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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:

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.

Andrea Lazzarotto
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    You might have to remove Firefox as well (cf Iceweasel), and possibly any number of other software that have trademarks outside of the Ubuntu ones. – muru Mar 19 '18 at 13:28
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    I think that to debrand the ISO would require you to rebuild a Linux environment starting from just the kernel and then manually adding in things you verify aren't 'branded' ('branding' is also extremely broad, so you have to define the scope of what you call 'branding'). Everything has 'brand names', even some basic things as the compilers (GNU C++ Compiler aka g++/gcc even is 'branded' as "GNU"). And at that point it's not 'debranding' but 'building from scratch', and I don't think you can do that very easily. – Thomas Ward Mar 19 '18 at 13:33
  • @muru thank you. My question is specifically about the Ubuntu brand. Firefox and other tools allow redistribution especially when they are not modified. My aim is to create a derivative live CD which needs a name not containing "Ubuntu". – Andrea Lazzarotto Mar 19 '18 at 13:40
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    @ThomasWard sorry for the double comment, but only one mention is allowed. As I said, my question is only about the Ubuntu logo and trademark. Is it unclear? Should I edit the wording? Thanks for your help. – Andrea Lazzarotto Mar 19 '18 at 13:41
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    @AndreaLazzarotto You may want to add that clarification, if there's more inquiries. But removing 'ubuntu' from everything will require you to basically rebuild the entire repository with new version strings. Do apt-cache policy libssl1.0.0 on a 16.04 system, you'll see the 'version' string is 1.0.2g-1ubuntu4.10. So unless you rebuild all the packages with 'ubuntu' in the version string as well, you can't easily debrand everything. Removing every trace of 'ubuntu' in the system is nontrivial, and will require a ton of work. Unless you mean only in the GUI / default installed files? – Thomas Ward Mar 19 '18 at 14:02
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    @ThomasWard I don't think OP wants to remove those "ubuntu" names from packages, because even Linux Mint which is a standalone distro doesn't have those "ubuntu" names removed. Sorry for intervening, I'm just so interested in this question all of a sudden, so thought I could help. – Shayan Mar 19 '18 at 14:39
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    @ThomasWard as Shayan pointed out, leaving package names are fine for me. Just assume I want to replace the strings in the GUI, the boot screen and lsb-release. Something similar to what Linux Mint must have done initially to start the derivative. – Andrea Lazzarotto Mar 19 '18 at 15:14
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    I don't believe anyone has ever documented every single location in which contains the "Ubuntu" string. You'd be doing this alone. Be good to document it for the next person who asks this :) – popey Mar 19 '18 at 15:35
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    @popey, if the answer were to be found with a simple web search I would not have bothered asking. :) – Andrea Lazzarotto Mar 19 '18 at 15:59
  • I'm not saying you didn't search. I'm saying the thing you're after has been asked before, and I know that we (Canonical) have never written this up. – popey Mar 21 '18 at 12:01
  • You have to ask permission: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/technical-board/2015-November/002179.html – oldfred Mar 25 '18 at 20:09
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    @oldfred, quite the contrary. One has to ask permission when working on a derivative that does use the Ubuntu trademark. I am asking how to remove any possibly infringing display of said trademark. – Andrea Lazzarotto Mar 25 '18 at 20:47
  • @AndreaLazzarotto Are you wanting a desktop environment (GNOME, KDE, LXDE) or any extra packages (Firefox, Epiphany, etc)? – fosslinux Apr 03 '18 at 03:04
  • Also many things would need recompiling. – fosslinux Apr 03 '18 at 03:05
  • @ubashu, most apps do not show the word Ubuntu anyway. The most important parts are the help center, the GUI and Ubiquity during installation. – Andrea Lazzarotto Apr 03 '18 at 08:56
  • @AndreaLazzarotto Yep, those things (help center, GUI, Ubiquity) would most likely need recompiling. – fosslinux Apr 03 '18 at 20:47
  • @ubashu I am not sure. The help center surely loads localized HTML/XML data from disk, and some other apps may use .po files I guess. – Andrea Lazzarotto Apr 03 '18 at 20:59
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    Sorry for interfering, but the question was interesting enough to make me wonder... Anyway, I did some Google searches and found this: https://gitlab.com/remastersys/LinuxRespin I am not sure if this is of any help in this case, but I felt that I should better mention it anyway... Do take in consideration the fact that I am not an advanced user... – Cristiana Nicolae Aug 25 '18 at 20:48
  • @CristianaNicolae thank you for your comment. I think that tool doesn't work with Ubuntu 18.04, but maybe they are working on it. I have developed my own solution to build a custom ISO, now I just need to figure out the places where the brand is located. :D I hope to be able to post an answer soon. – Andrea Lazzarotto Oct 02 '18 at 09:14

1 Answers1

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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

simon coleman
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    Please re-read the page you linked to: “For the avoidance of doubt, where any other licence grants rights, this policy does not modify or reduce those rights under those licences.” In particular, redistribution in source and/or binary form is permitted by the GPL, MIT and Apache licenses. If there are some packages that do really need to be compiled, it would be useful to know which ones. :) – Andrea Lazzarotto Jan 07 '19 at 13:26
  • @AndreaLazzarotto : As I said, depends whether the OP is redistributing or not. Please see section 3 of the link I posted, which reads: Any redistribution of modified versions of Ubuntu must be approved, certified or provided by Canonical if you are going to associate it with the Trademarks. Otherwise you must remove and replace the Trademarks and will need to recompile the source code to create your own binaries. – simon coleman Feb 18 '19 at 16:39
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    Canonical can write what they want... As long as the trademarks are removed, any GPL / MIT / Apache software can be redistributed without recompiling. If there are proprietary components that are not covered under a OSS license, it would be really really useful to know which ones. So we can focus on recompiling those ones only. – Andrea Lazzarotto Feb 19 '19 at 00:49