) just add the line

  add_hook <hook_file_name>
  

• If you want to add a boot menu entry whose title is <menu title> that uses additional custom boot options <boot option 1> and <boot option 2>, just add the line

  add_boot_menu "<menu title>" "<boot option 1> <boot option 2>"
  

  Alternatively, you can set the HARDCODED_SYSLINUX_MENU variable to the path of a file that will be used as a live.cfg file. In both cases, you should add syslinux at the end of your modules list.

Then, you can add your module by modifying the MODULES variable as follows in your ./config/<my_config> file:

MODULES+=' <my_module>'

Of course, if your customization improves an existing module, you can modify it and push your changes.