Create your own linux distro

1. Install ubuntu. You'll need to be running in ubuntu while you create the distro.

2. Make a list of all essential programs you need. I chose The GIMP, Gaim, VLC media player etc to make the distro complete.

3. We now need a program to do our work. We chose Reconstructor

4. Fire up Reconstructor with "sudo python reconstructor.py" in your Linux terminal, and you'll be told which dependencies you need to install before you run Reconstructor.

5. Go to System > Administration > Synaptic Package manager > settings > Respositories to make sure the Universe and Multiverse repositories are selected. Open a terminal and run "sudo apt-get install squashfs-tools gcc rsync libbogl-dev libus-plash-dev gpg dpkg-dev fakeroot apt-utlis" in the terminal window. You need to be online for this to work.

6. After downloading the dependencies, start Reconstructor again and you'll be greeted by a welcome screen.

7. In the new screen, select the "Create Remaster", "Create Root", and "Create Initial Ramdisk" options.

8. The last option in the window asks for the location of the main Ubuntu ISO file, which will be used to replicate the directory structure. Click the "..." button next to Live CD ISO Filename option, and navigate to where the Ubuntu ISO file is located; then click next.

9. The screen is divided into different tabs, the first being "Boot screens". This is where you change the first screen that is shown and also the image shown after you select boot options. To select the image, click on "Generate" button. Select the image and choose where to save it. Reconstructor will copy it to the correct directories, automatically giving you the custom screens.

10. The "Gnome" tab allows you to change the default login screen, theme, and fonts of the Ubuntu software after it's installed. You can either select one of the default themes, or click "..." button next to the theme selection option and import a custom theme.

11. The "Apt" tab allows you to select the repositories you want available during the live CD customisation phase. What impressed me most was that based on the version of Ubuntu you're using as a base, Reconstructor automatically chooses the corresponding repositories.

12. The next tab- "Live CD"- you can set the default username, password and hostname of the computer.

13. Once done, move over to the next tabcalled "Modules"- the soul of the program. Towards the bottom half of the screen, you'll find options to install or remove custom programs from the list above. Here you can add any program especially the essentials i mentioned in the second step.

Once you have all the modules and customisation in place, click on Apply button to go ahead and compile your very own linux distro.