you can get just as performance in kde with debian, if you’re used to ubuntu id stick in the debian family. there is one ubuntu distro out that will work if you wanna go tthat route.
yes those are the right packages. you can just extract the debs like zip files.
Ok good to know! I will start messing around with base Raspbian bookworm then and try to apply the .deb files you built out as a starting exercise. As for the kernel, what changes do I need to make to the base Raspbian kernel? Looking at a diff between your kernel repo and the main rpi Linux repo there are a good amount of changes, did most of these come from the clockworkpi kernel?
most of them did had to update a small bit to be compatible with the newer kernel and i redid the device overlays so there are only 2 you need the old ones are still there for if someone needs them. everything is set up to just build and work for the cm4.
I see ok I think I am following along. Thanks so much for answering so many questions btw! So the only changes it looks like you made (most coming from the clockworkpi kernel) were from these two commits: 9f1460165c5cba46e560755d6ce89e886e51329f, 5ac5e649c6e2c460b317d6dcd5f369b8eb139510
I will start by trying to understand these commits. Maybe this a stupid question but if I build an image with your kernel changes and Raspbian pushes an updated kernel, will running “sudo apt upgrade” remove all the custom changes? If so I guess I would need to rebuild my image to incorporate any new kernel changes from Raspbian?
My take is that your images is becoming frequently suggested as a ‘goto’ choice here. You probably can’t dodge the implications of that regardless of your primary intentions of learning others.
However, when you take polls on what to do next, create neat changelogs and has a link to “buy me a coffee”, this possibly indicates an effort to supply something more than learning.
Based on your posts you seem knowledgeable, so I assume that you understand the potential for embedding nefarious things in this stuff. “Diff” on the amount of compiled software in the image is likely not feasible. You might have good intentions, but the internet is full of bad actors.
Even though you write that you don’t use GitHub, your activity history does indicate that you commit to private repos. You do even have a private repo on GitHub called something with scripts, indicated with an artifact in one of your .deb.
Share your scripts, or don’t. I’ll be fine either way. 
But you should consider your impact on the community. Just note ataggart line of questions above.
Couldn’t others just look at the kernel differences and the contents of @Rex .deb files (like I am trying to learn how to do) to know what is going into the image? But yes I guess if they downloaded and flashed the .img they would have no idea if that was built from the kernel and .deb files that were provided. Is that the concern? In my case, I flashed his image to a completely isolated machine just for testing so even if there is something on there it can’t do much.
If you remove the stock kernel or place it on hold and then it won’t be able to update so your kernel will be fine. The easiest thing to do would be to remove the stock kernel package and put in yours.
Gotcha ok so I would be locked to the kernel version I patch with your changes and if I needed to upgrade for some reason I would have to go patch the new version I wanted and rebuild. If I am understanding that correctly I think I am fine with that for my purposes!
I didn’t say I didn’t use it at all I don’t like using it for personal stuff. Work I have to use it I have to use azure but that don’t mean I use it for myself. The changes I’ve made are minimal in the bookworm images. The changes are there. Unpack the debs. I told a few people that I’ll get around to sanitizing my stuff so I can share it. I also get people that have contributed nothing to the community coming here and hassling me for them.
Hold the stock kernel package so it won’t update or remove it.
hmm maybe I am missing something, why do we care if the stock kernel gets updated? as long as it does not override the custom kernel. I would probably just remove the stock one as it wont work on the uConsole right?
if the stock one updates i will override the custom kernel and because it doesn’t have the drivers built for it you wont get a display.
it’s more about the package manager tracking the kernel package. you’ll override the kernel when you put your kernel in. a update will will cause the package manager to download the updated one and override yours. so you have to uninstall it or tell the package manager not to update the stock kernel.
ahhh ok I was under the impression the package manager would notice that the kernel was modified and let me decide if I wanted to override or not. Thanks for clarifying! I hopefully will have time this week to test all this out. Thanks again for answering so many questions!
No Problem glad to help. Feel free to shoot me a DM if you have any questions. Contrary to what the other guy said I love to help people learn.
Are you trying to make an Arch Linux image? You may want to consider forking this repository instead. The scripts for building the kernel are also available for you to inspect.
Awesome that you’re thinking about sharing the build steps. I think that will benefit quite a few, but more importantly add more trust to your efforts. That’s not bad, right?
Being cheeky, I would argue that my contributions so far is to highlight the security implications of running code compiled by a stranger on internet. Perhaps someone learns from that as well, even though it hopefully is common sense. 
Yes, that’s essentially the concern. It’s kind of a challenging issue to handle. But I would argue that transparency on how things are built at least opens the door for verifying things (or at least sanity check things).
I’ve started sanitizing my scripts, but I don’t think you understand the only thing that i’ve compiled is the kernel. pi-gen only pulls down packages from repos and sets up the filesystem. everything i’ve done is out there.
I’ve been using the desktop image for 1-2 days now (longer than the original one, which i f’ed up by trying to update to bookworm manually, hehe).
So far, I’ve only noticed that Preferences / Screen Configuration is not launching, nothing whatsoever. Is there something I can do to fix that?
Thanks!