Linux Distributions

Recently I’ve been tasked with creating a Linux distribution that can support X-Windows and MONO. A Mono-Project application would be the main front end application running full screen with out the fluff and fat of a regular window manager. My choices were narrowed down between two distributions, Gentoo and Ubuntu server. Gentoo was nice because it was compiled from scratch for my hardware. Ubuntu Server was nice because I could apt-get the binaries and be done with it, no compiling source code.

The first thing you’ll want to do is download and install VirtualBox. Create a new machine and virtual disk with about 5 gigs of disk space. Using the Ubuntu Server ISO mounted as a CD in VirtualBox, boot the system and start the installation process. When you get to the part about disk partitioning, create a 1.8 gig for your main mount and use the rest as a secondary. The reason I chose 1.8gig is because I want to put this on a 2 gig USB drive, so 1.8 should keep my safe. Continue the installation and when you get to the part about selecting a server type, just select OpenSSH and do apt-get’s later. This way you know whats being installed. I did apt-get install Xorg and apt-get mono for my specific application. I think my OS took about 500MB of disk space, not too shabby. (continue reading…)

It is available in both a single-floppy version and a more advanced version that installs to an IDE device such as a hard drive or compact flash module. Both versions are easily managed from a web based interface. This Linux distribution lets you create a firewall system from just a barebones. You can download flopyy disk versions, and CDROM versions. With some tweaking you could probably get this to work with USB.

You can download various tools for creating your own Coyote distribution, or you can download the ISO file.

http://coyotelinux.com/