Comments on: Ubuntu OEM Install

By: punongbisyonaryo

punongbisyonaryo — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 06:02:07 +0000

No worries, better late than never.:) Thanks for the tip.

By: Benn

Benn — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 05:09:01 +0000

I know it’s been a few years since this was posted, but I thought I’d give some clarifications as to what Chrys mentioned. If you want to set up configurations and files (backgrounds, etc.) for the users, add/edit files in /etc/skel . Anything in that directory is copied to the home directory of any newly created user.

By: punongbisyonaryo

punongbisyonaryo — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:25:31 +0000

Chrys, thanks for the warning, and sorry for the confusion. I’ll update the post with your advice.

As far as I know, the OEM user is just that, it’s only used for preconfguring the system. As to how much configuration is not carried over, that I don’t know. I’ll try to look it up.

By: Chrys

Chrys — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:21:07 +0000

You say “From here, you can configure your system as you please; install all available updates, configure the repositories, install multimedia codecs, and if you’re a computer company, set the desktop background to your company logo.”

But this has caused me some problems. I got an Ubuntu Box from a company that refurbishes old computers. They didn’t run oem-config-prepare so I got a machine that I had to login using “oem” and a password they gave me. That’s all the info I got. Being new to Linux/Ubuntu, I used the computer for 6 mos. before realizing the issue and the potential security risk of operating with a uname and pwd that hundreds of computers share.

But I had a desk-top all made and even some files on it that I just got and hadn’t backed up. I read your instructions assuming that the admin user’s desktop etc. would remain in place after running oem-config-prepare, but alas no. It seems the desktop, the home folder, is just gone from the now non-existent oem user – deleted. It would be good to warn folks of this possibility. Not all configuring is saved. In fact, it seems a lot of configuring is reset to defaults in the oem-config-prepare process.

By: punongbisyonaryo

punongbisyonaryo — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 11:22:13 +0000

Whoops! Corrected the link. It’s actually a good idea, especially when giving CDs to non-Linux friends. You can put in all the codecs, all the usual applications customized to their needs, or you can create a generic custom ISO.

By: Michael Bach Ipsen

Michael Bach Ipsen — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 08:05:10 +0000

The page doesn’t seem to be reachable. I’m not a computer salesman myself, but I’ve thought of creating an “optimized” Ubuntu OEM packages to make it easier for people to set everything up and make everything work from the start.

Perhaps it will be implemented in Gutsy or one of the future versions that you can do something à la oem-config-iso and create an OEM cd…

But thanks anyway!

By: punongbisyonaryo

punongbisyonaryo — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 03:00:44 +0000

There is a program called Reconstructor, and it’s available from http://reconstructor.aperantis.com. I haven’t tried it first hand though, but from what I understand, you install Reconstructor in your existing Linux system and you use it to work on your Ubuntu CD or ISO image (which is faster). You can customize packages and even the LiveCD session, and when you’re done you can burn it to disc.

After which you then run sudo oem-config-prepare but you don’t need to install the packages yourself anymore.

If you can write a tutorial or article about it, you can contribute it here if you want, or if you have your own site/blog, I’ll gladly link to it from here, as I’m sure the info would be very useful to someone.

By: Michael Bach Ipsen

Michael Bach Ipsen — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 15:18:15 +0000

Great tip, but how do you go from “sudo oem-config-prepare” to burning the OEM on a cd/dvd to be used on other computers? Otherwise you would have to prepare an OEM installation on each an every computer you want to sell.