4 ms·

Tiny Core offers a complete Linux solution in 11MB

58 points by thomas 16y ago

tptacek 16y ago
What's the smallest conceivable reliable distro I can host Rails (or, better, JRuby/Rails) on? Getting it up and running on Tiny Core seems like a Project.
- troutwine 16y ago
  You'll need a C library, a small handful of C libraries, a web-server and the Linux kernel. SSH would be good, possibly git as well depending on the way you deploy. Ignoring any need for a GUI, I think you could get a rather small system.
  - bravo_sierra 16y ago
    If you were going to compile it yourself, it's just missing M4, autoconf, automake and OpenSSL. Otherwise you can use it's Appbrowser (ab in micro, the CLI version) to install Ruby in about five minutes.
    - troutwine 16y ago
      Quite true. I suppose in my post I really was assuming starting off from brass tacks, cross compiling from a larger system. You are, of course, correct: if the system must be able to bootstrap itself a more expansive base is needed. I also neglected to mention any sort of shell. Dash, I believe, is POSIX compliant and rather tiny.
- listic 16y ago
  I think it quite might be Tiny Core Linux. Tiny Core is meant to be not just smallest possible distro for its own sake, (an a lot work has gone into this), but the smallest possible core on top of which all the necessary functionality should be mounted.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- jjcm 16y ago
  If you're lacking storage space, keep in mind that many mainstream linux distros offer jeos (just enough operating system) releases for these purposes. They're usually pretty minimal - Ubuntu Jeos takes up around 300MB of disk space after the install.
- alnayyir 16y ago
  Is your time so lacking in value that you'll expend a substantial amount of time rolling and maintaining a custom distro of Linux that'll save maybe 50-150 megabytes of RAM? Are you in the web hosting business or something?
  - tptacek 16y ago
    I have a Rails app I want to distribute as a VM to each member of my team. What's the best option that's just 50 megs bigger than Tiny Core?
    - alnayyir 16y ago
      I was speaking in RAM, not the disk-space of a VM. I didn't know the context of what you were looking for. Is there some reason you can't accomplish this using RVM and a dev database? Any specific software that makes you think it isn't practical to do so? Virtualization seems a little heavy duty given the options for sandboxing python and ruby apps these days. Edit: You really really don't want to cope with the raw horror and pain of a minimalist kernel that doesn't provide any of the things you usually take for granted.
      - tptacek 16y ago
        Everyone on our team carries a Macbook; I need "click this to start the app up" levels of simplicity, or nobody will use it. I wasn't reading you carefully enough before; I don't care at all about RAM size. I care how big the distro is to download.
        alnayyir 16y ago
        >Everyone on our team carries a Macbook I work on a macbook too. > I need "click this to start the app up" levels of simplicity, or nobody will use it. Is that a political issue or have there been questionable hiring decisions by someone? When I'm talking about gift-wrapping it with RVM, literally all they'll have to run is a well-made shell script to fire it up. http://macosx.com/forums/howto-faqs/41816-howto-open-terminal-shell-scripts-double-click.html http://macosx.com/forums/howto-faqs/41816-howto-open-termina... Should do the trick, although you'll want to test it in Finder yourself. I can't come up with anything easier than double-clicking on a shell script.
- naner 16y ago
  Probably Arch. You can build really small images with Gentoo, Slackware, etc. but Arch is probably the simplest for you to manage. TinyCore looks cool but not like something I would want to maintain as a server.
- tav 16y ago
  Slitaz <http://www.slitaz.org/en/&#62 http://www.slitaz.org/en/> is also well worth taking a look at.
- azim 16y ago
  Depending on your disk space requirements and how comfortable you are with building your own distro, you might have an easier time starting with a more full-fledged Live CD and stripping it down rather than starting with something stripped and building it up. It's fairly easy to remaster a Knoppix or even Ubuntu live disc by removing packages you don't need. If you search for "Knoppix remastering," you'll even find quite a few community remastered cds which you could potentially start from.
listic 16y ago
Strangely, while mentioning Damn Small Linux, geek.com doesn't mention that it's the same person, Robert Shingledecker, behind it and Tiny Core. Apparently, there's been some drama involved (http://www.shingledecker.org/andrews.html http://www.shingledecker.org/andrews.html) and Shingledecker had to leave Damn Small Linux to stagnation, while Tiny Core is reincarnation of his ideas on a new level.
drv 16y ago
Tiny Core is also a nice small, and therefore fast to download, payload for a network-booted system with gPXE: http://www.etherboot.org/wiki/appnotes/tinycore http://www.etherboot.org/wiki/appnotes/tinycore

58 points by thomas 16y ago

What's the smallest conceivable reliable distro I can host Rails (or, better, JRuby/Rails) on? Getting it up and running on Tiny Core seems like a Project.

troutwine 16y ago
You'll need a C library, a small handful of C libraries, a web-server and the Linux kernel. SSH would be good, possibly git as well depending on the way you deploy. Ignoring any need for a GUI, I think you could get a rather small system.
- bravo_sierra 16y ago
  If you were going to compile it yourself, it's just missing M4, autoconf, automake and OpenSSL. Otherwise you can use it's Appbrowser (ab in micro, the CLI version) to install Ruby in about five minutes.
  - troutwine 16y ago
    Quite true. I suppose in my post I really was assuming starting off from brass tacks, cross compiling from a larger system. You are, of course, correct: if the system must be able to bootstrap itself a more expansive base is needed. I also neglected to mention any sort of shell. Dash, I believe, is POSIX compliant and rather tiny.
listic 16y ago
I think it quite might be Tiny Core Linux. Tiny Core is meant to be not just smallest possible distro for its own sake, (an a lot work has gone into this), but the smallest possible core on top of which all the necessary functionality should be mounted.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
jjcm 16y ago
If you're lacking storage space, keep in mind that many mainstream linux distros offer jeos (just enough operating system) releases for these purposes. They're usually pretty minimal - Ubuntu Jeos takes up around 300MB of disk space after the install.
alnayyir 16y ago
Is your time so lacking in value that you'll expend a substantial amount of time rolling and maintaining a custom distro of Linux that'll save maybe 50-150 megabytes of RAM? Are you in the web hosting business or something?
- tptacek 16y ago
  I have a Rails app I want to distribute as a VM to each member of my team. What's the best option that's just 50 megs bigger than Tiny Core?
  - alnayyir 16y ago
    I was speaking in RAM, not the disk-space of a VM. I didn't know the context of what you were looking for. Is there some reason you can't accomplish this using RVM and a dev database? Any specific software that makes you think it isn't practical to do so? Virtualization seems a little heavy duty given the options for sandboxing python and ruby apps these days. Edit: You really really don't want to cope with the raw horror and pain of a minimalist kernel that doesn't provide any of the things you usually take for granted.
    - tptacek 16y ago
      Everyone on our team carries a Macbook; I need "click this to start the app up" levels of simplicity, or nobody will use it. I wasn't reading you carefully enough before; I don't care at all about RAM size. I care how big the distro is to download.
      - alnayyir 16y ago
        >Everyone on our team carries a Macbook I work on a macbook too. > I need "click this to start the app up" levels of simplicity, or nobody will use it. Is that a political issue or have there been questionable hiring decisions by someone? When I'm talking about gift-wrapping it with RVM, literally all they'll have to run is a well-made shell script to fire it up. http://macosx.com/forums/howto-faqs/41816-howto-open-terminal-shell-scripts-double-click.html http://macosx.com/forums/howto-faqs/41816-howto-open-termina... Should do the trick, although you'll want to test it in Finder yourself. I can't come up with anything easier than double-clicking on a shell script.
naner 16y ago
Probably Arch. You can build really small images with Gentoo, Slackware, etc. but Arch is probably the simplest for you to manage. TinyCore looks cool but not like something I would want to maintain as a server.
tav 16y ago
Slitaz <http://www.slitaz.org/en/&#62 http://www.slitaz.org/en/> is also well worth taking a look at.
azim 16y ago
Depending on your disk space requirements and how comfortable you are with building your own distro, you might have an easier time starting with a more full-fledged Live CD and stripping it down rather than starting with something stripped and building it up. It's fairly easy to remaster a Knoppix or even Ubuntu live disc by removing packages you don't need. If you search for "Knoppix remastering," you'll even find quite a few community remastered cds which you could potentially start from.

listic 16y ago

Strangely, while mentioning Damn Small Linux, geek.com doesn't mention that it's the same person, Robert Shingledecker, behind it and Tiny Core. Apparently, there's been some drama involved (http://www.shingledecker.org/andrews.html http://www.shingledecker.org/andrews.html) and Shingledecker had to leave Damn Small Linux to stagnation, while Tiny Core is reincarnation of his ideas on a new level.

drv 16y ago

Tiny Core is also a nice small, and therefore fast to download, payload for a network-booted system with gPXE: http://www.etherboot.org/wiki/appnotes/tinycore http://www.etherboot.org/wiki/appnotes/tinycore