LXDE on Ubuntu 12.04 mini w/Remastersys & bash script?

[c4c01]

Hi folks,
First time on the LXDE Forum. Happy to be here. You all seem like a friendly bunch from what I've read. I know the subject title asks a lot - I figured I'd just lay it out and let you all know what we're trying to to do. Hopefully someone or two here can't point me in the right direction.

I'm in a group that "recycles" computers to give back out for free. We take in donated computers, wipe the hard drives (mix-n-match parts) and load 'em up with GNU/Linux. We had based our previous installs (112 machines) on Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid and had a live CD and DVD made with Reconstructor to help us. As support is ending for Ubuntu 10.04 and as we typically (make that always) work with older equipment, we went looking for an alternative to Unity. We believe our search ended with LXDE.

One of the other folks in our group is stuck trying to make a distribution and I am stuck trying to make a live CD (no DVD this time - too many of machines we get don't have one, or have trouble installing from one). I can't find a(n updated) tutorial for Ubuntu-mini+LXDE+Remastersys - everyone says just use Lubuntu for this. This does work great with Lubuntu (installed on 9 machines so far), but it's too big to make a 700 MB CD.

Masonux did something pretty similar to what I'm trying with an older Ubuntu, LXDE and Remastersys, but I haven't been able to translate their simple recipe to today's versions of these things. If anyone knows of updated how-to, I'd be very happy. I'm also hoping to include an Interactive Bash script to run at the end of the install or on first boot to make some extra apps and options easily installable - something along the lines of Andy Duffell's perfectminimal script (with many less options).

[seppalta]

Here are 3 that work real well - just leave out the heavy apps and I'm confident you can stay under 700 MG:
Mint Debian (LMDE), rolling release, well supported, fastest and most reliable: http://lxlinux.com/debian.html;
Xubuntu 12.04, longer support than Lubuntu, firefox and more reliable: http://lxlinux.com/xubuntu.html;
Crunchbang 10, lightest of all: http://lxlinux.com/crunchbang.html.
I do a similar thing - buy up used computers with good components, refurbish with LMDE , give them away and occasionally resell one.
Oh, yes, WattOS is Lubuntu with some rough edges smoothed out, is definitely under 700 MG's and has Remastersys already installed.

[c4c01]

Thanks much for the tips. Discovered WattOS a couple of days ago. I'll install it tonight and see how it goes.
Are you doing the "recycling" you do for any particular purpose?

[Rex Bouwense]

Seppalta turned me on to Watt-OS a couple of months ago and I am still playing around with it. I have it on a CD and a flash drive and will probably install it later on my ASUS as a dual boot. I have a very good friend in Lavonia GA that refurbishes computers for the Lions Club. I believe they give them away to kids whose parents cannot afford to buy one. It is a good use for old computers plus it introduces the kids to Linux if that is the OS that you put on them.

[c4c01]

WattOS failed to install on a couple of different machines [Dell OptiPlex GX240 and an HP Pavilion a000], one of which is my personal "testing" machine type; the GX240.

I was able to convert the Masonux recipe (so nice of him to still have posted exactly what he did) for the most part. I did however, use the whole LXDE install (instead of LXDE-core) and as expected, it brought in a slew of stuff I didn't need. On the upside though - it worked well with all our apps and menu additions and was incredibly fast. I was taken aback by the speed at which Ubuntu-min+LXDE performed. It really screemed. I can imagine it will be all the faster when I get the Ubuntu-mini+LXDE-core+?? recipe right. Oh, and I used gdm instead of lightdm.

With all that said, I'm wondering if I shouldn't just go back to trying to do a Lubuntu Re-Spin and leave it at that. It's beginning to seem like less work to remove and replace than try to re-make what will turn out to be an awful lot like Lubuntu anyway... Still thinkin' on it.

The Lion's Club deal seems neat. We come at it from maybe a little bit different perspective - different reasons. The GNU/Linux evangelism is more of a consequence rather than the goal. There is no criteria for who gets a computer - they just have to ask and sign a release that says they won't sue us (and be able to meet us in one of the two towns we are in). They may well have a computer or three already. It's sort of unlikely they do, but totally possible.

[seppalta]

WattOS failed to install on a couple of different machines

Watt 5 always installed for me but Watt 6 failed to install on machines with a particular graphics card, Nvidia, if I remember correctly. The developer didn't seem to care, so I don't recommend Watt anymore.

Masonux appears a little too minimal and outdated for my tastes - seems like a lot of extra work that comes free with more developed systems. For a minimal, but still useful system, I like Crunchbang. Replace Thunar with Pcmanfm and you have essentially the LXDE desktop. Or install lxde-core and remove Thunar, xfce4-menu and xfce4-panel, and you really have the LXDE desktop. A further plus is you can install oraclejava directly with the system. You may be talking too minimal to even have a java installation, but then you might as well forget about good games without a java. How do you attract young people without games? With so little to adjust, there isn't any need for Remastersys. Finally, the Crunchbang Forum is one of the best on the Internet. With all that, I confess that I only use LMDE with LXDE.

[c4c01]

It was WattOS 6 that failed to install. Masonux is outdated, but the developer has his actual "recipe" from beginning to end on the website, which is still up. Gave me something to go on and I was able to translate it to Ubuntu 12.04+LXDE+Remastersys without too much difficulty (and as I think I mentioned; it was quite speedy). The problem was really with lightdm. LXDE-core with lightdm gave me problems just getting to a desktop. So, I either keep working on that, or install LXDE and strip out many of the apps that it installs, or strip out even more from Lubuntu.

We do install openjdk-7-jre and icedtea-7-plugin - it's required for at least one of our "must include" apps - not a game though (we have our own games, but they run in Firefox or Gnash).

Will using OpenJDK 7 instead of Oracle's Java somehow limit/cripple games the user might install?

[seppalta]

A few years ago openjdk-icedtea was definitely inferior to oracle java; it would not open a simple on-line card game (whistportal.com) that I like to play. I haven't tried it since then. I think it may be better now.

I use lightdm [966kb] plus lxde-core on just about everything - never had a problem. Other choices are lxdm [804], slim [1384] and xdm [1100]; gdm and mdm are too heavy [16,000+]. Try slim, it is good.

[seppalta]

c4c, what kid games, if any, do you install? On my kid system I put GCompris, Stellarium, Tux Math Paint Typing, gbrainy, glotski, mahjongg, mines, sudoka, tetravex , radio, aisle riot solitaire and free cell solitaire. I put a Tint2 panel on the bottom with big icons for just these apps. An lxpanel is on top with minimum regular applications and an lxmenu. Picture:

Screenshot.png (549.52 KiB) Viewed 1057 times

Oh, I also use an automatic wallpaper rotating script, which can be set at whatever rate you choose, and can be manually rotated by clicking the rotator icon in the lower panel. Kids love this feature.

[c4c01]

Many the same games. asc asc-music atomix billard-gl biniax2 blobby blockattack bomber bovo briquolo criticalmass freealchemist freetennis-common frozen-bubble fb-music-high glchess gnome-hearts gnubg hex-a-hop icebreaker kapman kfourinline kigo klines koules kpat lightyears lincity-ng ltris neverball pathological pathological-music pixfrogger primrose supertux-stable tomatoes val-and-rick vodovod wormux xoids

Depends on the age(s) of the child(ren) and request(s) of the parents. For the youngest, I try to set up a kiosk-type environment.
For Ubuntu 10.04, see here (includes specific game recommendations) http://computers4christians.org/Document/HowTo/UserPass.html

Now, with Lubuntu 12.04, I've recently grown fond of Plank. I move the panel up to the top, delete everything except the "power" button, or maybe the sound and the clock and then use plank for the dock/launcher. I can't say as I am versed enough with LXDE to really lock it down good for the small ones, but I'm sure I'll know more the next time around. I recently set up a Lubuntu system for a family of 5 and took screen shots of the use of it for a future how-to. These are the three children's docks from young (high school) to youngest (2nd grade?).

Young

Younger

Youngest