ubuntu-defaults-template - create skeleton defaults customization package
Contents
Configuration
At present you can change the following defaults:
• Desktopbackgroundimage (desktop/background.jpg)
• Additional.desktopfiles (desktop/*.desktop, particularly useful to provide launchers for web
applications)
• Defaultdesktopsessioninloginmanagers (desktop/default-session.txt) Supports LightDM and GDM right
now.
• Defaultapplications (desktop/default-applications.txt)
• Webbrowserstartpage (webbrowser/startpage.txt)
• AdditionalWebbrowserbookmarksintheMenuandintheToolbar (webbrowser/bookmarks-menu.txt and
webbrowser/bookmarks-toolbar.txt)
• Webbrowserdefaultsearchengine (webbrowser/searchengine.txt)
• RadiostationsinRhythmboxandBanshee (multimedia/radiostations.txt)
• AdditionallaunchersinUnityandUnity2d (unity/launchers.txt).
• Internationalizationsupport (i18n/language.txt, i18n/langpacks.txt, i18n/keyboard.txt)
• Additionalicons (icons/, *.jpg, *.png, or *.svg, in the directory hierarchy given in
/usr/share/icons/hicolor/)
• Extrapackages (depends.txt and recommends.txt)
Except for desktop/background.jpg, all configuration files are simple text files with one entry per line.
Lines which start with '#' are ignored and can be used for comments. Each configuration file has comments
which document the format and give some example entries.
Description
The ubuntu-defaults-builder project allows you to easily create a "default settings" package for Ubuntu
and then build a customized image with it. The main purpose for this is to provide a standard and safe
way to create localized Ubuntu images, or OEM custom projects.
The ubuntu-defaults-template script will generate a source package with the customizable settings (e. g.
desktop/background.jpg and webbrowser/bookmarks-menu.txt). When built and installed, it will take the
necessary actions to modify the system-wide defaults for desktops, programs, etc.
The first step is to call ubuntu-defaults-template with the target package name as an argument, for
example "ubuntu-defaults-french" or "mockbuntu-default-settings". This will create a source package with
the given name in the current directory, with a set of (disabled) example configuration files, and a
standard debian/ packaging (using mostly dh_ubuntu_defaults).
Then you customize the individual configuration files like webbrowser/bookmarks-menu.txt or
unity/launchers.txt to your needs, and then run dpkg-buildpackage(1) to build the source and binary
packages. Once you install the generated .deb, new users will from then on use the new default settings.
After you have done this, you can build installation images using ubuntu-defaults-image(1).
Example
You can run the /usr/share/doc/ubuntu-defaults-builder/examples/make-example to build an "defaults-
builder-test" defaults package in the current directory, which will exercise all possible customizations
by uncommenting the examples from the configuration files.
Macros
All configuration files can contain macro variables which will be expanded when building the defaults
package. At present, these variables are known:
• ${distro_release_number} The release number of the Ubuntu release the package is built on. E. g.
"11.04".
• ${distro_release_name} The release code name of the Ubuntu release the package is built on. E. g.
"lucid".
Unknown variables will abort the package build, to avoid unexpected results.
Name
ubuntu-defaults-template - create skeleton defaults customization package
See Also
dh_ubuntu_defaults(1), ubuntu-defaults-image(1) /usr/share/doc/ubuntu-defaults-builder/examples/make-example https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DesktopTeam/Specs/Oneiric/LocalizedCDImageTools
Synopsis
ubuntu-defaults-template [ --quiet ] packagename
