SUSE Studio documentation
Frequently Asked Questions
What is SUSE Studio?
SUSE Studio is a web-based software appliance builder. Using SUSE Studio, you can:
- Build a self-contained software appliance, with SUSE-based JeOS (just enough operating system) to support an application
- Construct a hard disk image to make preloading software on computers a snap
- Make a Live USB sick so that you can carry your very own version of Linux (with everything you want) with you wherever you go
- Piece together a custom Linux distro, based on SUSE — complete with live booting and installation
- Create a ready-to-run VMware virtual machine
- Publish and share your tweaked-out version of Linux with others
(More Q & A soon...)
How do I use SUSE Studio?
Browse and Build
SUSE Studio is comprised of two main sections: Browse and Build. In the Browse section of the site, you can see what others have built and shared. In the Build area, you can create your own custom Linux appliance.
JeOS templates and cloning
Start by choosing one of our templates in the Build area (or by cloning an appliance you find interesting in the Browse area). You will then be in the appliance editor, where you can change the software which will be installed as well as the configuration of your system.
Finalizing the build
After you are satisified with your appliance, choose a fitting name, decide on a version, and click on the big build button (located in the "build" tab of the appliance editor). Sit back and wait for a couple minutes as it builds. (You can leave the page and return later if you like; it will build in the background perfectly fine.)
Taking a testdrive
When the build is complete, try it out by clicking the "testdrive" link. Testdrive will open in a new window and start a custom Java-based VNC viewer which will allow you to work on your system, to make sure everything functions as expected. (You can also modify files in testdrive, switch to the modified files tab, and select the ones you wish to include as overlays. You can see the files in the "files" tab... and your appliance, when rebuilt, will include this new, modified files without any extra effort.)
Downloads and sharing
When you finally have everything working how you want it, click the build's "publish" button to share it with everyone in the browse section of the site. (Note: You can simply download your appliance and skip the publishing step if you do not want to share your appliance with the world.)
That's pretty much a quick overview of SUSE Studio! Enjoy, and be sure to send us feedback!
Supported appliance types
SUSE Studio can create many different types of custom appliances.
Disk image (.img)
Disk images can be used for multiple purposes, including:
- USB flash drives
- OEM imaging
Imaging USB flash drives
To make a bootable USB stick from the appliance you've created, select the disk image type in the build tab, and then build and download the gzip-compressed appliance. Uncompress and untar the appliance.
In order to write your appliance to a USB stick, you will need to find the device to write to. After inserting the USB stick, open a terminal and type:
df
You will see output similar to this:
/dev/sda2 30969600 15533336 13863100 53% / udev 1997904 108 1997796 1% /dev /dev/sda5 92888248 85548000 2621560 98% /home /dev/sda6 23671572 935276 21533836 5% /var /dev/sdb1 7816228 1492 7814736 1% /media/disk
The last entry should be the USB stick you just plugged in. If you're in doubt, try removing it, running df again, and see if the line disappears. The left column in df's output is the partition, and the path up to the number is the path to the device. In our example, '/dev/sdb1' is the partition, and '/dev/sdb' is the path to the device.
Note: It is really, really important that you get the device path right - you can cause irreparable damage to your system if you don't.
After finding the device path, you will need to run dd to write your appliance to the USB stick. dd needs two arguments: the input file (your appliance), and the output file (the path to your USB device). In our example, the input file is named "/home/suse/myappliance.raw" and the path to the device is "/dev/sdb", so we would run this command from a terminal window:
sudo dd if=/home/suse/myappliance.raw of=/dev/sdb
Please bear in mind that this will *completely overwrite the USB device so make sure you don't have any important data on it first!
Writing to a USB stick is usually quite slow, so don't be alarmed if it seems like it takes forever. When dd has finished, it will tell you some statistics about how much data it has written to the USB stick. If your USB stick has a light on it that blinks when data is being written, wait until it stops blinking before removing it.
Now you have a custom software appliance ready to be booted from your USB stick!
Live CD/DVD (.iso)
SUSE Studio supports the creation of custom bootable CDs and DVDs. Optionally, these discs can support installation from the live media to the hard drive as well.
Most operating systems make disc burning easy. Once you have downloaded the file completely, simply right-click on the file and select something like "burn ISO file to disc". (More details soon...)
VMware virtual machine (.vmdk)
Virtual machines in the VMware format are similar to disk images, but with special information which specifies memory and hard drive sizes.
To use these images, simply open the file in VMware, VMware player, or VirtualBox.