Hi to all,
I am interested in creating a personal distribution of Haiku, just for personal use (so with all my customizations, apps, etc). I have just found the aspects about Haiku’s copyright (changing the name of distro, and alert about that is based on Haiku).
But in practice, how can i make my own distro? There is a step-to-step guide, an how to?
Thanks in advance.
Hi Giova84,
there’s a guide explaining how to build Haiku from source. To get you started, trunk/build/jam/UserBuildConfig plays a major role in customizing.
Regards,
Humdinger
I have heard that the haiku developers dislike people making distributions of Haiku. It apparently screams linux, if you know what I mean…
Just saying…
If it’s for your personal use, it’s not really a distro (you don’t distribute it), it’s a personal custom build so follow Humdinger’s advice and no need to bother with the trademark aspects or other legal aspects, personal use has absolutely no restrictions.
Yes, is just for my personal use, i’m not interested to release to others… I’d like to have Haiku with my own customizations and apps to install quickly on my HD.
How can i make a bootable image of my Haiku’s installation to write on a cd or dvd?
[quote=The Ringmaster]I have heard that the haiku developers dislike people making distributions of Haiku. It apparently screams linux, if you know what I mean…
Just saying…[/quote]
As I’ve said, is just for persona use 
I was wrong to use the word “distro”. Is just a personal installation for my convenience!
Have a look at the link Humdinger gave. Each link on that page represents a step in creating a customised build of Haiku; click on each link open up a guide that will help you to complete that step.
The last step is Building Haiku using Jam, which will crate a disk image of Haiku that you have customised in earlier steps. You can boot off that disk image like you would with the official image.
Perhaps building from source is a little more than you had in mind. If you just want to have a Haiku installation with all your apps that you can carry around with you, then get yourself a nice big USB thumb drive, use DriveSetup to format it to BeFS (no partitions, just initialize the whole thing as BeFS), and then use Installer to copy your Haiku disk onto it.
The secret here is that Installer does not just transfer a base system: it creates a clone of your entire disk or partition. And any computer built in the last ten years will boot from USB. Or was there a specific reason why you need to put it on a CD-R?
Yeah, in fact at the moment i have my personal installation of Haiku on USB SD card; i can boot this SD card on the most computers, but i need also a CD version for installing my customized Haiku on some older computers (these old computers cannot make boot from usb).
Thanks,
Giovanni.
Have a look at the link Humdinger gave. Each link on that page represents a step in creating a customised build of Haiku; click on each link open up a guide that will help you to complete that step.
The last step is Building Haiku using Jam, which will crate a disk image of Haiku that you have customised in earlier steps. You can boot off that disk image like you would with the official image.[/quote]
I gave a look here: http://www.haiku-os.org/guides/building. There is a simple way to make the whole disk image (*.iso) as bootable image to write to a CD-R? I have tried with a software within windows, but this iso image is not bootable…
Thank You.
“jam haiku-cd” should build a bootable CD iso file.
“jam haiku-anyboot-image” should build a bootable image file usable for either CD or USB key.
Hi phoudoin,
I obtain these errors when i try jam command:
~> jam haiku-cd /boot/home/Jamfile: No such file or directory don't know how to make haiku-cd ... found 1 target(s)... ... can't find 1 target(s)... ~> I need the "Jamfile" how can obtain this?
[quote=Giova84]Hi phoudoin,
I obtain these errors when i try jam command:
~> jam haiku-cd /boot/home/Jamfile: No such file or directory[/quote]
You need to run jam from within the ‘generated’ folder of the source tree.
[quote=Giova84]Hi phoudoin,
I obtain these errors when i try jam command:
~> jam haiku-cd /boot/home/Jamfile: No such file or directory don't know how to make haiku-cd ... found 1 target(s)... ... can't find 1 target(s)... ~> I need the "Jamfile" how can obtain this?[/quote]
Jam @haiku-anyboot @haiku-cd the @ is important
If i use “jam @haiku-cd” i get the same errors…
In any way, I’ve found this topic: https://www.haiku-os.org/community/forum/making_bootable_iso_using_mkisofs_under_haiku
I have used the same command: mkisofs -R -max-iso9660-filenames -b haiku-boot-floppy.image -c boot.catalog -o /Haiku-Custom.iso /boot
Then i have booted up this iso file inside Virtualbox:
Once the desktop is show up, i’ve also found the same trouble: most of attributes seem lost. The folders are with grey icon and applications with the default icon
Screenshot:
I’ve also found that the “find” function no longer work inside Haiku.
Where is the problem and how can i solve?
[quote=Giova84]If i use “jam @haiku-cd” i get the same errors…
In any way, I’ve found this topic: https://www.haiku-os.org/community/forum/making_bootable_iso_using_mkisofs_under_haiku
I have used the same command: mkisofs -R -max-iso9660-filenames -b haiku-boot-floppy.image -c boot.catalog -o /Haiku-Custom.iso /boot
Then i have booted up this iso file inside Virtualbox:
Once the desktop is show up, i’ve also found the same trouble: most of attributes seem lost. The folders are with grey icon and applications with the default icon
Screenshot:
I’ve also found that the “find” function no longer work inside Haiku.
Where is the problem and how can i solve?[/quote]
sorry dude I had a stupid moment
first question did you check out the trunk ?
did you add 2 folders to your system to build hybrids ?
did you configure those folders
also
jam is the " build this command" everything behind it is the how to build and what to build
so
jam -j12 -q @alpha-cd
build 12 threads stop on errors the alpha iso image
conversly you could skip the j12 and the q and just type
jam @alpha-cd
theres a whole bunch of these arguments you can set.
anyways basics
jam
@alpha-anyboot
@alpha-raw
@alpha-cd
Those will build the Alpha images with webpositive, wonderbrush etc preinstalled
@nightly-cd
@nightly-raw
@nightly-anyboot
will build the stripped down nightly with less software
the -jxx is a way to set threads working on the build
so -j1 is one thread
-j12 is 12 threads
-q means to stop the build on any errors
-a will force the build system to rebuild all targets
Useage is like so
jam “build the following” -j12 " twelves worker threads" -a " rebuild or build all targets in the jam file" -q " stop on errors"
@alpha-cd " makes a alpha iso image
sp like this
jam -j12 -q -a @alpha-cd
Now to build haiku unless your just going for a straight build " which I haven’t done in a long time now so don;t bother asking me how"
You’ll need to go to the folder generated.x86gcc2 or generated.x86gcc4 you should have created those 2 folders should be in boot/home/haiku/haiku if you svn donwloaded the trunk and followed all the step on configuring for hybrids…
so in terminal cd “change directory” to the folder "example cd /boot/home/haiku/haiku/generated.x86gcc2 then use the above commands and it should build. On haiku this is pretty easy, on other OS’s there a bit more invovled, since I don’t build on a different OS’ I am spared the headaches of doing so.
Sure, now I have understand the requirements and I have my own CD version of Haiku 
Thanks to thatguy too for his exaustive explanation!
I think it is a very bad idea, at this early stage of Haiku development, to create personalized distributions.
Let us all stick with the one “mainstream” version, at least until R1 is released. The risk is that our strengths are dissipated and unnecessary confusion is created.
[quote=HaikuForever]I think it is a very bad idea, at this early stage of Haiku development, to create personalized distributions.
Let us all stick with the one “mainstream” version, at least until R1 is released. The risk is that our strengths are dissipated and unnecessary confusion is created.[/quote]
I’m sorry, probably i express myself not correctly. Not was in my intentions exit from Haiku’s mainstream: i just want to make a personal Haiku installation for my own use (with my own settings and necessary apps for me) . Not a distribution like Senryu, for example. I don’t wanna dissipated the uniqueness of Haiku, or cause confusion.
Best regards.
[quote=Giova84]Sure, now I have understand the requirements and I have my own CD version of Haiku
Thanks to thatguy too for his exaustive explanation![/quote]
A friend and I are rewriting to more basic easy to understand instruction the haiku compiling guides etc, its a bit overly devloper centric.