Creating a customized and lightweight version of Bluefin

Bluefin
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Hi everyone!
I know that to create a customized version of the Bluefin template, it must be used (cannot add the GitHub link as a new user I can add up to 2 links in a post)

I wonder if using this GitHub - blue-build/template: Template for making your own OS image using BlueBuild can be a good starting point too, just for testing out the things I’ve created in this project: genai-dev-distro/recipes/recipe.yml at d74009a23ef2928a7b6d7267c616e560e421b2cd · paolomainardi/genai-dev-distro · GitHub, which installs some extra packages.

The question is: What are the drawbacks of creating a customized version? Are there any features that may be lost, such as automatic updates or other functionalities? From a container perspective, it should be essentially the same, aside from ISOs, which could include additional components like Flatpak installations and other installer customizations.

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Bluebuild is fine for this purpose – I’ve been using it for my custom spin of Bluefin and other Universal Blue images for more than a year now. Even though I know how to build a Dockerfile Containerfile, I find that the recipe files make it easier to understand what modifications I’m making.

The only drawback to custom images are the hours of your free time that you spend fiddling with things to get them Just Right :slight_smile: . Joking aside, it’s wise to keep an eye on the changes in Bluefin (and Bluebuild for that matter) to make sure they don’t trample on anything that you’ve done (e.g. hiding Gnome Terminal when your custom image sets that as default, or changing the expected directory structure of the recipe repo).

For the most part, you don’t lose features from Bluefin (e.g. automatic updates) unless you specifically remove them. If you use the Bluebuild default-flatpaks module you won’t get Bluefin’s flatpaks automatically, but there’s a ujust command that will install them for you.

1 Like
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Thank you very much for your response; it was exactly what I needed. I will check your custom spin now.

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I’ve been running on a similar approach for a long while. Here is the repo my PC is based on: GitHub - tunix/penguix

There’s not much of a downside really. The only drawbacks are maybe these:

  • You have to maintain a repository and keep things running if it fails
  • From time to time, you have to rebase/merge from upstream which can be a pain for longer periods between rebases/merges

Aside from these, I’m quite happy with it.

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Thanks for your reply as well @tunix

What does it mean to rebase or merge upstream when starting from the Bluefin image and simply adding packages? Just like this: genai-dev-distro/recipes/recipe.yml at d74009a23ef2928a7b6d7267c616e560e421b2cd · paolomainardi/genai-dev-distro · GitHub

Of course, this is just a very basic example that can be done with a recipe after the installation; I am using it as a playground.