Creating a custom ISO with an old kernel

I need to create a custom Manjaro KDE ISO to be able to install it on a friend’s computer. Current ISO with Kernel 58 doesn’t work on my friend’s computer, the live media boots to a broken desktop mostly blackscreened but with things trying to draw/popup but glitching in and out, broken.

I found an old ISO Manjaro 17, with kernel 4.14 and it works perfectly, installs properly. But the issue is that it is not able to update to current Manjaro version, first issue was with ZSTD, then with the keys, then all package were ‘corrupt’ because probably even with all new keys added/accepted, it wasn’t working properly, whatever, let start over now I know where the issue is.

So the issue for the old computer is to boot and install it with an old kernel. The problem is that I’m new to creating an ISO. I have found an archived page with all the needed info, however, I’m confused about the kernel customization, as the page tells to modify the line kernel= (in the profile.conf file I supposed, right?), but the line doesn’t exist in profile.conf so I’m not sure, do I simply create this parameter and set it? before going back and forth testing things trying to figure it out, I would like a confirmation from someone who knows exactly, so here I am.

The page I’m using for reference is this one Build Manjaro ISOs with buildiso - Manjaro Linux

I also have found this thread but that doesn’t really help me Create Manjaro Custom ISO?

So just to make sure, do I modify ~/iso-profiles/manjaro/kde/profile.conf and add kernel=linux414 on a new line, or am I misunderstanding?

I just want the same ISO as the original current Manjaro KDE, I just need to change kernel 5.8 to kernel 4.14 to install a working Manjaro and go from there.

Thank to anyone able to 100% confirm what to do.

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You don’t have to change the profile - just specify on CLI

buildiso -p kde -k linux414 -b testing
2 Likes

Wow thanks a lot! I’ll test and report! Marking the solution in advance! :+1:

linux414 VB guest module seem to not exist and it fails

:: Synchronizing package databases...
 core                                                                  169.1 KiB   713 KiB/s 00:00 [##########################################################] 100%
 extra                                                                2000.0 KiB   717 KiB/s 00:03 [##########################################################] 100%
 community                                                               6.2 MiB  1005 KiB/s 00:06 [##########################################################] 100%
 multilib                                                              191.0 KiB   806 KiB/s 00:00 [##########################################################] 100%
error: target not found: linux414-virtualbox-guest-modules
error: target not found: linux414-virtualbox-guest-modules
  -> Copying mhwd package cache ...
building file list ... done

sent 17 bytes  received 12 bytes  58.00 bytes/sec
total size is 0  speedup is 0.00
==> ERROR: File '/var/lib/manjaro-tools/buildiso/kde/x86_64/mhwdfs/opt/mhwd/pkg/*pkg.tar*' not found.
==> No packages modified, nothing to do.
==> ERROR: A failure occurred in make_image_mhwd().
    Aborting...
 --> overlayfs umount: [/var/lib/manjaro-tools/buildiso/kde/x86_64/mhwdfs]

I build the ISO with linux419 instead, seems to work so far :wink: Thanks!

//EDIT: ISO properly working on 4.19 kernel!

Here is the final command I used to build my Full KDE Stable ISO on kernel 4.19

buildiso -f -p kde -k linux419 -b stable

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