Ultra Fast, Ultra Small Linux? How?

[Sunner]

Would take quite some time to setup on such a slow box, but with Gentoo, you only install exactly what you need, nothing more, hence making it quite small by nature.

Also, compile the kernel without modules, modules support, networking, etc, and you'll get a pretty nice boottime.

My box boots from BIOS to console login in something like 5 seconds, but it's a P3-866 with an IBM 60GXP HD, which is quite a bit speedier than that 233.
X's starting time will depend on what window manager you use, if you use BlackBox it will be quite speedy.

 

[jcrowe]

If you are mainly worried about boot time why not look into seeing what it would take to leave the computer powered on. Maybe an extra battery? That would solve about 75% of your problems.

jcrowe

 

[CaptainKahuna]

Extra battery doesn't work, as is, it drains a single battery in like 20 minutes

 

[Gooberlx2]

Perhaps try Gentoo. Mine boots very fast right now....though I just installed it so it doesn't really have anything special on it.

 

[marat]

Quicksearch on SourceForge.net revealed http://cajun.sourceforge.net/

===CUT===
CAJUN is a project to turn an old computer you might have kicking around into the centerpiece of your car or home audio system. CAJUN's features include:
--skipped--
# Supports keypads, infra-red remote controls, LCD/VFD displays, FM cards, CD players, MPEG audio files, (WAV files+Ogg/Vorbis coming soon), Shoutcast/Icecast streams, etc.
--skipped--
===CUT===

Author has pics of program output on LCD...

 

[CaptainKahuna]

I wanted to try Gentoo, but I read the setup page, and it seems way over my head. Remember this is my first time with the Penguin

 

[CaptainKahuna]

Also, how can I set it up so that Linux won't whine at me or corrupt my files if I just power off without shutting down?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: CaptainKahuna
Also, how can I set it up so that Linux won't whine at me or corrupt my files if I just power off without shutting down?

read only

 

[CaptainKahuna]

The root and OS partition?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: CaptainKahuna
The root and OS partition?

Yes. The machine isnt doing enough to need to swap really, so it shouldnt be all that bad. google.com is your friend. Other people have been doing it. If I get less lazy sometime Ill post the links I gathered.

 

[CaptainKahuna]

Thanks for the help, installing RH now, I'll let you know how fast it boots "out of the box".

 

[ultimatebob]

You chose RedHat?!? It's a good choice for learning Linux, I guess, but you don't stand a chance of meeting your drive space or boot time specifications with it. At BEST, you might be able to get the required drive space down to 400 MB (with a swap file), and get the boot time on this particular system down to 50 seconds.

Hell, you could probably strip down Windows 95 to boot faster or take up less space than any recent version of RedHat.

 

[Nothinman]

You chose RedHat?!? It's a good choice for learning Linux, I guess, but you don't stand a chance of meeting your drive space or boot time specifications with it. At BEST, you might be able to get the required drive space down to 400 MB (with a swap file), and get the boot time on this particular system down to 50 seconds.

Hell, you could probably strip down Windows 95 to boot faster or take up less space than any recent version of RedHat.

While I agree RedHat wouldn't have been my first choice, it's still Linux and you can still slim it down as far as you want.

 

[CaptainKahuna]

Redhat was just the first Linux I could get my hands on, I woulda tried Gentoo, but I looked at their site, and it seems way over my head. Any recommendations on other distros?

 

[Arrgghh]

They've been suggested several times in this thread, but Slackware or Debian would be a good place to start.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: CaptainKahuna
Redhat was just the first Linux I could get my hands on, I woulda tried Gentoo, but I looked at their site, and it seems way over my head. Any recommendations on other distros?

RedHat will be fine for a v0.1 codenamed: "I have to figure out WTF Im doing" type thing.

 

[CaptainKahuna]

that's what it is, hopefully I will be able to get good with it an try something more advanced.