• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Make your own minimalistic Linux

And even Linux From Scratch wouldn't be quite as tiny as the uClibc/busybox combo the article uses. Nice stuff - that ability to tinker with the innards is what make Linux so fun, IMO. Even if most of us never go to such lengths...
 
Originally posted by: CTho9305
Would someone mind building that and dumping the whole thing to an ISO? 🙂
Click to expand...
I just might build a setup exactly like that to go on an old p120 compaq with 16MB of RAM that's sitting right here next to my desk doing absolutely nothing right now. OpenBSD was my original choice, but then I decided to try QNX on it. If that doesn't work out, a minimal Linux install like that might just be the key. Oh, and if I can ever figure out how to make a bootable CD image I might even upload an ISO for all of you (I know it needs to have a 2.88MB floppy image at the beginning, and Nero would be quite willing to put one in the right place on the CD for me, but I have no idea how to make a friggin floppy image :roll😉.
 
Originally posted by: jliechty
Originally posted by: CTho9305
Would someone mind building that and dumping the whole thing to an ISO? 🙂
Click to expand...
I just might build a setup exactly like that to go on an old p120 compaq with 16MB of RAM that's sitting right here next to my desk doing absolutely nothing right now. OpenBSD was my original choice, but then I decided to try QNX on it. If that doesn't work out, a minimal Linux install like that might just be the key.
Click to expand...
it'd be a good learning experience but it'd be tough to get all the stuff on there you'd want to actually use the machine for something useful.

And even Linux From Scratch wouldn't be quite as tiny as the uClibc/busybox combo the article uses. Nice stuff - that ability to tinker with the innards is what make Linux so fun, IMO. Even if most of us never go to such lengths...

yeah linux from scratch is more for a "real" linux system, this seems like a tutorial for making floppy distros. in fact someone i know made a floppy "distro" a while back, it had links (the browser), netris (this game rocks 😉), and star wars (open up telnet and go to towel.blinkenlights.nl 😀) its really not *that* hard, another thing you can do (i'm not sure if the article mentions it, i'm too lazy to go look 😉) to reduce size is to use an initrd boot image which holds the bulk of the filesystem in a compressed file. he didnt use uclibc, but he did use a very stripped down glibc.

but really, you dont need *that* much to get a linux system like this working, you need lilo (or any boot loader), the kernel, libc, a shell, some init scripts, busybox, and thats about it. ifconfig is in busy box iirc, so you can get a system with a useable shell and network capabilities in a few hundred KB. add in netris, an irc client, and lynx/links, and you have a *very* useful system 😉

Oh, and if I can ever figure out how to make a bootable CD image I might even upload an ISO for all of you (I know it needs to have a 2.88MB floppy image at the beginning, and Nero would be quite willing to put one in the right place on the CD for me, but I have no idea how to make a friggin floppy image :roll😉.

hmm..sounds like a limitation of the OS 😉

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top