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Are you looking to build just a minimal kernel or also a minimal distribution? (Which is what I happened to be thinking about last night :)) In the latter case,

Are you looking to build just a minimal kernel or also a minimal distribution? (Which is what I happened to be thinking about last night :)) In the latter case, do you know any good resources about that topic?

akkartik 3y ago
Depending on how minimal a distribution you want, a few years ago I had a way to take a single ELF binary created by my computing stack built up from machine code (https://github.com/akkartik/mu https://github.com/akkartik/mu) and package it up with just a linux kernel and syslinux (whatever _that_ is) to create a bootable disk image I could then ship to a cloud server (https://akkartik.name/post/iso-on-linode https://akkartik.name/post/iso-on-linode, though I don't use Linode anymore these days) and run on a VPS to create a truly minimal webserver. If this seems at all relevant I'd be happy to answer questions or help out.
squarefoot 3y ago
Yocto, Linux From Scratch (LFS) and buildroot for embedded systems come to mind. https://www.yoctoproject.org/ https://www.yoctoproject.org/ https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/ https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/ https://buildroot.org/ https://buildroot.org/
eKKiM 3y ago
Some resources i used in the past are Linux From Scratch https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/ https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/ and Yocto https://www.yoctoproject.org/ https://www.yoctoproject.org/ However i have no idea how up to date these are.
- codethief 3y ago
  Thanks! I've dabbled with both projects but I've found them rather hard to approach and learn (generic lessons) from how to set up a distro.
ravenstine 3y ago
I want to build a minimal kernel that I can virtualize (QEMU) for a variety of purposes across my arm64 Macbooks at home; ideally, it would be optimized for that hardware. One version of the kernel I want just for command line purposes, nothing involving graphics or sound. I want to also build a similar kernel that has just enough to run Firefox in a Wayland compositor (probably just Weston) along with sound. No, I don't need to go this far, but I want to. Unfortunately, I don't really have any resources to share. I just know how to boot a vmlinuz with an initramfs using QEMU, and decided to download the Linux kernel source code and try compiling it.
- watersb 3y ago
  You might look into CoLima as a way to get started. https://github.com/abiosoft/colima?tab=readme-ov-file https://github.com/abiosoft/colima?tab=readme-ov-file Its user interface is Docker-like, using containers. For full desktop, I've only used the commercial app "Parallels", which can set up an Ubuntu desktop for you. Also Fedora and Alpine and Debian I believe. But > I don't really have any resources to share. I just know how to boot a vmlinuz with an initramfs using QEMU, and decided to download the Linux kernel source code and try compiling it. I highly recommend working through Linux from Scratch and possibly the Gentoo Handbook. It's a journey.

akkartik 3y ago

Depending on how minimal a distribution you want, a few years ago I had a way to take a single ELF binary created by my computing stack built up from machine code (https://github.com/akkartik/mu https://github.com/akkartik/mu) and package it up with just a linux kernel and syslinux (whatever _that_ is) to create a bootable disk image I could then ship to a cloud server (https://akkartik.name/post/iso-on-linode https://akkartik.name/post/iso-on-linode, though I don't use Linode anymore these days) and run on a VPS to create a truly minimal webserver. If this seems at all relevant I'd be happy to answer questions or help out.

squarefoot 3y ago

Yocto, Linux From Scratch (LFS) and buildroot for embedded systems come to mind. https://www.yoctoproject.org/ https://www.yoctoproject.org/ https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/ https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/ https://buildroot.org/ https://buildroot.org/

eKKiM 3y ago

Some resources i used in the past are Linux From Scratch https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/ https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/ and Yocto https://www.yoctoproject.org/ https://www.yoctoproject.org/ However i have no idea how up to date these are.

codethief 3y ago
Thanks! I've dabbled with both projects but I've found them rather hard to approach and learn (generic lessons) from how to set up a distro.

ravenstine 3y ago

I want to build a minimal kernel that I can virtualize (QEMU) for a variety of purposes across my arm64 Macbooks at home; ideally, it would be optimized for that hardware. One version of the kernel I want just for command line purposes, nothing involving graphics or sound. I want to also build a similar kernel that has just enough to run Firefox in a Wayland compositor (probably just Weston) along with sound. No, I don't need to go this far, but I want to. Unfortunately, I don't really have any resources to share. I just know how to boot a vmlinuz with an initramfs using QEMU, and decided to download the Linux kernel source code and try compiling it.

watersb 3y ago
You might look into CoLima as a way to get started. https://github.com/abiosoft/colima?tab=readme-ov-file https://github.com/abiosoft/colima?tab=readme-ov-file Its user interface is Docker-like, using containers. For full desktop, I've only used the commercial app "Parallels", which can set up an Ubuntu desktop for you. Also Fedora and Alpine and Debian I believe. But > I don't really have any resources to share. I just know how to boot a vmlinuz with an initramfs using QEMU, and decided to download the Linux kernel source code and try compiling it. I highly recommend working through Linux from Scratch and possibly the Gentoo Handbook. It's a journey.