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I need a basic Linux box with console and GCC/g++ (and other GNU utils) only to compile and test my program (live CD?). I would like to install/launch it using VirtualBox from Windows XP on my desktop PC. What would you suggest?

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10 Answers

up vote 6 down vote

How about ArchLinux?

Installing basic compiling tools and such is as simple as

pacman -S base-devel
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I also recommend Gentoo. ;-) – Manuel Faux Sep 24 '10 at 8:39
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+1 for Arch. Everything is transparent, and almost nothing is installed unless you explicitly tell it to, so it can be as lightweight as you want. – frabjous Sep 24 '10 at 20:33
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up vote 5 down vote

grab the minimalcd of ubuntu and then install only what you need:

% apt-get install g++

works great from within a virtual box.

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Thanks, I've actually tried it long time but it managed to install gnome and other unwanted packages somehow (now I believe it was my mistake). Maybe I should try it again. – asd Sep 23 '10 at 5:16
if you "apt-get install bloat" then you will have "bloat" on your disk. but you can get rid of it by "apt-get remove bloat". – akira Sep 24 '10 at 7:35
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up vote 2 down vote

Because I am an Ubuntu fanatic, I recommend Xubuntu.

I've also tried out Haiku which is directed towards developers because of its powerful tools and its very lightweight footprint. It does have a GUI, and although it isn't Linux based, I've found it very useful.

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Thanks for Haiku! I'll give it a chance – asd Sep 23 '10 at 5:08
Haiku is not a Linux distribution. – Neal Sep 23 '10 at 6:02
Apologies for the misunderstanding. I misread the original post and picked keywords from it. – brandon927 Sep 23 '10 at 6:10
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up vote 1 down vote

Debian

  • It is well supported.
  • The core system is reasonably light-weight.
  • It has everything you need in its package management system.
  • It has a project for building customized live CDs.

Remember not to get too hung up on being super-light-weight. You only need it to be light enough while still providing certain functionality.

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Downside to this is that your libraries are often out of date, which sucks for distributing binaries to modern distributions. – Daenyth Sep 26 '10 at 13:25
@Daenyth: Unless you run testing (which is quite reliable), in which case you have about the most up-to-date distro around. – Steve S Sep 27 '10 at 14:14
@Daenyth: Also, why are you so worried about distributing binaries? Unless you're producing software commercially, it probably isn't worth your time to produce binaries for more than one or two distros (e.g. Debian/Ubuntu & Fedora). Most people don't even bother with that. – Steve S Sep 27 '10 at 14:20
That's a fair point. – Daenyth Sep 27 '10 at 14:35
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up vote 1 down vote

Since you're planning to use VirtualBox for the OS anyway, get a ready-to-go image from http://virtualboxes.org/ or http://virtualboximages.com/

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for what you describe, ubuntu server in a vm gives you a relatively small and current linux distro. – yanokwa Oct 11 '10 at 18:40
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up vote 1 down vote

Damn Small Linux may be close. As with most distributions, you will likely have to use the package manger to install the build tools. JeOS would be another candidate. You would need to use apt or aptitude to install the build tools you need.

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up vote 0 down vote

Damn Small Linux is very small....

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up vote 0 down vote

If you want a small, lightweight distribution then you could try Tiny Core Linux; I can't think of a smaller distribution. As you are not bothered for a GUI, there is the Micro Core version available.

You could also look at Suse Studio, you can "test drive" your machine without downloading it - so you don't even have to burn your live CD.

Any distribution with a "grown up" installer that lets you control your install will do, I'd suggest the OpenSuse network install CD, it lets you control the install process while still being pretty and reasonably user friendly.

A couple of people have suggested Damn Small Linux. For your testing purposes, it may be prudent to avoid the regular version and use the larger DSL-N as the regular version uses a 2.4 kernel whilst the -N version a more current 2.6 kernel.

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up vote 0 down vote

Check out Tiny Core Linux and Micro Core Linux.

I use those to deploy my own distros for internal purposes.

Tiny Core Linux at around 10MB, Micro Core Linux is at about 6MB. I prepare my distros as VMs in VirtualBox. Anyways, that's what I use in production.

I had good results booting the distros from USB drives and SD Cards, as well as eSATA hard drives.

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up vote 0 down vote

Why not go with Knoppix. Though it has a lot of packages and the image size is 700 MiB it works easier and has lots of development tools on the CD itself.

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