Remastersys Development Blog

[fragadelic]

Just to let everyone know what has been going on for the last little while.

I have been working on a new gui frontend written in Bacon - http://www.basic-converter.org

Attached is screenshot of the new gui.

All sections are currently completed except for the Plymouth theme creation section.  As you will see from the screenshot, I've added a log viewer so you can check the log from within remastersys-gui.

I will be splitting off the gui from the main package.  This will satisfy those that don't want to have remastersys on the menu but still want to use it.  Those that want the gui will need to install it separately.

I will be looking into the ubiquity-frontend-debconf for the Ubuntu version to see if it can be modified to be used as a full non-gui installer.  Anything I come up with will be passed on to Ubuntu in hopes that it makes it into the main distribution.  I've already been approved as a contributor so it should work out.

This will be the frontend for both the ubuntu and debian versions.  I will be rewriting the installer for the debian version also using bacon.

Now for a bit about bacon.  The deb package offered for download on the bacon website is created and maintained by me although I am not the developer as it is way over my head - lol.

Bacon allows you to make a program in BASIC similar to the old commodore basic except you do not need line numbers.  There is a gui library called HUG which incorporates the gtk gui library in a simple manner.  When you compile your bacon program, it is converted into C and then compiled like a normal C program.  This allows it  to run very quickly and the binary remains small.  My C knowledge is limited but I have had a lot of years with commodore basic.  I feel very comfortable programming in bacon and the end result is a C compiled binary using libgtk.  I'm also fragadelic on the basic-converter.org forum and the developer of bacon is fantastic.  Always answers your questions about programming issues and some of us that have been using it for a while also try to help.

If you are comfortable in basic and want a short learning curve to program then this is for you.  It has become my default programming tool for linux.  Eventually I will rewrite all my little helper tools in bacon and offer them up for download from my repositories.

Bacon also has internationalization support and if you write your program using the internationalization code it will be translatable.  The new remastersys-gui is internationalized and when ready I will post a link to the pot file so folks can translate it into their own language and have it included in the package.

I am hoping to finish it up and offer it up for testing in the next week or so.

Once the new gui is ready, a new remastersys version for Ubuntu will be released - 3.0.2-1 and then the debian version will get some love including the new gui and a new installer written in bacon.

I'm leaving this thread open so folks can comment along as well.  Let me know what you think of the new gui.

[fragadelic]

Forgot to mention.  The new version of remastersys supports Ubuntu 12.04 and the screenshots are from a customized Xubuntu 12.04 install that I have been using.

[GMaq]

Hi,

The screenshots look great, very cool stuff especially in the hands of a gifted scripter like yourself! Looking forward to seeing the Debian version whenever you get to it. Amazing as usual!

[fragadelic]

Thanks for the encouragement.

The new debian installer will have the hostname, root password, username and password all on the same page so you don't have to click forward on each one like it is now with the zenity based installer.  It will also make it less steps to install as the swap partition and install partitions will also be on the same page.  The text based installer will remain bash/dialog and the new installer will be gui only.

The base debian package will have remastersys and the cli installer.  The gui package will add the new remastersys gui and the new installer.  That way it can still be used for server live systems or really lite desktops but the new gui will only require the basic libgtk and libvte libraries for gui on top of what is already there.  This means that most window managers using gtk will probably have everything already installed other than libvte which isn't that large.  libvte9 on ubuntu is only 1M installed and since it comes from debian it is the same.

[fragadelic]

Just finished up with the new gui last night.  Code cleanup is now under way.

As mentioned earlier, starting with version 3.0.2-1 the gui will be split off to its own package.  Krasimir will most likely continue developing remastersys-gtk which is he current gui and that will be usable with remastersys but the recommended gui will be remastersys-gui which will be the name of the new one.  Remastersys-gui will maintain the same version number as the main remastersys package.

Have I mentioned before that I really love bacon - Basic Converter.

[ek0892]

Hi, Very good job

The 3.0.2-1 for 12.04 is it ready ?

if yes .

sudo su
wget -O - http://www.remastersys.com/ubuntu/remastersys.gpg.key | apt-key add -

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://www.remastersys.com/ubuntu precise main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/remastersys.list'

apt-get update ; apt-get install remastersys -y

this is exact ?

[snookems]

looking forward to it

[GMaq]

+1 to looking forward to it.

[RevLinux]

I look forward to it also.

[fragadelic]

Hi, Very good job

The 3.0.2-1 for 12.04 is it ready ?

if yes .

sudo su
wget -O - http://www.remastersys.com/ubuntu/remastersys.gpg.key | apt-key add -

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://www.remastersys.com/ubuntu precise main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/remastersys.list'

apt-get update ; apt-get install remastersys -y

this is exact ?

The new version is ready but not on the repo yet.  Once it has been tested by more folks than myself it will be added to the repo.  See the other thread in this area as the packages are there to be downloaded directly from the forum.

[fragadelic]

I've attached the bacon packages that I made for the official bacon website here in case anyone would like to try bacon out and see how it works.



[attachment deleted by admin]

[cactusneedle]

So looking forward to your continued development on Remastersys.  I had occasion to reinstall the squeeze version 2.0.23-1 all.deb to a broken live cd backup I had made of my laptop SalineOS (Rermastersys installer disappeared in the live cd backup) and it repaired the installation problem perfectly.  I also noticed 2.0.23-1 had some work as of 2/17/11.  Can't praise you enough for taking on this task and I urge everyone to help out with their financial support.   Saves me hours of reconstruction time pouring over my notes vs a 15 minute reinstall.

[fragadelic]

Thanks very much for nice words.  I'll be starting work on the debian version soon.

[AverageGuy]

Just a suggestion but this wiki says you've stopped work on Remastersys http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Remastersys.  It might be a good idea to contact the author and help correct it, if it's not true. 

Jim.

[fragadelic]

Thanks.  I'll contact them right now.

[fragadelic]

If anyone knows of any other blogs or wikis that have remastersys listed as dead, please let me know and I'll contact them to get it straightened out.