RE: [rtl] Smallest Linux to use with RTLinux (embedded)

[Nathan Harris <nathan@geodetic.com>]

What you are doing sounds very similar to my needs.  I have a Cyrix
MediaGX (200MHz Pentium MMX clone) with 32Meg RAM and 16Meg Flash (which
looks like a standard EIDE hard disk).  I also have an Intel 100TX
Ethernet adapter and an ISA PCMCIA controller.  Video, sound, USB, IRDA,
serial, parallel, etc... is built into the MediaGX chipset.

Currently, I plan on building a monolithic kernel with all the stuff I
need in it (including RTLinux).  From there I was going to just start
deleting stuff in the RedHat installation until I got the total system
size down to less than 8Meg or so.  Once this was done, I was going to
make scripts to just copy those files to my Flash disk installation.
This way I could work from my development system and have no problems
(theoretically) when I wanted to update my Linux version.  Any tips or
scripts you could provide which would make this easier would be
appreciated.  I'm not real sure what all is absolutely necessary and
what I can get rid of safely.  Of course I will need to disable swap (I
have never done this before, but I assume it's not that hard).

I plan on writing my install scripts so that you can choose your
components (if possible).  This way others may be able to use them to
create minimal installs.

-Nathan
nathan@geodetic.com
http://www.geodetic.com/nathan

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cecil ogg [mailto:cecilogg@erinet.com]
> Sent: Monday, September 28, 1998 5:45 PM
> To: Nathan Harris
> Cc: 'RTLinux Listserv'
> Subject: Re: [rtl] Smallest Linux to use with RTLinux (embedded)
> 
> 
> Nathan Harris wrote:
> > 
> > I'm new to the RTLinux group, so please bear with me if 
> this has been
> > asked before.
> > 
> > I am looking for the smallest distribution of Linux to use 
> with RTLinux.
> > I currently use RedHat and have thought of trying to cut it down.  I
> > basically need it to fit in less than 16 Meg of FLASH (DOS format).
> > Ideally, I would like a distribution that consumes < 8 Megs 
> so I would
> > have plenty of room for my code.  All I need is network 
> socket services
> > (i.e.-no routed, apache, etc...), PCMCIA, terminal text 
> video (no X),
> > sound (maybe), and the DOS filesys.
> I have been able to put all that (except for PCMCIA, which I 
> don't use)
> onto a boot/root disk set similar to the floppies used to initially
> install linux. The kernel is 2.0.33 patched with rt-linux. It 
> runs on a
> 386/16 with 8 meg of ram and no hard drive. I have vi, grep, tar, gzip
> along with other useful tools. Email me with  details of your 
> project--I
> can send file lists and some configurations that might help. 
> 
> > 
> > Has anyone tried this before?  Any educated (or not) advice?
> Your idea sounds completely reasonable to me--give it a try!
> 
> Cecil Ogg
> 
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