Baslinux mailing list

[David Moberg <davidjmoberg AT gmail.com>]

On 11/1/05, Markus Laire <markus AT laire.info> wrote:
> I've been thinking about creating a comprehensive linux-CD (or a set
> of few CDs) for the really low-end machines. BasicLinux 3.32 is nice
> for this as it works with 386, 3MB as a minimum.
>
> The CD(s) would include of course the basic packages (bl3-32.zip &
> bl3-32fd.zip), and then a lot of extra stuff which works with
> BasicLinux.
>
> There are few add-ons at
> http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/baslinux/add-ons/index.htm
>
> And then
> http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/baslinux/
> tells about these possible additions:
> * /kernels from Slackware 7.1
> * /modules from Slackware 7.1
> * /slakware from Slackware 4.0

This is correct for most purposes.

> But then there are many comments on this list about software from
> other Slackware-versions also.

To run slakware applications from SW7 and later on BL3, some
modifications are necessary. You definitely need to upgrade the C
library (to glibc2) for all but the most trivial packages.

> So I'm a bit confused about what stuff I should include from which
> Slackware-versions? (I can't include full Slackware-archive from 4.0
> to 10.2, but I have been thinking about including a full archive of a
> single Slackware-version)
>
> The CD(s) should be usable as is, without any Internet-connection to
> download extra packages -- so when you get in front of an old
> computer, and you have a task to do, you could install BasicLinux and
> the needed programs from the CD(s) to do the task.
>
> So I'd like to get some help about what I should include on such a CD(s).
>
> Also - is BL3.32 good for this kind of project or should I consider
> something else? (BL1, BL2, something totally different)?

It really depends on what you want. If you use Slackware 4 packages
with 7.1 kernels, you will come closest to a standard BL3 configuration.
You will be able to do about as much as you can without touching a
compiler or compromising memory requirements. However, you will see
some limitations. New hardware will not work with your distribution. And
you will not be able to take advantage of bugfixes and features which
have been released since those Slackwares were released. (Except
for binaries which you can find online.) But if that is what you want, it
will work fine.

If you need more functionality, you can either base your distribution
upon a newer Slackware/other Linux distribution (which will increase
the memory requirement, unless you do not use the newer Slackware
pieces on older PCs) or compile some things from scratch.

David