Mini Linux Is Official…And Yes There Will Be A New Version..Someday

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From: mvale…@draco.lnec.pt ()
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.announce
Subject: DISTRIBUTION: Mini Linux ( in 4 diskettes )
Followup-To: comp.os.linux.setup
Date: 13 Mar 1995 11:44:00 +0200
Organization: LNEC, Lab. Nac. de Eng. Civil, Lisboa, Portugal
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Sender: wirze…@cc.helsinki.fi
Approved: linux-annou…@news.ornl.gov (Lars Wirzenius)
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Keywords: distribution, MS-DOS, small

Yo:

I’ve finnaly uploaded ( after requests from several families :-)
my Mini Linux distribution.

Mini Linux fits in 4 diskettes and takes only 15 Mb of hard disk
after installation. But it still includes X Windows, TCP/IP, SLIP/PPP,
filemanagers for both character mode and X Windows, games, most Unix
commands, etc.

It doesnt include any compilers or programming languages.

Another advantage is that it installs in an MSDOS partition ( under
c:\linux ) and has commands for booting Linux from DOS.

This ideal for someone who uses DOS, doesnt want to or cant go
through the bother of backing up and repartitioning their hard
disk, but wants to try out Linux.

And since it fits in 4 diskettes its easy to contaminate your
friends :-)

Here’s part of the readme file. You can get the rest and the
distribution itself from:

anonymous ftp to ernie.artorg.hmc.psu.edu /pub/linux/

Thanks to d…@artorg.hmc.psu.edu (David N. Katz) for providing
the ftp site.

C U!

Mario Valente

——————-

MINI LINUX
———-

By Mario Valente, 1995
Esoterica

mvale…@esoterica.com

Introduction
————

MINILINUX is yet another distribution of Linux.

It has two objectives:

– create a suficiently powerful distribution ( 4 diskettes ) but
a powerful one ( TCP/IP and SLIP, X Windows, etc ) in an easy
to install way, particularly by MSDOS users.
Usually a Linux distribution makes you backup, repartition and
reformat your hard disk; or they make you buy a CDROM or download
lots of diskettes.
MINILINUX by using the UMSDOS filesystem and the LOADLIN command
( for DOS ) allows you to install LINUX on an MSDOS partition and
coexist: from the DOS side you’ll see a C:\LINUX directory and you’ll
have a “linux” command that boots up Linux. From Linux’s side you’ll
have a /DOS directory containing all your DOS files and you’ll be
able to go back to DOS by rebooting ( with CTRL-ALT-DEL ).

– to offer, in a one stop shop, a Unix system with access to Internet.
Esoterica offers Internet access in Portugal, and MINILINUX includes
scripts to setup an SLIP link with our server; Mosaic for X Windows
is included in MINILINUX and Lynx ( a character mode WWW browser )
is also there.

Installing
———-

You’ll need about 20Mb in drive C: during installation. The whole
MINI Linux distribution occupies about 15Mb.

MINI Linux is distributed as 4 ZIP and 1 EXE file.

With all this you should have a C:\LINUX directory on your drive
which contains the whole Linux operating system.

Using it
———-

When you boot your machine it goes to DOS as usual.
To get to Linux you should give the command

c:\linux\linux.bat

You can of course copy this batch file to a directory on
your path ( “copy c:\linux\linux.bat c:\dos” for example )
and you’ll be able to start Linux by just giving the command
“linux”.

The system has support for

– Soundblaster card and CDROM
– mouse on COM1: ( /dev/mouse ) ( Mouse Systems )
– modem on COM2: ( /dev/modem )
– various Ethernet cards ( inc. NE2000 and 3Com )
– SCSI cards and devices
– X Windows in SVGA mode ( Trident, Tseng, Cirrus, etc )
– TCP/IP and SLIP/PPP support

– joe is included ( joe is a Wordstar compatible word processor )

– tetris and sasteroids ( games :-) are included

– a file manager is included ( command xtree or utree )

– a comms program, minicom, is included

– in an X Windows terminal window you can give any normal Unix command.
You can also use X applications like “xfilemanager &”, “xbombs &”
( a Minesweeper clone ) or “xlander &”

If you press the mouse button over the desktop you get the X Windows
control menu.

– X Mosaic is available ( command “xmosaic &” )

——————


Et in Arcadia Ego

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