1<!doctype html> 2<html> 3 <head> 4 <meta charset="utf-8"> 5 <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> 6 <meta property="og:title" content="MicroLinux"> 7 <meta property="og:image" content="https://senko.net/microlinux/assets/microlinux.png"> 8 <title>MicroLinux - Senko's corner of the Web</title> 9 <style> 10 * { 11 padding: 0; 12 margin: 0; 13 } 14 15 h1 { 16 margin: 1rem; 17 font-size: 2em; 18 text-align: center; 19 } 20 21 h1 small { 22 display: block; 23 font-size: 0.8rem; 24 font-weight: lighter; 25 } 26 27 main { 28 max-width: 60em; 29 margin: 1em auto; 30 padding: 0 1em; 31 } 32 33 section > img { 34 display: block; 35 margin: 0.5em auto; 36 } 37 38 @media (max-width: 480px) { 39 section.hero { 40 flex-direction: column; 41 align-items: center; 42 } 43 } 44 45 code { 46 font-size: 1.2em; 47 background: #eee; 48 padding: 2px 6px; 49 border-radius: 4px; 50 display: inline-block; 51 } 52 53 code.block { 54 display: block; 55 padding: 1em; 56 width: 100%; 57 } 58 59 p { 60 margin: 0.5em 0; 61 line-height: 1.5em; 62 } 63 64 a, a:visited { 65 color: #00f; 66 text-decoration: none; 67 } 68 69 a:hover { 70 text-decoration: underline; 71 } 72 73 dl { 74 margin: 1em; 75 } 76 77 dt { 78 font-weight: bold; 79 } 80 81 dd { 82 margin-left: 1em; 83 } 84 85 h2 { 86 margin-top: 1em; 87 font-size: 1.2em; 88 font-family: sans-serif; 89 } 90 91 video { 92 display: block; 93 width: 100%; 94 } 95 96 footer { 97 margin: 2em auto; 98 padding-top: 1em; 99 max-width: 60rem; 100 border-top: 1px solid #eee; 101 text-align: center; 102 font-size: 0.8em; 103 font-style: italic; 104 } 105 106 </style> 107 </head> 108 <body> 109 <h1> 110 MicroLinux 111 <small>The first Croatian Linux distribution</small> 112 </h1> 113 <main> 114 <section> 115 <p> 116 MicroLinux was a small (14MB) Linux distribution I created in 1998, as 117 an easy way for people in Croatia to try out Linux without installing it. 118 </p> 119 <img src="assets/microlinux.png" alt="MicroLinux in QEMU"> 120 <p> 121 This was way before Live CD's — many people in Croatia didn't have 122 a CD-ROM drive in the first place! And definitely not enough RAM for a 123 usable live experience. 124 </p> 125 <p> 126 MicroLinux would install in a <code>C:\LINUX</code> directory on your 127 (DOS/Windows) machine and could be run from 16-bit DOS. It used the 128 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loadlin">LOADLIN</a> boot loader 129 that replaces DOS with Linux kernel in RAM and switches to 32-bit mode. 130 </p> 131 <p> 132 </section> 133 134 <section> 135 <h2>:: Software</h2> 136 <p> 137 MicroLinux 1.2 was a bare-bones but usable system: you could connect to 138 the internet (via a local network or dial-up), browse the web with 139 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_(web_browser)">Lynx</a>, 140 read and write mail with 141 <a href="http://www.mutt.org/">Mutt</a> and connect to the Usenet 142 (a precursor for today's social media and forums) using 143 <a href="https://slrn.info/">slrn</a>. 144 </p> 145 <p> 146 The distro was based on Slackware and included such venerable software 147 as Linux kernel 2.2 (current, as of time of this writing, is 7.0) and 148 Bash 1.14 (current is 5.3). 149 </p> 150 <p> 151 To save space, the compiler (gcc 2.7 — current is 15.2), 152 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl">Perl</a> 153 scripting language (now all but forgotten), the X Window System 154 (XFree86 — Xorg wasn't a thing yet) and the 155 Netscape browser (version 4.x). 156 </p> 157 <p> 158 The distro also included a Croatian-language guide to Linux in general 159 and to MicroLinux in particular, and simple setup and configuration 160 wizards, also in Croatian. 161 </p> 162 <p> 163 The idea was to provide a gentler path for people curious about Linux 164 to try it out. 165 </p> 166 </section> 167 168 <section> 169 <h2>:: Downloads</h2> 170 <dl> 171 <dt><a href="https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/vault.senko.net/microlinux/micro.exe">micro.exe</a> (8.3 MB)</dt> 172 <dd>MicroLinux 1.2 installer (self-extracting RAR)</dd> 173 <dt><a href="https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/vault.senko.net/microlinux/gcc.mlx">gcc.mlx</a> (7.4 MB)</dt> 174 <dd>GCC 2.7</dd> 175 <dt><a href="https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/vault.senko.net/microlinux/perl.mlx">perl.mlx</a> (2.4 MB)</dt> 176 <dd>Perl 5.0</dd> 177 <dt><a href="https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/vault.senko.net/microlinux/kernel35.mlx">kernel35.mlx</a> (738 KB)</dt> 178 <dd>Linux kernel v3.5, supporting newer hardware</dd> 179 <dt><a href="https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/vault.senko.net/microlinux/xwin.mlx">xwin.mlx</a> (5 MB)</dt> 180 <dd>XFree86 X Window System server, v3.3</dd> 181 <dt><a href="https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/vault.senko.net/microlinux/netscape.mlx">netscape.mlx</a> (16MB)</dt> 182 <dd>
182Netscape Navigator 4</dd> 183 <dt><a href="https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/vault.senko.net/microlinux/dos.img.gz">dos.img.gz</a> (47MB)</dt> 184 <dd> 185 FreeDOS disk image, 200MB when unzipped. MicroLinux is not installed 186 (so you can try the installer), but all the packages are copied to 187 the root of the partition for easy install procedure. 188 </dd> 189 </dl> 190 </section> 191 192 <section> 193 <h2>:: How to run</h2> 194 <p> 195 The kernel doesn't support modern hardware, and even if it did, there's no 196 reason to run it on bare metal. If you'd like to take it for a spin, QEMU is 197 the best way to run it. 198 </p> 199 <p> 200 You'll need a DOS system to install to and boot from. 201 <a href="https://www.freedos.org/">FreeDOS</a> works great for this. You 202 can set up your own or use the <code>dos.img</code> I prepared (it'll take 203 200MB when unzipped). 204 </p> 205 <p> 206 Run QEMU with: 207 <code class="block"> 208 qemu-system-i386 -hda dos.img -netdev user,id=net0 -device ne2k_pci,netdev=net0 -vga cirrus -audiodev alsa,id=snd0 -device sb16,audiodev=snd0 209 </code> 210 When the machine boots, choose "Load FreeDOS without drivers - Emergency Mode", 211 then run <code>MICRO.EXE</code> to start the installer. 212 <p> 213 Once the installer is done, you can run the system with: 214 <code class="block"> 215 CD C:\LINUX <br> 216 LINUX 217 </code> 218 The first run will do hardware configuration (mouse, soundcard, graphics, 219 networking). When completed, you can log in 220 as <code>root</code> with no (empty) password. 221 </p> 222 <p> 223 Once you're in, type <code>pomoÄ</code> to run the help system or 224 <code>admin</code> for settings, config and package install. 225 </p> 226 </section> 227 228 <section> 229 <h2>:: Demo</h2> 230 <p> 231 Here's a 5-minute video of the install procedure and first steps in 232 Microlinux: 233 </p> 234 <video controls> 235 <source src="https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/vault.senko.net/microlinux/microlinux.mp4"> 236 </video> 237 </section> 238 </main> 239 <footer> 240 <a href="/">← back to Senko's homepage</a> 241 </footer> 242 </body> 243</html> 244
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