EmComm Tools Debian Edition

This is an unofficial spin on EmComm Tools OS Community created by The Tech Prepper.

EmComm Tools does not provide ready to use ISO images. This is what this project is set up to solve.

In an ideal world, this project will become obsolete by having this solved upstream.

Obtaining EmComm Tools Debian Edition

Important

This project is not endorsed by The Tech Prepper. If you experience issues, please do not direct requests at him.

You will find the latest build on this projects' releases section.

Key differences

This project builds on top of Debian instead of Ubuntu. While they both use the Gnome desktop, Debian does not come with Canonicals' changes to Gnome. As a result, Debian Edition will have a different look and feel.

In an attempt better blend in to Gnomes look and feel, Debian Edition uses Epiphany as the default web browser.

Build on your own

Having a ready to use ISO image is convenient. Being able to build your own, allows you to tailor it to your own needs.

Reasons to build your own

• Select maps relevant to your area.
• Add a ready to use VARA using a backup from a previous instance.
• Add additional software

Build prerequisites

• Working instance of Debian Stable
• The packages make, quilt, and live-build installed
• A copy of this repository

Building

From within the top folder, run:

make

Customize your build

Map selection

The EmComm tools installation scripts, show dialogs where you can choose the maps to be included. Using environment variables, one can preset the answers to those dialogs.

# Supported values are:
# * `us`: United States of America, ``
# * `ca`: Canada
# * `world`: whole globe but with less zoom levels.
export ET_MAP_SELECTION=world

# Any `.osm.pdf` URL from https://download.geofabrik.de.
# WARNING: Keep an eye on the size. Those files can become very huge very quick.
# The example below is 5.6 GB!
export ET_OSM_URL=https://download.geofabrik.de/europe/dach-latest.osm.pbf
# 5.6 GB!

If set to empty (export ET_OSM_URL=), downloading the map will be skipped.

Other customizations

The ISO images are built using live-build. Alter the generated configuration by placing files in the overrides directory. The inner structure overrides is the same as that of config.

Add additional packages:

mkdir -p overrides/package-lists
echo 'chirp' > overrides/package-lists/custom.list.chroot

Add VARA from backup created on an install of EmComm Tools:

mkdir -p overrides/includes.chroot_after_packages/etc/skel
tar x -C overrides/includes.chroot_after_packages/etc/skel -f etc-wine-backup*.tar.gz

Your build

Ensure you have the following dependencies installed:

• qemu-kvm
• qemu-utils

make run

This starts the EmComm Tools image in a virtual machine.

Note

Running the installer does not work. The virtual machine does not have access to any disks. But EmComm tools runs completely fine within the live environment.