ivandavidov / minimal-linux-script

One script which generates live Linux ISO image with minimal effort. Based on the first published version of Minimal Linux Live: http://github.com/ivandavidov/minimal

Minimal Linux Script

One script which generates fully functional live Linux ISO image with minimal effort. This is based on the first published version of Minimal Linux Live with some improvements taken from the next releases. All empty lines and comments have been removed and the script has been modified to reduce the overall length.

The script below uses Linux kernel 4.19.12, BusyBox 1.29.3 and Syslinux 6.03. The source bundles are downloaded and compiled automatically. If you are using Ubuntu or Linux Mint, you should be able to resolve all build dependencies by executing the following command:

sudo apt install wget make gawk gcc bc bison flex xorriso libelf-dev libssl-dev

After that simply run the below script. It doesn't require root privileges. In the end you should have a bootable ISO image named minimal_linux_live.iso in the same directory where you executed the script.

wget http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/linux-4.19.12.tar.xz
wget http://busybox.net/downloads/busybox-1.29.3.tar.bz2
wget http://kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/syslinux-6.03.tar.xz
mkdir isoimage
tar -xvf linux-4.19.12.tar.xz
tar -xvf busybox-1.29.3.tar.bz2
tar -xvf syslinux-6.03.tar.xz
cd busybox-1.29.3
make distclean defconfig
sed -i "s|.*CONFIG_STATIC.*|CONFIG_STATIC=y|" .config
make busybox install
cd _install
rm -f linuxrc
mkdir dev proc sys
echo '#!/bin/sh' > init
echo 'dmesg -n 1' >> init
echo 'mount -t devtmpfs none /dev' >> init
echo 'mount -t proc none /proc' >> init
echo 'mount -t sysfs none /sys' >> init
echo 'setsid cttyhack /bin/sh' >> init
chmod +x init
find . | cpio -R root:root -H newc -o | gzip > ../../isoimage/rootfs.gz
cd ../../linux-4.19.12
make mrproper defconfig bzImage
cp arch/x86/boot/bzImage ../isoimage/kernel.gz
cd ../isoimage
cp ../syslinux-6.03/bios/core/isolinux.bin .
cp ../syslinux-6.03/bios/com32/elflink/ldlinux/ldlinux.c32 .
echo 'default kernel.gz initrd=rootfs.gz' > ./isolinux.cfg
xorriso \
    -as mkisofs \
    -o ../minimal_linux_live.iso \
    -b isolinux.bin \
    -c boot.cat \
    -no-emul-boot \
    -boot-load-size 4 \
    -boot-info-table \
    ./
cd ..

Note that this script produces very small live Linux OS with working shell only and no network support. The network functionality has been implemented properly in the Minimal Linux Live project which is extensively documented and more feature rich, yet still produces very small live Linux ISO image.

minimal-linux-script's Issues

[QUESTION] Installing apps

How I can install more apps? I want mount USB and SD Card Reader. I wish get there mysql, openssl, samba and more what I need. What about browsers?

no grub

error seems to be in this section? total grub failure
In file included from scripts/selinux/genheaders/genheaders.c:19:
./security/selinux/include/classmap.h:249:2: error: #error New address family defined, please update secclass_map.
249 | #error New address family defined, please update secclass_map.
| ^~~~~
make[4]: *** [scripts/Makefile.host:90: scripts/selinux/genheaders/genheaders] Error 1
make[3]: *** [scripts/Makefile.build:544: scripts/selinux/genheaders] Error 2
make[2]: *** [scripts/Makefile.build:544: scripts/selinux] Error 2
make[1]: *** [Makefile:1067: scripts] Error 2
make: *** [Makefile:286: __build_one_by_one] Error 2
cp: cannot stat 'arch/x86/boot/bzImage': No such file or directory

What does exactly this do?

minimal-linux-script/minimal.sh

Line 16 in efbe1e6

make busybox install

Does this mean that busybox will be installed in the host system?
Or will it only be installed in the _install directory?

(Question) Regarding linuxrc

Hello,
What is linuxrc, why do you delete it and is it possible to build the MLS without removing it?
Best regards,
Ben.

Compile kernel and rootfs in xz format

Hi, I'm trying to create a bootable usb using your systemd-boot configuration. The problem is that it requires the kernel and rootfs to be in xz format and not in gz, while this script compiles them in xz. How can I edit the script to obtain "kernel.xz" and "rootfs.xz" instead of gz format?

[QUESTION] how to boot on Raspberry Pi?

How I can boot this OS with Raspberry Pi 1 / 32 bit ARM CPU? Using SD Card Reader built in?

Kernel Panic: Unknown block device

Any ideas?

Update the software pieces and update the dependency list

More precisely, there is one more dependency required by the kernel. This has been resolved in Minimal Linux Live but it hasn't been ported in Minimal Linux Live yet.

NCurses programs?

Hi again. So this time I was coding a really simple NCurses program:

#include <ncurses.h>

int main() {
	initscr();
	printw("hit a key: ");
	getch();
	return endwin();
}

I compile this with g++ test.cpp -o test -static -lncurses -ltinfo, and gives no errors.

Then, I run it on my machine, and works like a charm.

The thing is that when I copy the binary into the filesystem of the OS, when I run it from a VM, it prints: Error opening terminal: linux. So I'm guessing there's something missing, but I haven't been able to figure out what.

Ideas?

nano missing dependencies?

so i tried to build the latest commit with just ncurses and nano.
however, when i try to run nano the following happens.

it complains about missing a lib,, and when i check the /lib folder, it does
the only thing i changed was that i added ncurses and nano as overlay packages

i tried adding glibc_full to see if it would help but it didn't
besides in the documentation it states that it should automatically add dependencies.
so i think i might have found, a bug related to one of the dependencies.
correct me if i'm wrong of course, i'm still pretty new to this low level stuff.

(Question) Is it possible to make a bootable USB?

Hello,
Sorry if this is a stupid question. This is my first time looking at building Linux at all. As far as I read about syslinux bootloader, it seems that it's possible to make a bootable USB with the help of dd. Can you clarify whether that works, if you have tested that. Currently my goal is to build the most minimal Linux kernel based OS that could run from a bootable USB for learning purposes.
Best regards,
Ben.

Fails to build

Building is giving me this error from sccript lline 12>

---

• mkdir isoimage
• cd busybox-1.30.1
• make distclean defconfig
  make[1]: *** No rule to make target '/file/projects/minimal/minimal-linux-script-master/busybox-1.30.1/Makefile.local'. Stop.
  make[1]: Nothing to be done for '/file/projects/minimal/minimal-linux-script-master/busybox-1.30.1/Makefile.custom'.
  make[1]: Nothing to be done for '/file/projects/minimal/minimal-linux-script-master/busybox-1.30.1/scripts/Kbuild.include'.
  make[1]: Nothing to be done for 'Makefile'.
  HOSTCC scripts/basic/fixdep
  HOSTCC scripts/basic/split-include
  scripts/basic/split-include.c: In function ‘main’:
  scripts/basic/split-include.c:134:6: warning: ignoring return value of ‘fgets’, declared with attribute warn_unused_result [-Wunused-result]
  fgets(old_line, buffer_size, fp_target);
  ^
  HOSTCC scripts/basic/docproc
  GEN include/applets.h
  GEN include/usage.h
  GEN sysklogd/Kbuild
  GEN sysklogd/Config.in
  GEN klibc-utils/Kbuild
  GEN klibc-utils/Config.in
  GEN libpwdgrp/Kbuild
  GEN shell/Kbuild
  GEN shell/Config.in
  GEN libbb/Kbuild
  GEN libbb/Config.in
  GEN e2fsprogs/Kbuild
  GEN e2fsprogs/Config.in
  GEN util-linux/Kbuild
  GEN util-linux/Config.in
  GEN util-linux/volume_id/Kbuild
  GEN util-linux/volume_id/Config.in
  GEN init/Kbuild
  GEN init/Config.in
  GEN coreutils/Kbuild
  GEN coreutils/Config.in
  GEN coreutils/libcoreutils/Kbuild
  GEN mailutils/Kbuild
  GEN mailutils/Config.in
  GEN procps/Kbuild
  GEN procps/Config.in
  GEN selinux/Kbuild
  GEN selinux/Config.in
  GEN printutils/Kbuild
  GEN printutils/Config.in
  GEN debianutils/Kbuild
  GEN debianutils/Config.in
  GEN applets/Kbuild
  GEN archival/Kbuild
  GEN archival/Config.in
  GEN archival/libarchive/Kbuild
  GEN console-tools/Kbuild
  GEN console-tools/Config.in
  GEN loginutils/Kbuild
  GEN loginutils/Config.in
  GEN editors/Kbuild
  GEN editors/Config.in
  GEN modutils/Kbuild
  GEN modutils/Config.in
  GEN findutils/Kbuild
  GEN findutils/Config.in
  GEN runit/Kbuild
  GEN runit/Config.in
  GEN miscutils/Kbuild
  GEN miscutils/Config.in
  GEN networking/Kbuild
  GEN networking/Config.in
  GEN networking/udhcp/Kbuild
  GEN networking/udhcp/Config.in
  GEN networking/libiproute/Kbuild
  GEN scripts/Kbuild
  HOSTCC scripts/kconfig/conf.o
  scripts/kconfig/conf.c: In function ‘conf_askvalue’:
  scripts/kconfig/conf.c:145:3: warning: ignoring return value of ‘fgets’, declared with attribute warn_unused_result [-Wunused-result]
  fgets(line, 128, stdin);
  ^
  scripts/kconfig/conf.c: In function ‘conf_choice’:
  scripts/kconfig/conf.c:393:4: warning: ignoring return value of ‘fgets’, declared with attribute warn_unused_result [-Wunused-result]
  fgets(line, 128, stdin);
  ^
  HOSTCC scripts/kconfig/kxgettext.o
  HOSTCC scripts/kconfig/mconf.o
  scripts/kconfig/mconf.c: In function ‘exec_conf’:
  scripts/kconfig/mconf.c:503:18: error: ‘EINTR’ undeclared (first use in this function)
  if (errno == EINTR || errno == EAGAIN)
  ^
  scripts/kconfig/mconf.c:503:18: note: each undeclared identifier is reported only once for each function it appears in
  scripts/kconfig/mconf.c:503:36: error: ‘EAGAIN’ undeclared (first use in this function)
  if (errno == EINTR || errno == EAGAIN)
  ^
  scripts/kconfig/mconf.c: In function ‘show_textbox’:
  scripts/kconfig/mconf.c:851:2: warning: ignoring return value of ‘write’, declared with attribute warn_unused_result [-Wunused-result]
  write(fd, text, strlen(text));
  ^
  scripts/kconfig/mconf.c: In function ‘exec_conf’:
  scripts/kconfig/mconf.c:485:2: warning: ignoring return value of ‘pipe’, declared with attribute warn_unused_result [-Wunused-result]
  pipe(pipefd);
  ^
  scripts/Makefile.host:120: recipe for target 'scripts/kconfig/mconf.o' failed
  make[2]: *** [scripts/kconfig/mconf.o] Error 1
  Makefile:443: recipe for target 'defconfig' failed
  make[1]: *** [defconfig] Error 2
  Makefile:423: recipe for target 'defconfig' failed
  make: *** [defconfig] Error 2

---

Any ideas? I was planning on a toybox instead of busybox version, but that won't pass this problem either.

thanks