LinuxLinks Review
(8/8/07)
By Kevin E. Glosser
Making your own version of Fedora
For the masses to move to Fedora, both Linux
and non-Linux user a
like, it would surely require a custom Fedora
“spin”. A spin is a
variation of the software available in Fedora. I don't think the
masses are ready to give up their shackles to embrace freedom yet,
as peculiar as that sounds. While I find most, if not all of free
software acceptable today, the reality is most people just want
things to work the way they've always worked. They don't want
compromise.
The great thing about Fedora 7 is it gives you
a lot of options;
options like creating your own version of the distribution to include
anything you feel is left out! Included are tools that allow you to
create your own LiveCD or make your own complete distribution adding
software from any repository or location you wish.
Pungi, new to Fedora 7, is a command line
composition tool. It takes
rpm's from various repositories and turns them into a burnable ISO
image from which you can install your distribution. It's what the
Fedora team used to create Fedora 7 itself. Also included is the
LiveCD creator which does just as it sounds. Using the graphical
front end to both of these applications Revisor, the process is
simplified even more.
With these great tools, it's difficult to
criticize the Fedora team
for leaving software out. The tools exist for you to make the changes
you feel are necessary, if any at all. There is no longer a
compromise required. You can create the exact Fedora distribution you
want, or simply wait for someone else to provide it. It's this
freedom that pushes Fedora 7 into new territory. You can now compare
it with Ubuntu's ease of use, because a totally user friendly version
is very possible to make. Perhaps you could make a version of Fedora
that Richard
Stallman might tolerate? Maybe not, however, it's that
kind of flexibility that is intriguing.
In true Fedora fashion however, good concept
does not always lead to
a perfect implementation. Fedora users are aware of new software
additions in the past that took some time to get just right. SELinux
being the most obvious example. It appears Revisor/Punji/LiveCD might
be falling into this category. I tried to make a LiveCD using
Revisor.
The interface was great and I was able to
tailor make a
LiveCD, in concept, for my father. The only problem was that the
process
hung midway when the ISO image was created. I had no problem
selecting all the options and software I wanted to include. It was
very easy to do. If you can install any operating system, you can
create your own Fedora 7 distro. Well, that's assuming you don't run
into the problem I did. I'm not sure why it failed. I did get some
SELinux denial messages in the middle of the process. I originally
assumed this was the problem, since I have SELinux set to enforcing
mode. However, when I switched it to permissive mode, it didn't
resolve the issue. I tried using the command-line tool to take
Revisor out of the picture. I encountered the same issue. The
only
information I could get during either process that concerned me was
the proclamation that certain packages I had excluded were still
being downloaded and installed into my custom LiveCD even though I
requested they not be. I don't know if that actually was occurring,
but it did seem odd. The LiveCD creator seemed to download everything
ok. It stated it installed everything ok. It hung during file system
creation it appears.
However, it's difficult to pinpoint as the
Revisor interface indicates it does several things simultaneously,
leaving it difficult to speculate what actually caused it to fail. I
waited a couple weeks to see if a software patch was coming to fix
the issue, but it hasn't arrived at the time this review was written.
I really wanted to see if these tools worked as advertised.
Obviously, they do to some extent, it's what made Fedora 7 in the
first place. In this case, I'm going to have to troubleshoot some
more or in a worst case scenario just wait a bit. I know from
experience, in the future these tools will work and continue to
improve. If its not functioning well soon, it surely will be by
Fedora 8.
Final
thoughts
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