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<h1>Auto-Building Morphix Modules</h1> |
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<p>In the last two hacks we've looked at what Morphix is, and how we |
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can easily customize an existing Morphix Live CD. In this last hack, |
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we will take a look at Module Maker, or MMaker, a tool for autobuilding Morphix |
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modules. Remastering modules is all fine and well, and you can do this |
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just as you can with a compressed KNOPPIX image. However, laziness is |
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seen as a virtue in Morphix-land: one command is all it should take to |
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(re)build a module. |
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<h2>A look at a module generator</h2> |
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<p>MMaker is a tool under development at the moment, but is quite |
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simple in nature. Using a so-called template, an xml file with all the |
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information about the module you want to build, you can auto-build a |
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Morphix module: |
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<pre> |
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mmaker mytemplate.xml mymodule.mod |
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</pre> |
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<p>What MMaker does when you execute this command is debootstrap a new |
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debian filesystem using the details in the template, set up the |
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necessary mainmodule directories and installs all packages specified |
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in the template, while using apt to handle any |
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dependancies. Afterwards it compresses the whole bunch into a fresh |
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new module, ready to be added to a Morphix Live CD in the usual |
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manner. |
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<p/>As you might have guessed, the template is the key to all of |
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this. A look at one for Morphix LightGUI: [note to editor: the |
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template uses an xml notation, so might not appear when viewing in html] |
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<pre> |
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<comps> |
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<groups> |
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<version>0.5</version> |
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<id>lightgui</id> |
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<name>Morphix LightGUI</name> |
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<repositorylist> |
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<repository type="debian">ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian</repository> |
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<repository type="plain">http://www.morphix.org/debian</repository> |
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</repositorylist> |
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<description>Morphix LightGUI mainmodule. Includes XFCE4, Firefox, |
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Abiword and a host of other goodies</description> |
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<type>mainmod</type> |
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<suite>sid</suite> |
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<packagelist> |
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<packagereq>abiword</packagereq> |
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<packagereq>xfce4</packagereq> |
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<packagereq>mozilla-firefox</packagereq> |
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<!-- ... other goodies here ... --> |
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</packagelist> |
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</group> |
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</comps> |
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</pre> |
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<p>Seems simple, doesn't it? The actual template for LightGUI is |
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quite a bit longer (and contains a package to start xfce4 at boot |
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time), but it's very simple to specify which repositories you want to use, |
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what Debian suite you want, what type of Morphix module you want to |
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autobuild and naturally the packages you want. Currently, MMaker can |
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only build base and main modules . A few tags might need some extra |
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explaining: |
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<p/> |
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<repository> - With this tag you define the Debian repository/repositories from |
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which to build your module. Use the type="plain" attribute when you |
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have a repository without separate suites (You can verify this by |
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checking the repository, if it has a Packages file in the root directory of |
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the repository we call it 'plain'). Normal, Debian-style repositories |
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is default |
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<p/> |
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<type> - mainmod, basemod. minimod-type templates are coming up |
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(a separate minimodule generator was constructed before MMaker). It |
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would actually be fairly easy to even have a knoppix-type. |
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<p/> |
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<suite> - sid, sarge, woody (or unstable, testing or stable). These |
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are the three branches of Debian, of which Morphix is derived from. |
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<p/> |
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<arch> - the architecture for which you are building your |
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module. Using an architecture different from the host system isn't |
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recommended and can lead to very interesting errors. It defaults to |
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the architecture of your host system, which should be fine most of the |
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time. |
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<p/>There are a few other tags and commandline options for MMaker, |
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consult the documentation for details. |
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<p/>After your module is built (which takes some time without a local |
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Debian mirror) your uncompressed module will exist in a directory in |
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your /tmp. MMaker will output details of how to recompress it if |
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necessary. We hope MMaker will be useful in letting Morphix work for you! |
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<h2>References</h2> |
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Module Maker Wiki page: |
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http://www.alextreme.org/phpwiki/index.php/ModuleMaker |
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