• "Ubuntu Ultimate Edition" - What is that?
• Why do I even want to use this release?
• What kernel does this release use?
• What distro is this release based apon?
• How can I make my own Distro?
• How do I make a module?

     Due to the popularity of Ubuntu Christmas Edition I have decided to make another distro I'm calling "Ubuntu Ultimate Edition" it has everything listed in the Christmas Edition plus much more I will be listing added features here first.  Plenty of HTML to clean up including this page.  I have however removed Adobe Acrobat Reader, Adobe Flash, Sun Java & Google Earth due to licensing agreements.  Please freat not included in the release is my custom repo pre-added which contains all the software and much more.  Firefox's homepage will give detailed descriptions on obtaining all additional software from our custom repo.

     What is Ubuntu Ultimate Edition? Screenshots.  It is Ubuntu Edgy Eft with the following software pre-added:

• New theme / splash screen / wallpaper
• VCD Gear debian style
• Subversion & build tools
• Wireless Internet integration
• Bluetooth integration
• PPP integration
• Networking tools
• 35 Additional fonts
• Tons more themes
• Repository driven Beryl
• New sounds theme
• Integrated Custom repository support
• All current Updates 158 at time of posting
• IPod support
• Beagle
• Gramps - Genealogy software (thanks poweruser2600)
• Legends - Video Game
• Kapote - Instant Messenger
• Integrated codecs (the good the bad & the ugly)
• Mplayer, VLC, Songbird & Amarok players with mp3 support
• Mencoder, K9Copy, DeVeDE, DVD Shrink - dvd copying software.
• Integrated Nvidia drivers (will work with other cards)
• Automatix 2 & Automatix Bleeder (in case you want additional software)
• Gaim beta 5 & plugins
• GFTP - FTP Client
• KVIrc - IRC Client
• Additional Themes, icons, cursors & logins
• XSnow
• Samba
• NFS
• EasyTag - MP3 Tag Editor
• GDesklets
• Inkscape - 2D vector drawing
• Screem - HTML Editor
• Gambas - Programing environment
• QEMU & Kqemu Accelerator - Emulation
• Screem - HTML Editor
• Avidemux - Avi (divx /xvid) editor
• GDesklets - Eyecandy & info
• NTFS read / write support
• Lamp - web server (Apache2, mysql, PHP5)
• phpmyadmin
• Azureus - P2P software
• MS core Font's and extra fonts
• Wine - Windows emulation (always newest version - through repo)
• Alien - Allows installation of foriegn packages (RPM, suse etc)
• Gobby Team programing software
• Ksnapshot - Screen capture software
• Google Picasa - Graphic editing software
• Frostwire Pro - P2P software
• Kolourpaint - Graphic editing software
• Qcad - Autocad wannabe
• Archive Suite - virtually any archive can be handled.
• Ajunta IDE - Programing environment
• Bluefish - HTML Editor
• Glade - Interface designer
• Gtranslator
• Bit Tornado - P2P Software
• Amule - P2P software
• Kino - Flick editor
• Audacity - Sound editor
• Debian Menu (pdmenu)
• Dvdrip - Dvd ripping software
• Democracy Player
• Listen Media Manager
• Steamripper
• Ilinux (banshee)
• Gnucash - Financial software
• Aria - Download manager
• Build Essentials and make utility's
• Quanta Plus and extras - HTML Editor
• Graveman - burning software
• New Grub splash screen and animated "very pretty" boot up screen
• Bum - Boot-up manager
• Sum - Startup manager (newer improved version gtk and terminal based)
• Istanbul - Live screen capture
• Ghex - Hex editor
• Gourmet - Recipe manager
• Isomaster - CD / DVD ISO editor
• GPHPEdit - PHP Editor
• Kino - Clip editor
• Aria - Download manager
• Democracy - Movie streamer
• ClamAV - Anti-virus software
• Listen - Media manager
• DVD|RIP - Dvd ripping software
• Lifrea - RSS feed reader
• Brasero - Disc burning tool
• X-Chat - IRC Client
• QDVDAuthor - DVD authoring software

     "rightoutofthebox: This ubuntu Christmas editon is awesome! I've tried many Linux distros over the past year and none have worked so completely well on my computer. A huge thanks!."  In case you didn't want to take my word for it.  The distro can be used beyond Christmas there are many, many themes included such as but not limited to... tropic, blubuntu, peace etc. as well as addition login screens.  Each can be changed respectivly; System - Preferences - Theme or System - Administration - Login Window.  Additional themes can be added using the art manager also included in the release (System - Preferences - Art Manager).  The boot screen can be changed using sum - Start up manager, also included System - Administration - Startup-Manager.

     The release contains almost any tool requested by users a one stop shop humanity for humanity distro if you will and everything "Just Works" right out of the box.  As can be viewed from the home page this release is based off Edgy Eft, already with updates as well as the following additional software.

     2.6.17-10-generic Please don't discern the name generic it is an Edgy Eft based kernel straight from the repos they have spent blood sweat and tears building the kernel to support all processors as modules rather then compiled in if you have SMP (multi-processor) it will load the module accordingly, the only thing I can think of would question is a sparc processor that I'm unsure of as well as Apple Macintosh G3, G4, and G5 computers, including iBooks and PowerBooks as well as IBM OpenPower machines..

     All though I was tempted to strip services to speed boot time I did not do so because of the "what if"... What if the user that downloads this has a laptop, bluetooth etc. However included in the release is bum - Boot Up Manager that will allow you to remove unwanted services & speed boot time. Please be aware some services will render your OS useless please do not uncheck what you are unsure of a section for this is to come.

     The bottom line is... if Edgy Eft works this will too; this is Edgy Eft updated through repos with all the features & software added from the list nothing removed, only thing custom built is Gaim IM which was built with all architectures in mind.

     The Distro was created using Ubuntu - Edgy Eft 6.10 (debian based) and Reconsructor Software.  Through the use of rmods.  Features can be added / removed from a Ubuntu distro with the click of a mouse.  I write rmods almost daily sometimes 6 or 7 a day, please check back often as I will be adding a page for posting additional modules I and others have created.

     Reconstructor is NLite is to windows.  The customizations are virtually endless additional features are added / removed by rmods (similar to a bash script).  I create modules daily however will not post them until fully tested thank god for dvd-rw's.

Getting Started

1. Obtain Reconstructor software

2. Grab any additional modules you may want added.  Put them in /usr/share/reconstructor/modules.

3. Applications - System Tools - Reconstructor - click next

4. Check all three boxes first time only.

5. Click browse button and select your Ubuntu.ISO

6. Click next & wait... Takes a long time progress can be viewed in the terminal.

Ubuntu your way

Boot Screen

From this tabbed screen you can adjust many things such as the color of the text on the boot screen as well as splash screen.

Gnome

GDM login, Splash screen and initial background color can be changed I suggest a browse through gnomelook.org to customize the appearance.

Desktop wallpaper can be changed here as well as fonts.

You can change the overall theme & icons of your Live CD / DVD such as the chrome theme screenshots here.

APT

Here you can enable all repos so by default the DVD / CD & when installed will have them enabled as well as add custom repos.

Optimization

Here you can stop services from running off disk as well as installed such as you may have no need for wireless etc.  Tweaking if you will.

Live CD

Here you can enter a default username / password etc.

Modules

This is the real meat & potatoes of the software...  This section allows adding / removing software from the Live DVD / CD.  This will only get better as time progresses & more modules become available (currently 126).

Once you are satisfied with all the options etc. you have set hit apply and it will build it for you (once again a long time).  Once completed you can click next and it will create the iso as well as burn it if you so desire.

     First off hats off to Evan for writing the software.  An .rmod is basically a bash script, do bare in mind in a chroot environment.  You can learn about bash scripting almost in its entirety.  However this Howto is specific to reconstructor.

Module writing 101

First we will start with the code I'll copy from one of my current mods:

Now lets break it down, its not that hard:

Is the opening line for almost any bash script the opening # is typically a comment line except in this case the rest that trails with #'s are just that a comment.

RMOD_ENGINE is the engine the software (reconstructor) is basing the module off best left alone at this point.

I thought I'd address both issues same time.  Category can only be Software currently as far as I know even svn but obviously Evan has left that open thanks Evan (hardware drivers, GUI xfce, kubuntu etc). RMOD_SUBCATEGORY can be any category listed:

• Administration
• Graphics
• Miscellaneous
• Multimedia
• Networking
• Plugins
• Productivity
• Servers
• Virtualization

Once again addressing multiple issues but feel after understanding the above might seem minuscule.

RMOD_NAME is the name that appears as the description in reconstructor.

RMOD_AUTHOR='Your name here'

RMOD_VERSION will always start out at 0.1 as you make changes / enhancements increase the version accordingly.

RMOD_RUN_IN_CHROOT=True

RMOD_UPDATE_URL
='http://ubuntusoftware.info/rmods/'

In most cases you should never have to modify the first line unless using an internal program etc.  The update url is where you host your rmod so if you update it others will get the update as well.

Getting down to business

After the # which means squat other then a comment as explained above. Will output the distro being worked on and check against it to see if the rmod should even run. If not exits immediately.  If it is indeed Edgy update sources.

On to the meat and potatoes

Nicely commented if I say so myself.  This will grab build-tools, download Audacious, extract, build and install Audacious.

Don't bloat my disk

This will scrap all debs downloaded throughout the process, directory and the tar file as well as inform the user the module has finished.

     In the works you won't have to see apt-get update as well as apt-get clean as the end user nearly as much (will take some time)...  Thanks again Evan.  This accelerates the users experience using reconstructor one apt-get update when modules initialize and apt-get clean when all modules have closed.  I have a SVN Version here with all modules included please consider this as a beta.  If you as a module writer want to add a repo you will have to apt-get update as does my nvidia module learn via example:

I look forward to seeing some of your work... :)