Build Manjaro ISO
Prerequisites
- lots of diskspace (skip this if your root is sufficiently large)
- installing the tools
- tools configuration
- building
Diskspace
You need a lot diskspace - 15-20G per iso you intend to build
The tools
Install the manjaro-tools needed for building an ISO
sudo pacman -Syu git manjaro-tools-iso-git
Configure tools
With the tools installed copy the default tools configuration to your home
cp -R /etc/manjaro-tools ~/.config
Modify the tools configuration to point to your storage partition’s mount point - use your favorite editor to edit the file
micro ~/.config/manjaro-tools/manjaro-tools.conf
Then use git to clone the iso profiles repo in your home
git clone https://gitlab.manjaro.org/profiles-and-settings/iso-profiles
Create a config file ~/.config/manjaro-tools/iso-profiles.conf with content
run_dir=/home/$USER/iso-profiles
Building
The building can be as simple as
buildiso -p kde
If you did not change the paths in manjaro-tools.conf the resulting xfce ISO is stored at
/var/cache/manjaro-tools/iso/manjaro/kde
Advanced Use
The ISO cake layers
| Package Lists | Configuration Files | File system | Overlays / Shadows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Packages-Mhwd | mhwdfs.sfs | ||
| Packages-Live | live-overlay | livefs.sfs | desktop |
| Packages-Desktop | desktop-overlay | desktopfs.sfs | root |
| Packages-Root | root-overlay | rootfs.sfs |
The desktop.sfs and rootfs.sfs is unpacked by the installer to make the final system.
Customising the desktop packages
Inside the iso-profiles folder - create a new folder to hold you custom profile (assuming you cloned the iso-profiles to your home)
cd ~/iso-profiles
mkdir custom
Copy the profile you want to use e.g. KDE Plasma
cp -R manjaro/kde custom/plasma
Edit the file ~/iso-profiles/custom/plasma/Packages-Desktop - add and remove packages as you see fit.
Sample Customised Packages-Desktop
adobe-source-sans-pro-fonts
alsa-firmware
alsa-utils
ark
avahi
bluedevil
breeze-gtk
dolphin
dolphin-plugins
ffmpeg
ffmpegthumbs # video thumbnails
firefox
grub-btrfs
grub-theme-manjaro
gwenview
htop
inxi
kate
kcalc
kde-gtk-config
kdegraphics-thumbnailers # PDF and PS thumbnails
kdeplasma-addons
kfind
kgamma
khelpcenter
kimageformats # support for dds, xcf, exr, psd, and more image formats
kinfocenter
kio-extras
kmenuedit
konsole
kscreen
kscreenlocker
ksshaskpass
ksystemlog
kwallet-pam
kwalletmanager
kwayland-integration
kwin
kwrited
libcanberra
libdvdcss
libva-intel-driver
libva-mesa-driver
manjaro-alsa
manjaro-application-utility
manjaro-browser-settings
manjaro-gstreamer
manjaro-hello
manjaro-kde-settings
manjaro-modem
manjaro-pipewire
mesa-utils
mobile-broadband-provider-info
modemmanager
networkmanager
networkmanager-l2tp
networkmanager-openconnect
networkmanager-openvpn
networkmanager-vpnc
noto-fonts # default font
nss-mdns # NSS support for mDNS (optdepend for avahi)
ntp
numlockx
okular
openssh
p7zip # 7Z format support
pamac-cli
pamac-gtk3
papirus-icon-theme # manjaro-application-utility icons
perl-file-mimeinfo
phonon-qt6-vlc
plasma-browser-integration
plasma-desktop
plasma-nm
plasma-pa
plasma-systemmonitor # plasma-meta, replaces ksysguard
plasma-thunderbolt
plasma-workspace # required by plasma-desktop, etc., replaces plasma-wayland-session
plymouth
plymouth-kcm
plymouth-theme-manjaro
power-profiles-daemon
powerdevil
qt6-imageformats # support for tiff, webp, and more image formats
qt6-virtualkeyboard # required by plasma-workspace
samba
sddm
sddm-breath-theme
sddm-kcm
smbclient
smplayer
smplayer-skins
smplayer-themes
spectacle # screenshots
sshfs # remote filesystem browser
systemsettings
terminus-font
ttf-dejavu
ttf-hack
udiskie
udisks2
unarchiver # RAR format support
usb_modeswitch
xdg-desktop-portal-kde
xdg-user-dirs
xdg-utils
xf86-input-elographics
xf86-input-evdev
xf86-input-libinput
xf86-input-void
To build a minimal profile without multilib packages
buildiso -p plasma -b stable -k linux612 -n
The resulting ISO can be found in /var/cache/manjaro-tools/custom/plasma
That’s it - piece of 
- right?
Very Advanced Use
Build an ISO from current system
There is no GUI to create an ISO from current state.
Technically you can use buildiso so I have outlined the commands necessary
I recommend to test them as they are written from memory - flash memory - the kind of memory which is gone in a flash 
- after you have tested them you create a script to do lifting for you.
Steps
1. Create a folder in the root filesystem to hold your system
sudo mkdir /mybuild
2. Set permissions on the folder
Setting your user as owner which automagically gives rw access
sudo chown $USER:$USER /mybuild
3. Clone the iso-profiles repo into /mybuild
git clone https://gitlab.manjaro.org/profiles-and-settings/iso-profiles /mybuild/iso-profiles
4. Create a folder to hold your build
mkdir /mybuild/iso-profiles/$USER
5. Copy the relevant profile-folder into mybuild
In this case it is Plasma - it would work for any edition - ensure a unique name the folder - it must be unambigious across iso-profiles subfolders
cp -R /mybuild/iso-profiles/manjaro/kde /mybuild/iso-profiles/$USER/my-kde
6. Clean up your system for orphans
pamac remove --orphans
7. Create a package list of your current system
Excluding custom packages
pacman -Qqen > ~/my-packages.txt
8. Create new filtered list
Use the comm utility comparing the two files ~/my-packages.txt and /rootfs-pkgs.txt and pipe the result to replace the my-kde profile’s Packages-Desktop file
comm -23 <(sort ~/my-packages.txt) <(cat /rootfs-pkgs.txt | cut -d' ' -f1 | sort) > /mybuild/iso-profiles/$USER/my-kde/Packages-Desktop
9. Create the folder to hold your personal settings
mkdir -p /mybuild/iso-profiles/$USER/my-kde/desktop-overlay/etc/skel
10. Copy the content of your home
Close all open applications - apps which may keep files open in relevant folders. E.g. browsers and mail clients.
Copy the content of your home into the desktop-overlay/etc/skel folder - make sure to be selective and remove unwanted files like Documents and Pictures and whatnot - watch out for hidden files and folders e.g. ~/.mozilla
cp -R $HOME/. /mybuild/iso-profiles/$USER/my-kde/desktop-overlay/etc/skel
11. Run buildiso
Use the -t target directory argument to place your build inside the /mybuild folder.
If you have used buildiso previously with another profile-root you need to edit the file ~/.config/manjaro-tools/iso-profiles.conf to point to the folder /mybuild/iso-profiles
buildiso -p my-kde -t /mybuild
The size of the final ISO will be reflected by the packagelist and the size of your $HOME folder
More reading
More info can be found at the wiki - including how to include your own web based package repository