| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
melloe
Ultimate Member
Joined: 20 Mar 2024
Posts: 2263
Location: Southern Illinois
|
 Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2024 3:51 am Post subject: Mini Linux Distros |
 |
|
Pud GNU with LXDE
Distribution Release: PUD GNU/Linux LXDE Edition
This edtion of live CD is made for the Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment (LXDE), including the newest LXDE 0.3, installer and Ubuntu 8.04 packages. LXDE tries hard to get maximal usability from minimal resource usage, and provide a usable desktop for low end machines.
* LiveCD: pud-0.4.8.6-lxde.iso (260MB)
* LiveUSB: pud-0.4.8.6-lxde-usb.zip (259MB)
* Build Kit: build-livecd-lxde.tar.gz
http://pud-linux.sourceforge.net/lxde.en.html
http://lxde.sourceforge.net/
Including
Another lightweight Distro LXDE
LXDE is a new project aimed to provide a new desktop environment which is lightweight and fast. It's not designed to be powerful and bloated, but to be usable and slim enough, and keep the resource usage low. Different from other desktop environments, we don't tightly integrate every component. Instead, we tried to make all components independent, and each of them can be used independently with few dependencies.
Features
* Lightweight, runs with reasonable memory usage
* Fast, runs well even on older machines produced in 1999
* Good-looking, gtk+ 2 internationalized user interface
* Easy-to-use, the user interface is simple, but usable enough
* Desktop independent (suprise! Every component can be used without LXDE)
* Standard compliant, follows the specs on freedesktop.org
* Suitable for old machines
Did it, fast and quite good for 250Meg ISO. Won't say its better than Puppy
_________________
mell0: 1. Kubuntu, XP, Sabayon 2. Mandriva,Mint, Mephis
Thor: 1. VISTA, Fedora 2. Chakra, Debian
Sam:XP, SuSE Zues: win7, SuSE testing
|
|
| Back to top |
|
masinick
Linux Guru
Joined: 03 Apr 2024
Posts: 8615
Location: Concord, NH
|
| Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2024 5:29 pm Post subject: How does this compare with the "standards"? |
|
|
To me, DSL is the reigning standard for really small (50 MB max.) Live CDs. It achieves this small size by making compromises in what it offers - the kernel, Web browser, and other utilities are not chosen for newness, but for size and stability. It wins on small size but it is not the most capable of the small Live CDs, just one of the smallest.
Recently another distro - forget the name, but I think you've reported it, Melloe, comes in at around 25 MB. If the hype is true, then it may be better than DSL, both in smaller size, and unbelievably, in capabilities as well. However, I have not run it or validated any of the claims, so to me it is technology yet to be proven.
Puppy is arguably the most flexible and capable mini Live CD around. It still comes in at under 100 MB and may still be available in sizes in the 50-75 MB range for those who need a small Live CD, but can also scale up with versions around 100 MB and a chubby version slightly over 200 MB - still modest, but much larger than the original. It now uses Slackware packaging so it can scale all the way up to a full desktop system or server if need be, so it is flexible as well. Perhaps one of the top three Live CDs of any type available.
KNOPPIX is a Live CD that offers just about everything, but for most needs, it is major overkill. SLAX offers a much more reasonable alternative. Not as small as DSL or Puppy, but half or less than the size of a full CD ISO image, SLAX is arguably the Live CD of choice as a handy repair CD that can also be used interactively, given a system with moderate capabilities. Not real strong on installation capabilities, should that be an interest, it nevertheless offers a lot as a repair tool that can also be used to provide a portable desktop Linux system when away from your own desk.
AntiX is perhaps one of the best small to mid sized Live CDs if what you want to do is load it live and use it as a desktop. It has great hardware support, very stable software, and benefits from both the great work that Warren Woodford does in the base MEPIS software and the small to mid sized Live CD packaging that Anticapitalista has fine tuned for gradually aging hardware. To me, this is always one of my keepers in my Live CD collection.
If you have fairly capable hardware, PCLinuxOS and SimplyMEPIS, full desktop systems in their own right, also offer really full featured desktop Live CD systems with excellent hardware detection, great ease of use, but they are larger than most of the other versions mentioned, except for KNOPPIX, which is full of just about everything. These two are worth having both for Live CD and regular desktop use and rate high on the newbie scale ratings as well, which is important to some people.
Now what about KNOPPIX, after taking a few shots at it? Is it any good? Yes, of course. It remains the standard by which Live CDs are judged, and it really set the tone and quite a bit of the early technology which many Live CDs use today. It is extremely rich in capabilities and it has a terrific selection of software. If you are a hardware tech or a support tech, even if you work in a Windows shop KNOPPIX is a great tool to have - either in CD or DVD form. If a tool to get the job done for repair and problem resolution is not in KNOPPIX, I would be extremely surprised. The latest release 5.3.1 is pretty current too.
One of the things you can do with KNOPPIX is use it as a basis for installing your own custom Debian Sid distribution. What else is nice about it is that you can take or leave as much of it as you want if you get into remastering Live CDs. For that purpose KNOPPIX may be one of the best starting points of all the Live CDs because it probably has what you need. The one issue may be that you have to pare an awful lot out to get it down to a more manageable size, but that is a nice problem to have.
Finally, NimbleX provides another small Slackware-derived Live CD. You can, straight from the NimbleX site, create your own customized version of NimbleX with the software you want. I found it easy to build, create, and install a custom Live CD. One thing that was weak about it was top notch wireless support like you get with AntiX, MEPIS, and PCLinuxOS. I do also find this to be a weakness with the small Live CDs like DSL and Puppy, too, though those are perfect for wired desktop connections on systems five or more years old, and NimbleX does well with those same systems. |
|
| Back to top |
|
melloe
Ultimate Member
Joined: 20 Mar 2024
Posts: 2263
Location: Southern Illinois
|
| Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2024 10:31 pm Post subject: |
|
|
SliTaz is a free micro GNU/Linux distro using BusyBox, a Linux kernel, and GNU free software. The goal of SliTaz is to have a GNU/Linux distro working in memory (RAM). Installable to a hard disk, with good support for French language oriented web, It offers high performance and PC recycling. SliTaz boots with Syslinux and provides more than 200 Linux commands, the LightTPD web server, SQLite database, rescue tools, IRC client, SSH client/server powered by Dropbear, X window system, JWM (Joe's Window Manager), gFTP, Geany IDE, Mozilla Firefox, Alsaplayer, Gparted, a sound file éditor and much more. SliTaz's ISO image will always fit on less than 30 Mb, to try and give you a reasonable selection of software. More information...
Headlines
http://www.slitaz.org/en/
WARNING: Not sure how uiniversal the troubles I had with a PCIe nVidia card and LCD, but suggest you select 800 x 600 at first as it does not have the automatic and will try to set up video refresh rates and resolution combinations if you choose that your monitor or Video card will not tolerate. It uses VESA, and other setting should be tried with the finger on the power switch.
28 Feb 2024 - New Cooking 20240228
Getting ready for the next stable release! - The SliTaz project is proud to publish a new Cooking version with a lot of bug fixes, updates, improvements and new features. PCI/USB device auto-detection is now handled by Tazhw and firmware can be installed in one click through a graphical interface. Tazndis also has a simple GUI which lets you manage Windows drivers in a user friendly interface. The graphical packages manager is also much simpler to use and LiveUSB media such as a USB key can easily be created through a box. Netbox displays all interfaces and the new Wifibox can connect to wireless essids, manage favorite networks and configure card drivers manually or through Tazhw. The desktop has a GUI to enable or disable applications started with an Openbox session and Ivman with desktopkbox provides a lightweight notification system. You can download this new ISO image from one of the official mirrors of the website.
_________________
mell0: 1. Kubuntu, XP, Sabayon 2. Mandriva,Mint, Mephis
Thor: 1. VISTA, Fedora 2. Chakra, Debian
Sam:XP, SuSE Zues: win7, SuSE testing
Last edited by melloe on Sun Mar 01, 2024 7:18 pm; edited 1 time in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
masinick
Linux Guru
Joined: 03 Apr 2024
Posts: 8615
Location: Concord, NH
|
| Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2024 12:53 am Post subject: |
|
|
Thanks, Melloe, that IS the one I was talking about. Will have to grab it tonight and give it a spin. I am here with another of my Live CD favorites right now, the excellent AntiX M7.2 Preview 1 from Anticapitalista. This is a lightweight offshoot of SimplyMEPIS, though I remember Anticapitalista mentioning at some point creating his own unique kernel; not sure if this one still uses the MEPIS kernel or something else, but it is really nice. Won't load into RAM on my old Dell - not small enough, but it is small enough to run reasonably well, albeit when there is a change of program or a new part of a program loads in, there is a CD delay while the I/O operation takes place. AntiX IS installable, and it makes for a nice, lightweight distro, highly recommended.
May not pass the ultimate Melloe newbie test, but for constrained newbie resources (like a ten year old system) this is one in that category that isn't too difficult to manage - it is easy to install. Given Fluxbox, there is a bit to get used to, but Fluxbox is not all that difficult. This one may take one or two training sessions to teach the total newbie how to use it, but once that is done, they will appreciate how well this runs! |
|
| Back to top |
|
masinick
Linux Guru
Joined: 03 Apr 2024
Posts: 8615
Location: Concord, NH
|
| Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2024 2:21 pm Post subject: Interested in any reports and experiences on SliTaz |
|
|
| I didn't get to download SliTaz last night, and Tuesdays I am usually busy with multiple things. Wednesday is a possibility, since the download is pretty small; otherwise Friday will be my next chance to go at this. Sounds promising. If you or anyone else have feedback or comments on it between now and then I am all ears, and I am interested in giving this very small distro a try! |
|
| Back to top |
|
melloe
Ultimate Member
Joined: 20 Mar 2024
Posts: 2263
Location: Southern Illinois
|
| Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2024 2:58 am Post subject: |
|
|
http://www.newbieslinux.com/forum/?webtag=DEFAULT&msg=4700.1
Masinick
I ran it, and then DSL the same evening, and the discussion got gemixed.
The Note at the bottom was a warning about visa NOT being automatic, other wise that and it chose the opposite of the two ethernet on board to try and use. The others drivers may not have been in the distro, or it was just picky <G><
Once I got past that, it was impressive, even at 800 x600 16
May have worked with other resolution settings, but I lost the screen, and had this hissing noise from the onboard speaker, so aborted with a couple of tries on the test box.
Quite an effort for <30 megs
_________________
mell0: 1. Kubuntu, XP, Sabayon 2. Mandriva,Mint, Mephis
Thor: 1. VISTA, Fedora 2. Chakra, Debian
Sam:XP, SuSE Zues: win7, SuSE testing
|
|
| Back to top |
|
masinick
Linux Guru
Joined: 03 Apr 2024
Posts: 8615
Location: Concord, NH
|
| Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2024 4:28 am Post subject: I am running Slitaz NOW! |
|
|
| melloe wrote: | SliTaz is a free micro GNU/Linux distro using BusyBox, a Linux kernel, and GNU free software. The goal of SliTaz is to have a GNU/Linux distro working in memory (RAM). Installable to a hard disk, with good support for French language oriented web, It offers high performance and PC recycling. SliTaz boots with Syslinux and provides more than 200 Linux commands, the LightTPD web server, SQLite database, rescue tools, IRC client, SSH client/server powered by Dropbear, X window system, JWM (Joe's Window Manager), gFTP, Geany IDE, Mozilla Firefox, Alsaplayer, Gparted, a sound file éditor and much more. SliTaz's ISO image will always fit on less than 30 Mb, to try and give you a reasonable selection of software. More information...
Headlines
http://www.slitaz.org/en/
WARNING: Not sure how uiniversal the troubles I had with a PCIe nVidia card and LCD, but suggest you select 800 x 600 at first as it does not have the automatic and will try to set up video refresh rates and resolution combinations if you choose that your monitor or Video card will not tolerate. It uses VESA, and other setting should be tried with the finger on the power switch.
But it looks pretty good at 800 x600 16
Brian, this may be the small one you were talking about. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
masinick
Linux Guru
Joined: 03 Apr 2024
Posts: 8615
Location: Concord, NH
|
| Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2024 4:31 am Post subject: I am running Slitaz NOW! |
|
|
| melloe wrote: | SliTaz is a free micro GNU/Linux distro using BusyBox, a Linux kernel, and GNU free software. The goal of SliTaz is to have a GNU/Linux distro working in memory (RAM). Installable to a hard disk, with good support for French language oriented web, It offers high performance and PC recycling. SliTaz boots with Syslinux and provides more than 200 Linux commands, the LightTPD web server, SQLite database, rescue tools, IRC client, SSH client/server powered by Dropbear, X window system, JWM (Joe's Window Manager), gFTP, Geany IDE, Mozilla Firefox, Alsaplayer, Gparted, a sound file éditor and much more. SliTaz's ISO image will always fit on less than 30 Mb, to try and give you a reasonable selection of software. More information...
Headlines
http://www.slitaz.org/en/
WARNING: Not sure how uiniversal the troubles I had with a PCIe nVidia card and LCD, but suggest you select 800 x 600 at first as it does not
have the automatic and will try to set up video refresh rates and resolution combinations if you choose that your monitor or Video card will not tolerate. It uses VESA, and other setting should be tried with the finger on the power switch.
But it looks pretty good at 800 x600 16
Brian, this may be the small one you were talking about. |
I got Slitaz to load on my old Dell with iffy DVDrom by setting the parameters
slitaz lang-en_US vga=771
I may have put a few others in but I got it running in 1024x768x24. Those settings ought to work. No wireless but what can we expect in 25 MB? Fast and functional on the Dell Dimension 4100, a 2024 vintage system! |
|
| Back to top |
|
masinick
Linux Guru
Joined: 03 Apr 2024
Posts: 8615
Location: Concord, NH
|
| Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2024 4:39 am Post subject: Here is some info on Slitaz, the really small 25 MB Live CD |
|
|
Welcome to the SliTaz GNU/Linux web site.
slitaz-dektop SliTaz is a free micro GNU/Linux distro using BusyBox, a Linux kernel, and GNU free software. The goal of SliTaz is to have a GNU/Linux distro working in memory (RAM). Installable to a hard disk, with good support for French language oriented web, It offers high performance and PC recycling. SliTaz boots with Syslinux and provides more than 200 Linux commands, the LightTPD web server, SQLite database, rescue tools, IRC client, SSH client/server powered by Dropbear, X window system, JWM (Joe's Window Manager), gFTP, Geany IDE, Mozilla Firefox, Alsaplayer, Gparted, a sound file éditor and much more. SliTaz's ISO image will always fit on less than 30 Mb, to try and give you a reasonable selection of software. |
|
| Back to top |
|
masinick
Linux Guru
Joined: 03 Apr 2024
Posts: 8615
Location: Concord, NH
|
| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2024 2:30 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Melloe, have you put PCLOS MiniMe (or any other small distro), maybe Puppy or DSL - or now the tiny Slitaz - on a USB stick? I have a 4 GB USB stick and I am thinking of putting PCLOS MiniME on it. I have another stick and I may put AntiX on it - though my favorite use of AntiX is on my laptop booting from CD and loading 100% into RAM. Of course, if I can boot from USB and load into RAM, that would be great too. |
|
| Back to top |
|
melloe
Ultimate Member
Joined: 20 Mar 2024
Posts: 2263
Location: Southern Illinois
|
| Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2024 11:52 pm Post subject: |
|
|
masinick
I did mimime, after playing with the umpty ump settings in the BIOS on USB. Bios will set to boot off of almost anything. leaving a jump drive in with
some executable on it will sometimes stop it from booting.
Interesting, but of no real value to me in my present situation.
I can see where it would be if I were still getting in newer boxes for service, or had outside contracts with newer boxes involved as before.
As it is for me now, a CD or DVD with any one of several distros or rescue OS on it works better. Knoppix comes to mind. on the OS side.
Like an idiot I did it on the test box
Now I have to go into the BIOS each time I change device types.
I'll swear I put everything back where it was <G><
IDE carrier to IDE carrier OK. SATA carrier to SATA OK only if its on the same controller in bothcases ( Besides 2 SATA and 2 IDE, the board has a separate SATA and a separate PATA RAID controller. I use the SATA RAID as straight SATA ). I know that BIOS like the back of my hand, and can't figure out what combination I had before that it did not care what device I put in to boot from. Have not checked it yet, but it keeps defaulting to a USB that I think is that stupid 12 in 1 I added when I change from the SATA to PATA carrier, or to one of the switched drives.
Get a chance I am gonna pull that plug, and disconnect the printer ( which also has a USB 5 in 1 on it and see f that makes a difference. Already shut down the older high end external at boot which one of those x in1 things on it and that did not correct it, but there is one less thing listed in bootable USB devices.
_________________
mell0: 1. Kubuntu, XP, Sabayon 2. Mandriva,Mint, Mephis
Thor: 1. VISTA, Fedora 2. Chakra, Debian
Sam:XP, SuSE Zues: win7, SuSE testing
|
|
| Back to top |
|
masinick
Linux Guru
Joined: 03 Apr 2024
Posts: 8615
Location: Concord, NH
|
| Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2024 12:27 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Hmm, I found MiniMe to be nearly the equal of PCLinuxOS 2024, minus the number of packages, but pointing to the same exact repositories so that you could, theoretically build virtually the exact same system with 2024 or MiniMe. On the other hand, last I tried PCLinuxOS 2024 GNOME community edition, I ran into some issues - I may try that one again very soon, maybe tonight, just to make sure it wasn't my wireless acting up that caused issues. Might be worth giving MiniMe another try. PCLinuxOS is, without question, my favorite NON-Debian based system, with Mandriva right behind it. |
|
| Back to top |
|
masinick
Linux Guru
Joined: 03 Apr 2024
Posts: 8615
Location: Concord, NH
|
| Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2024 1:11 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Just by way of feedback, I thought it only fair to revisit PCLinuxOS 2024 GNOME edition. Tonight, making sure my wireless was functioning correctly, I booted the community GNOME edition in SAFE mode and added the copy2ram option. Took quite a while to load, but once in, ran well. Wireless was the usual PCLinuxOS EASY task, so this time everything worked. I do think I had to select SAFE MODE last time - this time I did right off the bat and it did the right thing. Cool! Maybe I should revisit Granular Linux since I dinged it around the same time. |
|
| Back to top |
|
melloe
Ultimate Member
Joined: 20 Mar 2024
Posts: 2263
Location: Southern Illinois
|
| Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2024 6:38 pm Post subject: Damn Small Linux 4.3 |
|
|
Distribution Release: Damn Small Linux 4.X Updated 19 Oct 2024 Note, Nov 2024, 4.1.1 is out now
damnsmall Robert Shingledecker has announced the final release of Damn Small Linux 4. X From the changelog: "Updated Firefox browser to version 2; updated murgaLua to 0.6.8; updated nano-tiny to 2.0.7; updated and consolidation of mydslBrowser with new mydslBrowser.lua; new picture puzzle added to Games collection; new calculator.lua replaces Calcoo; optimized minirt24.gz - much smaller; new background and theme for both JWM and Fluxbox; updated 'noicons' boot option to suppress icons in JWM; fixed removal of mydsl extensions on traditional hard drive installations; dropped SCSI modules for needed space - available in the modules section; fixed CD recording scanbus device error by adding scsi/sg.o module; updated editor.lua - menu issue resolved for new murgaLua version...
http://damnsmalllinux.org/
3.x Supports Application launching from limited icons. Application centric. Menu driven.
Current 3.x version 3.4.12,
ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/damnsmall/current/dsl-3.x/
4.x Supports Drag-N-Drop, Folder/Document centric. Many icons. Can be run menuless.
Current 4.x version: 4.4.6
ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/damnsmall/current/
ftp://ftp.heanet.ie/mirrors/damnsmalllinux.org/current/
" Download: dsl-4.X and 3. X [Some links here are no longer any good, but info to Home..Mel ]
http://damnsmalllinux.org/download.html
_________________
mell0: 1. Kubuntu, XP, Sabayon 2. Mandriva,Mint, Mephis
Thor: 1. VISTA, Fedora 2. Chakra, Debian
Sam:XP, SuSE Zues: win7, SuSE testing
Last edited by melloe on Tue Nov 11, 2024 2:21 pm; edited 2 times in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
coastie
Moderator Bot
Joined: 24 Apr 2024
Posts: 3064
Location: The Fox Den in the Big Easy
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
