Could I achieve this level of customization with Archiso?

12padams · 2013-09-06 13:13:02

I've been wanting to start working on ShiftOS (A future distro I'm planning to develop) for a while now but due to lack of time and difficulty choosing a base distro and live cd creation tool I've been put off. Recently I've been greatly enjoying Arch Linux and I love exploring new software and alternatives to the common stuff we do. I've discovered Archiso allows you to create your own arch based distro and this may just be the base of ShiftOS if it can achieve the following goals I have with ShiftOS:

ShiftOS is aimed to provide a completely different user experience every time you boot your computer. Initially the Shifts between boots will be extremely basic but as I continue to develop it the distro will feel like a different distro every time you boot into it. What will change exactly? EVERYTHING! This means your software will be different, your desktop environment or window manager will be different and even the basic desktop layout, wallpaper, themes and "desktop software" (stuff like having a dock app launcher or conky) will change each boot. Much later into development I plan to add live shifts allowing the distro to shift at set or random intervals while you use it.

ShiftOS is all about exploring. It's for distro hoppers who want to distro hop without distro hopping. When a shift occurs you are forced into that shift or way of doing things (unless you use the command line/terminal). I'll achieve this with having lots of software, backgrounds, themes, window managers and desktop managers secretly pre-installed but randomly select at boot or even during a live shift which to reveal to the user. To force you to try new software "you will only be able to use one piece of software from each category at a time" (technically you could still use a terminal to access any of the installed programs). To control this a menu, dock or some other program launcher will randomly be loaded with shortcuts to certain software. Each slot will randomly be filled with one piece of software of that slots genre. For example the first slot could be a web browser. In this case a script would generate a random number and if that number is 1 the shortcut will be to Firefox, if the number is 2 the shortcut will be to chrome and so on. This progress would continue for each of the other categories until the entire dock is filled with a new set of random software each reboot.

When I first start ShiftOS the dynamics of the shifts will be very basic and honestly poor. Here's what I mean:

ShiftOS 0.1 - Shiftless: This will be a basic distro that can automatically boot into a set desktop environment (e.g. KDE). It will feature a dock such as docky and a custom but static layout. There will be one web browser, one graphics editor, one audio editor, one video editor, one game and one type of lots of other software too... there will be one desktop background, one theme and one whatever else you can think of. Overall this will just test my ability to be able to create a live cd.

ShiftOS 0.2 - Shifty Skin: This version will be the first to involve a very basic first shift. There will be 5 desktop backgrounds (on boot one will be randomly selected) and 5 window themes (stuff like the appearance of title bars, window borders and buttons) that will randomly be chosen at boot. In other words 5x5 means there will be 25 different combinations of appearances when you boot it.

ShiftOS 0.3 - Soft Shifts: This version will have multiple types of software from each category installed. At random each slot in the dock will be filled with a random program from each genre. There should be at least 3 programs installed for each category. To emphasis and celebrate the program shifts the dock will now also have its theme changed between 5 different themes every reboot.

Future versions are not yet planned as I want to get ShiftOS 0.3 done before I start planning ahead too far and overwhelming myself with it all...

Anyway now for my question... Can this be achieved with Archiso? Could I have scripts or my own software that changes these kind of things at boot or maybe live with the press of a button while the distro is running? Also let's say I have kde installed. Would Archiso allow me to set up a KDE layout rather than just have the default KDE layout on the live usb?

Thanks in advance for your help :)

Last edited by 12padams (2013-09-06 13:29:56)

WonderWoofy · 2013-09-06 15:41:59

archiso is just a set of shell scripts that provide convenience. So you can make archiso do whatever you want, assuming you know how to script out such a thing.

Honestly, I am very glad you have found Arch Linux and are enjoying all that it has to offer. But running a distribution is not an easy thing to do, and requires a pretty deep understanding of all the components that go into making Linux tick. I think what you are actually trying to get after here is just a single distribution that just changes faces. It would seem that all you would really have to do is create a few Xorg setups, and then just have a mechanism to rotate the sessions, possibly cycling through a couple config files for each as well.

So start with trying to amke yourself a usable/workable archiso with a GUI and whatnot. Learn how archiso works, and then you can answer this question for yourself.

FYI, there is a term for projects that have a name but no backing code/content. It is called vaporware (and no the logo doesn't count).

jasonwryan · 2013-09-06 19:37:35

Not a Programming and Scripting issue, moving to NC...

clfarron4 · 2013-09-06 19:45:50

12padams wrote:

I'll achieve this with having lots of software, backgrounds, themes, window managers and desktop managers secretly pre-installed but randomly select at boot or even during a live shift which to reveal to the user.

That's going to be a lot of band-width used to download the ISO file, or download everything from repositories...

cfr · 2013-09-07 01:13:00

How will they be "secretly" pre-installed?!

12padams · 2013-09-07 01:18:11

So really this is possible... Wow sounds awesome! So let's say I made the first version of ShiftOS with the latest version of arch installed on my computer. Would it be easy to convert this to a bootable iso with Atchison?

Also should it come with all video drivers so it can run on all computers? Or is there issues with conflicting drivers?

Anyway I'll start researching this stuff now and hopefully use archiso to create something bootable within a month.

Glad to know you can create anything with Archiso and that there are no limitations while using it.

As yes, ShiftOS is going to practically be the most bloated os you have tried requiring at least an 8 gig usb to install it to.

Last edited by 12padams (2013-09-07 01:30:28)

WonderWoofy · 2013-09-07 01:26:59

I'm not saying that archiso is what you *should* be using. I am only saying that it is just a shell script, so it *can* very easily be modified as you see fit. But in order to do something, it would take at least some working knowledge of bash. If your commentary in your videos are any indication, I think you have quite a bit of learning to do.

I'm not trying to discourage you, but I just think that you need to do a _lot_ more research before coming and asking these kinds of questions.

frank604 · 2013-09-07 07:10:52

Great innovative spirit but it begs the question of why anyone would download such a big smorgasbord of de, wm, apps when we all have virtualbox to do our testing in? Then again everyone needs a hobby/project so I wish you well on the journey.

arcon · 2013-09-07 13:26:11

It's nice to see a distribution, as you discribed. At one point, i think you are doing exactly opposite what Arch Linux is used for (being a simple lightweight OS).
But it will be nice, if you choose a single WM/DE and create a needed set of config files which you can select via systemd or through another script with every reboot and give your system different look at different boots.

NOTE: I heard it somewhere that, some really good coders created distributions on there own (alone), like in 1 year. With Archiso, you are creating another Arch but if you want a running distribution which you can share with others i think you need more.

clfarron4 · 2013-09-07 19:39:19

12padams wrote:

Also should it come with all video drivers so it can run on all computers? Or is there issues with conflicting drivers?
Anyway I'll start researching this stuff now and hopefully use archiso to create something bootable within a month.

It kind of sounds like you've never done this before, so start with one DE first before moving onto others.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-09-06 13:13:02

Could I achieve this level of customization with Archiso?

#2 2013-09-06 15:41:59

Re: Could I achieve this level of customization with Archiso?

#3 2013-09-06 19:37:35

Re: Could I achieve this level of customization with Archiso?

#4 2013-09-06 19:45:50

Re: Could I achieve this level of customization with Archiso?

#5 2013-09-07 01:13:00

Re: Could I achieve this level of customization with Archiso?

#6 2013-09-07 01:18:11

Re: Could I achieve this level of customization with Archiso?

#7 2013-09-07 01:26:59

Re: Could I achieve this level of customization with Archiso?

#8 2013-09-07 07:10:52

Re: Could I achieve this level of customization with Archiso?

#9 2013-09-07 13:26:11

Re: Could I achieve this level of customization with Archiso?

#10 2013-09-07 19:39:19

Re: Could I achieve this level of customization with Archiso?

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