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Meilix Build Process

Meilix is an operating system developed in FOSSASIA. It has the capability to be easily customize which makes it different from other operating systems.

It is of 32 bit right now.

It is all started with build.sh script.

And the basic idea is:

  • Declaring the mirror, version, and language to use.
  • Referring to the source file
  • Download and updating required packages
  • Create chroot
  • Using chroot to execute script

At the very beginning, the webapp Meilix Generator trigger Travis with the input provided in the form with the event name as the tag name of the Travis build. This will help to distinguish between the releases.

Then the travis script .travis.yml executes build.sh script after changing its permission.

  - chmod +x ./build.sh
  - ./build.sh |& tee log.txt

 

Let’s get into the build.sh script and look into it.

arch=${1:-i386}

 

First we select the bit version of the OS which we need to build.

datafiles="image-${arch}.tar.lzma sources.list"

 

This provides necessary data files required to build the OS. The tar.lzma contains exactly the same file which are there in an ISO of a OS. So it gives us the capability to make changes into the system files.

Then it starts to download the required packages which will help during the process.

Then runs a debuild script which debuilds the metapackages.

chmod +x ./scripts/debuild.sh
./scripts/debuild.sh

 

The debuild script actually repacks the meilix-default-setting metapackages with the required settings. Meilix-default-settings metapackage is fully explained here. Debuilding process is explained here.

Then Meilix goes on installing required packages and deleting the unrequired files.

Meilix build script is well commented to help to understand the whole process line by line.

Then Travis release a Meilix ISO in github release and mail the user with the log in the attachment.

Special Features:

Meilix has some special features which makes it fully customizable:

  • Meilix-default-setting metapackages, it contains the home folder and the changes made inside it can be seen in the OS.
  • Metapackages in the Meilix are very helpful in installing any required package.
  • Meilix System Lock helps to clean the system and get back to a fixed time.

Reference:

Flask Web Forms- Generator

Shell Scripting- Meilix

chroot – Debian Wiki

 

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