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I figured out how to customize BasicLinux 3.5 floppy edition, improve 
compression, add some desired packages, and increase space in RAM disk.
Sindi asked how to add ftp client, ftp server and vfat drivers to 
BasicLinux floppy and recompress everything. Indeed, she was right, 
after using upx we have additonal
space, but I suggest upx 3.0 (with upx 1.x your can not compress 
busybox, while upx 2.x had problem with programs linked with libc5). 
Even zimage can
be compressed with this version.

Tutorial follows.

Samir




#Boot on "big computer" with modern Linux and recent upx (3.01) 
installed. I use Debian 4. You need to have installed commands
# fdformat, upx, unzip, lilo, mkfs, mount, umount, wget. Also your 
computer needs about 30 megabytes free on hard disk,
# floppy drive and prepare two floppy diskettes.

#Go to your home directory, say

 cd /home/sindi
 su

#Create few subdirectories:

 mkdir /home/sindi/fdbaslin
 mkdir /home/sindi/fdbaslin/rawfloppy1
 mkdir /home/sindi/fdbaslin/editingfloppy1
 mkdir /home/sindi/fdbaslin/unpackedfloppy2

#Change to:

 cd /home/sindi/fdbaslin

#Download Basiclinux floppy edition and place it to /home/sindi/fdbaslin

 wget 
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/baslinux/bl3-50fd.zip

#Unzip it:
 unzip bl3-50fd.zip

#Copy the files you want to add to /home/sindi/fdbaslin

 cp /home/any/ftp /home/sindi/fdbaslin
 cp /home/any/ftp /home/sindi/fdbaslin

#You should have (for example) files disk1.img, disk2.tgz, ftpd, 
ftpd.conf, ftp, ntfs.o and vfat.o in
#the directory   /home/sindi/fdbaslin

#First, let us make changes to floppy 2. Let us unpack it

  cd /home/sindi/fdbaslin/unpackedfloppy2
  gunzip ../disk2.tgz
  tar -xvf ../disk2.tar

#Floppy 2 is unpacked. Let us try to upx compress, something

  cd usr/bin

# warning no slash before usr!

  upx *
  cd ..
  cd X11/bin
  upx *

#Now, we will add modules for ntfs and vfat

  mkdir /home/sindi/fdbaslin/unpackedfloppy2/lib/modules/2.2.26/fs
  cd /home/sindi/fdbaslin/unpackedfloppy2/lib/modules/2.2.26/fs
  cp /home/sindi/fdbaslin/ntfs.o .
  cp /home/sindi/fdbaslin/vfat.o .

# You can also delete some files. For example if you do  not need links 
you can type here

#   rm /home/sindi/fdbaslin/usr/bin/lin*


#We have finished with modules, and we can add some application 
programs, for example ftp client (by the way, I took it from Slackware 3)

  cd /home/sindi/fdbaslin/unpackedfloppy2/usr/bin
  cp /home/sindi/fdbaslin/ftp .

# and why not compress it

  upx ftp


#So we have finished with modification of the second floppy. Let us 
repack it

  cd /home/sindi/fdbaslin/unpackedfloppy2
  tar -cf ../disk2.tar *

# The tar file is reduced from 2926080 to in this case 2007040 bytes

#Now, gzip it

  gzip ../disk2.tar
  mv ../disk2.tar.gz ../disk2.tgz

#Hmm, disk2 is now 1375446 bytes, it is less than previous 1405907 even 
when we added two drivers and ftp # client.

#We no longer need directory unpackedfloppy2
  su
  cd /home/sindi/fdbaslin
  rm unpackedfloppy2 -r

#Let us create second floppy
  fdformat /dev/fd0
  mkfs -t vfat /dev/fd0
#Repeat formating until you find prefect floppy, and if it is OK, you 
can copy the second disk

  mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
  cp disk2.tgz /mnt/floppy
  umount /dev/fd0

#Congratulations, second floppy is remastered. Eject it.

  echo Replace the floppy and press ctrlD
  cat

#Now, let us remaster first floppy

#We wish to compress everything and add ftp server.

  cd /home/sindi/fdbaslin
  mount -o loop disk1.img /home/sindi/fdbaslin/rawfloppy1
  cd rawfloppy1
  ls

#You will see: boot.b, disk1.gz, map and zimage

#Upx can compress even Linux kernels, and therefore we can gain 50 kilobytes
  cp zimage ..
  upx ../zimage
  mv ../zimage .

#We can try to remaster disk1.gz

 cp disk1.gz ..
 gunzip ../disk1.gz

#Now we can go inside

 mount -o loop ../disk1 /home/sindi/fdbaslin/editingfloppy1
 cd /home/sindi/fdbaslin/editingfloppy1
 ls

#Oh, now we have access to the most of files. OK, let us upx them

 cd /home/sindi/fdbaslin/editingfloppy1/bin
 upx busybox
 cd ../sbin
 upx *
 cd ../usr/bin
 upx *

#Warning, I do not give warranty that upx-ed programs will work,
#if it fails repeat this step, but compress only desired.

#Of course, you can delete some programs you do not want to have on the 
first floppy.
#For example, if you do not need microcom

#  rm /home/sindi/fdbaslin/editingfloppy1/bin/microcom

#Now, let us add ftp daemon

 cd /home/sindi/fdbaslin/editingfloppy1/sbin
 cp /home/sindi/fdbaslin/ftpd .
 cd /home/sindi/fdbaslin/editingfloppy1/etc
 cp /home/sindi/fdbaslin/ftpd.conf .

#Because we added ftp client in the second floppy we need also to update 
services file

 echo "ftp 21/tcp" >>services

#Everything is added. And something is deleted. We need to ensure good 
compressability. Enter

 df

# and see how many available blocks there are in 
/home/sindi/fdbaslin/editingfloppy1 mount.
# Say, it is 2411 blocks. We need to create big empty file

 dd if=/dev/zero of=/home/sindi/fdbaslin/editingfloppy1/empty bs=1024 
count=2411

#Disk is currently full. Now unmount it to flush the empty file

 cd /home/sindi/fdbaslin
 umount disk1

# Now, we will remount to delete the empty file.

 mount -o loop disk1 /home/sindi/fdbaslin/editingfloppy1
 cd editingfloppy1
 rm empty
 df

# The compressed image is free again. But empty sectors are zeroed 
ensuring good compression. Now we can unmount it again

 cd /home/sindi/fdbaslin
 umount disk1

# And compress

 gzip disk1

# Compare the sizes

 ls disk1.gz -l
 ls rawfloppy1/disk1.gz -l

#If the first disk1.gz is smaller than second one, it is excellent!
# Otherwise, you must remaster first floppy from the begining and delete 
more files.

# Now, replace the disk1.gz to raw image

 cp disk1.gz rawfloppy1

# Finalize modification of the first floppy

 umount rawfloppy1

# Insert the diskette and low level format it

 fdformat /dev/fd0

# If it has not bad sectors save image to floppy

 dd if=disk1.img of=/dev/fd0

# First floppy is created. But, we need to update LILO Linux loader
# because we reordered the files and it needs to know where they are.
# First, we will mount the created floppy

 mount /dev/fd0 /home/sindi/fdbaslin/rawfloppy1


# Create the file /home/sindi/fdbaslin/lilo-initrd.conf as follows:

 echo boot=/dev/fd0 >/home/sindi/fdbaslin/lilo-initrd.conf
 echo install=/home/sindi/fdbaslin/rawfloppy1/boot.b 
>>/home/sindi/fdbaslin/lilo-initrd.conf
 echo map=/home/sindi/fdbaslin/rawfloppy1/map 
>>/home/sindi/fdbaslin/lilo-initrd.conf
 echo delay=100 >>/home/sindi/fdbaslin/lilo-initrd.conf
 echo compact >>/home/sindi/fdbaslin/lilo-initrd.conf
 echo image=/home/sindi/fdbaslin/rawfloppy1/zimage 
>>/home/sindi/fdbaslin/lilo-initrd.conf
 echo "  label=linux" >>/home/sindi/fdbaslin/lilo-initrd.conf
 echo "  root=/dev/ram0" >>/home/sindi/fdbaslin/lilo-initrd.conf
 echo "  initrd=/home/sindi/fdbaslin/rawfloppy1/disk1.gz" 
>>/home/sindi/fdbaslin/lilo-initrd.conf

# Now, update LILO on the floppy

 lilo -C /home/sindi/fdbaslin/lilo-initrd.conf

# Finally unmount the LILO diskette:

 umount /dev/fd0

# And, if you wish to keep the image file

 cd /home/sindi/fdbaslin
 dd if=/dev/fd0 of=disk1.img

# Cleaning up

 rm /home/sindi/fdbaslin/rawfloppy1 -r
 rm /home/sindi/fdbaslin/editingfloppy1 -r
 rm /home/sindi/fdbaslin/unpackedfloppy2 -r
 rm /home/sindi/fdbaslin/disk1
 rm /home/sindi/fdbaslin/lilo-initrd.conf

# Reboot the computer and try changed BasicLinux