Custom ISO with a custom shell

[malch]

I've just made my first custom ISO with manjaro-tools. Very nice indeed!

However, I would really like to replace bash with a different shell and cannot figure out how to tweak the build to achieve that.

I'd be very grateful for any pointers.

[crazyg4merz]

Hi there. I managed to make zsh as my default shell on my custom build of Manjaro back then. If I remember correctly, just include the shell you want to the packages to install list, then add your custom /etc/passwd to use the custom shell by default. Of course you need to add the shell configuration file into your /etc/skel also so your shell isn't ugly af 
But if it fail, all you need to do is do chsh -u blablabla after installation though. Good luck

[Chrysostomus]

Note that this will only work with cli-installer. Thus (and maybe calamares) makes bash your shell on installed system regardles of your iso profile.

[malch]

Thank you both for the comments.

I'm not too concerned about what shell is used following an install. This custom ISO is primarily a system maintenance tool rather than an installer. If I'm performing a fresh install it's no big deal to do the chsh.

Unfortunately, placing a hacked /etc/passwd in the overlay didn't work. The build failed telling me that user 'manjaro' already exists.

Oh well. Is there a way to manually tweak the file system after the build but before it gets squashed into the ISO? That would solve another problem I'm having with ~/.mozilla/firefox/manjaro.default/chrome/. I can't nuke the symlink that is created by default to the Manjaro theme.

[crazyg4merz]

Thank you both for the comments.

I'm not too concerned about what shell is used following an install. This custom ISO is primarily a system maintenance tool rather than an installer. If I'm performing a fresh install it's no big deal to do the chsh.

Unfortunately, placing a hacked /etc/passwd in the overlay didn't work. The build failed telling me that user 'manjaro' already exists.

Oh well. Is there a way to manually tweak the file system after the build but before it gets squashed into the ISO? That would solve another problem I'm having with ~/.mozilla/firefox/manjaro.default/chrome/. I can't nuke the symlink that is created by default to the Manjaro theme.

Maybe you can make a custom script to run chsh when installing the iso? I swear I managed to do that, but I forgot how I did it.
Yeah you can, everything inside /etc/skel/.config will go into your home folder. But you have to do a clean install though, because if you mount your home folder without formatting it it won't copy anything. So if you already have a lot of files inside your home partition and you don't want to format it, it's better to just copy it manually after installation. Or maybe you can install as a different username.

[malch]

Well I found a way to do the build in two parts:

Code: [Select]

buildiso -x -p xfce
Make tweaks in /var/lib/manjaro-tools/buildiso/xfce/x86_64/
buildiso -p xfce -zc
That enabled me to solve some other problems but if I hack /etc/passwd the ISO when booted up requires a password for user manjaro. Entering "manjaro" didn't work 

So I guess I'll live with a manual chsh for the moment.

In the process of doing all this, I've also managed to integrate several AUR packages successfully so I'm a pretty happy camper overall!

Thanks for all your help guys and have a great weekend!

[Chrysostomus]

The file you need to edit is /etc/default/useradd. See here:
https://github.com/manjaro/manjaro-tools-iso-profiles/blob/master/community/bspwm/bspwm-overlay/etc/default/useradd

[Chrysostomus]

Bspwm edition has zsh as custom shell, so I know this to work.

Other workarounds include making bash start your custom shell at login, making a custom launcher for your terminal that launches it or making a bash script that lets you easily swutch your default shell.

[crazyg4merz]

The file you need to edit is /etc/default/useradd. See here:
https://github.com/manjaro/manjaro-tools-iso-profiles/blob/master/community/bspwm/bspwm-overlay/etc/default/useradd

Now I remember how I got it working. Thanks mate
Also, if you install the iso with the same username your last home partition is, then this won't work unless you make another user either after installation or during installation, so I think the better way to get everyone to enjoy your custom iso the making bash to open up custom shell is a better approach (because I always preserve my home partition when installing distro and I think most of use do).
I think this topic is solved now?