Re: Linux distro request

Hi,

On Apr 8, 3:53 am, "Rod Pemberton" <do_not_h...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Rugxulo" <rugx...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

news:153a52fb-80eb-4c97-
b17d-26b0c4ae8cd4@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

lite Linux distro:

I've also been looking for a GCC development Linux distro that has:

1) (prefer) bootable CD .iso

You said you'd tried Puppy (which now needs 128 MB of RAM, sadly) and
DSL (which needs approx. 32 MB minimum, it seems). I like the latter
(although I don't use it except very very very rarely, I'm not a
Linuxer).

2) (prefer) Live-CD to install

Ubuntu has this, but it's RAM greedy (as most are these days ...
supposedly 2.6.x needs 128 MB by default ... you could probably
recompile for less though).

3) (required) unmountable CD
(Poorly setup /etc/fstab preventing unmounting the booted device is a
_problem_ with many Live-CD's and Linux recovery distro's. I can't load
additional software or Linux filesystems on another CD... )

I'm pretty positive Puppy can handle that since it claims to be able
to (as well as write back to CD). However, I think DSL loads
completely in RAM, so it doesn't need a CD after booting either. (And
yes, USB pen drives are very cheap now, so that may be your best bet:
< $20 gets you a good one, and DSL only needs 50 MB of space!)

4) (required) full C development environment: GCC, glibc, make, autoconf,
sh. etc.

You can get an add-on for DSL: "gcc-with-libs" (or something like
that). You might have to type "mydsl-load gcc-with-libs.ucl" first to
load it (but it all goes to RAM, probably not a good idea for a 32 MB
machine).

Why, what do you wish to build? Anything in particular? (gNewSense has
GCC by default as does the older NetBSD liveCD. But I think both of
those need lots of RAM.)

I know DeLi supposedly has an add-on for GCC, so you could try that.

5) (prefer) binary only, no source except C headers

None have source by default except in separate downloads (AFAICT).

5) (prefer) upto date kernel

At least DeLi is in the 2.4.x series, and that's modern enough. At
least, for legacy hardware (< 128 MB RAM), you're supposedly much
better off running 2.4.x than newer 2.6.x. And they still backport
stuff to 2.4.x. (The final ZipSlack 11.0, based on 2.4.x due to UMSDOS
being yanked from the kernel in later versions, can run from FAT32,
e.g. FreeDOS.)

6) dd, mount, umount, fdisk, find, ls (i.e., normal utils, not Busybox...)

You can get the add-on for real GNU utils for DSL.

7) VFAT support compiled into kernel

VFAT means the LFN "volume attrib" hack for FAT partitions (FAT12,
FAT16, FAT32), right? I think they all support that. It's NTFS that
some don't fully support (although most modern "big" distros
apparently do).

8) has no problem with 32Mb of RAM
9) has no problem with early 486's

Even Debian (or Ubuntu) is only compiled for 486 ("runs better on
VIA"). That shouldn't be a problem. (And BTW, I don't think GCC even
does anything for 486 over 386 except alignment.)

10) no X, no multi-user, no additional packages

Try ZipSlack or DeLi. Or any *BSD for that matter (none come with X11/
XFree86 by default). DeLi doesn't have an official liveCD (though an
unofficial one can be found by searching the forum), but it's an
installer CD instead. I don't remember exactly what options you get
when trying to install, but the "bare minimum" is terminal only (needs
8 MB of RAM). So, be sure to try that.

The problem often seems to be KDE or the window manager using too much
RAM (as well as too many processes in the background). I'll be honest,
I don't know why DSL even needs 32 MB, it should be lower (IMHO).

I know that's a nearly impossible request list. So, if you run across
distro that is "close enough," let me know...

Again, I'm not a Linux user, just took a glance or two over the past
few months. It might be easier if you specified what you want the OS
itself to do, what specific programs you want to run, etc. If all you
want to do is edit, compile, play games, listen to music, FreeDOS will
do all that. (I shudder to suggest Arachne because of all the hassle
involved with packet drivers. But some people love it, too!) ;-)

P.S. http://www.osnews.com
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: OT: what news reader do you use?
    ... Ubuntu linux. ... distribution started by a South African dot.com millionaire. ... DSL linux. ... your computer has less than 128 MB ram I would definitely consider DSL. ...
    (rec.sport.golf)
  • Re: Linux distro request
    ... DSL (which needs approx. ... Linuxer). ... If you really want low RAM, ... GCC by default as does the older NetBSD liveCD. ...
    (alt.lang.asm)
  • Re: Old system, new user, many questions
    ... With any system running only 64mb RAM, as already pointed out you will ... Other alternatives would be FeatherLinux or Puppy Linux. ... With something like DSL, which uses fluxbox as its window manager, the ... problem is in understanding that Linux is *not* windows. ...
    (alt.linux)
  • Re: Os for a 486?
    ... I would guess the best linux options could be DSL www.damnsmalllinux.org ... you have never had on an old box, put 128 mg.ram and at ... the whole OS in RAM, ...
    (alt.linux)
  • Re: Os for a 486?
    ... I would guess the best linux options could be DSL www.damnsmalllinux.org or VL vectorlinux.com, these should be small and slim enough for the old machine, but can be that you need to update your BIOS to run the latest versions. ... If you want speed like you have never had on an old box, put 128 mg.ram and at the command line type DSL=toram it will put the whole OS in RAM, and will FLY! ...
    (alt.linux)