Remove GCC???
 

Ok I won't use GCC on my main distro so how do I remove it?

I am using a LFS homemade distro and I used GCC to compile the rest of my programs but since GCC isn't necessary anymore I think I should remove it.

Do you think I should leave GCC in its place or remove it?

GCC is HUGE and having it removed would certainly save a bunch of space.

My goal someday is to make a VERY minimalistic linux recovery distro that can run off of 2 1.5 MB floppy disks but making a 3 MB linux recovery distro won't be easy. lol

It might even be impossible. lol Who knows! lol

I would have to use the 1.0 linux kernel versions to make one that small. lol

I really like LFS because you can do so much with it and still make it really small. lol

To me a linux distro has to be really small and fast otherwise its useless to me.

Its not about the eye candy looks of the OS its about getting more done in less time. lol

If the goal is to make the OS as tiny as possible, then by all means, removing GCC and/or all G?? compiler pieces would be a step in the right direction. If it isn't going to be used at all, there's no reason to keep it installed.

Did you engineer any sort of package management in your LFS design? If not, then you'd need to manually locate all of the files, folders, man pages, documentation, etc. and remove them. There are quite a few files involved!

Good luck!

PS - For what it's worth, unless you're absolutely sure that a ~1.0 kernel will do all you need, on the target platform, you may want to consider a newer kernel. :twocents:

Sasha

The latest 2.2 kernel with a busybox environment should work on a floppy (Their already exist a few distributions doing this).

1.0 is only useful for historical/educational purposes.


Smaller isn't always faster.
In this case it will only benefit you for memory space, not speed.
Such a small OS will also lack most of todays functionality.

Yeah, it doesn't sound like you'll be able to do much with it. :eek:

You could compile packages on a host system to a target filesystem hierarchy. Start with a 2.2 or 2.4 kernel and build it with as much removed as possible for your computer to keep it as slim as possible.

Instead of creating a distro, you are building a kernel and initrd file. If the the kernel is still to big on the first floppy, see if you can build something as a module instead of built in. That will move the module from the first floppy (kernel) to the second (initrd).

I came up with another crazy idea.

What If I just used one floppy disk that would use wget to download the rest of the needed files into RAM and then boot the downloaded linux distro from there?

When it powered down I create a custom runtime script that would essentially put it in a VERY low power state but still keep it in ram that way the next day when I needed to use it again it would still be in ram.

I have a VERY fast internet connection so that isn't a problem.

I think I could make a 1.5 MB linux distro capable of booting up and downloading the rest of the linux distro. lol

The problem here is my HDD and CD-ROM drive are VERY slow and use a LOT more electricity then they really should while the ram is very efficient.

I can't afford to buy the solid state RAM Hard drives so thats out of the option. lol

I am just trying to find a way to keep the old computer VERY efficient while using as little of electricity as possible. lol

While an SSD hard drive may be not in the budget, have you considered putting your distro onto a compact Flash card or SD ram card? USB card readers are pretty cheap, and the cards aren't that expensive either. Or consider using a 1,2, or 4Gib USB stick, provided your machine could boot from either of these devices.

PS - creating ones own distro could be fun, but while you're at it, maybe looking at some of the methods DSL linux does, such as loading into RAM, could give you some tips or ideas. DSL is much larger than your planned distro, but examining it might give you some ideas :twocents:

Sasha

I have seen the distro and its neat but over half of the programs I would never use.

The bios wont boot from USB so thats not an option unless there was a way to make a boot disk on a floppy disk that would boot the OS from the USB flash drive.

lol
 

lol. i don't know, lol, why you lol all the time, lol, but, lol, it's funny. lol

now to your question, lol.
delete it, lol. :::

Then delete rotflmao from the /usr/twinkie directory. :jawa:

Have a look at tinycore linux:
http://tinycorelinux.com/

lol lol lol
P.S.
lol lol lol

O.O

Dont mock people! Its not nice. xD

You're right. It isn't nice. lol

I think I am going to keep GCC installed just in case I need to recompile a package to fix a problem later on.

sorry, no offence intended. the lols were just funny...