[TriLUG] Small Linux distro for a USB stick

Aaron Joyner aaron at joyner.ws
Sat Oct 10 17:36:55 EDT 2009


Made by one of our very own, back in his days at NCSU:
http://runt.mybox.org/

Per http://freshmeat.net/projects/runt:
RUNT (ResNet USB Network Tester) is Slackware Linux designed to run off of a
128 MB USB pen drive. It consists of a boot floppy image and a zip file,
similar to zipslack. It is intended to be a fairly complete Linux
installation for use as a testing tool capable of booting on any x86
computer with a USB port and a bootable floppy drive.

Aaron S. Joyner


On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 10:48 PM, Robert Dale <robdale at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 4:45 PM, Rodney Radford <rradford at mindspring.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > I need a small bootable Linux distro I can install on a USB stick.  The
> main criteria is that it can handle a wide variety of client PCs as I will
> be using it as a maintenance system to allow access to a possibly
> dead/locked out PC.
> >
> > I am aware of DSL and have considered it, but it is actually much more
> than I need, including word processors, image paint programs, file servers,
> etc.  Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a way to easily configure it
> - short of installing it and then start whacking to remove what I don't
> need.  I may fall back on it, but I was wondering if anyone has any
> experience or knowledge of any other distros.
> >
> > The main goals are:
> >    * support a wide range of hardware (I just need to be able to get to
> the PC's disks)
> >    * small
> >    * simple command line (server) system - no GUI required
> >    * small
> >    * installable on a USB stick
>
>
> Not sure how small 'small' is these days considering you can get 2GB
> sticks for $20 in the grocery stores...
> But I use Fedora to create 'spins' using revisor.  Simply pick the
> packages you want, install media, and presto - instant distro.  yum -y
> install revisor-gui
>
> --
> Robert Dale
> --
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>



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