A tough one. I don't know of any **standalone** distribution that can fit
Linux and XFree86 on one disk (never mind a Web browser, if that's what you
mean by "graphical browser"). There are solutions that involve using one,
more powerful server that supports NFS mounts, and providing the clients
with a 1-floppy boot disk that has enough Linux on it to access the NFS
server for the rest.
To look into that approach, here are some URLs to check out. These turn the
Linux clients into X terminals (that is, the browser and other apps run on
the server):
http://www.solucorp.qc.ca/xterminals/
http://www.silvervalley.k12.ca.us/chobbs/xterms/
http://www.menet.umn.edu/~kaszeta/unix/xterminal/index.html
(I think there was also an article in Linux Journal on this.)
You can use a boot ROM on your NIC to do the network boot. Try this URL:
http://www.ltsp.org/download/index.html
For a full Linux done this way, take a look at the NFSRoot distribution at
ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/distributions/nfsroot/
I haven't tried this one myself, and it's several years old (based on RH
4.0!), but it might give you some insight into how to set this up.
Finally, for good lists of small Linux distributions, try these sites:
http://kernelnotes.org/dist-index.html
http://linux-embedded.org/
The smallest standalone distribution I know of that **might** solve your
needs is the two-floppy XDenu (http://xdenu.tcm.hut.fi/), which I haven't
tried myself.
Having said all of that ... my own solution would be to use a small hard
disk and select from the distributions that take up about 10 megs, or
perhaps a mid-size (25-50 meg) distribution like Dragon (used to be
www.dragonlinux.nu, but I can't connect there) or TINY
(http://tiny.seul.org/distrib_en.html). The lists above will point you to
several choices, but one I've used and been happy with is Monkey Linux
(available at metalab). It too is old and (apparently) not maintained ... a
common fate of these small distributions.
Writing your own small distribution isn't rocket science, but it isn't
trivial either. If you look at distributions like tomsrtbt, Linux Router
Project (http://lrp.c0wz.com/), or any distribution's boot floppy, you'll
see that to fit the small space, they use a lot of modified versions of
things, such as:
-- a very stripped down kernel, with only the device support
that is essential
-- busybox, a very neat portmanteau app that replaced about 20
standard Unix apps,with some loss in functionality
(http://busybox.lineo.com/)
-- ash, a stripped down replacement for bash (available with
most regular distributions as well)
-- ae as a replacement for vi
... you get the idea. They use stripped libraries too, and I don't know of
anyone who has gotten glibc2.1 down to a size that fits on one floppy along
with **anything** else.
Good luck in your efforts. Please don't hesitate to write if you want more
advice, and I'd be interested in reading about, even seeing, whatever you
come up with.
At 08:33 AM 3/16/00 -0500, Alvin B. Marcelo wrote:
>Hello.
>
>I need input from you.
>
>I plan to convert our 386's and 486's into terminals running Linux and a
>graphical browser _only_(plus networking of course). All the data and
>processing will be on the servers.
>
>How do I create a flopppy install disk to do just this? I prefer *one*
>disk. I have seen and installed and tested some of the floppy linuxes
>around (Small Linux, Trinux, muLinux, tomstrbt, etc) but none could offer
>me the functionality I am looking for in *one* floppy. Do I have to create
>my own distribution? There must be one out there I am missing! But if I
>have to do it, how ?
------------------------------------"Never tell me the odds!"---
Ray Olszewski -- Han Solo
Palo Alto, CA [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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