Small Linux needed.

SBSP · Post by **SBSP** » 22 Jul 2008, 11:08

Hello.

I'm looking for a distro that is small as small as possible.

With only apache with PHP and openVPN. something that works as a live CD but can install after boot like most Live CD's would.

Anyone knows ?

WAJeff · Post by **WAJeff** » 22 Jul 2008, 11:11

DSL

http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/download.html
Works off a flash drive, brilliant distro

AlphA · Post by **AlphA** » 22 Jul 2008, 11:17

I prefer Puppy Linux over DSL.......

Distrowatch wrote:Yes, Puppy Linux is yet another Linux distribution. What's different here is that Puppy is extraordinarily small, yet quite full featured. Puppy boots into a 64MB ramdisk, and that's it, the whole caboodle runs in RAM. Unlike live CD distributions that have to keep pulling stuff off the CD, Puppy in its entirety loads into RAM. This means that all applications start in the blink of an eye and respond to user input instantly. Puppy Linux has the ability to boot off a flash card or any USB memory device, CDROM, Zip disk or LS/120/240 Superdisk, floppy disks, internal hard drive. It can even use a multisession formatted CD-R/DVD-R to save everything back to the CD/DVD with no hard drive required at all!

Firestrm_ZA · Post by **Firestrm_ZA** » 22 Jul 2008, 11:18

sorry for the hijack but does anyone know where to get the english distro of the eee pc linux?

WAJeff · Post by **WAJeff** » 22 Jul 2008, 11:18

Firestrm wrote:sorry for the hijack but does anyone know where to get the english distro of the eee pc linux?

Its on the CD I sent you

You can select the language within in the setup

rustypup · Post by **rustypup** » 22 Jul 2008, 11:20

are we talking a CLI install?

most of the footprint relates to the desktop install...

ubuntu alternate iso offers a simple LAMP, (Apache, MySQL, PHP), install in virtually no time at all ... tiny, fast and efficient.. relatively secure if you're conscious during the install process and figure out how to change the default passwords, etc...

if CLI worries you, you can manage the server remotely using webmin or one of its ilk...

damnsmall is more of a desktop distro...

SBSP · Post by **SBSP** » 22 Jul 2008, 11:36

I want to create a custom live CD.

And i was thinking of using LFS (Linux from scratch, but that involves too much.)

rustypup dunno what CLI means.

Then I'm going to get a friend to create a PHP interface that will configure Open VPN the way I want it to be configured, and have it look the way i want it too look.

This is my problem. Instead of using LFS and concentrate on compiling a system from scratch i want to have more concentration on the PHP part.

But i cant find a system which has OpenVPN Apache with obviously PHP.
And maybe LDAP and the extras.

I think for this project i will need an OS that has all the libs ready.
So i can install all the packages i want then convert that installation to a live CD
By using this http://www.linux-live.org/.

Basically i want to build my own flavor on an existing distro.

Like smoothwall based on redhad.

Edit Rustypup if CLI means linux without a desktop just command line.
Yip that is exactly what i want.

I think a fedora installation will do this cus you can choose what to install.
then create a linux live scrip from that ?

WAJeff · Post by **WAJeff** » 22 Jul 2008, 11:41

You can do that with any distro... once you've installed the distro, and done all the customisations you need to install an app called Remstersys and make your custrom distro

It creates a .iso file, then you can either burn that to CD/DVD or mount it onto a flash drive (for faster booting)

CLI = Command Line Interface, no GUI

SBSP · Post by **SBSP** » 22 Jul 2008, 11:52

Thanks goldback will look into that.

rustypup · Post by **rustypup** » 22 Jul 2008, 12:51

command line... not for windows users

sounded like you were hunting a minimal server install... if not... i can vouch for puppy...

SBSP · Post by **SBSP** » 22 Jul 2008, 15:02

Man!!! i just wasted 170MB on Vmware, I downloaded the VMware player what do i need to run a virtual PC ?

WAJeff · Post by **WAJeff** » 22 Jul 2008, 15:04

You need VMware Workstation/server

SBSP · Post by **SBSP** » 22 Jul 2008, 15:28

Thanks and whats the default root password for ubuntu ?

Is this correct.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=80185

Re: root password
Root Account is disabled. Ubuntu uses Sudo.

Look here for more info

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RootSudo?hig...%28RootSudo%29
__________________
ArchLinux 0.8.0
Associate Member of the Free Software Foundation

AlphA · Post by **AlphA** » 22 Jul 2008, 15:47

SBSP wrote:Man!!! i just wasted 170MB on Vmware, I downloaded the VMware player what do i need to run a virtual PC ?

You didnt waste the 170MB bandwidth. Check out this thread on how to create virtual machines to be used with VMPlayer.

rustypup · Post by **rustypup** » 22 Jul 2008, 16:01

SBSP wrote:Is this correct.

correct.. hence all the lame sudo jokes...

SBSP · Post by **SBSP** » 24 Jul 2008, 10:41

Okay I still dunno what distro to go with.

Ubunto wont work, I need a traditional os like centos, gentoo or slackware.

Fedora will probably be my best bet cus, thats about the only Lin OS i know.
But its too big to download.

Post by **Ron2K** » 24 Jul 2008, 11:16

Regarding Gentoo - it's an awesome distribution, but it's definitely for power users only.

I found this quote on another forum. Couldn't agree with it more.

As for a profile of a good Gentoo candidate, I'd say that he/she should *not* be a complete newbie; is comfortable with doing a lot of reading and following lengthy, detailed directions; has a powerful machine; and isn't afraid to spend considerable time dealing with the installation process.

SBSP · Post by **SBSP** » 24 Jul 2008, 11:27

It cant be that difficult.

The biggest problem would be to get all the compilers in working order.

The rest of the applications installed from source will be as per README's

and most of them either has SH scripts or ./configure make, make install ect..

Ron2K just for the challenge i will use Gentoo

Weird.
There is no Universal install for X86

Check this out if you want
http://www.gentoo.org/images/shots/gnome.png
Like the firefox pic, nice (But Gui is not what i'm looking for)

I'm downloading Gentoo 2008.0 Minimal CD/InstallCD

SBSP · Post by **SBSP** » 25 Jul 2008, 09:28

Okay Gentoo is downloaded 86MB

And its running inside a Virtual PC.

The CD is a live disk, It boots straight to command line.
Logs in as root with a scrambled root password at this stage i dont know what it is, but it doesn't matter.

My next mission is to get this installed onto the HDD.

i created 2 partitions using cfdisk (Linux & linux swap)
formatted hda1

mke2fs -jv /dev/hda1

so i now have this
/dev/hda1 - Boot, 1.5GB ext3 file system

and
mkswap /dev/hda2
/sbin/swapon -v /dev/hda2
to get a swap drive
/dev/hda2 = swap 500MB

i created a directory
mkdir -v -t ext3 /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1

My question
Can i now just copy the whole live disk over with exact same directory structure from / to /mnt/hda1 then install a bootloader of choice Lilo or grub ? then set a password for the root account ?
will this work ? i somehow think this wont work.