Tiny Linux Derivatives

 Friday, November 5, 2010

Tiny Linux Derivatives 

Linux on a low budget and RAM

I was somewhat obsessed with the variety of live CD distributions on offer that I have overlooked.

That is  Linux on a low budget and computers both old and new with little or inadequate RAM.

There are many to list but I will mention a handful of them to conclude my investigation of user friendly tiny vinny distributions that I have come across.

1. Geebox come to my mind that is similar to gamebox or media player with needing 0nly 25MB.

2. My favorite is Puppy which is 90 to 120 MB and there are over 30 varieties.
The last of which I downloaded was EliteOS (with a commercial presentation included).
It is pretty good.
In the Puppy 5 series, the Lupu is another celebrity.

3. Damn Small Linux (the one I use when I am in trouble booting and partitioning) is a beauty on its own with only 50MB.

4. Astrumi (120 MB) is another good one. I think it is a Polish distribution.
The older version cannot recognize LCD monitors.
New ones are coming by the dozens.

5. 4MLinux-Gamer is only 11MB and and the standard is 25MB.

6. Voyage is only 45MB.

7. xPUD a web browser and media player is 65MB.

8. The xin-v1 is only 52MB

9. SliTas

10. Tiny Me

11. Finnix is another

12. WiFiWay small 285MB and Standard 408MB (Spanish).

13. Minix is 385MB.

14. CRUX is 220MB.

15. NimbleX was less than 200MB but now is bit fatty and has doubled itself to 400MB.

16. Feather Linux is also another flag bearer (like DSL) of small and beautiful Linux.

Then come to the the partition tools, there are many and one does not need a proprietary software to do partitioning (I have dropped MS partition magic for good but it was the one that saved many hours of sleep (sleepless nights before that) in the early days of Linux experience)

17. gparted

18. partmagic

19. pmagic

20. R.I.P. Linux

20 is a magic number for me. 

In studies of evolution (my personal work) if there are 20 related species in a locality that 20 would circumvent any adverse climatic change at least temporarily but if that figure is 3 the species is critically endangered.

With the same context in time to come Microsoft is an endangered commercial species may be catering for other planetary systems in space.

The host of Ubuntu derivatives that come as TURNKEY should be the fitting end to my list.

The list is endless and my favorites are Puppy, DSL and Feather Linux.

They are the ones I have used comfortably and on a regular basis and I have used in demonstrations to show Linux prowess.

Sorry guys and girls that I have only mentioned your names only and they are much better and my GoGo. F.O.F. Linux which is still under construction with my workforce on extended Christmas holidays enjoying other Linux for relaxation.
 

They are allowed to copy any good idea free of charge or copyrights.

It is an understatement when I say that they are the most useful when one (I am in trouble) is in trouble or on low in RAM to do the tit bits (not bits and bytes).

Bye till new year!

4MLinux

  

Posted on September 3, 2011

 

4MLinux-50 is available now.

 4MLinux is a miniature Linux distribution focusing on four capabilities: maintenance (by using it as a system rescue live CD), multimedia (for example, for playing video DVDs), miniserver (using the inetd daemon), and mystery (meaning small Linux games).

 

4MLinux- 2.3 to 48

Small Is beautiful with UnetBootIn 

Making Mandriva Flashdrive

 4MLinux is a CD/DVD Image and CANNOT be booted from a USB, just like Gparted and Tails.

I wanted to try UnetBootIn on Live mode but could not.

UnetBootIn was the utility that I used to use to write an Iso Image to a USB stick in the good old days.

4MLinux is a miniature Linux distribution focusing on four capabilities: maintenance (by using it as a system rescue live CD), multimedia (for example, for playing video DVDs), miniserver (using the inetd daemon), and mystery (meaning small Linux games).

Features

 Maintenance (system rescue Live CD)

 Multimedia (e.g., playing video DVDs)

 Miniserver (using the inetd daemon)

 Mystery (console games)

As mentioned already Mandriva is good idea badly implemented and slow to boot.
 

One can remember Mandriva had Globe Trotter and Live Pendrives.
 

Now the new Mandriva is bulky and difficult to work with just for for fun I decided to make Mandriva Flashdrive (I do not know how long I will keep it before erasing the image).

Steps are as follows.

1. Download 4MLinux all in one.
 

2. Download Mandriva image.
 

3. Boot 4MLinux
 

4. Go to maintenance and click UnetBootIn
 

5. Plug in a Flash drive (I tried 8 GB Flashdrive) since the image is heavy. 

One has to format it with FAT beforehand.
I had 6.5GB for Mandriva and another 1.5 GB as a reserve partition.
 

6. Give the path to your image (need not be Mandriva or any Image you have downloaded).
Root—> Media—-> Disk—–> Image
 

7. Click OK and in about 5 minutes you have Mandriva in a Flash.

8. Now to reveal how bad the new Mandriva boots (if you have 1 GB RAM like me), go and make a cup of Tea/Coffee.
 

I finish my tea (boiling the water to brewing and drinking it before Mandriva booted and fire-up the Firefox).
 

It did not go to Mandriva site as it used to do.

This is why I am happy that I left Mandriva long time before their split and use 4MLinux for my work on Live sessions and say “Small is beautiful” and promote Unity Linux and (Core Linux on top of one can built one's own packages) its derivative of HUMANity Musician Edition (currently downloading, the last 100 or so MB).
 

Unity is one of the earliest Core Live CDs before PCLinux stormed the community with Big Daddy (only in archives now).

It broke away from Mandrake and formed Unity and there are at least 8 derivatives and one of which is TinyMe.

One does not need to be FAT to be productive when the cloud is promoting thin clients.
4MLinux even though tiny and only 60 odd MB, it can be destructive if you use it’s partition utility without due care.

It only detect the first hard disk and if you select sda1 instead of sdc or /d or /e by accident your will boot Mandriva Live instead of your prized distribution (gone as you press OK in the dialogue box) in the first hard disk.
 

Please take care and the UnetBootIn graphic mode fonts are very tiny for an old folk like me.

But I did not do any mistakes, simply because I check my actions especially typos now before clicking OK in any command line operation. 

 

I do not use Command Line now.

4MLinux

 

This is an old piece and Mandriva (not its derivatives) extinct but not 4MLinux

Small Is beautiful with UnetBootIn and Making Mandriva Flashdrive

I do not do any of these now but sleep well since I changed to Debian.

As mentioned already Mandriva is good idea badly implemented and slow to boot. One can remember Mandriva had Globe Trotter and Live Pendrives. Now the new Mandriva is bulky and difficult to work with just for for fun I decided to make Mandriva Flashdrive (I do not know how long I will keep it before erasing the image).

Steps are as follows.

1. Download 4MLinux all in one. 2. Download Mandriva image (better try another distribution). 3. Boot 4MLinux 4. Go to maintenance and click UnetBootIn 5. Plug in a Flash drive (I tried 8 GiB Flashdrive) since the image is heavy. 

One has to format it with FAT beforehand. I had 6.5 for Mandriva and another 1.5 as a reserve partition. 6. Give the path to your image (need not be Mandriva any you have downloaded). Root—> Media—-> Disk—–> Image 7. Click OK and in about 5 minutes you have Mandriva in a Flash.

8. Now to reveal how bad the new Mandriva boots (if you have 1 GiB RAM like me), go and make a cup of Tea/Coffee. I finish my tea (boiling the water to brewing and drinking it before Mandriva booted and fired up the FireFox). It did not go to Mandriva site as it used to do.

This is why I am happy that I left Mandriva long time before their split and use 4MLinux for my work on Live sessions and say “Small is beautiful” and promote Unity Linux and (Core Linux on top of one can built ones own packages) its derivative HUMANity Musician edition (currently downloading, the last 100 or so MiB). Unity is one of the earliest Core Live CDs before PCLinux stormed the community with Big Daddy (only in archives now).

It broke away from Mandrake and formed Unity and there are at least 8 derivatives and one of which is TinyMe.

One does not need to be FAT to be productive when the cloud is promoting thin clients. 4MLinux even though tiny and only 60 odd MiB, it can be destructive if you use it’s partition utility without due care. It only detect the first hard disk and if you select sda1 instead of sdc or /d or /e by accident your will boot Mandriva Live instead of your prized distribution (gone as you press OK in the dialogue box) in the first hard disk. Please take care and the UnetBootIn graphic mode fonts are very tiny for an old folk like me.

But I did not do any mistakes, simply because I check my actions especially typos now before clicking OK in any command line operation.

TrixiePup64-Wayland is excellent

TrixiePup64-Wayland is excellent.

This is posted with TrixiePup64  mounted on a USB stick of 8GB. It is only 1.1GB.

6.9GB is just wasted.

Pup is is  now saved in the root directory as a folder (named by me) with home and other directories.

It  reminds me of the 32 bit days, it took me two or three days to figure out how to save Puppy File in the hard disk partition with Puppy on 512MB USB Stick. Those day there were many varieties of Puppy Linux distributions just like Linux distributions today.

With the emergence of 64bitswhich Puppy could not handle except a few like FAT Pup.  It is good this Puppy came before my Book on "Linux Essentials" is published. I would make updates on the Puppy saying Puppy is not dead still alive and in Good Health.

I have stopped coding (forgotten most of it now) but the efforts we mad those days were not in vain.  

For the first time, I got my WiFi configured.

Just a matter of keying in the Password.  

It has Abiword.

It has Xournal

It has Cherry tree 

It has Xpad

It has Geany.

It has L3Leaf pad.

NO LinbreOffice. THANK YOU.

It is only 1.1GB and that is the beauty of Puppy Linux .

If YOU want LibreOffice Please try Easy OS 7.1. 

Two ARCH Derivatives Cannot Live Together

Yes, Manjaro cannot live with Reborn.

However, I have not tried Endeavor, since it is minimal.

CachyOS, even though most popular cannot coexist with any. For it to coexist with Debian, it has to be installed first and last of all Gnome of Debian last.

However, most beautiful KDE desktop BlueStar Linux peacefully exist with all.

My problem is I have space for five derivatives.

Two is for Debian.

One for BlueStar Linux.

One for Reborn OS.

I tried latest Gnoppix 26 but it did not boot. It did not ruin my GRUB, though.

Finally I found Parrot OS version 7.

Debian based and it nicely fitted in I used the home edition with TOR Browser.

I do not do penetration testing. I think its bigger version is much better than KALI. 

I have never used KALI, a blood sucking Indian female God. 

Very bad taste in naming a Linux Distribution.

Instead, try Parrot OS, bigger version.

It is called Parrot Security.

Other is called Parrot Home.

By the way, I try various desktops and REBORN OS supports all except Debian Phosh and Lomiri.

 

But it has MAUI which is elegant.

 

But my BASE is Debian GNOME and ARCH is a PLAY Tool.

Debian is SECURE and STABLE and it UPDATES regularly, simply no bothers at all.

I am prudent to back Debian, since it is the God Father of all Linux Distribution.

I stick with the God Father.

I haven't tried Blend OS, simply because merging CODE is a very BAD idea. 

The Principle in Linux is one line for one CRON Job with only symbolic links. When one has too many symbolic links the system jams.

In any case, I DO NOT Trust anything coming from India.

It is a cheap DUPLICATE.

By the way, there is a New PUPPY called TrixiePup64-Wayland.

I started Linux with Puppy Linux and I never forget that fact.

EasyOS has a new version 7.1.

Vendefoul Wolf Linux is a good move but I am going to stick with SystemD.

AntiX is a choice for guys who hate SystemD.

It comes from GREECE and still is beta2 version. Beta1 had problems with my WiFi.

Trixe PUP is ready and is only, 1.1GB.