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An Embedded Linux on a Single Floppy

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Re: An Embedded Linux on a Single Floppy

#51

Post by doubled112 »

queenkjuul wrote: post #37
d3Xt3r wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was also tomsrtbt[1], which was a staple in my "rescue" floppy collection. Along with the QNX floppy[2], which came in super handy when using a cyber café or a friend's PC, and you wanted to avoid all the keyloggers and malware. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomsrtbt [2] http://toastytech.com/guis/qnxdemo.html

Every time i pull out my tomsrtbt floppy i try to pronounce tomsrtbt in my head and it's always different

Tom’s sherbert tastes delicious, I’m sure, but it’s a strange name for a Linux distro.

Re: An Embedded Linux on a Single Floppy

#52

Post by bandrami »

a96 wrote: post #46
bandrami wrote: post #33

This is straining my geriatric memory, but I'm pretty sure my first install of Slackware in 1994 involved 18 floppy disks

It was something like that. I can't recall if my first was Yggdrasil or SLS/Slack but it was a stack of floppies in a folder.

I'm pretty sure I specifically remember I had two disks in my dorm room, and had to buy a pack of 16 from Radio Shack or somewhere.

Re: An Embedded Linux on a Single Floppy

#53

Post by w84death »

Thanks again for being featured here!

Nice to read all of those comments. The project goal is more to learn how to make your own Linux distribution than to fit as much as possible on a floppy. It is fun to have a fully working OS at the end of this learning experience. Floppies are easy to use and just cool :)

There are a lot of better suited distributions for size and memory usage. What makes FLOPPINUX stand out is the complete tutorial to follow and then make your own changes on top of it. Learn and have fun!

Re: An Embedded Linux on a Single Floppy

#54

Post by w84death »

dddw wrote: post #8
znpy wrote: post #7

“Floppydistros” were a thing back in the day. When i was 12 or 13 in the very early 2000s i tried to download something called “coyote linux” (from sourceforge iirc) and boot it on an internet cafe pc because i really wanted to try this linux thing. But i was very nooby and of course it mostly didn’t go anywhere. I have vague memories of maybe getting it to boot, getting a shell and then not know what to do with it.…

I remember qnx

QNX is to this day the biggest "floppy" thing I ever saw.

I would love to have a modern recreation of it.

Re: An Embedded Linux on a Single Floppy

#55

Post by w84death »

d3Xt3r wrote: post #16
smilespray wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Full network stack and a web server on a 1.44MB floppy!

And a Javascript capable HTML4 browser, and a decent-looking and performant GUI desktop too. It's a shame QNX (desktop) died, used to be way more performant and stable compared to Linux or anything else back in the day.

Isn't it still alive in automobile/infodesks?

Re: An Embedded Linux on a Single Floppy

#56

Post by w84death »

JSR_FDED wrote: post #41
buttocks wrote: post #32

I wonder why the 486 DX is supported but not the SX. How is the math coprocessing unit necessary for kernel and basic system tools?

The distro would have to include FP emulation software for the 486 SX, which is a big chunk of code if a floppy disk is all you have to work with. Also, some system tools need FP support (like df).

exactly that: too complicated.

also I got 486 DX2/66 as my first PC so I set that as a goal. Then checked how lower can I go. Also I only have 486 DX4 now to test on real hardware.

Re: An Embedded Linux on a Single Floppy

#57

Post by w84death »

phire wrote: post #42
muppetman wrote: post #11

I wonder why it needs 20MB minimum. Back in the day linux 2.0.33 would boot happily into a GUI and everything on an 8MB machine. Or maybe I misremember... I know my machine at the time got upgraded to 24MB so maybe it was that machine I was running. Anyway it's neat this can still be done.

This floppy decompresses the entire initrd image into memory at boot, which "wastes" memory compared a proper install on a HDD. You can also lower memory requirements further by enabling swap. A floppy distro (especially one relying on a compressed initrd) will inherently require more memory. And I suspect the maker of this distro is using a different definition of "minimum" than we would have used back in the 90s (c…

Confirming.

Also the goal was to run LATEST kernel with no changes - just config. With other compression algorithms it was impossible to fit everything into a floppy. And I really wanted to have nano and some space to save few files. Without this it would be totally not usable OS.

Re: An Embedded Linux on a Single Floppy

#58

Post by d3Xt3r »

w84death wrote: post #55
d3Xt3r wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And a Javascript capable HTML4 browser, and a decent-looking and performant GUI desktop too. It's a shame QNX (desktop) died, used to be way more performant and stable compared to Linux or anything else back in the day.

Isn't it still alive in automobile/infodesks?

The embedded version is, yeah. I was referring to their PC version though, which came with a full-fledged DE called Photon microGUI[1]. It was extremely responsive and could multitask without any stuttering, even on ancient hardware like the Pentium II - something wich other operating systems struggled with for a long time. In fact I would say Linux didn't "officially" resolve the issue until they introduced the EEVDF scheduler with kernel 6.6 in 2023.

[1] https://www.qnx.com/developers/docs/6.5.0SP1.update/com.qnx....

Re: An Embedded Linux on a Single Floppy

#60

Post by newsoftheday »

muppetman wrote: post #11

I wonder why it needs 20MB minimum. Back in the day linux 2.0.33 would boot happily into a GUI and everything on an 8MB machine. Or maybe I misremember... I know my machine at the time got upgraded to 24MB so maybe it was that machine I was running. Anyway it's neat this can still be done.

I ran it on a 5 meg Tandy, 1 meg permanent on the motherboard and 4 I added.
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