Re: Best Linux Distribution (for a small screen)?
 

Again my ability to edit the last post has timed out. Sorry.

How to text install D**n Small Linux (DSL) 4.11RC2 SysLinux

Surprisingly D**n Small Linux turned out to be easier to figure out how to install from a text prompt than CrunchBang 11.
This is because CrunchBang decided to obscure their TUI installer.

I downloaded the D**n Small Linux 4.11RC2 with SysLinux so it can boot from an FAT16/FAT32 formatted USB drive.

At the boot ment press either F2 or F3.
Type: install
You'll get a very simple TUI.

At this point there's a few things you need to know...
D**n Small Linux does not like Oracle VirtualBox's SATA virtual hard drive apparently.
So I can't partition or install on /dev/sda which Linux will typically recognize this device.
I am not sure if this means they removed drivers the other distros have or what not.
I just had no luck trying quickly so I altered my VirtualBox setup to mount the 4GB VMDK virtual drive as IDE instead of SATA.
That being said I know that if I have only 1 interal IDE drive it will typically be: /dev/hda
Once I put a partition table, master boot record and a bootable primary partition that will typically become: /dev/hda1

Now on the menu select 10 (cfdisk) to setup the partition table.
If it asks about erasing the drive...make sure you select properly for your install!
Then...
From there use 'New' to setup a new primary partition.
Set the partitions up as you like.
Select 'Bootable' to mark that new partition bootable in the partition table.
Normally cfdisk will make Linux type 82/83 partition types so that should be fine.
Select 'Write'.
When the write finishes you need to reboot.
(If you've ever installed DOS this is very much like using FDISK.)
If cfdisk drops you to a prompt, just type: reboot.
The system will reboot.
Again at the boot menu press F2 or F3.
Then do a: install.
This time on the TUI menu select: Install to hard drive
It will ask you for the partition to install to, for me that was: /dev/hda1
The rest is basic stuff.

When you reboot DSL is nice enough to setup the boot menu with forced resolutions.
DSL is also nice enough to obey the 'vga=' kernel boot option I will explain later.
Technically you could use the 'vga=' option to make the DSL LiveCD display correctly.
If you select the option without the resolution listed it should display at 640x480.

Simple enough.

The DSL default install did not have Abiword, it did have Ted Word Processor that used less than 1MB of physical RAM with a blank document.
The default install came with Firefox which consumed about 23MB of physical RAM while displaying https://www.google.com as the only tab.
When I first booted there was 14MB of 512MB of RAM used.
After starting FireFox it hung around so it raised that to about 37MB of physical RAM used.
14MB is the smallest of the Linux install we have yet to try in this topic.
The hard disk install consumed about 375MB of the 4GB virtual drive space.
375MB is the smallest storage footprint of the Linux install we have yet to try in this topic.

Perl 5.8.0, BusyBox SED and BusyBox AWK are installed by default.

I should mention that like PuppyLinux, DSL does not have a GUI login screen provided by something like gdm or lightdm.
However it does ask you to login at the text command prompt before it automatically starts the GUI at boot.
It will ask you to create some user accounts and set the root password during the first boot after the hard disk install.
PuppyLinux by default does not seem to authenticate the user at all.
Not authenticating the user is not a great idea if the users perhap have password keyring for say websites.
I did set DSL up for multiuser during the initial install so this only makes good security sense.


What is the 'vga=' boot option that DSL obeys and why not just use that everywhere:

In grub1, lilo, syslinux you can use a kernel parameter: vga=
This does not usually work in grub 2.
What you set that equal to is usually a 3 digit number.
If you want to know what number look here:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/VESA_...o_mode_numbers

For 640x480 with 16bit color use: vga=785

What does it do?
Well you probably noticed that the boot menu looks a little more 'pretty' than a simple TUI.
That is because it's text in a graphics mode as is your typical modern Linux prompt.
That setting changes the graphics for that mode.
In some distro's that option also impacts the installed GUI.
Usually this setting will impact the GUI when that distro resorts to using the VESA driver by default like DSL does.
If you install an ATI, Intel or NVidia driver in the GUI this option usually has no impact on the GUI but generally still impacts the boot menus and the full screen command prompts.

How would you do it in grub 2 like Lubuntu?
Use this option in the grub configuration file instead:
GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480
That will impact only the boot menu.
To change the command prompt as well add:
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=keep

Remember if you change the file: grub
In: /etc/default/
You need to commit your changes with a: sudo update-grub

Why did I not mention it before? I did not need to because I had you put everything text based into the default 80x25 text mode. However, in the rare case that does not work out for you these additional choices add yet another thing to consider altering. Just remember you need to disable the 'console' default I told you in previous instructions to add. Disabling the command that forces grub 2 to be 80x25 text will allow it to be graphical again and adhere to your new resolution choices. It will impact both the boot menu and the command prompt. Also remember that a graphical grub menu generally means the boot process will be graphical and that means the splash screen or a little Linux mascot might come up (once you make these alterations) in place of the boot process I suggested you display. If you go back and look at my other instructions you can figure out how to get the boot process back perhaps with some help from Google.

I hope this was informative.

I might try to show how to make this work with Linux Mint XFCE 13 LTS.
Currently Linux Mint is at version 15.
The thing is that the Mint project decided to start demanding PAE built into the kernels after version 13.
This means that systems that do not support PAE might not work correctly and older systems often do not suppport PAE.
Several distros have PAE support with either 2 separate builds or a set of conditionals to allow the PAE functions to bypass without issue.
Besides the LTS (Long Term Support) builds from Ubuntu and Linux Mint offer years of support before they are considered end of life.
This means years of posts from users to help you if you need it and that are precisely for your installed version of the distro.
Besides Linux Mint 13 offers both a Debian and an Ubuntu kernel which do have differences.

I haven't bothered with Knoppix because the project maintainers do not suggest running Knoppix from a hard drive.
That does not mean you can't it just means I won't suggest you do something that could lead to strange complications.

Have fun. Never heard from the OP so I hope this helps.

Re: Best Linux Distribution (for a small screen)?
 

Once again timed out (so pardon any typos):

Linux Mint 13 Maya LTS XFCE install at 640x480 from LiveCD:

Booting from the LiveCD...
During boot hit the SPACEBAR before the timer times out.
Select the 'Start in compatibility mode' installer.
This *should* force the GUI to use the VESA driver.
That kernel boot line includes xforcevesa.
After boot the screen will probably be at the wrong resolution.
Use CTRL-ALT-F1 (note that in Mint CTRL-ALT-F8 is the GUI).
Type: export DISPLAY=:0
Do a: cd /home/mint/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml
In that directory do: nano displays.xml
In that file you want to put this text:

Save that.
Type: xrandr -q
If the 3rd line down starts with 'default' you are good.

If not re-edit the previous file with: nano displays.xml
Put whatever that line started with, be it VGA1, HDMI1, DVI1 or whatever in place of the *all lower case* defaults.
Be careful not to change the 'Defaults' it does matter.

There was a reason I did not use xrandr to set the screen mode.
If you try this the GUI will crash.
However in the GUI under 'Settings' then 'Sessions and Startup' in the 'Session' tab Mint came setup to restart the GUI automatically.
So if you try to use xrandr to set the video like this it will not work out.

Now then...
Type: xfce4-session-logout --logout
This only alters the XFWM window manager so on a system that needs to display 640x480 for 10 seconds you will not have a display then XFWM should load at 640x480.

At this point you should have the LiveCD GUI at 640x480.
Click the icon 'Install Linux Mint' on the desktop.
The installer was written for a video mode greater than 640x480.
To use it press ALT-F7 to drag the window around the desktop so you can get to what you can't see.
ALT-F7 doesn't seem to work on the partitioning part of the installer, on there you might need to use TAB to select the options.

This installer checks that your:
Laptop is plugged in.
That you have 5.3GB of storage to install into (so no this won't work with less than 5.3GB available to partition).
That you have Internet connectivity.

Given we've been imposing a 4GB storage limit just keep in mind that LinuxMint's installer is basically saying Mint needs more resources.
I simply resized my virtual hard drive to 6GB to finish this process.
I don't think with the cost of storage these days 6GB is really asking all that much.
Consider that I have P3 thin clients with 8GB internal IDE hard drives that are basically a decade old.

After a nice long install the system will reboot.
Chances are you won't see much except a black screen till the user login displays.
You probably won't be able to see that user login correctly either because it will default again to the wrong video mode.
Again as before.
Do a: CTRL-ALT-F1
Use the same displays.xml as before, including any modifications you may have had to make.
The only change you need to note is that now the install process has created a real default user account.
That means that in this command above:
cd /home/mint/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml
The word 'mint' should be the user name you created during the install.
The same one you used to log in.
That user's name is also probably the *only* directory name in the /home folder at this point in the process.

Now if one looks back at the directions I provided earlier in this topic for Lubuntu they apply to the grub 2 bootloader that is installed.
The configuration file is still in: /etc/default/
I would at least display the grub menu and boot process as text when I first installed I couldn't see either.
Remember to commit the changes with: sudo update-grub

Linux Mint 13 LTS uses mdm instead of lightdm or gdm.
To configure the login screen resolution alter the file: Default
The file is located in: /etc/mdm/Init/
That file can be edited with: nano Default
Add the line: xrandr --output default --primary --mode 640x480
Put that just above the last line: exit 0
Again remember if you did 'xrandr -q' before and had to alter things replace 'default' in the xrandr line above as well.

With that said this process should install a working copy of Linux Mint 13 LTS at a resolution of 640x480.

Remember that this older version of Linux Mint does not require PAE but is still very much supported till 2016.
Now if you got this far consider installing the package: fake-pae
If you can get fake-pae working it will trick Mint into thinking the CPU completely supports PAE.
Once you manage this trick you should be able to download the OS upgrades to bring the system to Linux Mint 15.
*DO NOT* automatically upgrade this kernel unless you manage to get fake-pae working.
If you allow the version 14 or 15 kernels to install your system will fail to boot.
Hopefully by then you'll have configured the boot menu and will be able to revert (and of course made backups of your work!).

When the install of Linux Mint was done it turned it out it only consumed a little more than 3.2GB of the 6GB virtual hard drive.
I noticed that 'startx' worked fine when I booted to the command prompt but it did eliminate the GUI login from mdm.
I would configure mdm even if you intend to boot into the command prompt.

Before running anything the 'Task Manager' showed 27.1% of the memory used or roughly 130MB.
Firefox 12.0 consumed about 45MB of physical RAM while displaying: https://www.google.com
LibreOffice Write consumed about 33MB of physical RAM with a blank document.

I got Python 2.7.3, Perl 5.14.2, OpenJDK 1.6.0_24 and no PHP as defaults from the install.

This is not the 'lightest' distro we've looked at in this topic.
It could be much worse.
I know Linux Mint is pretty popular.

Re: Best Linux Distribution (for a small screen)?
 

Before you continue with your endless fountain of Linux knowledge, I would like to inform you that I got Puppy Linux to work! Thank you for your massive amounts of advice :D I greatly appreciate it!

You may want to continue so that this thread can be referenced in the future by Linux newbies (like me), but for now I will not be requiring any more assistance. Thank you so much for all of your help!!!

Re: Best Linux Distribution (for a small screen)?
 

A couple of things to bring this to a close.
I figure 5 OS installs for this topic in 5 days is enough unless someone wants another.

The above version of Linux Mint is running on an Ubuntu kernel.
If you want something using XFCE on a Debian kernel look at SnowLinux.

If you are trying to do all this on an older computer there is a great chance you might run into BIOS limitations.
Limitations that block boot from CD-ROM or USB for example.
So look for a boot manager called Plop to put on a floppy diskette.
It is a chain loader so it can load the LiveCD after it boots as though it does not exist.
It is very neatly done.

http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanagers.html

I also want to give recognition to PlopLinux. It is like D**n Small Linux and on the Plop pages there are extensive directions (the installation does involve a fair bit of command execution). It is basically not derived from Debian, Redhat or any other sub-community.
It should respond well to the 'vga=' parameter as previously described.

http://www.plop.at/en/ploplinux/index.html

I finally want to add that if you previously followed the Lubuntu directions note that since version 12.04 Ubuntu has generally required PAE as well, but again look at fake-pae in Google to help with that if it will impact your computer.

Have fun and I'm glad it worked out.

Re: Best Linux Distribution (for a small screen)?
 

Timed out again and this is my last revisit to this topic.

Decided to quickly install Snow Linux 4 with the Debian kernel.

You can use the trick from Linux Mint above with displays.xml to get the LiveCD into 640x480.

The Snow Linux 4 installer scales with the screen resolution down to 640x480.
So less dragging windows around with ALT-F7.
That installer also does not check to see if:
1. Your are plugged in (laptop)
2. Have more than 5.3GB of space
3. Internet access unlike Linux Mint 13 LTS.
So no barrier there.

After install you end up with grub 2 and lightdm so look back at the directions for Lubuntu for those 2 items.
You'll need to make the xrandr vga.sh script also described previously.
Just be sure to uncomment the 'display-setup-script=' in the section '[SeatDefaults]' and add your shell script.
Do not add it to the bottom of the file or it will be ignored.

Be aware that Snow Linux was the only one of the 6 Linux distro I installed that correctly and immediately recognized that I was using Oracle VirtualBox so instead of this line:
xrandr --output default --primary --mode 640x480
You want:
xrandr --output VBOX0 --primary --mode 640x480
How did I know it was VBOX0?
Do a: xrandr -q
Again the 3rd line down, the one below the one that starts with 'Screen 0' shows the first display subsystem (if you have several displays you might get several results but let's keep this example down to a single display).

So after doing all that I found that at boot in the GUI the OS was using 82MB of the 512MB of physical RAM.
About 2.3GB of the 4GB virtual hard drive was used.
The guided partitioning during the install used about 500MB of the virtual hard drive as swap space so that is also not available for other things.
So you end up with about 1.8GB of free space to do as you please out of the 4GB of storage.

I got Python 2.7.3, Perl 5.14.2 and OpenJDK 1.7.0_03 by default with this install.
I also got GAWK and GNU SED by default with this install.

Also I noticed after Ether asked below that I may not have listed the version of PuppyLinux I installed earlier as well.

Let's do one better and make sure that we are all looking at the same thing.
The versions of the ISO files I am using are:
So let me collect from all of my above posts the information about the storage used and the physical RAM consumed after boot:
Finally what common programming languages do you get by default:
I've gathered up a few more things from this topic here in the table below.
The boot times are the result of rounding up or down to the nearest second.
Then trying the boot 3 times, averaging and then rounding up or down.
Therefore a mere second or 2 difference between OS is pretty irrelevant.
The measurement was done with a stop watch so there's more inaccuracy.
I started as close to the double-click to start the VM as possible.
I stopped as close to the login prompt or command prompt appearing as possible.
PuppyLinux never produced a login prompt it just presented a command prompt (a bit insecure in some cases).
Keep in mind this therefore includes the Oracle VirtualBox BIOS screen display time.
The BIOS screen appears for roughly: 3 seconds.
In all cases the boot loader was configured to wait: 2 seconds.
Therefore all boot times are actually padded by 5 seconds.
Since I am not using any sort of custom BIOS that means that these virtual machines will never boot faster than 2 seconds.
These numbers are worst case for my laptop because I put the virtual storage on an external USB3 Iomega 500GB 2.5" hard drive.
This laptop does not have integrated USB3 so I have that drive plugged into my USB2 port.
Therefore these boot times are longer than when I originally installed the virtual machines on my internal SSD.
My laptop is an: Lenovo T61, 6465-CTO, 4GB of RAM, Intel T7700 CPU @ 2.4GHz
A faster or slower CPU will likely impact the boot performance.
If the system memory for the host is too low the host will swap and that will impact the boot performance.
In all cases I had no other manually started programs open except Oracle VirtualBox and gnote (to scribble notes).
Also keep in mind that if you do not properly shutdown Linux on the next boot it might 'fsck' which eats time.
Finally note that D**n Small Linux was the *only* OS I installed on an virtual IDE controller instead of virtual SATA.
So D**n Small Linux might be getting an advantage from that difference in the virtual machine.
I can't test D**n Small Linux on a virtual SATA controller because it wouldn't work that way for me.

Copying the virtual disk for D**n Small Linux back to my SSD decreased the boot time by 3-4 seconds over 3 tests.
Copying the virtual disk for Snow Linux back to my SSD decreased the boot time by 3 seconds over 3 tests.
Remember that the SSD is much faster but much of what the boot does is limited by queries to hardware.
Therefore virtualizing these hosts has negatively impacted the performance.

Keep in mind that FIRST's RFQ for a new control system asked for boot times under 30 seconds.
Using that as guidance you could cold boot a laptop on the robot with some tweaking.
Further with a laptop on the robot secondary to the cRIO you might not need to reboot at all because it has a battery.

I have all 6 of these installations as Oracle VirtualBox virtual machines.
I am running Oracle VirtualBox version: 4.2.16 r86992 on:
RedHat 6.3 Santiago kernel 2.6.32-279.14.1.el6.x86_64
If anyone wants them as appliances I can do that.

Re: Best Linux Distribution (for a small screen)?
 

May I ask which one?

e.g. Slacko, Lucid, Precise, Wary, etc

... and which version?

Re: Best Linux Distribution (for a small screen)?
 

^

I'm pretty sure Lucid, but the version I am not sure of.

Re: Best Linux Distribution (for a small screen)?
 

Probably Lucid 5.2.8 if you recently downloaded.

I have installed that on several older desktop and laptop computers.

And I keep a bootable USB in my toolkit for diagnosis and data recovery on machines with corrupted Windows installations.

Re: Best Linux Distribution (for a small screen)?
 

I boot it off of USB, my thin client doesn't have a CD drive so a bootable CD was out of the question. Although I found a USB floppy disk reader. I wish I could find a use for that.

Re: Best Linux Distribution (for a small screen)?
 

You can use it to boot FreeDOS :)

Re: Best Linux Distribution (for a small screen)?
 

Which BTW I can't test for you in Oracle VirtualBox because while I was doing this I was also experimenting with Novell Netware IPX VLM 16bit drivers in FreeDOS 1.1 and BTrieve requester using 'share' file locking.

Let's just say it's not exactly stable.
If you even enable the VM acceleration you can cause the FreeDOS 1.1 kernel not to even boot on some systems.

However DR-DOS is still available for purchase and stable.
MS-DOS is still available from MSDN subscriptions.

Someone could put Plop on a 1.44MB floppy as I mentioned before to get past BIOS limitations.

I linked several floppy disk based versions of Linux earlier.

Course you really don't need much in they way of any drive at all.
http://osxbook.com/book/bonus/chapter4/firmware/

From the bottom of that link:
http://www.coreboot.org/Welcome_to_coreboot
Very simple Linux boot often in less than <1 second.