minimal linux O.S. size ?
 

Hi,
How much memory the minimal linux takes ?



Regards,
Barun

It depends: which version of the kernel, how many features do you need on that kernel, whether you use glibc/uclib/eglibc, what kind of tools do you need, text vs. Xwindow an a lot of other things like the architecture you are building it for.

It's hard to say what the absolute minimum is.

I agree.
But assuming that we are keeping the least number of commands and are free to choose any distro, what would be the size.

There are linuxes that can fit into a floppy, I can't be more accurate without knowing what exactly do you need. 2.4 kernels are usually smaller than newer 2.6 ones.

I need kernel 2.6 + O.S.

Hello barunparichha; that's a cool name.
I'm gonna assume your talking about a minimal Linux distro that uses low ram and low processor usuage-yes-or no?

There are a gaggle of small to mini distro's; too many to list.
But; I have a few that are current and small low ram:

TTYLinux-8.0.1 ( http://minimalinux.org/ttylinux/ )
is a really minimalistic Linux with no X(console only); but packs alot into 4.7MB! There are also add-ons and you can make your own-
( http://minimalinux.org/ttylinux/addons.html )

bootable CD image - http://ttylinux.net/Download/bootcd-i486-8.0.1.iso.gz
source distribution - http://ttylinux.net/Download/ttylinux-src-8.0.1.tar.bz2

Updated to glibc 2.8 and the latest stable busybox, and pacman should work right.

This is the cumulative change log from the previous stable version 8.0 till now.
- cross-tools: split downloading from setup
- cross-tools: building a cross-tool chain is a bit more verbose
- updated from glibc-2.7 to glibc-2.8 (20080929)
- fixed sshd uid to be 43
- fixed pacman's ability to install packages: busybox.tar now auto-unzips
- changed add-on thttpd to use group httpd (41)
- added new add-on "calc-2.12.4.0"
- fixed scripts/build-packages.sh to be able to find ".tbz" source packages
- fixed scripts/build-filesystem.sh to timestamp regular files, not /dev/*
- updated from bash-3.2 patchlevel 39 to bash-3.2.48
- updated from busybox-1.13.1 to busybox-1.13.4
- updated from e2fsprogs-1.41.3 to e2fsprogs-1.41.5

Nice huh?
OK-next up is Tinycore-1.4.2. ( http://www.tinycorelinux.com/ )
Basically it's the new DamnSmallLinux; comes in at 10MB iso, and you add apps as you want; only the apps you want.
I have a 'especial Tinycore-1.4.2-USB at my site-
( http://multidistro.com/downloads/off...icialusbs.html )
It has a few apps pre-installed(you can uninstall with tce-uninstall) and a how-to with some good stuff in it.
I am writing this from Tinycore playing off my USB now-It's a very fast distro; with firefox open I am using 65MB RAM and 5% cpu usuage!

Next up is Slitaz ( http://www.slitaz.org/en/ )
It comes in at 20MB iso and runs low-ram too!
Get the "cooking" version.

The best there is Tinycore-it can even be remastered easily-see the site wiki.
If that wasn't what you were talking about, please be more specific.

Oh, I also have a Portable-TTYLinux-8.0.1 that is TTYLINUX running from portable qemu
It's pretty cool, and you can do test installs, etc without affecting anything cause it's a portable virtual Harddrive it runs from.
( http://multidistro.com/downloads/dslqemu/dslqemu.html )

Where "O.S." is...?

If you need a kernel and a text editor with some tools to manipulate text it might fit into a floppy. If you want a desktop it can take hundred of MB's or even some GB's. An "O.S." can be anything, you are not being very specific.

I have configure my kernel + applications to 500MB. It contains GUI,device controller etc.