I Need a Basic Slackware 14 Bootable Image
 

I am seeking to create a bootable Slackware image, similar to CHNTPW. The purpose is to run a single program and the bootable image will be launched from a SYSLINUX or GRUB menu. The desired program is Slackware 14-based. Tried it out using Parted Magic. I just dropped the TGZ tarball into PM's /pmodules sub-dir and it was accessible in PM. Unfortunately, PM does too much for what I need and takes too long to boot (for a single program.) My colleague's program is a pure char-oriented program, so the time spent to load a GUI-based Linux is completely unproductive.

Can anyone offer real pointers for starting this effort ? I thought the effort would be trivial, then I saw the Install Help page on the Slackware site and I got the impression this page hadn't been updated in ten years ! No mention of a live Slackware CD/DVD to bootstrap the OS installation process nor is there any mention of bootable UFDs, in any prominent location on the site. Don't get me wrong, I know the history of Slackware as one of the original four or five core Linux distro families. I didn't realize there'd been no modernization of basic OS installation over the years.

The site does mention LQ as a resource, but I discovered LQ years ago. TIA....

I have done single purpose systems in the past like this (when not using Slitaz and its excellent remastering tools):
- Use mkinitrd to create an initrd-tree. This will be the basis for the system.
- Copy all libraries and binaries you need into the initrd-tree (don't forget to use ldconfig, if necessary)
- adapt the init-script to your needs, so that it doesn't try to mount harddisk partitions and switch to a new root system, start your single application on the end of the booting procedure (for simple applications usually an init-script of only a few lines is sufficient)
- Configure your kernel source as you need it (hardware support, filesystems, necessary firmware inbuilt, ...) then use the embedded filesystem option of the kernel and point it to your initrd-tree, compile the kernel. This will give you a kernel with your complete system inbuilt, bootable by any bootloader. Alternatively you also can use the classic initrd approach for the root file-system of your system (the initrd-tree). In both cases you will get a single purpose system that runs completely from RAM.