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#1 2010-01-06 00:16:54

hybwar
Member
Registered: 2009-03-13
Posts: 10

Smallest Arch kernel for run GTK+ application ?

Hi guys like the title said, i wanna know the way/tutorial on how make the smallest arch i686 kernel able to run gtk+ application.

This tiny Arch need minimum of functionality:

auto detect internet connection (wire first, wireless in the future)
auto detect maximum info about hardware information
application can be run on svga or vga mode
have pacman of course

The use of KDrive/TinyX   are welcome

Like i said the goal is the make the smallest arch linux that can be booted from a usb key or other media, and that run one GTK/GTK+ application
i will post later more information about the ONE application (that is a arch linux project)

Arch linux is my main system OS, i'm not a linux guru, but i can help Arch be more KISS smile

Any help,hint tips will be welcome
Thanks

Last edited by hybwar (2010-01-06 01:19:44)

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#2 2010-01-06 05:59:57

mjheagle8
Member
From: /home/mjheagle8
Registered: 2009-07-12
Posts: 186

Re: Smallest Arch kernel for run GTK+ application ?

are you talking about recompiling a small kernel or just having a small installation?

my system has those capabilities, and the root w/o pacman cache is < 2.5 gb, with openbox. so you can base an estimate on that. i'd consider my system fairly light, i have gtk only, around 500 pkgs.


Desktop/Laptop - DWM :: VM - screen
Registered Linux User Number 483137 :: Victory! :: GitHub

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#3 2010-01-06 14:33:07

hybwar
Member
Registered: 2009-03-13
Posts: 10

Re: Smallest Arch kernel for run GTK+ application ?

I'm talking about something realy small, like Tiny Core Linux (http://www.tinycorelinux.com/). If i can get a i686 Arch kernel + kdrive less that 10 Mb it will be amazing . I just wanna know if someting like this is possible with arch linux or i need to start from scratch (http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/)

My goal is to make a graphical installer ( GTK+ ) for arch linux that using profile ....
Some arch linux pro can help me ?

Christian F

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#4 2010-01-06 15:13:26

Ramses de Norre
Member
From: Leuven - Belgium
Registered: 2007-03-27
Posts: 1,289

Re: Smallest Arch kernel for run GTK+ application ?

Pacman says that the kernel package alone (no glibc and stuff) uses 76MB... So I guess <10MB is a no-go with standard packages. You'll have to trim the kernel quite a bit smile

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#5 2010-01-06 15:32:55

hybwar
Member
Registered: 2009-03-13
Posts: 10

Re: Smallest Arch kernel for run GTK+ application ?

Why the arch kernel is so big (72 mb) vs Tiny Core  kernel (10 mb) ? i know that tiny core use this Linux 2.6 kernel, Busybox, Tiny X, and Fltk.  So how and what can i trim from the arch kernel ? Like i said im not a pro and some advise, tips are welcome

Some time ago i have see a arch linux net install that are about 30 mb, but can find it anymore

Thanks

Last edited by hybwar (2010-01-06 15:44:05)

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#6 2010-01-06 15:43:59

bender02
Member
From: UK
Registered: 2007-02-04
Posts: 1,328

Re: Smallest Arch kernel for run GTK+ application ?

I think you're better off starting from scratch. To get really small, you would need to recompile pretty much all the arch packages, so that they don't link against glibc, but something smaller (eg uclibc - I think this is what tinycore does), and throw away lots of stuff (like documentation, locales, header files, unnecesary binaries, etc..)

Most of arch's kernel package size comes from modules. Tinycore selects quite a subset of modules (in arch's kernel, almost everything is compiled, so that all the hardware works, while in tinycore lots of stuff doesn't work - like wifi, non-storage usb devices, bluetooth, pretty much any not-too-standard hardware). By the way, it also saves space if the drivers are not compiled as modules but in-kernel (slackware used to ship with a kernel which had *everything* compiled in, and it was about 5mb). If you just select the stuff that you personally need for your computer, the resulting kernel should be about 2.5mb.

EDIT: also note that compiling against uclibc usually requires quite some patching.
Another thing you can try is to use openwrt (by which I mean not the precompiled stuff you can download from the website, but use their "buildroot" - a bunch of scripts used to build the whole system) - you can exactly select what packages do you want, it can link against uclibc and the result contains almost no unnecessary stuff. As far as I remember, they also support these small versions of X (but I never tried including that).

Last edited by bender02 (2010-01-06 15:47:47)

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#7 2010-01-06 15:48:38

bender02
Member
From: UK
Registered: 2007-02-04
Posts: 1,328

Re: Smallest Arch kernel for run GTK+ application ?

hybwar wrote:

Some time ago i have see a arch linux net install that are about 30 mb, but can find it anymore

That was not a complete system - it only included enough to boot a computer, connect to the net and download the packages from there.

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#8 2010-01-06 16:24:41

hybwar
Member
Registered: 2009-03-13
Posts: 10

Re: Smallest Arch kernel for run GTK+ application ?

Its exacly what i need ... boot kernel, start kdrive or Tiny-X and finaly  load my gtk+ application
Where can find this ~30 mb iso ?

Thanks

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#9 2010-01-06 19:16:35

bender02
Member
From: UK
Registered: 2007-02-04
Posts: 1,328

Re: Smallest Arch kernel for run GTK+ application ?

Probably I didn't express myself properly: that iso has no X, certainly no gtk+ or anything beyond basic command line tools. It seems to me that adding tiny-x, gtk and some extra applications to that iso is actually more work than LFS, since you would need to dig up some old scripts that were used to create it, tweak them, compile tiny-x and gtk+ yourself, probably linked against some weird C library (linking against glibc would take you far beyond 50mb).

"boot a computer" for me means "load a kernel and drop to some shell".

Last edited by bender02 (2010-01-06 19:17:38)

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