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Minimal Linux Live
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- Minimal Linux Live is a set of Linux shell scripts which automatically build minimalistic Live Linux OS with basic network support via DHCP. The generated operating system is based on Linux kernel, GNU C library and BusyBox. All necessary sources are automatically downloaded and all build operations are fully encapsulated in the shell scripts.
+ Minimal Linux Live is a tiny Linux distribution which is designed to be built from scratch by using a collection of automated shell scripts. Minimal Linux Live offers a core environment with just the Linux kernel, GNU C library and BusyBox userland utilities. Additional software can be included in the ISO image at build time by using a well documented configuration file. Minimal Linux Live can be downloaded as a pre-built image, built from scratch or run in a web browser by using a JavaScript PC emulator.
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- If you want to build your own Minimal Linux Live ISO image file, all you need to do is the following:
+ Steps to follow if you want to build your own Minimal Linux Live ISO image file:
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- Get the latest scripts from the download section.
+ Get the latest source code archive from the download section.
- Extract the scripts to some folder. Note that even though the scripts are small in size, you need ~2GB free disk space for the actual build process.
+ Extract the source code archive. Note that even though the extracted scripts are relatively small in size (~1MB), you need ~2GB free disk space for the actual build process.
- Just for convenience, make sure that all scripts are executable (chmod -R +x *.sh). If you decide to skip this step you can still run the scripts like this (example): sh build_minimal_linux_live.sh
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- Depending on which Linux OS you are using, there might be one or more (or none, or even more) build dependencies that you need to resolve before you start the build process. If you work with Ubuntu, the following command should resolve all necessary build dependencies:
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- sudo apt install wget make gawk gcc bc genisoimage
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- Execute the script build_minimal_linux_live.sh and wait. If you have resolved all build dependencies, the whole process should take less than 30 minutes on a modern computer. If the build fails for some reason, most probably there are unresolved build dependencies. Several users reported that the build-essential package resolves all unexpected build dependencies for Ubuntu. If you are using Linux Mint try to install the package g++ and if you still have troubles then try the build-essential package. On Fedora you might need the static 'glibc' package glibc-static. Please have in mind that the build dependencies can vary a lot depending on the Linux OS which you use and the software which you have already installed.
+ Resolve the build dependencies (e.g. GCC, make, etc.). On Ubuntu you can use the following command:
- If you still have troubles then examine the failure message and google it. If you are unable to find solution, then you can ask more experienced Linux guru around you or as alternative you can submit an issue.
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+ sudo apt install wget make gawk gcc bc xorriso
- When the scripts finish their job you will find newly generated ISO image file minimal_linux_live.iso in the same folder where you executed the scripts. You can burn the ISO image file on CD/DVD, install it on USB flash drive via Universal USB Installer, or run it directly via PC emulator like VirtualBox. The most recent version of Minimal Linux Live requires 256MB RAM, otherwise the boot process most probably will hang.
+ Execute the script build_minimal_linux_live.sh and get some coffee. The whole build process should take less than 30 minutes on a modern computer.
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+ In the end you will find the generated ISO image file minimal_linux_live.iso in the same folder where you started the build process.
- The generated ISO image file contains Linux kernel compiled with default options, GNU C library compiled with default options, BusyBox compiled with default options and quite simple initramfs. This means that you don't get Windows support out of the box, nor you get any fancy desktop environment. All you get is a simple shell console which supports all BusyBox applets and... well, that's all. This is why it's called "minimal".
+ The default build process for version xx-Jan-2018 generates ~9MB ISO image but you can make the ISO image even smaller (~7MB) if you exclude the default overlay bundles from the main .config file.
- The good news is that the build scripts are well organized and small in size. You can easily learn from the scripts and later modify them to include more stuff (I encourage you to do so). After you learn the basics, you will have all the necessary tools and skills to create your own fully functional Linux based operating system. Entirely from scratch!
+ If your build fails for some reason, most probably there are unresolved build dependencies. Please have in mind that the build dependencies can vary a lot depending on the Linux OS that you use and the software which you have already installed. If you still have troubles, you should be able to identify the failing script from the console output. You may find it useful to enable "debug" logging in the failing shell script like this: set -ex. Manually run the failing script and identify the failing part. If you are unable to find solution to your problem, then you can ask someone more experienced Linux guy around you or as alternative you can submit an issue.
- The tutorial provides more details about the inner structure of the scripts and the overall build process. I encourage you to go through this document when you have the time. The same tutorial document is automatically included in the generated ISO image, so you can always refer to it.
+ You can run the ISO image in virtual machine, e.g. QEMU, VirtualBox or VMware Workstation Player (free for non-commercial use). You can also burn the ISO image file on CD/DVD or on USB flash device by issuing dd if=minimal_linux_live.iso of=/dev/xxx where /dev/xxx is your USB flash device.
- Below you can find several screenshots which show what the environment looks like when you boot your newly generated Minimal Linux Live OS.
+ The generated ISO image file contains Linux kernel, GNU C library compiled with default options, BusyBox compiled with default options, quite simple initramfs structure and some "overlay bundles" (the default build process provides few overlay bundles). You don't get Windows support out of the box, nor you get any fancy desktop environment. All you get is a simple shell console with default BusyBox applets, network support via DHCP and... well, that's all. This is why it's called "minimal".
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+ Note that by default Minimal Linux Live provides support for legacy BIOS systems. You can change the build configuration settings in the .config file and rebuild MLL with support for modern UEFI systems.
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+ All build scripts are well organized and quite small in size. You can easily learn from the scripts, reverse engineer the build process and later modify them to include more stuff (I encourage you to do so). After you learn the basics, you will have all the necessary tools and skills to create your own fully functional Linux based operating system which you have built entirely from scratch.
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+ You are encouraged to read the tutorial which explains the MLL build process. The same tutorial, along with all MLL source code, can be found in the ISO image structure in the /minimal/rootfs/usr/src directory.
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+ Below you can find several screenshots form version 20-Jan-2017 which demonstrate what the MLL environment looks like.
+ Updated software base - Minimal Linux Live (MLL) is based on Linux kernel 4.14.8, GNU C library 2.26 and BusyBox 1.27.2. The generated ISO image file is 9MB and requires 256MB RAM in order to run properly.
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+ 30+ available overlay bundles with new additions like nano, vim, Cloud Foundry and BOSH clients, Open JDK, keyboard layouts, the game 2048 and many more.
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+ Bundle dependency management - good example is the Open JDK overlay bundle which depends on GLIBC and ZLIB. From end user perspective all you need to do is to add Open JDK to the list of overlay bundles that you want to include in MLL and the overlay build system will automatically prepare the overlay bundles required by Open JDK.
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+ Separate configuration file for overlay bundles - all bundle specific configuration can be externalized in separate configuration file. This makes the main configuration file much smaller and easier to maintain. The entries in the bundle configuration file takes precedence over the main configuration file.
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+ Autorun functionality in the initramfs - all scripts in /etc/autorun are automatically executed on boot. This feature is used by some overlay bundles which require some functionality to be triggered on boot (e.g. the DHCP overlay bundle).
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+ DHCP functionality as separate overlay bundle - the DHCP client functionality is triggered automaticaly on boot. The default DNS resolver is changed to Quad 9. The public Google DNS resolvers are still present and used as backup. This overlay bundle is enabled by default.
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+ Source code as separate overlay bundle - previous MLL versions used to include the MLL source code both in the initramfs structure and in the ISO image structure. Now the same source code is included as overlay bundle and can be found either in /minimal/rootfs/usr/src (ISO image) or in /usr/src (initramfs). This overlay bundle is enabled by default.
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+ Docker compatible image - The MLL build process generates Docker compatible image mll_image.tgz which contains all available software from the MLL ISO image. This image can be imported and used in Docker or in any other container system which supports raw filesystem import. You could add your own software in MLL (e.g. simple HTTP server like 'nweb' which is provided as overlay bundle) and then use Docker instead of running the entire OS.
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+ Overlay bundles can be merged in the initramfs - all overlay bundles can be "merged" with the initramfs structure. In this way all overlay bundle functionality is available on boot, ragrdless of the limited hardware detection support. This makes the initramfs structure significantly larger and as consequence you need more RAM since all overlay bundles are available as part of the initramfs.
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+ Structural improvements - the overlay build system is completely separated from the main build system. The main shell scripts are more but each individual shell script has simpler structure. Both tha mian build process and the overlay build system rely on "common" logic from separate shell script which is included in all other relevant shell scripts. The "sparse" image file size has been increased to 3MB in order to handle the size of the default overlay bundles.
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+ UEFI and BIOS support - MLL provides different build flavors, depending on the targeted firmware compatibility. The "bios" build flavor targets legacy BIOS systems and uses precompiled boot loaders provided by the syslinux project. The "uefi" build flavor targets modern UEFI systems and uses precompiled boot loaders provided by the systemd-boot project. You can also generate "mixed" ISO image which can boot on both legacy BIOS and moder UEFI systems. The default build flavor is "bios".
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+ ISO image restructuring - the main ISO image directory no longer contains individual files. One exception is "minimal.img" if the "sparse" overlay location has been enabled in the main configuration file. This makes the ISO image structure easier for future maintenance.
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+ Custom MLL boot logo - the MLL boot logo is provided as separate overlay bundle. However, it is different from the other overlay bundles bcause it doesn't add overlay functionality. Instead, this overlay bundle "injects" the custom MLL boot logo in the kernel source tree and triggers small kernel rebuild. This overlay bundle is enabled by default.
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- Updated software base - Minimal Linux Live (MLL) is based on Linux kernel 4.4.44, GNU C library 2.24 and BusyBox 1.26.2. The generated ISO image file is 7MB in size and requires 256MB RAM in order to run properly.
+ Updated software base - Minimal Linux Live (MLL) is based on Linux kernel 4.4.44, GNU C library 2.24 and BusyBox 1.26.2. The generated ISO image file is 7MB and requires 256MB RAM in order to run properly.
- UEFI support - MLL is UEFI compliant and the live CD can boot on EFI based systems.
+ UEFI support - MLL provides experimental UEFI support and the live CD can boot on UEFI based systems which provide UEFI shell.
Additional software via overlay bundles - the MLL architecture has been significantly improved and you can add more software via the so called "overlay bindles". This feature has been documented in the ".config" file, as well as in the internal README documents. By default these overlay bundles are not part of the build process because they rely on the host machine environment and the may or may not be built correctly on your particular machine. Nevertheless, turning this feature on is very simple and I encourage you to experiment with it.
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- I am professional Java software engineer (surprisingly, Java developers tend to know some Linux stuff) and I had been trying to create my own Linux OS for a very long time. Over the years I found some good tutorials online but most of them are not simple to follow and pretty much none of them explain in details what has been done and why it's done in this particular way. In most cases the tutorials are outdated or incomplete and there is high chance that you end up with something broken.
+ I am professional Java software engineer (surprisingly, Java developers tend to know some Linux stuff) and I have been trying to create my own Linux OS for a very long time. Over the years I found some good online tutorials but most of them are not simple to follow and pretty much none of them explain in details what has been done and why it's done in this particular way. In most cases the tutorials are outdated or incomplete and there is high chance that you will end up with something broken.
- Don't get me wrong, you can learn a lot from these tutorials, as I did. In fact the scripts which I created are based on the same information resources which you might have already found. The difference is that this website provides you not only with fully functional set of shell scripts which automatically build fully functional live Linux OS, but also with detailed tutorial and probably the best internal documentation you will ever find in an open source project.
+ You can learn a lot from these online tutorials, as I did. In fact the scripts which I created are based on the same information resources which you might have already found. The difference is that this project provides you with fully functional set of shell scripts which automatically build fully functional live Linux OS, detailed tutorial and probably the best internal documentation you will ever find in an open source project.
- You can follow MLL on Facebook and if you find this project useful, I'd very much appreciate it if you buy me a beer. Thanks! :)
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- If you'd like to contact me, my e-mail is: davidov [dot] i (at) gmail {dot} com
+ You can follow Minimal Linux Live on Facebook. If you'd like to contact me, my e-mail is: davidov [dot] i (at) gmail {dot} com. Let me kow if you find this project useful. Thanks! :)
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- The Dao of Minimal Linux Live is a tutorial document based on the first published version of Minimal Linux Live. The tutorial explains in details what steps are involved in creating simple live Linux OS entirely from scratch, the inner structure of the build scripts and provides you with more information on how to improve/upgrade the generated OS with other generic stuff (e.g. users & groups, /etc/inittab).
+ The Dao of Minimal Linux Live is a tutorial based on the first published version of Minimal Linux Live. The tutorial explains in details what steps are involved in the creation of simple live Linux OS entirely from scratch, the inner structure of the build scripts and provides you with more information on how to improve/upgrade the generated OS with other generic stuff (e.g. users & groups, /etc/inittab).
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- You can try Minimal Linux Live directly in your browser. The link below will open new browser window (or tab) with JavaScript based PC emulator which will automatically run the latest version of Minimal Linux Live. Please be advised that this PC emulator runs entirely in your browser and therefore it is not very fast.
+ You can try Minimal Linux Live directly in your browser. The link below will open new browser window (or tab) with JavaScript based PC emulator which will automatically run Minimal Linux Live version 20-Jan-2017. Please be advised that this PC emulator runs entirely in your browser and therefore it is not very fast.
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- The latest stable scripts (20-Jan-2017) can be downloaded as "tar.xz" archive
- here.
+ The build scripts for version 20-Jan-2017 are available as tar.xz archive.
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- You can take a look at the latest development sources in
- GitHub.
+ You can take a look at the latest development sources in the dedicated GitHub project.