Bootable 3" Mini-CDR Linux Distribution mini-HOWTO


         

v. 1.1 - August 2002

         

(c)2002 by main(){int j=-1;char t[]="rfnqyt?%ggfqqEyz}3twl\n";
           while(t[j]!='\n'){putchar(t[++j]-'\05');}return 0;}

         

Introduction

       Here's how to make a 3" mini-CDR distribution for your SFF (micro-ATX,
Flex-ATX, or mini-ITX) PC. If you  use a small form factor computer, why
not have a mini-Linux installation and  rescue CD? There are a number of
other   3" mini-CDR Linux distros, including many different bootable business
card Linux  distributions.  These typically fit onto a floppy, or a 40- or
50MB credit  card-sized CDR.  One of my favorites is from    http://www.lnx-bbc.org     . Some other
mini distros are:



CRUX

 

  http://crux.nu/  

 

  Quote: 

 

  CRUX is a lightweight, i686-optimized Linux distribution targeted at experienced
 Linux users. The primary focus of this distribution is "keep it simple",
which is reflected in a simple tar.gz-based package system, BSD-style initscripts,
 and a relatively small collection of trimmed packages. The secondary focus
 is utilization of new Linux features and recent tools and libraries. CRUX
 also has a ports system which makes it easy to install and upgrade applications.
  

 

  Comment: Easily fits on 210MB Memorex CDRWs, includes development
tools, and is simple and easy to install.



Trustix

 

  http://www.trustix.net/  

 

  Quote: 

 

   Trustix Secure Linux is a small Linux distribution for servers. With focus
 on security and stability, the system is painlessly kept safe and up to date
 from day one using swup, the automated software updater. 

 

 Comment: Even though this distro uses the latest 2.2.XX stable kernel
- it is updated quite often, with automatically generated .iso images incorporating
 the latest security fixes - i use VMware to test installs prior to attempting
 CF installs, and you can set up extremely small systems w/ssh, http, firewalling,
 etc. on 128MB or smaller CFs! you get nearly *everything* you need, including
 kernels, gcc, etc. - system is RPM based.



Smoothwall

 

  http://www.smoothwall.org/community/home/


  

  Quote: 

 

  SmoothWall was first released to the world in July 2000. Founded by myself
 and Lawrence Manning it was designed to produce a hardened internet firewall
 device, turning a server, workstation or reduntant PC into a replacement
for a hardware firewall router often costing several thousands of dollars.
 

 

  SmoothWall was designed from the ground up with specific aims. 

 

     1. to be easy to manage via a webbrowser 

     2. to support and compliment existing ISDN cards, Modems and network
hardware seamlessly and support a vast array of connection methods and ISPs
in over 40 countries 

     3. able to be installed by everyone from a home user to an IT technician
 

     4. to offer support for webservers and servers having to live securely
 in a de-militarised zone 

     5. to take this product and shove it under the noses of the security
vendors charging huge amounts of money for providing lesser product. 

 

  Comment: Bizarre #5 aim, but the 22MB smoothwall distro, easily fits
on a bootable business card and nearly instantly installs a web-administered
firewall/router/gateway with ssh, http, mail, and other services... the .99se
edition is the latest stable version, but a 2.0 edition is in beta. Not suitable
for use as a development environment or use with X11.



Debian

 

  http://www.phy.olemiss.edu/debian-cd/


  

 Quote: 

 

  These ISO images are installation media for the current release of the
Debian GNU/Linux operating system (Debian 3.0).  For more information about
Debian, please visit  http://www.debian.org/
  . 

 

  The ISOs are small enough to burn to a 8 cm (3 inch) CD-R/RW (although they'll
 also work on 12 cm/5 inch CD-R/RW media), and contain enough packages to
install a functional version of Debian woody without going to the net --
all packages from required, important and standard are included, as are emacs21,
postfix, ssh, and gnupg when they fit.  A complete list of included packages
is available in the .packages file for each architecture.  Unlike most "netinst"
ISOs, they will install a useful console-based subset of Debian woody without
any extra packages downloaded, and provide all the tools you should need
to install a complete Debian with any sort of network connection - PPP dialup,
ISDN, (A)DSL, cable modem, or LAN/WAN. 

 

  Comment: Nice CD distro (updated quite often for security fixes -
last update was yesterday [8/30/02])... you won't get a working X system
up w/o additional downloads (it supports network, Internet installs), and
may have to rebuild the kernel in order to use ipchains or iptables, unlike
some of these other mini-distros... but it is Debian, and you can install
a working system w/compiler, etc. in less than 300MB.

 

 This mini-HOWTO focuses  on the more complete, up to date, and installable
   Peanut Linux distro. The approach outlined  here offers the chance to build
a great little Linux distribution with X,  KDE, gcc, sound, USB, and a host
of other goodies. I focus on the latest Peanut Linux distribution for a number
of  reasons:  Peanut Linux offers a cutting-edge  2.4.19 Linux kernel; XFree86
 4.2; Enlightenment;  and KDE3, along with a wealth of other utilities for
 the x386 platform. The  distribution is easy to install, and has many sane
 defaults. Alas, OpenSSH  is not included in the base distribution, but you
 can easily add the software  later on.

       

       The following steps are necessary because the original Peanut Linux
 author   distributes an .iso that is too large to fit on a 3" mini-CDR (but
 otherwise   does an OUTSTANDING job with the distro).. 

       

       Note that 3" CDRs come in a variety of sizes from a number of vendors:

       

       185MB

       190MB

       210MB

245MB <- new! just found!

       

       Supported burn speeds will vary, but you can count on 4X as a safe
base  burn speed to avoid creating 'coasters.' You may also consider using
a mini-CDRW,   especially if you want to upgrade your SFF mini-CDR distro
frequently, and   your drive supports booting from CDRW. Memorex currently
markets  3"   210MB  CDRs and CDRWs, and I just found 245MB CDRs (24X!)
at a local computer store.

         

What's Not Covered Here

       This mini-HOWTO does not discuss the pros or cons of using the Peanut
 Linux  distribution.  Nor will you find instructions on installing, configuring,
   maintaining or  using Peanut Linux. As always, back up your original system
   if you are performing a new install. The Peanut Linux distro also works
 quite  well under VMWare's Workstation 3.1.1 release. You may find that
Peanut  Linux  contains nearly everything you need in a distribution.

         

Requirements

         

         

Step-by-Step Instructions

       You'll need to remove selected clients, libraries, or documents from
 the  original Peanut distribution in order to build a smaller .iso image
which  can then be burned onto your 3" CDR. Note that once you build a working
mini-CD,  you can always add software later on after installation!

       

       The procedure outlined here can take about half an hour, depending
on  the  speed of your computer's hardware.

       

       Here's how:

       

       1. Download the peanut linux .iso image previoulsy a 236290048-byte
 image   named small.iso, but which has now bloated to more than 254MB!)
from the Peanut Linux home page, or any mirror site.

       

       2. As root, create a mount directory for the .iso image: 

       

       mkdir peanut_org

       

       3. Mount the iso image and make its contents available:

       

       mount -t iso9660 -o loop
 small.iso  peanut_org

       

       4. Copy the file peanut.bz2 (which contains a compressed tar archive
 of an entire Linux file system) to a new directory:

       

       mkdir foo ; cp peanut_org/peanut/peanut.bz2
   foo

       

       5. Uncompress the peanut.bz2 file (note that newer versions of the
tar  command support bzip2 operation):

       

       cd foo ; bunzip2 peanut.bz2

       

       6. Use the tar command to extract the resulting peanut file (preserving
  permissions), then delete the tar archive:

       

       tar -pxf peanut ; rm peanut

       

       7. You'll end up with a root filesystem in the current   directory:

       

       bin    dev  home
 lost+found    opt    root  tmp  var

       boot  etc  lib    mnt                proc
 sbin    usr

       

       8. Now comes the fun part. Find the largest files in the file system
 - these will make good candidates for removal in order to pare down your
system.  

      

      HINT: If you don't want to use KDE3, and would prefer to use the
 Enlightenment  window manager instead, save yourself a lot of time and trouble
 -  simply delete the opt directory and then create your bootable .iso image.
 You'll end up with an image that fits perfectly on  185MB 3" mini-CDRs!

      

      Start with all files 1MB or larger:

       

       find . -size +1024k -print

       

       ./lib/libc-2.2.5.so

       ./opt/kde3/bin/kmail

       ./opt/kde3/lib/kde3/libkpresenterpart.so

       ./opt/kde3/lib/kde3/libkspreadpart.so

       ./opt/kde3/lib/kde3/libkiviopart.so

       ./opt/kde3/lib/kde3/libkwordpart.so

       ./opt/kde3/lib/kde3/kjs_html.so

       ./opt/kde3/lib/libkio.so.4.0.0

       ./opt/kde3/lib/libartsmodules.so.0.0.0

       ./opt/kde3/lib/libkdecore.so.4.0.0

       ./opt/kde3/lib/ksirc.so

       ./opt/kde3/lib/libkdeui.so.4.0.0

       ./opt/kde3/lib/libkotext.so.2.0.0

       ./opt/kde3/lib/libkhtml.so.4.0.0

       ./opt/kde3/share/apps/kthememgr/Themes/Eclipse.ktheme

       ./usr/bin/gs

       ./usr/bin/vi

       ./usr/bin/mplayer

       ./usr/bin/gimp-1.2

       ./usr/bin/mencoder

       ./usr/lib/qt3/lib/libqt-mt.so.3.0.4

       ./usr/lib/cups/filter/pdftops

       ./usr/lib/win32/3ivxdmo.dll

       ./usr/lib/libaspell.so.10.1.1

       ./usr/share/foomatic/db/source/opt/gimp-print-ijs-pagesize.xml

       ./usr/share/foomatic/db/source/opt/gimp-print-pagesize.xml

       ./usr/share/aspell/english-med-only

       ./usr/local/RealPlayer8/Common/rmacore.so.6.0

       ./usr/local/RealPlayer8/realplay

       ./usr/local/compupic/compupic

       ./usr/local/netscape/java/classes/java40.jar

       ./usr/local/netscape/netscape

       ./usr/X11R6/bin/Xprt

       ./usr/X11R6/bin/Xvfb

       ./usr/X11R6/bin/gvim

       ./usr/X11R6/bin/Xnest

       ./usr/X11R6/bin/XFree86

       ./usr/X11R6/lib/libOSMesa.so.3.3

       ./usr/X11R6/lib/modules/dri/sis_dri.so

       ./usr/X11R6/lib/modules/dri/radeon_dri.so

       ./usr/X11R6/lib/modules/dri/tdfx_dri.so

       ./usr/X11R6/lib/modules/dri/i810_dri.so

       ./usr/X11R6/lib/modules/dri/r128_dri.so

       ./usr/X11R6/lib/modules/dri/i830_dri.so

       ./usr/X11R6/lib/modules/dri/mga_dri.so

       ./usr/X11R6/lib/modules/dri/gamma_dri.so

       ./usr/X11R6/lib/modules/extensions/libGLcore.a

       ./var/lib/rpm/fileindex.rpm

       ./var/lib/rpm/packages.rpm

        

       Hmm. Looks like there are a number of candidates in the list. I'd avoid
  deleting any libraries at this point unless you know what you're doing.
To  get a better idea about potential candidates, use the du command to see
the  relative sizes of the directories:

       

       du -b --summarize usr/local/RealPlayer8

       12288000	usr/local/RealPlayer8

       

       du -b --summarize usr/local/netscape   

       17178624	usr/local/netscape

       

       Other candidates in the list above may be the XFree86 Xnest and Xprt
 servers.  If you don't use them, why not get rid of 'em? 

       

       ls -l usr/X11R6/bin/Xnest

       -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root      2780856 Jun  9 20:00 usr/X11R6/bin/Xnest

       

       ls -l usr/X11R6/bin/Xprt 

       -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root      1720984 Jun  9 20:00 usr/X11R6/bin/Xprt

       

       You may find that additional candidates are the contents of the /usr/share/doc
   and/or /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/doc directories. If you don't need man pages,
 you  can also delete the contents of one or more of those directories without
  harming commands or library dependencies. You'll also save some room by
deleting  unwanted sounds and wallpapers.

       

       Also, note that the file sizes here reflect the uncompressed sizes
-  this  means that you'll need to delete roughly 2X the number of bytes
from  the uncompressed peanut file system in order to pare down the resulting
.iso  image to fit onto your CDR. For example, if you have a 185MB CDR, you'll
need to delete at least 100MB or more of uncompressed files!

       

       HINT: At the same time, you can also add files! For example,
Why  not copy a working XF86Config-4 file into the /etc/X11 or root  operator's
  home directory and have it available immediately after installation?  If
 you know the correct kernel modules to load for sound and Ethernet, edit
/etc/rc.d/rc.modules to enable probing at boot time. This will save time and
effort following an initial install. You can also add your own /etc/hosts
or /etc/resolv.conf file and others to have a working, pre-configured system
after installation!

       

       Continue working until you have removed files you don't want or don't
 need.  Don't forget to remove stale symbolic links (usually shown in red
when using  a colorized ls listing). However, note that some links may appear
stale, but point to commands or directories that will become available after
installation  and booting.

       

       9. When finished, rebuild the tar archive named peanut (preserving
permissions)   in a directory above (again, note that newer versions of the
tar command  support bzip2):

       

       tar -cpf ../peanut .

       

       10. Use the bzip2 command to compress the tar archive:

       

       cd .. ; bzip2 peanut

       

       11. Create a copy of the original peanut_org directory, then unmount
 the  mounted peanut linux .iso image:

       

       cp -avR peanut_org mini_peanut ; umount peanut_org

       

       12. Copy the new peanut.bz2 file into the new peanut directory:

       

       cp peanut.bz2 mini_peanut/peanut

       

       (you may be asked to overwrite the original)

       

       13. Create a bootable .iso image of the new peanut directory:

       

this used to work with versions of peanut linux prior to Nov. 2002:



       mkisofs -b Linux -c catalog
   -r -o mini_peanut.iso mini_peanut

       

however, you should now use:



mkisofs -o mini_peanut.iso -b
boot.bin -c boot.cat -no-emul-boot \

-boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -l -R -r mini_peanut



       14. Burn a copy of the new .iso image and try booting! If you are unsure
   or unwilling to risk creating a coaster of a blank 3" CDR, use a cheap
5"   CDR (~$0.18[US] nowadays):

       

       cdrecord -v speed=4 -data
  -eject dev=X,X,X mini_peanut.iso

       

       Where X,X,X is the SCSI info returned by the cdrecord command:

       

       cdrecord -scanbus

       

       Cdrecord 1.10 (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2001 Jörg
 Schilling

       Linux sg driver version: 3.1.22

       Using libscg version 'schily-0.5'

       scsibus0:

       	0,0,0	  0) 'PLEXTOR ' 'CD-R   PX-320A  ' '1.01' Removable CD-ROM

       	0,1,0	  1) *

       	0,2,0	  2) *

       	0,3,0	  3) *

       	0,4,0	  4) *

       	0,5,0	  5) *

       	0,6,0	  6) *

       	0,7,0	  7) *

       

       In this case, the cdrecord command would use dev=0,0,0

         

Installation

       Proceed as normally with the Peanut install. You may get some errors
 reported  during the installation of the new peanut.bz2 file. The errors
will most likely be "timestamp" errors, especially if you copy files from
an existing Linux install into the new peanut.bz2 archive. You can get around
this by using the touch command to reset the date/timestamp of the new files,
but I found that the install proceeded without problems. (It is actually
good that you get such errors, btw, as this is a check against a possible
corruption of the original .iso image!)

      

      Note that if you simply delete the opt directory and then build your
 .iso,   you won't get any errors during installation (perhaps not until you
 use the rpm command after logging into your new system - see below).

         

Post-Installation

       If you have trouble burning CDs or using your CDRW drive, read the
CD-WRITING   HOWTO. Usually, a kernel boot argument is used in the LILO (or
GRUB) boot   configuration  file to automatically set up SCSI emulation for
an ATAPI  device:

       

       append="hdc=ide-scsi"

       

       After installation you will also probably need to rebuild the new Peanut
   Linux system's RPM database (as you've deleted files from the filesystem
  using the rm and not rpm command before creating the .iso image). See the
  rpm man page for the rebuild command  line incantation.

     

     You may also want to consider building a new peanut.bz2 file system after
  installing and configuring Peanut Linux. Simply burn a new custom mini-CD
  and you'll have a super-quick restore CD for your Linux box! 

         

Final Thoughts

      A big vote of thanks to the Peanut Linux folks for creating a great
distribution   (there are 5,000 additional packages of software for the system).
Obviously,   the best approach in creating a mini-CDR distro would be to
build one from   scratch. However, I use the Peanut Linux distro as an example
because  it   is such a good distribution and constantly updated. Feel free
to experiment on your   own, and if you come up with an easier way to create
a mini-CD, let people   know about it!

       

       Good luck!

       

       updated: Veterans Day 11/11/02