Re: VERY basic linux system
- From: Robert Heller <heller@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2006 18:35:27 +0100
"xlar54" <scott.hutter@xxxxxxxxx>,
In a message on 25 Jan 2006 08:38:48 -0800, wrote :
"> Hey folks, Id like to create a linux-based OS, but change few
"> things...you guys tell me how possible this is:
">
"> #1 - I want to get rid of the filesystem heirarchy. Id like to modify
"> it to use a volume system, similar to Amiga OS, or even DOS where
"> volumes exist as names "A: or SYSTEM: or DRIVE0:"
Why?
">
"> #2 - I want to lose just about every command in the system, and use gcc
"> to write a whole new set of commands.
Why? Just about every shell you can think up (and a few more besides)
has some variation of 'alias' built in.
">
"> #3 - I want the system to be single user, not multi-user
This just plain makes no sense.
It sounds like what you want is CP/M or basically MS-DOS.
">
"> I keep hearing that you can modify linux to your liking, and so I ask
"> the group if these things are doable. I dont want to go the route of
"> writing an entirely new OS, because I think the core of linux is very
"> well done. Is there a distribution that is _extremely_ basic, single
"> user, with pretty much just /bin (cp,mv, etc) and gcc?
Some of it is doable and really depends on what you mean. Linux is
multi-user / multi-tasking -- in practice, there is no real separation
between "multi-user" and "multi-tasking". Yes, in theory it is
possible to have a multi-tasking operating system with a single real
'user', but once you have a multi-tasking kernel, multi-user is pretty
much required if you are going move outside of an educational toy
system, esp. if you have any interest in security and plan on using
*any* sort of network with *any* other systems. It is not uncommon for
Linux boxes to only have one 'real' username in /etc/password (other
than 'root' and all of the non-login usernames). My laptop only has
one real user account (myself), plus root, plus the usuall collection
of no login 'accounts' used by various system processes and daemons and
such. My laptop is a 'normal' Linux system with only one *real*
'user', although the /etc/passwd file is well populated.
Moving from the UNIX filesystem heirarchy to drive letters or names is
just a step backwards and solves no problems and only creates new ones.
You can 'fake' this with environment variables to some extent.
Command names are arbitary and virtually all command shells allow all
sorts of customization, from practical to completely silly.
It is possible to strip a UNIX distro down to fit completely on a floppy --
Tom's Boot Floppy is an example. But I don't think Tom's includes a
complete development environment. You can't use gcc *by itself* for
much. You also need the binutils. And the libraries. And header files.
And cpp. And you might as well toss in make, autoconf/automake/libtool,
sed, etc. Pretty soon you have quite a lot of stuff. And stuff
supporting stuff, and stuff supporting the support stuff, etc.
">
">
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