Live CD And Rescue System
Sister project to LCARS-DOS
Perhaps the only bootable Linux LiveCD that can run on a 386 with 4MB of RAM. Works whether your machine can CD-boot or not.
It almost defies belief, but the LiveCD will technically boot in just 3MB, with just enough free RAM to load ethernet drivers and run basic utilities. 4MB provides a fully functional shell environment complete with text-mode web browsing, while 8MB provides for a relatively complete desktop environment.
This LCARS distribution of BasicLinux 3.5 aims to provide:
- A complete LiveCD desktop environment
- A complete installable desktop environment
- A complete low-memory shell environment (386 + 4MB)
- An expansive on-disc package repository for post-install customization
- An easy to use, mostly-automatic experience, with on-disc documentation
The system boots via MS-DOS, so it can be started from the CD itself on native CD-booting BIOSes (including some SCSI BIOS), from an MS-DOS boot floppy (image included), or from an MS-DOS installation already present on a hard drive. Even Windows 9x (when booted into DOS mode) can boot the LiveCD.
Tested on a real-life 386DX-40 with 8MB of RAM, and an emulated "MR 386DX Clone" with 4MB of RAM, as well as various more "modern" real-metal x86 systems. Compatibility seems good in general, but if PCem is accurate, some particularly old 386 BIOSes may not be compatible, and the [optional] MS-DOS USB drivers may interfere with kernel init on certain systems.
- 386-class CPU
- 4MB RAM
- CD-ROM drive
- 8MB RAM (to run Xvesa)
- Floppy drive (for non-CD-bootable BIOS, or to load SCSI/USB CD-ROM drivers)
- Mouse (for Xvesa)
- 320MB+ free HDD space (for permanent installation)
The upstream BasicLinux project ships with:
- Linux kernel 2.2.26
- Busybox 1.01
- Xvesa
- JWM
- e3 editor (emulates vi/pico/wordstar)
- Slackware 4.0 package compatibility
- Installable to HDD (dual boot with MS-DOS, with or without a separate partition)
- All BasicLinux official add-on packages
- Includes large suite of installed software, including:
- Network software (dropbear, httpd, smbclient, samba, netatalk, rsync, TkVNC)
- Utilities (cdutils, ImageMagick, hfsutils, mpg123, mplayer, mc, Xcdroast)
- Development tools (gcc, automake, yabasic, perl, python 1.5, Tcl/Tk 8.6, JDK 1.1.7/Java 1.1)
- Desktop applications (AbiWord, Gimp, Xpaint, TkDesk, MagicPoint)
- Games (Freecell, LinCity, Tetris, and tons more)
- And many more!
- Includes large suite of installed software, including:
- All BasicLinux official add-on kernel modules
- Full Slackware 4.0 binary package repository*
- *the standard packages are there, but
xemacs,gnome, and additional X drivers are omitted - Files omitted from the LiveCD are still available in this repo in the
slackware/slackware-4.0/directory
- *the standard packages are there, but
- As many BasicLinux "contrib" packages as could be located and fit on-disc
- Boots from SCSI and USB CD drives using a boot floppy
- Bootable MS-DOS rescue environment
- Based on Windows 98 Setup Boot Disk
- Includes CD-ROM drivers
- Includes:
- EDIT.COM
- FDISK
- FORMAT (Win98)
- PKZIP/PKUNZIP
- SCANDISK (Win98)
- XCOPY
- Some "UNIX"-iness: GREP, LS, RM, TREE
for your /r/vintagecomputing screenshots, you can run fetch on the LiveCD. (also, I'd love to see them - open an Issue, I guess?)
##### qkj@MainBridge
####### --------------------------------
##O#O## OS: Linux
#VVVVV# Kernel: 5.15.167.4-microsoft-standard-WSL2
## VVV ## Arch: x86_64
# ## Uptime: up 17:37
# ## CPU Vendor: AuthenticAMD
# ### CPU Model: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 8-Core Processor
QQ# ##Q CPU Freq.: 3792.876 MHz
QQQQQQ# #QQQQQQ Memory: 788892K (7294836K used)
QQQQQQQ# #QQQQQQQ Swap: 0K (2097152K used)
QQQQQ#######QQQQQ
-= fetch for BasicLinux 3.5 LCARS LiveCD =-
Live Long and Prosper
If your BIOS boots from CD natively, you don't need to do anything. Just put the CD in the drive and let it rip.
If you can't boot from CD directly, don't worry, you can boot from a floppy
You need to prepare a "drivers install disk" which contains the necessary kernel modules for your CD drive, plus a shell script that installs them and mounts the drive. This is NOT the same disk as the cdboot.ima floppy - for SCSI/USB, you may need two floppies.
Don't fret, it's easier than it sounds. See /driverdisk for an example of how to lay out your diskette. It should be MSDOS (FAT12/FAT16) formatted. Available modules are listed in /livecd/modules.
If you can't boot from SCSI directly, don't worry, you can boot from a floppy.
This isn't tested, but the MS-DOS bootloader environment includes USB CDROM and USB HDD (flash drive) drivers. So, if you can work out what kernel modules you need, you should be able to craft a "driver install disk" that tells the Linux kernel how to load the root filesystem image from your USB CD. See /driverdisk for details and examples. Use the "USB mode" menu options at boot time.
However, on at least one motherboard, I've found the USB drivers caused the kernel init to fail. So, mileage may vary. If it turns out it's not possible to boot from a USB CD in this manner, the menu options for USB CD will be removed.
The system boots via MS-DOS. As long as your MS-DOS installation can access the CD-ROM, and the files LOADLIN.EXE, ZIMAGE, and INIITFS.GZ, then it can boot the system. If you can write the CDBOOT.IMA disk image to floppy (hint: RAWRITE.EXE in /cdboot can do that on DOS/Win9x; use dd on Linux), then the boot disk will attempt to locate your CD-ROM drive and boot from there. Otherwise, if your MS-DOS can reach the BASLIN directory on the CD, just run BOOT.BAT or SCSI.BAT. A Windows 9x boot floppy is perfectly capable of booting the system, as is the Windows 9x MS-DOS boot mode on a hard drive.
The system is designed for ancient computers, so it assumes you are using PS/2 or Serial mice. However, the system is capable of using USB mice and keyboards without issue. Simply choose the relevant "DOS Prompt" mode from the boot menu (IDE/ATAPI, SCSI, or USB) and then when dropped into the W:\BASLIN prompt, run boot.bat usbhid (or scsi.bat usbhid).
You can always pass the kernel command line parameter usbhid when you're booting from the DOS prompt, but if you've installed to HDD, it's recommended to just add usbhid to the command line in HDBOOT.BAT
The various boot scripts (BOOT.BAT, SCSI.BAT, HDBOOT.BAT) all accept arguments which are passed to the kernel command line.
The following parameters are available:
usbhid - install USB mouse+keyboard drivers at boot time
usbstor - install USB storage drivers at boot time
ide-cd - install IDE CD-ROM drivers at boot time (default in BOOT.BAT/LiveCD)
swapoff - do not look for swap files on DOS partitions at boot
norootverify - skip root filesystem check at boot
lowmem - skip creating read-write /etc ramdisk - this breaks DNS and smbfs but saves ~200K of RAM
For severely RAM-restricted systems with an existing MS-DOS hard disk installation, you can place SWAP.IMG (unzip SWAP.ZIP on the LiveCD) as C:\BASLIN\SWAP.IMG, and as long as your MS-DOS partition is the first partition on the first disk, BasicLinux will find and utilize the swap file. This is not tested nor expected to work with SCSI drives, unless you manually figure it out in your drivers.sh file.
The boot CD has all official BasicLinux packages installed and all modules available. Not all of them have X11 menu shortcuts, so check out the various $PATH directories to see what's available.
The system boots with a read-only root filesystem.
BasicLinux eschews the traditional multi-user UNIX paradigm in favor of just dumping you straight in a root shell with no password. It's basically Linux for DOS users: /etc/rc is functionally your CONFIG.SYS. /etc/profile (or /root/.profile, I guess) is your AUTOEXEC.BAT.
After installation to hard drive, you can install Slackware 4.0 packages (located on LiveCD/packages/slackwar) by running pkg package.tgz
See the Wiki
See /etc/rc for examples on how to load drivers for additional hardware. While you cannot modify the file in the read-only live environment, you can manually run the commands described in the file to load drivers for your hardware.
The BasicLinux docs at /livecd/docs/sound.html describe how to set up sound cards.
There are additional X graphics drivers available for use after HDD installation, see the BasicLinux docs.
While the original BasicLinux installation did not include modprobe, BasicLinux LCARS does. This means you don't need to manually sort out module dependencies. When reading BasicLinux documentation, or trying to load drivers for your specific hardware from livecd/modules, use modprobe in place of insmod. This will generally help, though you can fall back to insmod if modprobe is failing to locate the driver (though, everything on the LiveCD is in /lib/modules/2.2.26/misc, so modprobe should find them).
See /root/netsetup for examples of how to set up a network card. If you install the system to HDD, you can modify /etc/rc to automatically initialize the network on boot.
As mentioned above, you can use modprobe instead of insmod from the LiveCD to automatically install module dependencies.
For example, while the BasicLinux docs specify:
insmod 8390
insmod ne io=0x300
With the LiveCD you can simply:
modprobe ne io=0x300
The system can be installed to a hard drive.
Installing to hard drive opens the opportunity to use alternative kernels or install additional Slackware 4.0 packages, which are located at LivcCD/packages/slackwar and installed by pkg package.tgz. The kernels should be placed next to LOADLIN.EXE and renamed to ZIMAGE (no extension), the extension of the file indicates what system it should be used with.
There are two ways to do install to HD:
As the LiveCD itself boots via MS-DOS using LOADLIN.EXE, you can store the entire system on an MS-DOS partition and boot it from the DOS prompt as well.
The downside is that your root filesystem is limited to the 320MB LiveCD image file. Unfortunately BasicLinux 3.5 is so old as to predate resize2fs, so you're on your own as far as expanding the default root image. While the LiveCD image is ~300MB, only ~32MB of that is free space, so expect to store files on your MS-DOS partitions.
The easy way to install to DOS from the LiveCD is as follows:
these instructions assume W: as the DOS CD-ROM drive letter. It may differ depending on your system. The LiveCD/cdboot.ima will tell you what letter to use if you boot to the DOS prompt
- Boot the LiveCD and choose Option 3: Enter DOS Prompt
mkdir C:\BASLINxcopy W:\BASLIN C:\BASLIN(press D when asked "file or directory")- (recommended, requires 16MB)
xcopy W:\SWAP.ZIP C:\BASLIN\SWAP.ZIP;PKUNZIP C:\BASLIN\SWAP.ZIP - Reboot to MS-DOS from HDD
cd C:\BASLIN;HDBOOT.BAT
CURRENTLY UNSUPPORTED, YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY
The install script works, but it does not create a boot floppy, fails to install a bootloader to the HDD, and misinforms the user as to how to boot the system. That said, it does successfully transfer the system to the ext2 partition, which can be booted manually with LOADLIN.
- Create a new partition on your HDD using the LiveCD or MS-DOS
FDISK - Format it as ext2 (
mke2fs /dev/hdxX, probably/dev/hda2or/dev/hda5) - Mount it to
/hd(mount /dev/hdxX /hd) - Run the install script:
install-to-hd - Follow the prompts on screen
The installer will prompt you to create a boot floppy. This is recommended; alternatively, you can boot the HD installation from the LiveCD by choosing Option 3: "Enter DOS Prompt" and running:
loadlin zimage root=/dev/hdxX rw
Where hdxX is where you installed BasicLinux, probably hda2 or hda5
See Building and Customizing in the Wiki for more information.
DREADY and contrib/wbat250 and contrib/pbats32 come from https://www.horstmuc.de/horst.htm and (C) Horst Schaeffer
dillo-0.8.6-glibc225.gz and the rest of contrib/keesan.freeshell.org/ thanks to Cynthia Keesan
shsucdx.com by way of Jason Hood
And of course most important of all, Steven, the original BasicLinux creator.