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[hemmerling] Linux 2/12 - Linux Distributions

Linux Kernel

Major Linux Distribution Family .deb ( Debian, Ubuntu with GRUB Bootloader ) & ( MX Linux with Syslinux Bootloader )

1 Debian

Software

Legacy Hardware Support

  • Debian Releases "Debian GNU/Linux 3.1", Debian CDs/DVDs archive "Debian 3.1r8" ( “sarge” ), the latest release for systems with 80386 CPU.
  • Debian Releases "Debian GNU/Linux 5.0.10" Debian CDs/DVDs archive "Debian 5.0.10" ( “lenny” ), the latest release for systems with 80486 CPU.
  • Debian Releases "Debian 7.11", Debian CDs/DVDs archive "Debian 7.8" ( “wheezy” ). By some unknown reasons this version was important for me, as latest release for some hardware...
    • Debian Releases "Debian 7.11. 2.1. Supported Hardware. Chapter 2. System Requirements - “Nearly all x86-based (IA-32) processors still in use in personal computers are supported, including all varieties of Intel's 'Pentium' series. This also includes 32-bit AMD and VIA (former Cyrix) processors, and processors like the Athlon XP and Intel P4 Xeon. However, Debian GNU/Linux wheezy will not run on 386 or earlier processors. Despite the architecture name 'i386', support for actual 80386 processors (and their clones) was dropped with the Sarge (r3.1) release of Debian. (No version of Linux has ever supported the 286 or earlier chips in the series.) All i486 and later processors are still supported”.
    • Debian 7.8, with Kernel 3.2.65.
  • Debian CDs/DVDs archive "Debian 8.11.1" ( “jessie” ), the latest release for systems with Intel Pentium CPU.
  • Debian CDs/DVDs → Download of the current distribution.
  • Debian Interix Port - “This is a port of the Debian distribution to Interix, aka Microsoft Services for UNIX (SfU) or Subsystem for UNIX based applications (SUA)”.
  • Advice by experts: Take “Debian Stable” for servers and “Debian Testing” for desktop computers :-).
  • Legacy hardware support:
  • Debian Linux was suitable to be installed on legacy hardware ( 80×386 / 80×486,..) :-).
    • Last year it was decided to increase the minimum CPU features for the i386 architecture to 686-class in the stretch release cycle. This means dropping support for 586-class and hybrid 586/686 processors[1].(Support for 486-class processors was dropped, somewhat accidentally, in squeeze.) This was implemented in the Linux kernel packages starting with Linux 4.3, which was uploaded to unstable in December last year.
    • In case you missed that change, gcc for i386 has recently been changed to target 686-class processors and is generating code that will crash on other processors. Any such systems still running testing or unstable will need to be switched to run stable (jessie).
    • The older processors will continue to be supported in jessie until at least 2018, and until 2020 if i386 is included in jessie LTS.
    • [1] The following processors, supported in jessie, are now unspported:
      • AMD K5, K6, K6-2 (aka K6 3D), K6-3
      • Intel Pentium, Pentium with MMX
      • ...
  • Debian 6.0 (Squeeze)... support for the Intel 486, ... architectures was dropped :-(.
  • Debian 9 (Stretch)... The Intel i586 (Pentium), i586/i686 hybrid ... architectures are no longer supported as of Stretch.

2 Ubuntu

3 Kali Linux

Server Software

Metasploit

Resources

4 Knoppix

The Distribution

Resources

  • Keyboard:
      • Beim Booten von Knoppix muss man die beiden Parameter keyboard=de-latin1 und xkeyboard=de an den Kernel übergeben.. Das Booten geschieht vermutlich mittels Grub. Dann kann man die Datei /boot/grub/menu.lst entsprechend anpassen. Dazu gibt man im Terminal “sudo leafpad /boot/grub/menu.lst” ein... Damit aber jetzt die Bearbeitung nicht zu schwer fällt, kann man im Terminal vor dem Aufruf des Editors erst noch “sudo setxkbmap de” ausführen.
    • Instruction that work until the next reboot:
      • “sudo setxkbmap de”.
    • Instructions that did not work for me :-(:
      • “sudo leafpad /boot/grub/menu.lst”.
        • There, add the options:
          • “keyboard=de”.
          • “xkeyboard=de”.
        • Reboot the system.
    • Instructions by Klaus Knopper himself: Start Knoppix by
      • “knoppix lang=en xkeyboard=de” ( Linux-32bit ).
      • “knoppix64 lang=en xkeyboard=de” ( Linux-64bit ).
  • Downloads by Chrome browser, by default at ”/home/knoppix/Downloads”.
  • Access to NTFS drives.
    • With Knoppix9.1 of 2021, I failed to access the NTFS drive of the Windows PC by the Knoppix Desktop, where I booted Knoppix by USB stick :-(.
    • With Debian11, however, I was able to access the NTFS drive both by Debian booted by USB stick and Debian booted from harddisk. When booting from harddisk, Debian asked to select a Windows user and to enter its password. When booting by USB stick, access to NTFS drive was immediately without asking for Windows user and password.

5 Linux Mint with Syslinux Bootloader

6 MX Linux with Syslinux Bootloader

  • In 2025-07, there is still a 32-bit x86 distribution :-).

7 Canaima GNU/Linux

8 Raspberry Pi OS ( formerly: Raspbian )

Resources

Major Linux Distribution Family .rpm ( Red Hat Enterprise Linux ( RHEL ), The CentOS Project ( CentOS ), Fedora Linux ( F ), AlmaLinux ( Alma ), Rocky Linux ( RL ), openSUSE with GRUB Bootloader, Amazon Linux ( AL ) )

1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ( RHEL ), The CentOS Project ( CentOS ), Fedora Linux ( F ) with GRUB Bootloader

1.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ( RHEL )

1.2 The CentOS Project ( CentOS )

1.3 Fedora Linux ( F )

Release Notes ( => Hardware Requirements )

Fedora
CentOS 10
CentOS 9
CentOS 7, 8

2 OpenEL Association - AlmaLinux ( Alma ), Oracle Linux ( OL ), Rocky Linux ( RL ), openSUSE with GRUB Bootloader

OpenEL Association ( OpenELA )

  • OpenEL Association ( OpenELA ) - Trade association of open source Enterprise Linux distribution developers.

2.1 AlmaLinux ( Alma )

2.2 Oracle Linux ( OL )

2.3 Rocky Linux ( RL )

2.4 openSUSE ( formerly: SUSE Linux ) & SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE)

2.4.1 SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE)
2.4.2 SUSE Multi-Linux Support ( formerly: SUSE Liberty Linux )
2.4.3 openSUSE ( formerly: SUSE Linux )

3 Amazon Linux ( AL )

Software Repositories

Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux ( EPEL )

  • Also available for AlmaLinux :-).

RPM Fusion

pkgs.org

Resources

Hardware Resources

    • Microarchitecture levels.
      • In 2020, through a collaboration between AMD, Intel, Red Hat, and SUSE, three microarchitecture levels (or feature levels) on top of the x86-64 baseline were defined: x86-64-v2, x86-64-v3, and x86-64-v4.
        • “x86-64-v2 - features match the 2008 Intel Nehalem architecture, excluding Intel-specific instructions”.
        • “x86-64-v3 - features match the 2013 Intel Haswell architecture, excluding Intel-specific instructions”.
        • “x86-64-v4 - features match the 2017 Intel Skylake-X architecture, excluding Intel-specific instructions”.

Resources

Some other Major Linux Distributions

1 Google Android

2 Arch Linux with Syslinux Bootloader

Software

Arch Linux: Selecting the proper Syslinux Version for Arch Linux

  • Rufus message, when trying to transfer a “Arch Linux” image to a USB stick, for the first time:
    This image uses Syslinux 6.04/pre3-3-g05ac953c but the application only includes the installation files for Syslinux 6.04/pre1..
    As new versions of Syslinux are not compatible with one another, and it wouldn't be possible for Rufus to include them all, two additional files must be downloaded from the Internet ( "ldlinux.sys" and "ldlinux.bss" ):
    
      -Select "Yes" to connect to the Internet and download these files.
      -Select "No" to cancel the operation.
    
    Note: The files will be downloaded in the current application directory and will be reused automatically if present.
  • I selected “Yes”.

Reading & writing Text with a Text Editor

Installation

Start of Installation
  • There is no easy-to-use ( textual ) installation script :-(.
  • Login as “root” ( no password needed ).
    archiso login:
    root
  • Message at start
    After connecting to the Internet, the installation guide can be accessed via the convenience script "Installation_guide".
  • Set a German keyboard layout:
    $ loadkeys de-latin1
  • Execute the interactive script which displays the installation guide ( “ArchWiki Atom feed” ), by
    $ Installation_guide
    
  • Change the terminal screen by ALT+CTRL+2, login as “root” to continue installation.
Partitioning
  • Notebook “Dell Vostro 1000” ( 2 GB RAM ).
    $ fdisk -l
    
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1/ 2048 2099199 2097152 1G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2/ * 2099200 234440703 232341504 110.8G 83 Linux
Device does not contain a recognized partition table
Create a new DOS ( MBR ) disklabel with disk identifier 0xb113918b.
  • Create a new label.
    • o create a new empty MBR ( DOS ) partition table.
  • Save & Exit.
    • w write table to disk and quit.
  • $ fdisk /dev/sda1
    o
    w
    q
    
  • Reboot
Formatting
$ mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2
$ mkswap /dev/sda1
Mounting & enabling Swap
$ mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
$ swapon /dev/sda1
Network Configuration
Select the Network Mirror

and locate your geographic region. Uncomment mirrors you would like to use.

Install essential packages
$ pacstrap -K /mnt base linux linux-firmware
Configure the system
  • Fstab
    $ genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
    $ cat /mnt/etc/fstab
  • Chroot
    $ arch-chroot /mnt
  • Time.
  • Localization.
    • Edit ”/etc/locale.gen” and uncomment de_DE.UTF-8 UTF-8 ( delete the leading ”#” )
      $nano /etc/locale.gen
      
      # de_DE.UTF-8 UTF-8
      ^o
      ^x
      
    • Generate the locales by running:
      $ locale-gen
    • Edit the “locale.conf” file, and set the LANG variable accordingly:
      $nano /etc/locale.conf
      
      LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
    • Set your console keyboard layout persistent in “vconsole.conf”:
      $ localectl status
      $ nano /etc/vconsole.conf
      
      #KEYMAP=us
      KEYMAP=de-latin1
      
      $ localectl status
  • Network configuration.
    • default hostname “archiso”, my hostname is “node9”:
      $ nano /etc/hostname
      
      node9
  • Initramfs.
    • Creating a new initramfs is usually not required, because mkinitcpio was run on installation of the kernel package with pacstrap.
    • Arch Linux Wiki "mkinitcpio" - “mkinitcpio is a Bash script used to create an initial ramdisk environment”.
    • I didn't modify anything for my system :-).
    • For LVM, system encryption or RAID, modify “mkinitcpio.conf” and recreate the initramfs image:
      $nano /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
      $ mkinitcpio -P
  • Root password.
    • Set the root password
      $ passwd
  • Boot loader.
$ mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/boot
$ arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash
$ pacman -Sy grub os-prober
$ grub-mkconfig

/usr/bin/grub-probe: error: failed to get canonical path of 'airootfs'.
#xxx doesn't work right now xxx
$ grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
$ grub-install --target=i368-efi --efi-directory=/boot/ --bootloader-id=GRUB

Resourcen

3. Linux Distribution Family BSD ( FreeBSD, GhostBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD )

3.1 The FreeBSD Project

Software
ISO Images are just for CD/DVD
"memstick.img" Images are for installation on USB Sticks
Installation
    • “Optional system components” - Suggestion not to activate any of the options.
    • “Partitioning Choices”.
    • “System configuration”. I choose additionally:
      • ”[x] moused”.
      • ”[x] ntpd”.
    • “Add User Accounts”.
      • Google AI:
        • “Yes, during FreeBSD installation, you are required to create at least one user account, but you are not required to create a root user account”.
        • “Yes, that's correct. FreeBSD, like most Unix-like systems, includes a root user account by default. This account is created during installation and is used for system administration tasks and accessing the full power of the operating system”.
    • “Final configuration”.
      • “Root password - Change the root password”.
        • FreeBSD Forums "What is the login / root password of FreeBSD for Raspberry?" - “The default passwords for the images are freebsd/freebsd and root/root”.
        • Google AI: “The default FreeBSD root password is often blank, meaning there is no password set. If a password has been set, you'll need to use the passwd command to change it, or boot into single-user mode to reset it”.
        • At the “FreeBSD Live System”, you may login as “root”, no password set.
      • “Hostname - Set system hostname”.

3.2 GhostBSD

3.3 NetBSD

3.4 OpenBSD

Resources

4. Gentoo Linux

Software

Minimal Installation CD

  • The Gentoo Linux boots up with a textual command shell.
  • Login:
    • Minimal Installation CD - “livecd login: root ( automatic login )”.
  • There is no easy-to-use ( textual ) installation script :-(.

LiveGUI - Basic Installation Parameters

  • Gentoo LiveGUI:
    • “System Settings / Keyboard / Layout” - “German ( no dead keys )”.
  • There is no easy-to-use textual or graphical installation script :-(.
  • Free memory on systems:
Desktop free -m cat /proc/swaps Comment
Mem: total Mem: available Swap: used ”/dev/sda5 Used
LiveGUI USB Image, KDE Plasma 1827 566 .. 572 0 0

Literature

Resources

5. The Slackware Linux Project with LILO Bootloader

Software

Slackware Live

  • In Slackware Live Edition, the default user account passwords are “root” for the root user and “live” for the live user. It's recommended to log in as the “live” user and then use su or sudo to gain root privileges, as sudo will prompt for the “live” user's password.
  • On my Notebook “Dell Vostro 1000” ( 2 GB RAM ), after login as “Slackware Live User”:
    • Desktop “Xfce Session” - The system hangs after login, while showing the desktop screen :-(.
    • Desktop “Plasma ( X 11 )”, “Xsession default”, “Plasma ( Failsafe )”, “Plasma ( Wayland )”, “Plasma ( Full Wayland ) ( Wayland )”: The system crashes before showing the login screen. Or the system hangs after login before showing the desktop screen :-(.

Installation

Keyboard
  • Keyboard Map Selection:
    1. “quertz/de-latin1-noeadkeys.map” √ - Best choice.
    2. “quertz/de-latin1.map” √.
    3. “quertz/de-mobii.map” √.
    4. “quertz/de.map” - QUERTY keyboard :-(.
    5. “quertz/de_alt_UTF-8.map” - QUERTY keyboard :-(.
  • Manual installation process:
    • “To partition your hard drive(s), use 'cfdisk' or 'fdisk'. To start the main installation ( after partitioning ), type 'setup'”.
Cfdisk, Notebook "Dell Vostro 1000"
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1/ 2048 2099199 2097152 1G 82 Linux swap
/dev/sda2/ * 2099200 234440703 232341504 110.8G 83 Linux
  • Select partition type:
    • ”/dev/sda1/” - 82 ( Linux Swap ).
    • ”/dev/sda2/” - 83 ( Linux ).
  • Configuration tool “Setup”.
    • Main menu, “Configure”.
      • “Select Default Window Manager For X”.
  • Free memory on systems:
Desktop free -m cat /proc/swaps Back to text console Comment
Mem: total Mem: available Swap: used ”/dev/sda5 Used
Textmode 1845 1415 0 0
KDE: KDE Plasma Desktop 1845 683 0 0 ”..Leave”
The Cholesterol Free Desktop Environment ( Xfce ) 1845 911 0 0 “Log out root / Log Out”
The fluxbox window manager 1845 1271 0 0 “Fluxbox menu / Exit”
The blackbox window manager 1845 1269 0 0 “blackbox menu / Exit”
Windowmaker 1845 954 0 0 “Exit Windows Maker”
F(?) Virtual Window Manager ( version 2.xx ) 1845 953 0 0 “Quit”
Tab Window Manager ( very basic ) 1845 953 0 0 -
Motif WM - - 0 0

Desktops

  • Select deskop:
    xwmconfig
    
  • Start deskop from textmode prompt:
    startx
    
  • Notebook “Dell Vostro 1000”, with “Motif WM” deskop manager: The computer hangs after loading the graphics screen :-(.

Resources

Some other Linux Distributions

Meta - Distribution / Multi - Distribution

General Linux Distributions

Lightweight Linux Distributions

Linux on Smartphones

Android

Chrome OS

Gentoo

  • See on this page.

Firefox OS & KaiOS

webOS

Special Purpose Linux Distributions

Special Linux & Embedded Linux on Smart Devices, Smartphones, Tablets

Linux on Legacy x86 Hardware

Linux on Legacy 68K, Coldfire & PowerPC Hardware

Operating System Builder, Build Systems

    • eCos, CentOS, FreeRTOS, Linux (Angstrom), Linux (Debian), Linux (Fedora), Linux (kernel.org), Linux (LinuxPPC), Linux (uCLinux), Linux (OSADL), Linux (Slackware), Linux (Yocto), RTEMS → named by VDC Survey.

SMP Linux

Linux in the Cloud

Hosting Control Panel

Jolicloud

Resources

Unix / Linux on Windows Host

Wubi ( Ubuntu Installer )

Cooperative Linux

  • Cooperative Linux - “The first working free and open source method for optimally running Linux on Microsoft Windows natively”.

Major, advanced and special Linux File Systems

Linux Desktops & Linux Display Managers for Linux Desktops

Desktops ( for Debian, RHEL, BSD Families, ... )

Windows Manager for X11

Software

Resources

Display Managers

Software

Resources

Resources

Resources

Lists of Linux Distributions

Lists of Lightweight Linux Distributions

Lists of Lightweight Linux Distributions II

Embedded Linux

Deletion of multiple Partitions on USB Sticks

    • “I can recommend rufus. When you have a USB stick with multiple partitions attached, it will automatically select the USB-Stick, detect that it has multiple partitions and you can format the stick safely (select defaults - non-bootable, MBR)”.
    • Or select “Boot Section” = “Non bootable” or if you really like “MS-DOS”:-).

Appropriate OpenDirectory Directory Pages

 
en/linux02.html.txt · Last modified: 2025/08/04 21:27 (external edit) · []
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