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2016-08-20 09:08:50 -04:00

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<title>Minimal Linux Live</title>
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<meta name="author" content="Ivan Davidov - davidov (dot) i [at] gmail {dot} com">
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<h2><a href="/" style="text-decoration: none; color: #000;">Minimal Linux Live</a></h2>
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<a class="button button-primary" href="#" onclick="javascript:menuSwap(1); return false;">Home</a>
<a class="button button-primary" href="#" onclick="javascript:menuSwap(2); return false;">Changes</a>
<a class="button button-primary" href="#" onclick="javascript:menuSwap(3); return false;">About</a>
<a class="button button-primary" href="#" onclick="javascript:menuSwap(4); return false;">Tutorial</a>
<a class="button button-primary" href="#" onclick="javascript:menuSwap(5); return false;">Emulator</a>
<a class="button button-primary" href="#" onclick="javascript:menuSwap(6); return false;">Download</a>
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<h4>Home</h4>
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<strong>Minimal Linux Live</strong> 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
<a target="_blank" href="https://www.kernel.org/">Linux kernel</a>,
<a target="_blank" href="https://www.gnu.org/software/libc/">GNU C library</a> and
<a target="_blank" href="https://busybox.net/">BusyBox</a>. All necessary source codes are automatically
downloaded and all build operations are fully encapsulated in the scripts.
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<div style="font-size: 10%;">&nbsp;</div>
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<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u5KYDaCLChc?list=PLe3TW5jDbUAiN9E9lvYFLIFFqAjjZS9xS" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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<div style="font-size: 10%;">&nbsp;</div>
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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:
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<ul>
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Get the latest scripts from the <a href="#" onclick="javascript:menuSwap(5); return false;">download</a> section.
</li>
<li>
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.
</li>
<li>
Just for convenience, make sure that all scripts are executable (<code>chmod +x *.sh</code>). If you decide to skip this step you
can still run the scripts like this (example): <code>sh build_minimal_linux_live.sh</code>
</li>
<li>
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 <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ubuntu.com/">Ubuntu</a>,
the following commands should resolve all necessary build dependencies:
<ul>
<li>
<code>sudo apt-get install wget</code>
</li>
<li>
<code>sudo apt-get install make</code>
</li>
<li>
<code>sudo apt-get install gawk</code>
</li>
<li>
<code>sudo apt-get install gcc</code>
</li>
<li>
<code>sudo apt-get install bc</code>
</li>
<li>
<code>sudo apt-get install syslinux</code>
</li>
<li>
<code>sudo apt-get install genisoimage</code>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Execute the script <code>build_minimal_linux_live.sh</code> 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 <code>build-essential</code> package resolves all unexpected
build dependencies for Ubuntu. If you are using <a target="_blank" href="https://linuxmint.com/">Linux Mint</a> try to
install the package <code>g++</code> and if you still have troubles then try the <code>build-essential</code> package. On
<a target="_blank" href="https://getfedora.org/">Fedora</a> you might need the static 'glibc' package <code>glibc-static</code>.
On <a target="_blank" href="https://www.archlinux.org/">Arch Linux</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>
you might need to locate <code>isolinux.bin</code> and copy it to <code>/usr/lib/syslinux/isolinux.bin</code>.
<div style="font-size: 10%;">&nbsp;</div>
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.
<div style="font-size: 10%;">&nbsp;</div>
If you still have troubles then examine the failure message and google it. If you are unable to find solution, then you
can ask someone more experienced Linux guru (if you know any) or as alternative you can contact me. Please, make sure that
you have researched your problem in advance before you send me your question.
</li>
<li>
When the scripts finish their job you will find newly generated <code>minimal_linux_live.iso</code> 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
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.pendrivelinux.com">Universal USB Installer</a>,
or run it directly via PC emulator like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.virtualbox.org/">VirtualBox</a>. Minimal Linux Live
requires at least 64MB RAM, otherwise the boot process most probably will hang.
</li>
</ul>
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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".
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<div style="font-size: 10%;">&nbsp;</div>
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The good news is that the build scripts are very small in size and simple to understand. 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!
</div>
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The <a href="#" onclick="javascript:menuSwap(4); return false;">tutorial</a> 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.
</div>
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<div style="font-size: 10%;">&nbsp;</div>
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Below you can find several screenshots which show what the environment looks like when you boot your newly generated
Minimal Linux Live OS.
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</div>
<div style="font-size: 10%;">&nbsp;</div>
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<div class="six columns">
<a href="assets/img/screen1.png" target="_blank" title="Minimal Linux Live - screenshot 1">
<img alt="Minimal Linux Live" id="screenshot1" width="100%" height="100%" border="0" src="assets/img/screen1.png" />
</a>
</div>
<div class="six columns">
<a href="assets/img/screen2.png" target="_blank" title="Minimal Linux Live - screenshot 2">
<img alt="Minimal Linux Live" id="screenshot2" width="100%" height="100%" border="0" src="assets/img/screen2.png" />
</a>
</div>
</div class="row">
<div style="font-size: 10%;">&nbsp;</div>
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<div class="six columns">
<a href="assets/img/screen3.png" target="_blank" title="Minimal Linux Live - screenshot 3">
<img alt="Minimal Linux Live" id="screenshot3" width="100%" height="100%" border="0" src="assets/img/screen3.png" />
</a>
</div>
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<a href="assets/img/screen4.png" target="_blank" title="Minimal Linux Live - screenshot 4">
<img alt="Minimal Linux Live" id="screenshot4" width="100%" height="100%" border="0" src="assets/img/screen4.png" />
</a>
</div>
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<div style="font-size: 10%;">&nbsp;</div>
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<a href="assets/img/screen5.png" target="_blank" title="Minimal Linux Live - screenshot 5">
<img alt="Minimal Linux Live" id="screenshot5" width="100%" height="100%" border="0" src="assets/img/screen5.png" />
</a>
</div>
<div class="six columns">
<a href="assets/img/screen6.png" target="_blank" title="Minimal Linux Live - screenshot 6">
<img alt="Minimal Linux Live" id="screenshot6" width="100%" height="100%" border="0" src="assets/img/screen6.png" />
</a>
</div>
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<h4>Change Log</h4>
</div>
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<div id="show5" style="display:none;">
<strong>03-Apr-2016</strong>
<a href="#" onclick="javascript:logSwap(5, true); return false;">show</a>
</div>
<div id="hide5" style="display:block;">
<strong>03-Apr-2016</strong>
<a href="#" onclick="javascript:logSwap(5, false); return false;">hide</a>
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<div id="text5" style="display:block;">
<ul>
<div style="font-size: 10%;">&nbsp;</div>
<li>
<strong>Minimal Linux Live</strong> is now based on <strong>Linux kernel 4.4.6</strong>, <strong>GNU C library 2.23</strong>
and <strong>BusyBox 1.24.2</strong>. The generated ISO image file is ~4MB larger due to glibc overhead and requires more RAM
(64MB is enough).
</li>
<li>
The build architecture has been revised and now the only core dependency to the host OS is the actual C compiler along with
the related binary utils. Kernel headers and main C library (which used to be implicit dependencies) are now automatically
generated and used as part of the overall build process.
</li>
<li>
The DNS resolving issue has been fixed and the network/internet related BusyBox applets (ping, wget, etc.) now work fine.
</li>
<li>
The ISO image generation process is now in a separate script file, completely detached from the kernel build infrastructure.
This allows the Minimal Linux Live users to modify the ISO image file/directory structure before the actual ISO generation.
</li>
<li>
The internal script comments have been revised and now they are more descriptive than before.
</li>
<li>
The experimental folder has been removed.
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div style="font-size: 10%;">&nbsp;</div>
<div id="show4" style="display:block;">
<strong>14-Sep-2015</strong>
<a href="#" onclick="javascript:logSwap(4, true); return false;">show</a>
</div>
<div id="hide4" style="display:none;">
<strong>14-Sep-2015</strong>
<a href="#" onclick="javascript:logSwap(4, false); return false;">hide</a>
</div>
<div id="text4" style="display:none;">
<ul>
<div style="font-size: 10%;">&nbsp;</div>
<li>
<strong>Minimal Linux Live</strong> is now based on <strong>Linux kernel 4.1.6</strong> and <strong>BusyBox 1.23.2</strong>.
</li>
<li>
The build process is now parallelized between all available CPU cores, therefore the overall build time is significantly
reduced.
</li>
<li>
There is DHCP network support for all network devices detected by the kernel. Note that DNS is not working due to well
known static linking issues caused by glibc.
</li>
<li>
The ISO image is now generated by using <strong>genisoimage</strong>. This fixes some issues with Debian and Arch based
host operating systems.
</li>
<li>
In addition to the above changes, if you <a href="#" onclick="javascript:menuSwap(5); return false;">download</a> the latest
stable build scripts, you will notice a folder named <strong>experimental</strong>. This folder contains some interesting
scripts which produce ISO based on Linux kernel and <a href="https://landley.net/toybox/" target="_blank">ToyBox</a> instead of
BusyBox. Please have in mind that this is work in progress and these scripts may not work on your host OS.
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div style="font-size: 10%;">&nbsp;</div>
<div id="show3" style="display:block;">
<strong>07-Feb-2015</strong>
<a href="#" onclick="javascript:logSwap(3, true); return false;">show</a>
</div>
<div id="hide3" style="display:none;">
<strong>07-Feb-2015</strong>
<a href="#" onclick="javascript:logSwap(3, false); return false;">hide</a>
</div>
<div id="text3" style="display:none;">
<ul>
<div style="font-size: 10%;">&nbsp;</div>
<li>
<strong>Minimal Linux Live</strong> is now based on <strong>Linux kernel 3.18.6</strong> and <strong>BusyBox 1.23.1</strong>.
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div style="font-size: 10%;">&nbsp;</div>
<div id="show2" style="display:block;">
<strong>25-Aug-2014</strong>
<a href="#" onclick="javascript:logSwap(2, true); return false;">show</a>
</div>
<div id="hide2" style="display:none;">
<strong>25-Aug-2014</strong>
<a href="#" onclick="javascript:logSwap(2, false); return false;">hide</a>
</div>
<div id="text2" style="display:none;">
<div style="font-size: 10%;">&nbsp;</div>
<ul>
<li>
<strong>Minimal Linux Live</strong> is now based on <strong>Linux kernel 3.16.1</strong> and <strong>BusyBox 1.22.1</strong>.
</li>
<li>
The boot process is now based on <strong>/sbin/init</strong> and <strong>/etc/inittab</strong>. There are four
available consoles. You can switch between them with <strong>Alt + F1</strong> up to <strong>Alt + F4</strong>.
</li>
<li>
Shell scripts have been updated. Now the downloaded source bundles are stored in separate folder.
If the download process is interrupted, it will continue the next time the scripts are executed.
The most notable change is in <strong>5_generate_rootfs.sh</strong> which now generates root file system with
structure compatible with <strong>/sbin/init</strong> and <strong>/etc/inittab</strong>.
</li>
</ul>
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<div style="font-size: 10%;">&nbsp;</div>
<div id="show1" style="display:block;">
<strong>28-Jul-2014</strong>
<a href="#" onclick="javascript:logSwap(1, true); return false;">show</a>
</div>
<div id="hide1" style="display:none;">
<strong>28-Jul-2014</strong>
<a href="#" onclick="javascript:logSwap(1, false); return false;">hide</a>
</div>
<div id="text1" style="display:none;">
<div style="font-size: 10%;">&nbsp;</div>
<ul>
<li>
<strong>Minimal Linux Live</strong> is now based on <strong>Linux kernel 3.15.6</strong> and <strong>BusyBox 1.22.1</strong>.
</li>
<li>
The boot process is based on simple <strong>/init</strong> script.
</li>
</ul>
</div>
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<h4>About This Project</h4>
</div>
</div>
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<div class="twelve columns">
My name is <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivandavidov">Ivan Davidov</a> and I currently
live and work in <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sofia">Sofia</a>,
<a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgaria">Bulgaria</a>.
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-size: 10%;">&nbsp;</div>
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<div class="twelve columns">
I am professional Java software engineer (yes, Java developers tend to know some Linux stuff) and I've
been trying to create my own Linux OS for a very long time. There are some good tutorials which you
can find online but almost none of them are simple to follow and almost 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 incomplete and
there is high chance that you end up with something broken.
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-size: 10%;">&nbsp;</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="twelve columns">
Don't get me wrong, you can learn a lot from these tutorials, as I did. In fact the scripts which I created
(did you take a look at them?) are based on the same information resources which you might have already found.
The difference is that this site provides you not only with detailed tutorial, but also with fully functional
set of shell scripts which automatically build fully functional live Linux OS. And the tutorial explains it
all for you!
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-size: 10%;">&nbsp;</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="twelve columns">
If you'd like to contact me, my e-mail is: <strong>davidov [dot] i (at) gmail {dot} com</strong>
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-size: 10%;">&nbsp;</div>
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<div class="twelve columns">
My LinkedIn profile is here: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivandavidov">http://linkedin.com/in/ivandavidov</a>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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<h4>Minimal Linux Live Tutorial</h4>
</div>
</div>
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<div class="twelve columns">
Would you like to learn how to build your own minimal live Linux OS?
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-size: 10%;">&nbsp;</div>
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<div class="twelve columns">
<a target="_blank" href="./the_dao_of_minimal_linux_live.txt">The Dao of Minimal Linux Live</a> explains in details
what steps are involved in creating simple live Linux OS entirely from scratch, the inner structure of the
build scripts (I assume you have already downloaded them) and provides you with more information on how to
improve/upgrade the generated OS with other generic stuff (e.g. users &amp; groups, /etc/inittab).
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div id="item5" style="display:none;">
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<h4>Online PC Emulator</h4>
</div>
</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="twelve columns">
You can try <b>Minimal Linux Live</b> directly in your browser. The link below will open new browser window
with JavaScript based PC emulator which will run the latest version of Minimal Linux Live. Please be advised
that this emulator runs entirely in your browser and therefore it is not very fast.
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-size: 10%;">&nbsp;</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="twelve columns">
<a target="_blank" href="emulator">Minimal Linux Live - emulator</a>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div id="item6" style="display:none;">
<div class="row">
<div class="twelve columns">
<h4>Download Section</h4>
</div>
</div>
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<div class="twelve columns">
The latest stable scripts (03-Apr-2016) can be downloaded as ZIP archive
<a href="./download/minimal_linux_live_03-Apr-2016_src.zip" title="Minimal Linux Live - shell scripts">here</a>.
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-size: 10%;">&nbsp;</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="twelve columns">
Pre-built ISO image files generated with the latest stable scripts are available for
<a href="./download/minimal_linux_live_03-Apr-2016_32-bit.iso" title="Minimal Linux Live - ISO image file for 32-bit CPUs">32-bit</a>
and
<a href="./download/minimal_linux_live_03-Apr-2016_64-bit.iso" title="Minimal Linux Live - ISO image file for 64-bit CPUs">64-bit</a>
CPUs.
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-size: 10%;">&nbsp;</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="twelve columns">
You can also <a target="_blank" href="./download">browse the download directory</a>.
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-size: 10%;">&nbsp;</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="twelve columns">
You can take a look at the latest development sources in
<a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/ivandavidov/minimal">GitHub</a>.
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-size: 10%;">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="font-size: 10%;">&nbsp;</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="twelve columns" style="text-align: center;">
<a class="button" href="#">Go to top</a>
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-size: 10%;">&nbsp;</div>
<div class="row" style="text-align: center;">
<div class="twelve columns">
Copyright &copy; 2014 - 2016
<span class="separator">|</span>
<a href="/" title="Minimal Linux Live">Minimal Linux Live</a>
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