Skinny Archie

A live CD project based on uClibc. An ABS tarball is here: skinny.tar.gz (2005/12/02)

Arch Linux uClibc

This is a minimal console Arch distribution (thanks Judd!) based on uClibc and Busybox that I hope to have running on 386 hardware soon. Works fine on my Dell Latitude C810 Pentium III laptop too.

Noteworthy packages include: bash, dhcpcd, elinks, msmtp, mutt, perl, rsync, and tcpdump.

Release 2, 2005/04/05

The simplest way to try this out is to have a spare partition, say for example /dev/discs/disc0/partX. You shouldn't need more than 120M. It's also possible to install to an empty directory and then chroot into it.

Note that you could hose your system so you'd better know what you're doing.

Base System

1. Make a filesystem on the spare partition:

   mke2fs -j /dev/discs/disc0/partX

2. Mount it somewhere, say /mnt/uc:

   mount /dev/discs/disc0/partX /mnt/uc

3. Download the following packages:
   • bash.uc-3.0-6.pkg.tar.gz
   • busybox.uc-1.00-1.pkg.tar.gz
   • e2fsprogs.uc-1.37-1.pkg.tar.gz
   • filesystem.uc-0.7-5.pkg.tar.gz
   • initscripts.uc-0.7-8.pkg.tar.gz
   • mawk.uc-1.3.3-6.pkg.tar.gz
   • sysvinit.uc-2.86-1.pkg.tar.gz
   • uclibc-0.9.27-1.pkg.tar.gz
4. Install the packages using pacman:

   pacman -r /mnt/uc -Ap the-packages.pkg.tar.gz
   

5. Install any kernel, I use the regular Arch kernel24:

   pacman -r /mnt/uc -Ap kernel24-2.4.29-1.pkg.tar.gz

6. Edit /mnt/uc/etc/fstab and put in entries for your swap partition and /dev/discs/disc0/partX.
7. Edit /mnt/uc/etc/rc.conf if you want.
8. On your regular Arch system edit /boot/grub/menu.lst and add an entry for the uClibc Arch Linux.
9. Reboot and select the uClibc Arch system on the grub menu.

Development

To do any development you'll need to download:

• binutils.uc-2.15-1.pkg.tar.gz
• gcc.uc-3.4.3-1.pkg.tar.gz
• make.uc-3.80-1.pkg.tar.gz

This is all I have the webspace for. To continue from here I recommend you build patch.uc first. Then for that authentic Arch flavour: zlib.uc, libtar.uc, and pacman.uc.

Notes

• I have a couple of other packages like pacman but I have limited web space. The PKGBUILDs are available as an "ABS" tarball: uclibc-abs.tar.gz (2005/04/04)
• Yeah, the pkg.uc naming convention is probably stupid but I didn't want some newbie trying to install them on his i686 glibc system. This can go away if Arch gets proper architecture handling in pacman.
• Locale support doesn't work in uClibc so --disable-nls when building. Wide character support can be iffy.
• The packages are not optimized for i686. In fact the goal is to eventually run on old i386 hardware. Modify /etc/makepkg.conf if this isn't what you want.
• This is a test of concept. Many things are missing and many things may not work.

Release 1, 2004/10/07

Release 1 consisted of the following packages:

• bash.uc-3.0-2.pkg.tar.gz
• busybox.uc-1.00rc3-1.pkg.tar.gz
• filesystem.uc-0.7-3.pkg.tar.gz
• initscripts.uc-0.7-7.pkg.tar.gz
• mawk.uc-1.3.3-6.pkg.tar.gz
• uclibc-0.9.26.20041004-1.pkg.tar.gz