[Blackpool] meeting 5th march- very basic linux for Colin

[MJ Hewitt]

Hi Colin -

These links should help you in your quest to understand how Linux 'ticks'.

http://ftp.lanet.lv/ftp/mirror/Slackware/bootdisks/

If you download the kernel 'bare.i' from the Slackware/bootdisks link, then
put it on a floppy with :- dd if=bare.i of=/dev/fd0

you will then have a floppy with a linux kernel that can partially boot.

Then look here:-

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Bootdisk-HOWTO/x88.html

to find how to build a basic file system (root disk). These two disks
combined make a 'very' basic linux system.

Then maybe add some basic tools:-

http://busybox.net/FAQ.html#whatis

Start by learning how to strip a working system down to the bare essentials
needed to run one or two commands, so you know what it is you actually need.
An excellent practical place to do this is the Linux BootDisk
Howto<http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Bootdisk-HOWTO/>,
or for a more theoretical approach try From PowerUp to Bash
Prompt<http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/From-PowerUp-To-Bash-Prompt-HOWTO.html>
.

To learn how to build a working Linux system entirely from source code, the
place to go is theLinux From Scratch
<http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/> project.
They have an entire book of step-by-step instructions you can read
online<http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/view/stable/>
 or download <http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/downloads/stable/>. Be
sure to check out the other sections of their main page, including Beyond
Linux From Scratch, Hardened Linux From Scratch, their Hints directory, and
their LiveCD project. (They also have mailing lists which are better sources
of answers to Linux-system building questions than the busybox list.)

If you want an automated yet customizable system builder which produces a
BusyBox and uClibc based system, try buildroot<http://buildroot.uclibc.org/>,
which is another project by the maintainer of the uClibc (Erik Andersen).
Download the tarball, extract it, unset CC, make. For more instructions, see
the website.

-- 
Best regards,
Mike Hewitt

PC Recycler Ltd.
29-35 Ripon road
Blackpool FY1 4DY
01253 293258
07711 736899
www.pcrecycler.co.uk