HOWTO on using live-build to create 12.04 images

I'd use Precise, not only is it the latest stable release, it is also LTS.

http://maketecheasier.com/build-your-own-ubuntu-based-distro-with-novo-builder/2010/07/02

Quite handy :)

I'm actually looking for the process used by Canonical to build the official isos, not to create my own distro...
Take a look at the script I'm using now:

#!/bin/bash
# echo out everything to make it easier to understand whats happening while it runs
set -x
# I run this on a 12.04 host, but we are debootstrapping a clean 12.04 in /dev/shm
# to make sure this is exactly the ubuntu release, apt-sources, and package versions we need to create the isos
# host needs debootstrap
apt-get install -y debootstrap
# I have a lot of memory, so I run builds in shm, change these first three lines
mount -o remount,dev /run/shm # by default they mount nodev
export PRECISE_CHROOT=/run/shm/precise-chroot
mkdir -p $PRECISE_CHROOT

# if this gets run twice, don't debootstrap again if /dev exists within the chroot
if [ ! -d $PRECISE_CHROOT/dev ] ; then
    debootstrap --arch amd64 precise $PRECISE_CHROOT http://localhost:8910/ubuntu/ # using local mirror
    mount proc $PRECISE_CHROOT/proc -t proc
    mount sysfs $PRECISE_CHROOT/sys -t sysfs
    cp /etc/hosts $PRECISE_CHROOT/etc/hosts
fi

# if this gets run twice, don't install livecd-rootfs (depends on live-build in precise)
if [ ! -f $PRECISE_CHROOT/usr/bin/lb ] ; then
    chroot $PRECISE_CHROOT /usr/bin/apt-get install -y livecd-rootfs
fi

# create a live-build area within our new precise-chroot
export LIVE_BUILD=$PRECISE_CHROOT/lb
mkdir -p $LIVE_BUILD/{config,config/chroot_local-packageslist,config/chroot_sources}

# copying in the livecd-rootfs/live-build auto _seems_ like the right thing to do
# but it's more cargo culting than anything... can I get some direction here?
cp -a $PRECISE_CHROOT/usr/share/livecd-rootfs/live-build/auto $LIVE_BUILD/auto

# generates ./config/* based on the auto config from livecd-rootfs
chroot $PRECISE_CHROOT bash -c 'cd lb ; PROJECT=ubuntu \
 SUITE=precise \
 ARCH=amd64 \
 BINARYFORMAT=iso \
 LB_PARENT_MIRROR_BOOTSTRAP="http://localhost:8910/ubuntu" \
 LB_PARENT_MIRROR_CHROOT="http://localhost:8910/ubuntu" \
 LB_PARENT_MIRROR_CHROOT_VOLATILE="http://localhost:8910/ubuntu" \
 LB_PARENT_MIRROR_CHROOT_SECURITY="http://localhost:8910/ubuntu-security" \
 LB_PARENT_MIRROR_UBUNTU_INSTALLER="http://localhost:8910/ubuntu" \
 LB_MIRROR_BOOTSTRAP="http://localhost:8910/ubuntu" \
 LB_MIRROR_CHROOT="http://localhost:8910/ubuntu" lb config'

chroot $PRECISE_CHROOT bash -c 'cd lb ; lb build'

I'm basing this appoach based on Colin Wilson's post to ubuntu-devel / debian-live @ http://lists.debian.org/debian-live/2011/06/msg00152.html

That's Colin Watson, not Colin Wilson.

We used livecd-rootfs on precise, which contains live-build configuration in live-build/, driven from the BuildLiveCD script. That's configured to only build the squashfs parts; the ISO images were built using https://code.launchpad.net/+branch/ubuntu-cdimage and https://code.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-cdimage/debian-cd/ubuntu.

Thanks Colin, I looked at those two repos but wasn't able to get BuildLiveCD to work.

https://gist.github.com/2978542 is another attempt to just use live-build, but it seems a dead end.

Could you give a bit of direction to the use/config of the live-build + BuildLiveCD using the ubuntu-cdimage and debian-cd/ubuntu repos? I wasn't able to cobble it together on my own.