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I'd like to use Minimal ISO (or something similar) to assemble my Ubuntu distro. It's okay, however I don't know how to set the name of the distribution and how to update it properly without errors or name changes.

swanux
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2 Answers2

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As of 2021, seems Ubuntu has made it more explicit that they don't formally support minimal or alternate images. They have the following official choices and there are three options to go from a supported install method to a minimal intall:

  1. Use the server install ISO to start of minimal and then add packages as you need.
  2. Use the desktop installer ISO and choose the "Minimal installation" option which will avoid some of the desktop software bloat. [^1]
  3. Use the desktop installer in live mode and then switch to a network install for more choices. You can start with the base ubuntu-server package and cherry pick from there. ubuntu-desktop-minimal could be a place to look for bits to add if you need a desktop env stripped of the bloat.

As per Alternative downloads:

For 20.04 LTS, users can use the new Ubuntu Live installer to setup and configure a network install.

Also, as per Netbooting the live server installer:

The mini.iso is output of the debian-installer build and continues to be available at http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/focal/main/installer-amd64/current/legacy-images/netboot/mini.iso 3.3k. It has not been dropped, but neither is it an image that we recommend users use for installation. The mini.iso has in fact never been a “supported” install method for Ubuntu, and is not part of the test matrix for Ubuntu releases. And there will not be an equivalent mini.iso image for use with subiquity.

[^1]: Note, I observed the 20.04.3 desktop installer being quite clunky in how it does it's minimal install. I seems to copy over all packages and then starts removing packages to strip back down which is odd and not great when trying to create a minimal/small bootable hybrid MBR/EFI USB.

JPvRiel
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The 'Alternate ISO' installation method will give you a bare-bones Ubuntu you can build upon. It's explained at Ubuntu's Help site under Low Memory Systems and MinimalCD, and here are current versions you can download and install to start.

K7AAY
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  • Thank you, these are good resources. However I still don't know how to keep the name of the distro. For example: I change the name in files /etc/issue(.net), /etc/lab-release and /usr/lib/os-release. But after that I can't get any updates (for example from Ubuntu 18 to 19) without the name changing back to original. – swanux Aug 06 '19 at 19:20
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    That's the correct behavior. A distro (short for distribution) is about the infrastructure as much as the branding. A real distro has it's own build farm, bug tracker, repositories, support channels, etc. If you are using Ubuntu infrastructure, those packages will say "Ubuntu" and your system will reflect that. If you want to strip Ubuntu branding off, but keep using Ubuntu packages, then you will need to write your own program to do so after every upgrade. – user535733 Aug 06 '19 at 19:37
  • So the big ones (like Linux mint etc.) are just have some built in scripts to rename those files after every big updates? – swanux Aug 06 '19 at 19:43
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    No. The big ones insert their own source code patches and build all the thousands of packages from source on their own build farms. That's one of the activities that defines them as a real distro instead of a variant, a rebrand, a repackage, a hobby, or some other hack. – user535733 Aug 06 '19 at 20:15
  • But even the ones like pop os don't rebuild everything. Just what they want to modify. And after browsing the system76 repositories I can only find some packages (customized gnome shell, power optimalizations etc) and the Linux kernel with patches. My question is, how does the system know, when updates to a new Ubuntu version from Ubuntu repos, what to update, what to display to the user and what to do exactly and install the packages from which repo (ubuntu or system76 one)? – swanux Aug 06 '19 at 21:00
  • I now found this: https://github.com/pop-os/upgrade But I don't exactly understand what it actually does. – swanux Aug 06 '19 at 21:06
  • Well, that question is totally unrelated to the question you originally asked (about a minimal .iso install image). You're essentially asking for a five-page primer on package management, distro infrastructure, and how apt works...which seems a bit broad for this site anyway. Might be less frustrating to climb a smaller mountain first. – user535733 Aug 07 '19 at 04:18
  • Yeah, you are probably right. I've marked the answer as solution because that's the starting point. Thanks for the help! – swanux Aug 07 '19 at 08:08