I want to assemble a minimalistic Linux system on my own. (I.e., not just install one, but put it together myself). I started to get into LFS, but the problem I'm having with their approach is they /assume/ I want my system to be a development environment, i.e., to have gcc or other materials for compiling.

In my case, I am setting up the system on a VM with 80M of hard drive space and 64M RAM, and I don't want to compile anything on the system. I've been trying to adapt the LFS instruction book to that purpose, but I'm having trouble figuring out what I can safely skip over and what I still need to install. (E.g., binutils? glibc?)

Is there a project more along the lines of what I'd like? Is there a list of what is essentially needed on a Linux system for it to run?

The package rationale is here .. you should be able to work out what you need

cheers