cubic-os

A Guide on how to build a PikaOS ISO using Cubic

Host Builder

What should it be:

Anything based Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS or higher with X11 capabilities

Getting Cubic

Follow the guide in Cubic Ubuntu ISO Wizard

Cubic

Create a new project based Ubuntu 22.10 Kinetic

Cubic ISO Naming

• Set Volume ID to

PikaOS 22.10 amd64

• Set Release to

Kinetic Kudo

• Set Disk Name to

PikaOS 22.10 "Kinetic Kudu"

• Untick Update Release Description

The end result should look something like this:

Virtual Environment

Setup Live Session User

• Create user and set his password to "pika2022"

adduser pikaos

• Add proper groups to pikaos

usermod -a -G adm,dialout,cdrom,floppy,sudo,audio,dip,video,plugdev,lpadmin pikaos

• Make the live session auto-login with liveuser

cp /etc/gdm3/custom.conf /etc/gdm3/custom.conf.orig  

nano /etc/gdm3/custom.conf

Edit in the follwing under the "[daemon]" section:

#Enabling automatic login
  AutomaticLoginEnable = true
  AutomaticLogin = pikaos

• allow the pikaos to access sudo without password

cp /etc/sudoers /etc/sudoers.orig

nano /etc/sudoers

Edit in the follwing:

pikaos ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL

Setup default user groups to allow CUDA/ROCm Usage

echo 'ADD_EXTRA_GROUPS=1' | tee -a /etc/adduser.conf

echo 'EXTRA_GROUPS=video' | tee -a /etc/adduser.conf

echo 'EXTRA_GROUPS=render' | tee -a /etc/adduser.conf

Ubuntu is an ancient African word meaning 'humanity', we are mutating it into a cocketiel

• Removing Snap and weird ubuntu's stuff

apt purge snapd
apt remove yaru*
apt remove update-manager*
apt remove gnome-initial-setup

• Installing PikaOS Sources

apt update
apt install wget

go to https://launchpad.net/~pikaos/+archive/ubuntu/baseos/+packages and copy the download link to the latest pika-sources deb

example : https://launchpad.net/~pikaos/+archive/ubuntu/baseos/+files/pika-sources_2.0_all.deb

then download it using wget and install it

wget https://launchpad.net/~pikaos/+archive/ubuntu/baseos/+files/pika-sources_3.0-99pika18_all.deb

Install Source: (eventually it will ask for confirmation: Y)

apt install ./pika-sources_3.0-99pika18_all.deb

Remove Source:

rm pika-sources_3.0-99pika18_all.deb

Update Sources/PPAs

apt update

• Getting and configuring nala (10x faster apt)

install nala

apt install nala

disable nala autoremove

nano /etc/nala/nala.conf

Edit "auto_remove = true" to:

auto_remove = false

• Update the system

apt update
apt install linux-firmware
apt install pika-amdgpu-core
apt upgrade

if mesa gives you non-sense do:

dpkg -r libgl1-amber-dri

then

apt --fix-broken install

and again

apt upgrade

• Install the pika meta package

apt install pika-gnome-desktop-minimal zram-config

* Install our Kernel

apt install kernel-pika

⚠️ WARNING ⚠️ : IN CASE NALA OR APT HOLDS ANY PACKAGE FROM UPGRADE OR PUTS ANYTHING IN AUTOREMOVE USE "apt install" TO FIX IT IMMEDIATELY Example: Held packages: (make sure to double check that snapd ain't sneaking back like: gir1.2-snapd-2)

The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  gir1.2-snapd-2 gnome-themes-extra gnome-themes-extra-data gtk2-engines-murrine gtk2-engines-pixbuf
  libsysmetrics1 python3-distupgrade python3-update-manager ubuntu-release-upgrader-core xwayland
Use 'apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages have been kept back:
  plymouth plymouth-label plymouth-theme-spinner

Install:

apt install gnome-themes-extra gnome-themes-extra-data gtk2-engines-murrine gtk2-engines-pixbuf libsysmetrics1 python3-distupgrade python3-update-manager ubuntu-release-upgrader-core xwayland plymouth plymouth-label plymouth-theme-spinner

Getting the PikaOS installer

• remove shim stuff as it breaks non secure boot capable OSes

apt purge shim* --allow-remove-essential

• remove ubiquity

apt purge ubiquity*

• install pika-installer

apt install calamares-settings-pika

• remove calamares duplicate desktop entry

rm /usr/share/applications/calamares.desktop

Clean up

• Remove Ubuntu extra stuff:

apt remove *libreoffice* thunderbird shotwell remmina totem

apt remove gnome-mines gnome-sudoku gnome-mahjongg aisleriot

• Clean

apt autoremove
nala clean
apt clean

Ex of autoremove:

The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  gir1.2-goa-1.0 gir1.2-snapd-2 python3-dateutil ubuntu-advantage-desktop-daemon
  gir1.2-totem-1.0 gir1.2-totemplparser-1.0 guile-3.0-libs libabw-0.1-1 libavahi-ui-gtk3-0
  libboost-filesystem1.74.0 libboost-locale1.74.0 libcdr-0.1-1 libclucene-contribs1v5
  libclucene-core1v5 libe-book-0.1-1 libeot0 libepubgen-0.1-1 libetonyek-0.1-1 libexttextcat-2.0-0
  libexttextcat-data libfreehand-0.1-1 libfreerdp-client2-2 libgc1 libgnome-games-support-1-3
  libgnome-games-support-common liblangtag-common liblangtag1 libmhash2 libmspub-0.1-1 libmwaw-0.3-3
  libmythes-1.2-0 libodfgen-0.1-1 liborcus-0.17-0 liborcus-parser-0.17-0 libpagemaker-0.0-0
  libqqwing2v5 libraptor2-0 librasqal3 librdf0 librevenge-0.0-0 libtotem0 libuno-cppu3
  libuno-cppuhelpergcc3-3 libuno-purpenvhelpergcc3-3 libuno-sal3 libuno-salhelpergcc3-3 libvisio-0.1-1
  libvncclient1 libwpd-0.10-10 libwpg-0.3-3 libwps-0.4-4 libxmlsec1 libxmlsec1-nss lp-solve
  python3-debconf remmina-common shotwell-common totem-common uno-libs-private ure

Prepare Page

See the fruits of your work!

Package Page

Sometimes Cubic bugs out and shows this page:

this for the ubiquity package selections and you can just ignore it

Option Page => Boot Tab

this is where you configure grub of the live session

please overwrite the following with:

• boot => grub => grub.cfg (You can remove quiet and splash to have full verbose)

set timeout=30

loadfont unicode

set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray

menuentry "Start PikaOS Live Session" {
	set gfxpayload=keep
	linux	/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed quiet splash --- 
	initrd	/casper/initrd.gz
}
menuentry "Start PikaOS Live Session with nomodeset (safe graphics)" {
	set gfxpayload=keep
	linux	/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper nomodeset file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed quiet splash --- 
	initrd	/casper/initrd.gz
}
grub_platform
if [ "$grub_platform" = "efi" ]; then
menuentry 'Boot from next volume' {
	exit 1
}
menuentry 'UEFI Firmware Settings' {
	fwsetup
}
else
menuentry 'Test memory' {
	linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin
}
fi

• boot => grub => loopback.cfg (You can remove quiet and splash to have full verbose)

menuentry "Start PikaOS Live Session" {
	set gfxpayload=keep
	linux	/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed iso-scan/filename=${iso_path} quiet splash --- 
	initrd	/casper/initrd.gz
}
menuentry "Start PikaOS Live Session with nomodeset (safe graphics)" {
	set gfxpayload=keep
	linux	/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper nomodeset file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed iso-scan/filename=${iso_path} quiet splash --- 
	initrd	/casper/initrd.gz
}

Compression Page

Choose whatever you like

I recommend gzip

Creation Page

After this a PikaOS iso will generate in the project files

Congrats!