Building custom Debian image

Hi,

I have started to work on linux very recently. I was able to download the lates debian images and run them on eMMC and SDcard. I was able to get the picture of the boot sequence. Thanks to all the contributors who have put so much of information on internet to get started.

Now I am trying to build a Debian image. I was able to follow the instructions at https://eewiki.net/display/linuxonarm/BeagleBone+Black and get a command line version of linux working (debian-``7.5``-minimal-armhf-``2014``-``07``-``07``) .
* Does this minimal image already has lxde as part of it?
* Cursor came up only after hitting ctl+alt+F ctl+alt+f7. Until then screen was black with penguin on top left. What is the reason for this?
* This method allows us to prepare an SDcard manually in steps. How can I create a .img image that I can write it to SDcard?
* If I want to remove some stuff from linux that I may not need, how do I remove them while building, and at what stage?

Thanks in advance! It has been a great learning experience.

Thanks,
Ashwin

No minimal does not have X installed period as far as I know. Minimal is just that, minimal. It has a few utilities like openssh-server installed so you can ssh, etc, and that’s it.

How can I create a .img image that I can write it to SDcard?

What ? http://eewiki.net/display/linuxonarm/BeagleBone+Black#BeagleBoneBlack-SetupmicroSD/SDcard tells you exactly how to write it to sdcard.

*If I want to remove some stuff from linux that I may not need, how do I remove them while building, and at what stage?*

Then you should probably use the barefs rootfs image. http://eewiki.net/display/linuxonarm/BeagleBone+Black#BeagleBoneBlack-RootFileSystem read the whole section carefully.

Specifically: http://eewiki.net/display/linuxonarm/BeagleBone+Black#BeagleBoneBlack-Debian7%28smallflash%29