Lightweight Live Linux Image

Question

I am working on an application which is being developed in wxPython and C plus using linux core utilities and network support. To be more specific, I only need the following support for following packages/softwares/components.

• wxPython
• C
• Network Support
• Linux Utilities
  • Vi
  • File System(fdisk/parted, ntfsprogs etc)
  • Basic(cp, mount/umount, mkdir etc)

The application will run from a live CD. Currently i am using Fedora 12 with Gnome for live CD. Currently the size of live image is around 350 MB. The size of application is hardly 1 MB.

I don't need anything else except above mentioned. Just my application and supporting packages, no desktop etc.

So, I need a Lightweight Linux image as smaller as possible providing all the above mentioned packages/components.

I am considering the following distributions:

1. Xfce
2. LXDE
3. Fluxbox
4. Enlightenment
5. Customized Fedora

Any ideas/suggestions?

Answer 1

Damn Small Linux is a small, Debian based distribution that should provide you with everything you need and it lives up to its name.

Answer 2

if fedora is not a must, try suse studio and build yourself a livecd. or get one of mine: http://wiki.dennyhalim.com/opensuse-minimal-desktop

if you want extreme minimal, try http://www.slitaz.org/en/ or even smaller http://www.tinycorelinux.com/

Answer 3

Check out Embeddian. Its a debian release for embedded and other minimalistic install situations. Seems like it may work. http://www.emdebian.org/about/index.html

Answer 4

http://crunchbanglinux.org/

Super very lightweight window manager, and based on Ubuntu so easy package management etc

Answer 5

I love NimbleX LinuX

Answer 6

The best way i found is to customize the Fedora using kickstart. Fedora is updated regularly and have all the packages i need, one just need to create a optimized(minimal) kickstart script.

Answer 7

You could build a custom livecd with larch.