Hi,

I was wondering if anyone knows of a distro that is minimal and that will encode mp3's from a soundcard (it would be single source input that is mixed in external equipment) on a minimal spec PC (the likes of 1GB HDD, 16mb RAM and a P166, btw it would will [probably] be a laptop) and also provide a way to transfer the data file off via network (probably PCMCIA net card using simple FTP or even SSH SCP/SFTP). Could I create something like this using LFS? or does anyone know of anything that i could get that already does this kind of thing.

It would not need to run anything like KDE or a GUI of any kind, it can be operated from command line. I found a script like mp3record that would do the job but it uses lame and sox for encoding and i was wondering if this could be done reliably on a min-spec PC.

Any help or any suggestions are much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

i think that any decent distro of your choice (such as slackware, for example) installed minimally should work for you... you can even run blackbox on it if you want a gui! and they all have ftp and ssh clients so file transfer is no problem...

http://www.bluedogtek.com/modules.ph...itle=mp3Record

http://sox.sourceforge.net/

http://lame.sourceforge.net/

Cool, will I need to compile the software to use it on Slackware? I have only used slackware once (v8 i think) and that was my first linux distro and i was really confused, then I found mandrake and redhat I am willing to put skills learnt to good use though

Well if you were planning on going LFS, then slack is gonna be quite a bit easier to work with You'll be able to find some slackpacks for a few of the utilities you'll need, and the rest, yeah compile em, it will be to your benefit anyway to utilize the system as much as possible.

Good Luck!

Cool

yeh, LFS looked kinda complicated. Are there "slackpacks" for lame and sox? if so are they included in slack? i dont have much experience of slack

you can check a slackware mirror to see if the packages you need are there...

ftp://mirrors.secsup.org/pub/linux/s...-9.0/slackware


even if the packages you need aren't on the mirror or your cd, you can download the tarballs and compile/install them yourself...

http://www.linuxpackages.net/howto/h...hp?page=tarbal


or you can even make YOUR OWN "slackpacks"...

http://www.slackware.com/book/index....rce=x4132.html

http://kreiger.linuxgods.com/kiki/?M...kware-packages


also, you could stick with red hat or some rpm-based distro if you would feel more comfortable with that... it's not "necessary" to use the slackware distribution...

http://www.distrowatch.com/index.php?language=EN


anyways, here's a decent slackware guide to assist you on your journey:

http://gus-br.linuxmag.com.br/pt/boo...ine/book1.html

Thanks for all your help, I will keep you posted on any further developments. Its all just an idea atm, but it will probably come to full fruition. I would like to try slackware, would be a good extension to my linux experience

Thanks for all the links

you're very welcome!

hey, by the way, since you want to use slackware on a minimal specs machine, you might find this interesting:

http://delilinux.berlios.de/

it's a slackware-based distro with a focus on "keeping it light"...

here's an extract from the description (i think you will like this):

"DeLi Linux stands for "Desktop Light" Linux. It is a Linux Distribution for old computers, from 486 to Pentium MMX 166 or so. It's focused on desktop usage. It includes email clients, graphical web browser, an office package with word processor and spreadsheet, and so on. A full install, including XFree and development tools, needs not more than 300 MB of harddisk space.

The trick is, that DeLi Linux uses only "lightweight" alternative software. If you are looking for the newest KDE, GNOME or Mozilla, DeLi Linux will not make you happy. The test computer is a 486 laptop with 16 MB RAM, and all apps which comes with DeLi Linux are running smoothly."

take care, friend!

Wow! That is amazing Just think what charities and schools on tight budgets could do with that!