Trying to build my own custom Linux distribution from kernel

[linrx]

Recently because I intended to know and learn linux from basics, so I decided to get my hands dirty, and try to see if I can build a custom Linux distribution from kernel source. I choose Debian / Mint because after trying supposedly-easier, big-bang-ish, options like SuseStudio I felt stupid still both before, and after the process of creating the ISO images.

So I gotten a latest Live Debian image and booting from the ISO I then found a tutorial: http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/tutorials/6853/1 (link), and following are the steps I took to compile Linux, until I ran into issue at step 6.

• 1. Launch a Terminal window in Debian, and navigate to /boot.
• 2. Run the command ls, and check the latest version of the config.x.x.xx-x-xxx found on the system. In my case the latest version of the config file used by Debian is 2.6.32
• 3. Go to http://www.kernel.org and download the corresponding version of Debian. I found the "stable" kernel for 2.6.32 here http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/ ... m/v2.6.32/
• 4. Extract the downloaded tarball, in my case it is linux-2.6.32.59.tar.bz2 into a working folder on my machine. I extracted to the /home/{user}/Documents/ folder.
• 5. Copy the /boot/config.x.x.xx-x-xxx file and rename it as .config into the new kernel source directory so in my case I run the command "cp config-2.6.32-5-486 /home/{user}/Documents/linux-2.6.32.59/.config"
• 6. Sorry this is where I ran into problem because I tried to run the command "make -j1 && sudo make modules_install" to compile and build the system for one processor and I got the error statement "bash: make: command not found". I tried to do "man make" and it says "No manual entry for make".

Any clues?
.[/list]

[xenopeek]

[Moved here by moderator]

The Debian Live image may not have the build-essential package installed by default? Check that, else you won't have make or gcc.

[linrx]

A little about the roadmap, as moments ago while surfing the forum, I was reminded of support issues when I build my own custom Linux distribution, as well as what am I going to be doing with it. I just downloaded a Linux Mint Debian 201204 image and I am thinking of doing some work on it. The challenge is that unlike Microsoft where I know that Bill Gates is the boss, when it comes to Linux if let me say I am trying to compile a distro, who owns or rather to whom do I go for ultimate moral and ethical and legal responsibilites?

A decent analogy I guess is we all know that if you are a Christian you probably look to Jesus for salvation. What if there are tens of thousands of other historical gods and deities as many as there are opensource (linux?) flavours and derivatives in the market, can I compromise a little by donating and supporting the Linux Mint cause and saying "without Linux mint my custom distribution would not be possible" on my educational? personal? commercial? not-for-profit? website?

[xenopeek]

You can make a respin of Linux Mint, and give attribution. If you make changes to the packages as developed by the Linux Mint team (like mintinstall), you have to rename them. You must not include "Linux Mint" in the name of your respin. Clem explains it here: http://forum.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.ph ... 17#p166941

[linrx]

Good advice i took a look at the post "If you want to make a distribution based on Mint" as you'd mentioned; and put it this way I am unlikely -- or more like I cannot, or don't know how to -- make changes to Linux mint's existing tools. This is largely because my prior development experiences, went only as far as Visual Basic 6.0 and PHP and Mysql. While I might pack some punch as a student , I only gotten only a B- i think for kernel development course in uni school.

I used to have a customer in a local government agency who lashed out at my employer, because back then my employer sold him a Knowledge Management system. However that KMS was based on Jboss and my employer told this customer that, we couldn't fix an outstanding issue because we didn't write JBoss ourselves. I guess this was the kinda feedback which led me to trying to figure out... whether should I be looking at working with a Linux distro (learning about base layers like JBoss), or is it the building blocks of for eg end-user applications that I am keen to work in.

Just trying to figure out where all this (mixed and fuzzy) emotions and intellect are leading me to, still thanks anyway Vincent. I appreciate your responses.