Unusual Linux distribution

[Swan...@gmail.com]

I am trying to find a minimalist Linux distribution with some unusual
requirements. My aim is to build a toolkit for use in repairing
infected Windows systems, running in a lightweight Linux environment
bootable from the same partition as Windows. This means here are my
requirements:

1) The entire root filesystem must be running from the initrd
ramdrive. Preferably the distribution should be ~5 MB or smaller.
2) It must be able to auto-detect and read/write NTFS partitions.

The distribution does not need very much functionality, as it will be
used only as an "outside-Windows" environment. So it doesn't need
much except basic libraries and an NTFS read/write driver. No
development or administration tools even.

I can satisfy each of these requirements individually, but have not
yet found a way to satisfy both at once.

For example, ttylinux:
http://www.minimalinux.org/ttylinux/
satisfies requirement #1. But it doesn't seem to detect my local hard
drives and getting an NTFS driver working with it has been
unsuccessful.

Any new Debian-based distro using kernel newer than 2.6.20 can satisfy
requirement #2, but I really want to strip it down further.

Any suggestions? I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

[Guillaume Dargaud]

Make your own:
svn co svn://uclibc.org/trunk/buildroot
cd buildroot
make menuconfig
make

Well, that's the short version anyway. And I think you can even have it
generate an iso image from that, although I don't use it on x86
architectures.
--
Guillaume Dargaud
http://www.gdargaud.net/

[Swan...@gmail.com]

On May 21, 9:03 am, "Guillaume Dargaud"

I can build images no problem. What I don't know is exactly what I
need to put in the image. How does Debian autodetect local hard
drives and NTFS partitions --- what is the minimal configuration I
would need to accomplish this?

[Guillaume Dargaud]

> I can build images no problem. What I don't know is exactly what I
> need to put in the image. How does Debian autodetect local hard
> drives and NTFS partitions --- what is the minimal configuration I
> would need to accomplish this?

Sorry, but you'll never be able to make a distribution fit in 5Mb with
hardware autodetection !
I'm currently working on a very minimalistic embedded linux, and the kernel
is 20Mb with no video, no keyboard/mouse; while the OS is 10Mb.

[Douglas O'Neal]

I think you're going to have a hard time with the fitting the
distribution into 5MB memory. You might take a look at Trinity,
http://trinityhome.org/trk/ as it has NTFS support and can run
from ram. The docs however say that it needs 256MB to run.

Doug