https://github.com/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
https://github.com/ivandavidov/minimal-linux-script

linux linux-kernel minimal operating-system shell shell-scripts

Last synced: about 2 months ago
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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

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/ivandavidov/minimal-linux-script
• Owner: ivandavidov
• License: gpl-3.0
• Created: 2016-06-11T17:28:57.000Z (over 8 years ago)
• Default Branch: master
• Last Pushed: 2022-06-14T12:15:00.000Z (over 2 years ago)
• Last Synced: 2024-06-18T13:52:18.265Z (3 months ago)
• Topics: linux, linux-kernel, minimal, operating-system, shell, shell-scripts
• Language: Shell
• Homepage:
• Size: 49.8 KB
• Stars: 219
• Watchers: 18
• Forks: 70
• Open Issues: 2
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md
  • License: LICENSE

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README

        
# 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](http://github.com/ivandavidov/minimal) 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](http://ubuntu.com) or [Linux Mint](http://linuxmint.com), 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](http://github.com/ivandavidov/minimal) project which is extensively documented and more feature rich, yet still produces very small live Linux ISO image.