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Linux-BBC is one of my favorite tiny Linux distributions. I recently had the opportunity to give the new version, LNX-BBC 2.1, a try.
To quote the FAQ...
The LNX-BBC is a miniature Linux-based GNU distribution, small enough to fit on a CD-ROM that has been cut, pressed, or molded to the size and shape of a business card.
It provides a portable rescue system or temporary workstation OS for any system with a CD-ROM drive. The first great feature of LNX-BBC was immediately evident. Downloading the ISO took only about 15 minutes on a 512k bps connection -- and should take less than 3 hours even with a 56k modem. On the bang-for-your-bits scale, it's hard to beat at about one fourteenth the size of full-size single-CD distro.
I burned the ISO image onto an 8cm mini CD-RW using XCDRoast and put it in my trusty old PIII-667 Book PC. LNX-BBC boots up to an startup option prompt which lets you boot into either a text-based session or any of several frame buffer-based graphical modes. I tried the text session first and it worked perfectly. Once booted, BBC gives you a few hints about how to get started. I ran the suggested trivial network configuration tool and manually configured my network.
Within about 2 minutes I was logged into Starship Traders in text mode and chatting with another player.
On the next boot, I selected graphics mode '2', 640x480. Again, it worked perfectly. Feeling lucky, I let BBC configure the network using DHCP. Though we don't normally use DHCP here, I must have my switch configured to serve from a range of unallocated IP addresses because, once again, it worked perfectly. I then ran 'startx' to bring up the X Window system. BBC provided me with a desktop preloaded with rxvt, xterm, and an xclock. While it worked well, I wasn't very happy with the 640x480 display so I rebooted once more.
This time I got greedy and chose graphics mode '4', 1024x768. My slightly old LCD monitor couldn't handle the default frequencies so I got no display at all. But, with no hard disk-based filesystem mounted, no damage could be done. A fearless press of the reset button and the little PC was booting once again.
Using graphics mode '3' proved to be the charm. The 800x600 display was big enough to use comfortably without causing problems with my picky monitor. Since each reboot/reconfiguration only takes about 2 minutes, I still hadn't invested as much time in testing as I had spent doing the download and burning the CD.
Rather than follow the suggestion to look in /bin and /sbin for the over 1000 programs available, I just typed in 'mozilla' in hope for a continuation of my good luck so far. Instead of the expected 'bash: mozilla: command not found' I received a gentle error informing me that 'browsex' was the only graphical browser available on the (tiny) system. Had I bothered to right click on the background, I would have been presented with a menu which included a path to browsex -- so my good luck was entirely unnecessary.
Browsex proved to be a small but functional graphical browser that renders this site almost perfectly. It's not particularly pretty but it works. Already, this 50 meg distribution was proving to be far more than I expected.
Meanwhile, my daughter happened to have a brand new AMD XP system which she was still experimenting with. When her Windows 98 refused to install because leftover partitions existed on the hard drive, we quickly booted that system with Linux-BBC and, with fdisk, deleted the partitions in a minute or two. Windows was happy with the empty hard drive and now my daughter wants her own copy of BBC Linux. Now there are two fans of this great little Linux-on-a-CD-ROM here.
The selection of files on LNX-BBC is a cross-section of the smallest and most useful applications and utilities in the free (software) world -- with an emphasis on diagnostic and rescue utilities to be used on systems that can't or won't boot and diagnose themselves. If you work with PC's, and especially if you work with Linux PC's, you need this distribution.
From what I can see, this incredibly handy little collection of tools should be in every Linux user's desk -- or wallet. I finally see a real utilitarian value to the business card CD-R's that the local computer store sells. I'll be picking up a pack of them on my next trip to town even if LNX-BBC is the only use for them that I can think of -- it is quite sufficient justification on its own. As for you, go right over to http://www.lnx-bbc.org and download a copy now and take it for a spin. Since LNX-BBC runs entirely from the CD with no installation necessary, it's quick, easy, and pretty much risk-free.
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