Hi, this is home of SimplyLinux (SL), a Linux Mini-distro. You can use SL at home, at work, while you are doing your cooper, at dinner, any where !!! Oh Lord, it's amazing !!! SL run on a single floppy, giving you total control over those damn machines...
SimplyLinux features:
To use SimplyLinux you need an ix86 PC or compatible, a 3 1/2" floppy drive, a floopy disk, some common Linux programs (see on create_disk.sh).
SimplyLinux 1.0 (1353356 bytes)
Welcome to Simply Linux (SL)
============================
Author: Mateus Caruccio <caruccio at operamail.com>
Copyright: GPL
version: 1.0
Some scripts on create_disk.sh was taken from DLX Linux:
http://www.wu-wien.ac.at/usr/h93/h9301726/dlx.html
Intro
=====
SL is an one-floppy-initrd based linux system, using BusyBox
(www.busybox.net) and an initrd image. With this you can have
a PC without hard drive, network enabled, to make some basic
stuffs, like ping another host (this what I use for), format
your HDD, impress your friends, etc...
SL is based on 2.4.22 kernel, with the following net drives:
3c503.o 8139too.o dmfe.o eepro100.o mii.o ne2k-pci.o
3c505.o 8390.o e100.o lance.o ne.o tulip.o
Starting
========
** You must be root to perform all this operations **
First, you need to unpack the files you just downloaded. Probably
it's named SL-1.0.tar.gz (the version may vary). Move it some
place (I will use /tmp) and unpack it:
# mv SL-1.0.tar.gz /tmp
# cd /tmp
# tar xzvf SL-1.0.tar.gz
A directory (SL) will be created on local dir. Change to it
# cd SL
# pwd
/tmp/SL
This is the root dir for SL.
To build a bootable distro, just put a floppy disk on fd0 and type:
# ./create_disk.sh all
Voilá, reboot your PC and have fun.
The boot disk is made of two different parts:
- A root disk, loaded into RAM (on /dev/ram0) and mount as / after
kernel booting
- A boot image with network modules;
Here is the aspect your floppy will (logically) be:
+- Sector 0 (zero)
|
V
--------------------------------------------------
| Kernel Image | Conpressed Root Image |
--------------------------------------------------
When the floppy boot, it load the compressed root image into main memory,
uncompress it and mount it as the root (/) directory. After mount, it
execute a file called /linuxrc (our /sbin/init).
Creating a root image
=====================
A root image is a file with a functional File System, with all needed
applications to run our distro. On SL, the root image is made on
directory ./root
To create a root image type:
# ./create_disk.sh root
The image will be named root.imz. Later, it will be place right after kernel
image inside the floppy.
Creating your own root image with your own configuration
========================================================
SL comes with 2 default configuration files to BusyBox version 1.00-pre3
and 0.60.3 named .config-busybox-1.00-pre3 and Config-busybox-0.60.3.h
To know how to compile BusyBox, go to www.busybox.net and RTFM (Read the
Fine/Fucking Manual). After compiling it properly, you should install all
files to /tmp/SL/root
# make PREFIX=/tmp/SL/root install
After this, create the root image again as show above.
Creating a boot image
=====================
ALERT: I suppose you know how to compile a kernel and install modules. If
don't, stop here and read the file named /path/to/linux/source/README (usualy
/usr/src/linux/README)
If you want to use other kernel than that supplied with SL, you could use
a basic .config, located on ./kernel dir. just copy it to /usr/src/linux-X.X.X/
and "make menuconfig dep modules bzImage" ass you always do.
All modules (if any) must be on /tmp/SL/kernel/modules directory. The dir
struct will be something like this:
/tmp/SL/kernel/modules
|
-lib
|
- modules
|
-<KERNEL_VERSION>
...
To install your new modules, you could use:
# make INSTALL_MOD_PATH=/tmp/SL/kernel/modules/ modules_install
CAUTION: ALL FILES ON /tmp/SL/kernel/modules WILL BE LOST !!
If you created a new kernel (with make bzImage), and whant to use it on your
disk, just copy it to /tmp/SL/kernel/ like this:
# cp /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage /tmp/SL/kernel/
If you prefer, just create a link (bzImage) to your new kernel:
# ln -sf /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage /tmp/SL/kernel/bzImage
To create your boot image, just type:
# ./create_disk.sh boot
Now you have a distribution in a floppy. Reboot you PC and have fun.
Remember that to create your boot disk, you must first create the root image.
Directories structure
=====================
SL/ Root distribution directory.
|
+- Config-busybox-0.60.3.h Config for BusyBox 0.60.3
|
+- .config-busybox-1.00-pre3 Config for BusyBox 1.00.pre3
|
+- README This file.
|
+- create_disk.sh Script who create root and boot images.
|
+- kernel/ Contain all kernel related stuff.
| |
| +- .config-2.4.22 Used .config for 2.4.22 kernel.
| |
| +- bzImage Link for a kernel (who will be used on image).
| |
| +- linux-2.4.22 Kernel used on image (the real file).
| |
| +- modules/ lib/modules/<KERNEL_VERSION> structure used on
| root disk (install all modules here).
|
+- root/ Root directory to root image. Contain a minimun
Linux system.