TinyBox Linux

TinyBox Linux Distro ~ 2 MB (Kernel + ToyBox initramfs)

Based on:

• Making Simple Linux Distro from Scratch - setup.sh - crosscompile.sh
• Building a tiny Linux kernel - menuconfig
• Networking from Gentoo Wiki - networking.sh - find Wget deps
• Find Library Dependencies - Wget, strace & Elinks
• Make a Bootable CD With ISOLINUX - make isoimage

Distro Files:

The TinyBox Linux Distro iso in cd-root:

• image.iso 3.56 MB (Linux 6.12.101 & ToyBox 0.8.12)

The BusyBox Linux Distro has 2 (BusyBox OR ToyBox) main files in bootfiles:

• Linux Kernel 6.15.51: bzImage 2.6 MB (tinyconfig + networking)
• BusyBox 1.37.0: init.cpio.gz 2.34 MB (with networking)
• ToyBox 0.8.12 initramfs.cpio.gz 530 KB

Run on QEMU:

from image.iso

.\qemu-system-x86_64.exe -cdrom image.iso

from bzImage and init.cpio.gz

.\qemu-system-x86_64.exe -kernel bzImage -initrd init.cpio.gz

Specify cores -smp and memory -m

.\qemu-system-x86_64.exe -cdrom image.iso -smp 1 -m 512

Windows Terminal

.\qemu-system-x86_64 -kernel .\bzImage -initrd initramfs.cpio.gz -no-reboot -nographic -append "console=ttyS0"

Update on aarch64

git clone -b linux-6.99.y --depth 1 https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/EN10/TinyBoxLinux/refs/heads/main/bootfiles/.config
time yes "" | make ARCH=x86_64 CROSS_COMPILE=x86_64-linux-gnu- -j 4

Simple Distro Setup

• Build defconfig Kernel & Busybox
  defconfig bzImage 12.8MB

Add Networking:

• Build BusyBox with Networking - Identify Wget dependencies
  BusyBox init.cpio.gz 2.34 MB
• Build tinyconfig Kernel with Networking
  tinyconfig bzImage 2.68 MB
• Install Elinks browser - Identify Elinks dependencies
  ./install-elinks.sh

Create bootable CD iso

• isolinux setup - BusyboxLinux.iso TinyboxLinux.iso
  BusyBoxLinux.iso 5.45 MB TinyBoxLinux.iso 3.61 MB