Last night I asked about recipe for Arch Linux.
Thought I should write down my attempts in summary form. I'm sure that I
made some errors -- why I do the attempts on VirtualBox. However, the
notes may be useful to others and explain some of my criteria. They are
likely relevant to others' needs at least in a general sense.
If there's discussion, I suggest go off-list and then post conclusions.
Best, JN
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Dance Distro - s/w and music and instruction files on USB
- Need to boot on many machines
UEFI compatible booting of USB
- Nice, but not critical to install on different machines
- Features
alsaplayer
cd rip - have own script based on CDParanoia and lame
text edit and display
file chooser (e.g., Thunar) and launcher
Nice to have quick selection
Want configurable to have large font for use
in hall.
prefer to have debian package manager
need to mount USBs
need to copy files etc.
nice to convert files (ffmulticonverter)
rsync useful for loading / updating music files
- Openbox or similar interface
Allows easy setup of keyboard shortcuts. This is needed since
the "appliance" is used in a busy environment where pointing device
is too awkward and fussy.
Choice of alsaplayer is
- keyboard control
- including speedup and slowdown and partial volume control
- Explorations
CrunchBang now no longer maintained
But bunsenlabs has taken over
But -- remastersys dead and respin versions not working on Debian
Debian Live terminated (did not do UEFI boot anyway)
Tried Arch -- definitely NOT fun, nor set up to be usable by
reasonable folk. But Arch idea is attractive as it is building up
rather than removing stuff. Apparently has transfer to USB tools, and
UEFI boot, though this seemed awkward with Virtualbox, and
experiments were with legacy style disk configuration.
Tinycore -- small graphical interface.
Says alsaplayer available, but package listed but not present in
repository as far as I could determine.
Mouse/pointer issues -- very jumpy.
Not clear on how to customize / put on USB.
Turnkey -- chose a Dokuwiki turnkey. Very fascist on insisting on
long passwords for several functions. I missed recording the exact
username for one admin account and was locked out on reboot. Too
fussy. Also seems intended for install, not to be run Live except
as demo. (And I hadn't fully checked out how to put on USB.)
Mint Mate. This worked fine. Removed large apps. (Firefox,
Thunderbird, Gimp, etc.) but still very large. Used Penguy tools --
GUI remastering -- and got custom iso that worked fine. Main issue is
size, but otherwise OK.