Table of Contents
[hemmerling] Linux 2/8 - Linux Distributions
Related pages:
Major Linux Distributions
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- Wiki Linaro Wiki.
- Launchpad Login for Linaro & Ubuntu Wiki.
- Ubuntu Single Signon ( OpenID ).
- Supporters / supports.
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- Realtime kernels:
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- Requirements: 6.3 Gbyte disk space, 1000 MB CD-Rom or DVD boot media.
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- The last release with official 32-bit versions.
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- Release with 64-bit only versions.
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- Lubuntu 18.04 LTS.
- Requirements: 4.4 Gbyte disk space, 700 MB CD-Rom or DVD boot media.
- Since Ubuntu 12.04, the standard kernel requires an 80×86 CPU with EN.Wikipedia "Physical Address Extension". For systems with CPU without such features, http://www.lubuntu.net/ might be an alternative.
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- “We have done many tests and we've found out that Lubuntu can be installed on a Pentium II or Celeron system with 128 MB of RAM, but such a system would not perform well enough for daily use”.
- “With 256MB - 384MB of RAM, the performance will be better and the system will be more usable”.
- “With 512MB of RAM, you don't need to worry much”.
- However, I failed to install Lubuntu 14.4 on VirtualBox, with 512 MBytes RAM for Linux. It crashed at the end.. during wrap-up.
- Wiki Ubuntu Wiki
- Ubuntu Netbook Remix - a Linux for Asus901.
- Ubuntu Linux supports “Lenovo ThinkPad”.
- Eeebuntu 2.0 ( Ubuntu 8.10 for the Asus Eee PC ).
- Easy Peasy - a Ubuntu-based Linux for Asus901.
- Geoffrey Teale, XING "Geoffrey Teale", LinkedIn "Geoffrey Teale", Twitter "Geoffrey J. Teale, @tealeg" - Ubuntu team member & “Golang” expert.
- No more 32-bit support
.- AskUbuntu "How come Ubuntu 18.04 LTS has a 32bit iso installer?" - “Standard Ubuntu flavour has dropped 32-bit installer for the 18.04 release aka Bionic Beaver (actually since the 17.10 release), but rest of the Ubuntu flavours still support 32-bit systems”, “Alternatively, you can use the Ubuntu mini ISO”.
- AskUbuntu "Is there a 32-bit version of Ubuntu 18.04 desktop?" - “If you want a 'clean and basic' iso file of Ubuntu Bionic to be released as 18.04 LTS, you can download a Ubuntu mini.iso alias Netboot iso file. There are versions for 32-bit as well as 64-bit kernels”.
- Ubuntu Flavours, still with 18.04 32-bit editions.
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- Debian CDs/DVDs archive → Download of legacy distribution.
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- “debian-live-11.4.0-amd64-gnome.iso” - With Gnome desktop.
- “debian-live-11.4.0-amd64-standard.iso” - Just command-line interface.
- 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.
- PRO-Linux.DE "Debian GNU/Linux 7.8", 2015-01-12 - “Kernel 3.2.65”.
- Debian CDs/DVDs archive "Debian 8.11.1" ( “jessie” ), the latest release for systems with Intel Pentium CPU.
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- 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: 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,..).
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- 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
- ...
- Installation of Debian 11:
- Language = English.
- Format = Ireland.
- Keyboard = German.
- “Detect and mount installation media” - Error message “The detected media cannot be used for installation” ⇒ A real hardware / software problem with the USB stick, by which you want to install Linux.
- Partions, example if there are 2 drives:
- “SCSI2(0,0,0)(sda) 4.0 GB AT ASUS PHISN SSD” - Mounted at ”/home”.
- “SCSI2(0,1,0)(sda) 8.1 GB AT ASUS PHISN SSD” - Boot flag, mounted at ”/”.
- “Software selection”.
- [x] Debian desktop environment.
- [x] GNOME.
- [x] SSH Server.
- [x] standard system utilities.
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- 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.
Some other Linux Distributions
- EN.Wikipedia "Canaima (operating system)", EN.Wikipedia "Canaima GNU/Linux" - “The default operating system for the Venezuelan public administration”.
- Education on and with Linux.
- edubuntu - “The free education oriented operating system for kids of all ages”.
- En.Wikipedia "Caldera OpenLinux" - OpenDos,..
- CAELinux.com - “The computer aided engineering Linux distribution”.
- CentOS - The Community ENTerprise Operating System - enterprise-grade Linux.
- Wiki CentOS Wiki.
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- UniCon Software GmbH "eLux" - embedded Linux.
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- Linux Mint. From freedom came elegance - “LMDE. The best of Linux with Cinnamon and MATE on top of Debian”.
- Puppy Linux - A “Live System” which does not require installation on a harddisk, suitable for legacy hardware.
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- Blog Tizen Blog.
- “The Tizen application programming interfaces are based on HTML5”.
- uClinux - “Embedded Linux/Microcontroller Project”, “The Linux/Microcontroller project is a port of Linux to systems without a Memory Management Unit (MMU)”.
- uClinux might be used on ARM platforms without MMU, e.g. ARM Cortex M3, ARM Cortex M4.
- X/OS Linux - enterprise-grade Linux.
- Xandros - a Linux for Asus901.
Special Linux Distributions
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- fli4L - 1-disk Linux router.
- Kali Linux - “Penetration Testing, Redefined”.
- Metasploit - “World's most used penetration testing software. Put your network's defenses to the test”.
- Offensive Security "Kali Linux Downloads - Kali Linux Custom ARM and VMware Image Downloads" - “These images have a default password of 'toor' and may have pre-generated SSH host keys”.
- Settings of a virtual machine for Kali Linux:
- If you use a LAN connection to connect to the Internet by the host, please disable all other network interfaces listed in the configuration settings of the virtual machine.
- In the configuration settings of the virtual machine., please select as virtual network adapter configuration = “Bridged” instead of the default “NAT”.
- Metasploit - The developer of an exploid also implements the payloads and so define all selectable payloads.
- For the Metasploit community edition, the command line interface is best choice, as all other choices are outdated or will be outdated soon ( for the community edition at least ).
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- NixOS - “NixOS is a Linux distribution with a unique approach to package and configuration management. Built on top of the Nix package manager, it is completely declarative, makes upgrading systems reliable, and has many other advantages”.
- OpenWrt - Wireless Freedom - “A Linux distribution for embedded devices”.
- PHLAK, PHLAK - “A Linux distribution Live CD based on Morphix, that focuses on providing network security tools”.
- Trinux / ubuntutrinux.
- SourceForge "Trinux Legacy - What is Trinux?", Archive.org "Trinux" ( - 2006-04-23 ).
Lightweight Linux
- aLinux OS & Fine Art Photography → Download of aLinux ISO ( ISO ).
- EN.Wikipedia "aLinux" ( formerly: “Peanut Linux” ).
- Requirements:
- 486 SX/DX or higher processor (CPU).
- 64 MB RAM (128 MB recommended).
- 2 GB free hard disk drive space.
- CD-ROM drive (burner required to burn ISO).
- Arch Linux - “A simple, lightweight distribution”.
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- “A two-floppy Linux distribution with a graphical Web browser”.
- “The kernel was upgraded to 2.6.12.3”.
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- “A very versatile 50MB mini desktop oriented Linux distribution”.
- “Run light enough to power a 486DX with 16MB of Ram”.
- Mike Levin "LEVIN/UX - A Micro Linux Distribution for Education", GitHub "miklevin (Mike Levin)" - “The micro Linux distribution known as Levinux (download ~25 MB) is a tiny virtual Linux server that runs from USB or Dropbox with a double-click (no install or admin rights required) on Macs, Windows or Linux PCs”, “with an emphasis on an actual running Python/Flask web app”.
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- EN.Wikipedia "SliTaz GNU/Linux", EN.Wikipedia "TazLiTo", DE.Wikipedia "SliTaz" - “SliTaz can even run in 16 MB of RAM and a little swap memory”.
- Tiny Core Linux - “It starts with a recent Linux kernel, vmlinuz, and our root filesystem and start-up scripts packaged with a basic set of kernel modules in core.gz. Core (10MB)”.
- Void Linux, GitHub "voidlinux" - “The spirit of Void is such that we keep things default, necessary, and minimal as possible”.
Linux on USB Memory Stick
Knoppix
The Distribution
Resources
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- Knoppix Forum "How do i install a .deb package" - “First, note that you can only install a .deb package if you have a HD install, otherwise you'll have to use Klik (Kmenu>Knoppix>Utilities>install software)”.
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- Keyboard:
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- 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 ).
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- 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.
Pendrivelinux
Realtime Linux, Embedded Linux
Special Linux on Smart Devices, Smartphones, Tablets
Android
- See Google Android.
webOS
- The OpenSource Javascript framwork “Enyo” → See Web Technologies ( HTML5, HTML, XML & Javascript ) 5/5 - Javascript Frameworks.
Linux on PLCs
- “ctrlX OS”.
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- Bosch Rexroth "ctrlX AUTOMATION – ctrlX CORE" - PLCs for “ctrlX OS”.
- Partners in 2025:
- “WAGO Kontakttechnik GmbH & Co. KG” - See IEC 61131 Process Logic Control Programming PLC - PLC Systems, PLC Hardware, PLC Software.
- congatec GmbH - “Embedded Computer-on-Modules - COM-HPC, COM Express, SMARC, Qseven”.
- “Dell”, “Nokia”.
- The ecosystem provides special “Snaps” for the PLC hardware of WAGO and drive controls of Bosch-Rexroth.
- EN.Wikipedia "Snap (software)", EN.Wikipedia "Snappy (Paketverwaltung)" - “Es wurde von Canonical für Ubuntu entwickelt und ist mittlerweile auch für andere Linux-Distributionen verfügbar. Dabei geht es über den Anwendungsfall auf dem Linux-Desktop hinaus und zielt auch auf Anwendungen im Cloud Computing und das IoT ab”.
- The software stack is based on “CODESYS”, as in the past with WAGO.
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Operating Systems
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- I was told by experts in 2015-10, that the Ångström distribution is now “Yocto compatible”.
- The commercial Arrow Electronics Inc "ARROW Embedded Platform Concept" ( “Arrow EPC” ).
- Sourceforge "ELKS, The Embeddable Linux Kernel System", Sourceforge "ELKS, The Embeddable Linux Kernel System" - “16-bit Linux” for 8086, 8088.
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- Linaro - “Work with the industry leaders, building the future of Open Source Software on ARM”
- Wiki Linaro Wiki.
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- RTAI - the RealTime Application Interface for Linux from DIAPM.
- Xenomai - “A real-time development framework cooperating with the Linux kernel, in order to provide a pervasive, interface-agnostic, hard real-time support to user-space applications, seamlessly integrated into the GNU/Linux environment”.
Operating System Builder, Build Systems
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- 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
Running Linux on SMP Computers
Resources
Linux in the Cloud
Jolicloud
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- Blog Jolicloud Blog.
Unix / Linux on Windows Host
Wubi ( Ubuntu Installer )
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- 2014-06: “At this time, Wubi does not work with Windows 8 default boot-loader. Thus at this point Wubi would not work on a new Windows 8 machine”.
Cooperative Linux
- Cooperative Linux - “The first working free and open source method for optimally running Linux on Microsoft Windows natively”.
Linux on Smartphones
- Google.
- See Google Android 1/8.
Linux on Legacy Hardware
- Linux Kernel 3.8 does not support 80×386 / 80×486 CPUs anymore. So Linux Kernel 3.7 ist the last kernel for 80×386 / 80×486 CPUs .
- Linux.com "Linux 3.8: Hello 2013, Goodbye 386 Chips", 2013-02-20 - “The removal of support for Intel 386 chips”.
- Ubuntu 12.04 and newer are shipped and installed by default with a kernel wich require a CPU with EN.Wikipedia "Physical Address Extension".
Major, advanced and special Linux File Systems
Major Linux File Systems
Advanced Linux File Systems
- ZFS
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- Unique selling proposition (USP ): Can do “snapshots”.
- Lightweight LZH compression, to reduce block writes to the physical fie system.
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- Included with Ubuntu 16.04 and later.
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Special Linux File Systems
Resources
General Linux Distributions
Embedded Linux
- Wiki Embedded Linux Wiki.
Lightweight Linux Distributions
Linux in the Cloud
Appropriate OpenDirectory Directory Pages
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