Mailing List Archive: 49091 messages
  • Home
  • Script library
  • AltME Archive
  • Mailing list
  • Articles Index
  • Site search
 

View on a minimal Linux distro

 [1/1] from: atruter::labyrinth::net::au at: 16-Feb-2003 18:50


Thought I'd post this to the list as I received a few off-list queries on it . . . Inspired by a recent Knoppix article on OSNews I set out to find the smallest Linux distro that will support REBOL/View. I got this down to a 3 disk set (Linux, X11, REBOL) by doing the following (on Win2000): Prepare disks 1. Download and unzip 2dskX from http://www.thepub.nildram.co.uk/mirrors/2diskxwin/2dskx-1.0.tgz 2. rawrite2 -f 2dskxwin.img -d A (1st disk) 3. copy x11.bz2 to A: (2nd disk) 4. Download and unzip REBOL/View from http://www.reboltech.com/downloads/view1208042.tar.gz 5. copy rebol (and scripts) to A: (3rd disk) Reboot system 1. Ensure disk-1 is in FDD and BIOS Boot options have been set to boot from floppy 2. Ensure both mouse and keyboard are PS/2 (I used PS/2 to USB adaptors to get mine working) 3. Insert disk-2 when prompted 4. Enter "root" at the login prompt Install rebol 1. Insert disk-3 2. Type "mount /dev/fd0 /mnt" 3. Type "cp /mnt/rebol ." Start X 1. Type "xwin" then "2" for PS/2 mouse and enter your graphics mode (mine was "0x0118" for a 1024x768 True-color display) 2. Double-click the XTerm icon 3. Type "./rebol" and it should install if all has gone well! While this is pretty minimal, it could be made even smaller/simpler by: 1. Removing all files not required for booting/X11 (a one disk 1.7mb version of the above already exists at these guys home site, http://www.angelfire.com/linux/floorzat/11dsk.tgz) 2. Recompiling the kernel with minimal services 3. Using SYSLINUX to create a minimal boot environment and allow booting from other devices such as CD-ROM and USB Flash drives 4. Pre-determining which drivers (eg. video, FDD, CD/ROM) to include 5. Scripting the login, X11, XTerm and REBOL/View steps 6. Getting latest source for main components (especially the Tiny-X Kdrive code) and recompiling. While I'm looking at this from an embedded perspective, it would also make a nice "one-boot" REBOL/Linux environment for those needing to demo/test on an X86-based PC where it was not desirable or possible to install software. Given its been five years since I seriously looked at Linux, anyone have a handy "five steps to building your own minimal distro" type guide floating around? ;) Regards, Ashley