linux on SBC, < 120MB

Aug 19, 2004 3 Replies
L

Hey everyone



I am hoping that someone may be able to help me out. We need to get a working linux system with 2.6 kernel, GCC, and Java installed on a SBC with a celeron 300MHz processor, 256MB RAM, and 256MB CompactFlash storage. Due to space limitations imposed by additional software that must be loaded on the system, I need to limit the space that the above (linux, java, GCC) takes up to no more that around 120MB. Less would be better.



I have explored many ideas, and am in the process of reading Linux From Scratch and also building a system from Gentoo, but I dont have time to read LFS, and I have a feeling Gentoo will be too big even if I get it finished, unless someone out there has done something similar and can help me out.



Right now we are working with Knoppix/ emKnoppix, and Im not sure how far this will take us. It seems to be alright but we are having trouble moving up to the 2.6 kernel, as well as other minor issues.



If anyone has done something similar or can give us any hint, PLEASE reply. I really need to have this done tomorrow, although I realize that this might be an unrealistic goal.



Thanks in advance


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G

This has just been discusses over the past few days.

I ran a stripped down Debian installation on a 128MB CF without any problems.

Grant Edwards grante Yow! -- I can do at ANYTHING... I can visi.com even... SHOPLIFT!!
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B

I'm using a strippped down Debian on such a system. Right now I've got

33 MB free, but I could get another 30 or so by just moving the dpkg database someplace else and yet another 30 by removing the hundreds of kernel drivers I'm not using. IOW, I didn't spend a lot of time on it and could do much better. No GCC or Java, but Perl and several libs are installed along with a number of MP3 apps (the box is a dedicated MP3 jukebox with the data stored on my home server).

I installed by booting from Knoppix and using debootstrap to get a base system installed, then went from there. I also moved much of /var and all of /tmp to a tmpfs, have no swap, and mount volumes with "noatime".

Another option would be to start with a minimal Slackware.

-| Bob Hauck -| To Whom You Are Speaking -| http://www.haucks.org/
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D

The long-term problem with this for me is that it's kind of a pain to recreate the system from source. Building the Debian glibc deb is an all-day outing in many cases, because it builds and cleans things several times.

-Dave

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