blueznet.com or ftp.blueznet.com in /pub/colorg
cLIeNUX bootrootloop uses a Linux 2.2.0-furtive boot floppy image, a
cLIeNUX-derived root filesystem image, and a cLIeNUX loopback file.
Boot
The boot image is Linux 2.2.0-(final) with my ramdisk maximizer
bletchery. It sets the ramdisks' maximums to just under half your actual
RAM. I get 14something meg on a 32 meg machine. This is an 830k x86 kernel
with several filesystems, PCI, MCA, and several disk formats and the
loopback device. IBMMCA SCSI works. I was hoping to get the whole loop
image in ram, but oh well. What's a filesystem you can stretch?
Root
The root image is a 4 meg ext2 filesystem. A 12 meg RAM box should
accomodate cLIeNUX bootrootloop. The root disk has libc5, bash, calc,
and some docs on ed, Et cetera. It should suffice for getting the loop
image gzip -d'ed and mounted.
loop
The loop image is the current cLIeNUX, which is the beta version. It's
about 26 meg in a 35 meg ext2 image file, gzipped to about 8.6 meg. This
is what I've been calling "cLIeNUX Core" lately, although it's all there
is so far. cLIeNUX Core lacks X, regularly builds 2.2 kernels and most of
the rest of itself, has lots of manpages, and the file perms are pure slop
because cLIeNUX is for client-use anyway. The only servers on "Out Of the
Box" are finger and ident. And no SUID bits. No su. No sudo.
This setup should allow demo-ing GNU/Linux with the loop image residing on
just about any Linux-writable filesystem. Maybe even read-only. I hope. I
just now ran sc on the loop image mounted on the root image. Where the
loop image command needs a library not on the root image it will be
trickier. I've been in cLIeNUX almost exclusively lately, and I get a lot
done at 33 and 66 bogos. I get all this in < 30 meg by including gcc *C*
only, pre-*roffing all the manpages, no X, etc.
There's a variety of other things that differentiate cLIeNUX rather
sharply from it's Slackware daddy. All the init scripts ARE /etc/inittab.
That's it. That is, init is a sysVinit binary and a cLIeNUX /etc/inittab,
period. "man" is a bash script that calls Lynx. My PATH at the moment is
~/:/owner/wrappers:/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin . Most cLIeNUX docs are in /help.
Some "manpages" are html of the current AND the 1971 version, e.g. ed
(Lucent owns the copyrights, but dmr said I could use "a few"). No vi;
Pico and ed. cLIeNUX has enough static bins to boot without any libc, but
I haven't tested that entirely. I also include the EPIC IRC client and the
splitfire script.
cLIeNUX is my assertion of a couple little polemics:
"user-friendly" and "GUI" are unrelated;
the best documentation is proximity;
a system is only as good as the docs;
you have to find TFM before you can RTFM;
it's your box;
and last but not least, compensation for open source software
authors needs a new market paradigm.
So, thanks to all of you. Among those who don't seem to read this list,
thanks to Patrick Volkerding and Dennis Ritchie. It also bears mention
that since "cLIeNUX Core" is defined in part as a small Linux that can
build itself further entirely from source, a quick scan will show that it
is distinctly a "GNU/Linux".
Sorry about the topic-skew. My hope is that the Kernel Maestros find this
of interest subjectively. Certainly the "Thank you" pertains.
Rick Hohensee
Washington DC area
301-595-4063
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