[CS-FSLUG] Distribution: Basic Linux 3.2

Mon Jan 24 22:59:49 CST 2005

BL3 can be found here: http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/baslinux/

It's a good distribution. For the purpose of getting my laptop to work, it is worth it.

Pax,
Christopher

----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Parris" <evangelinux at thefreelyproject.org>
To: "A Christian virtual Free Software and Linux Users Group." <Christiansource at ofb.biz>
Subject: Re: [CS-FSLUG] Distribution: Basic Linux 3.2
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005 23:55:29 -0500

> 
> On Mon, 24 Jan 2005 23:23:34 -0500
> "Christopher Rose" <kf6snj at lycos.com> wrote:
> 
> > Ok, I am going to do something useful. I am posting about a linux distro
> > that I have been tinkering with and now feel that I am ready to report on.
> >
> > For the last several months I have been trying to find a linux distro that
> > I can use on my laptop. I tried a few CD installs but they didn't work
> > very well once I tried returning the hard drive back to the laptop. I also
> > tried Grey Cat Linux, but as nicely as it worked, there were some
> > concerns. Amongst them was the fact that Grey Cat requires several
> > floppies and it boots from an UMDOS/fat16 filesystem. Hence, though linux,
> > it does not use a linux files system (ext2, ext3, old minix, ect..).
> > Finally I found a distribution that does work quite well in my laptop.
> > That distribution is Basic Linux 3.
> >
> > This distribution comes in the form of two floppies. The first floppy is
> > boot disk, and the second one contains all the file system information in
> > a *.tgz file. The two disks total about 2.88 MB and yet there is
> > semi-functional gui and busybox (similiar to the bash shell). It can boot
> > to a ram disk or it can be installed. The installation process is pretty
> > easy. Use fdisk to create your partitions (primary, swap, etc..). Then use
> > e2fsck /dev/hda1(2,3,?) to create and ext2 file system and mkswap
> > /dev/hda2 (3,4,?) to create your swap space. then type swapon to activate
> > swap space, the type mount /dev/hda1(or what ever partition you are
> > installing it on) /hd to mount hda1 and then type install-to-hd to install
> > (type yes at prompt). It will ask for disk one and then installs BL3 to
> > the hard drive. After install, reboot the computer and then hit ctrl when
> > you see lilo and then type hd root=/dev/hda1 (or whatever your partition
> > is) and hit enter. Once the hard drive boots, if you want to install lilo,
> > type edit /etc/lilo.conf to remove the # from #boot=/dev/hda1 then press
> > ctrl x to save this and then type lilo -v to install lilo and then reboot
> > the computer again and BL3 should boot up right away without the floppy.
> >
> > I participate with the BL3 listserv and have learned from them quite a few
> > things about BL3 and I would be glad to share any posts from that listserv
> > if it will help somebody here. One post in particular is about what BL1,
> > BL2, and BL3 are good for. The one thing thing that all three are good for
> > is old 386 and 486 computers that lack the nice little things like CD-ROM,
> > large hard drives, fast processors, etc. Basic Linux is perfect for such
> > machines (my Toshiba WinBook XP being one such machine). There are even
> > some games that can be played on this distro. I haven't been able to play
> > lincity since I upgraded from Red Hat 6 to Red Hat 7.2, but lincity is one
> > such game that is available for BL3 and I do play on my laptop. Now if you
> > need a better kernel, there are two available from the Basic Linux site or
> > you may install a slackware 7.1 kernel. Many of the applications from
> > slackware 4.0 should be able to work with BL3, but you have to also
> > upgrade the glibc files (work in progress for me, need lib.so.6 for
> > xspread and xpdf) Still for what BL3 is, it works quite well. I have no
> > complaints, especially now that my laptop is working. I just need to
> > determine whether I can get the built-in modem to work or if I need to
> > install a 10/100 nic into my machine, then download the slackware files
> > that will allow it to work on my dsl connection, well nothing on this
> > earth is perfect, but I can accept well enough in this case.
> >
> > Pax,
> > Christopher
> >
> > Linux Counter User: #350477
> > http://www.counter.li.org
> >
> > --
> I've got an old 486 Toshiba T48?? I haven't used in ages.  It runs Win 95
> (originally 3.11, apparently).  I used to use a parallel port hard drive
> enclosure to access a 400 MB HDD.  Unfortunately, that no longer works.
> I've been trying to save a little dough to get a refurbished laptop, and
> still want to do that.  However, I might try BL3 with the Toshiba.  That
> would be interesting.  Don't hold your breath - I'm working on 20 other
> things too.  But it's a thought.
> 
> Don
> --
> evangelinux    GNU Evangelist
> http://matheteuo.org/                   http://chaddb.sourceforge.net/
> "Free software is like God's love - you can share it with anyone anytime
> anywhere."
> 
> _______________________________________________
> ChristianSource FSLUG mailing list
> Christiansource at ofb.biz
> http://cs.uninetsolutions.com

Linux Counter User: #350477
http://www.counter.li.org

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