Creating custom installation / 'distribution'.

I was wondering if anyone could point me to a good resource (online or book) which would explain how to build a customized installation / "distribution". To clarify, I don't have any custom modules or even scripts, but what I want to do for a project, where I will install the same setup time and time again, is to package all the modules, themes, and most importantly my user roles and permission configs. Ideally I'd like this to happen from the get go with the Drupal install, rather than having to import a previously copied database, click and configure modules, etc. Is possible? Or am I ahead to simply clone a MySQL database and copy directories. I am trying to avoid the hackish, so even if the custom install requires a lot of work, I'd rather go in that direction. Thanks in advance for the help.