Alphalinux 0.3.1 review

Alfalinux is a minidistribuition on two floppy disks much different from other similar products: that is no non-standard/reduced or r

License: GPL (GNU General Public License) File size: 0K Developer: Alphalinux Team

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Alfalinux is a minidistribuition on two floppy disks much different from other similar products: that is no non-standard/reduced or remaked system parts, no bad overformatted floppy disks, no such things like other similar mini distributions.

Alfalinux is a STANDARD portable SLACKWARE (3.5 kernel 2.0.34) on two floppy disks, a real linux that loads himself in RAM. You'll find only standard applications (ex. bash or lynx)and a "clear" system, thinked to be easily personalized such as your home system.

The basic configuration to use Alfalinux should be a 486 with at least 8 mb of ram. Please notice that with less than 12mb probably you can load only the first base floppy, without additional and networking apps stored in the second. System and personalizations
The system is divided into two floppy disks. On the first you find files for Syslinux (the linux loader), a kernel and the compressed base filesystem initrd.gz.

At the startup file the kernel mount it as root filesystem. In the second floppy there is the gzipped tar archive netdata.tgz, that contains network programs, libncurses, key layouts and many other additional system parts (not needed for the correct usage of the system). The netdata script on the second floppy create the second ramdisk mounted on /usr/bin and unpack the netdata.tgz archive in the system.

To personalize you can modify the base filesystem initrd.gz, add your parts in the netdata archive or create your new archives. You also simply copy files on the second floppy disks and modifu the netdata script, to copy files on the floppy into the system (at the boot time).

As example, if we want to modify/create the scripts for internet connection we have to update
/etc/resolv.conf
/etc/ppp/options
/etc/ppp/pap / chap-secrets
/bin/connect
/bin/chatscript

Once we have prepared the updates scripts save them on the second disk and append at the netdata script a sequence to delete and replace the old scripts with new at the startup: noe you have a personalized system every time it loads at startup from floppy.

Please remember that Alfalinux don't mount local filesystems at startup (only the floppy disks, but you can insert it write-protected) so it's an absolute secure system, because is loaded into RAM memory and don't need any installation procedure.

Installation

First of all, unpack the archive (tar xvfz filename), then

from msdos/OS2/windows (more info on rawrite):
rawrite alinuz1.img a:
rawrite alinuz2.img a:

from linux:
dd if=alinuz1.img of=/dev/fd0
dd if=alinuz2.img of=/dev/fd0

What's New in This Release:
added vi ,cat, pwconv & unconv, several other parts
modularized and optimized organization on the floppyes
included commands to handle kernel modules
a more compact/optimized/standard filesystem organization
you can use Alfalinux -base- on machines with only 8 mb of RAM
plugin system-parts support: you can create your own system modules and become active developer of alfalinux!