Mini-distro?

[stormbind]

Hi,

I'm searching for a simple OS that will fit on a floppy - It has to be a floppy. The OS should have a filemanager, and preferably support NIC + TCP/IP, and FAT32. Sadly, my searches have failed.

Currently the best I have managed is DOS 7.1 + Win3.x on a single floppy disk. That provides a File Manager with support for FAT32 -- but not enough space for files to support the LAN!

Is there a Linux distro (or any OS) that is smaller than the Microsoft solution? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

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[sh00der]

Stormbind, what about Lepton Floppy Linux

http://mulinux.sunsite.dk/lepton.html

Not tried it myself but it lists,

Filesystems supported: ext2, isofs, vfat, ntfs
(vfat is the Fat32 support in linux)
Ethernet networking enabled: 8139too and 3c59x drivers built-in
Full screen ncurses applications from muLinux: pion (filemanager), help (hypertextual help), info (system info)

Although I would do file-management from the command line.

Or there's this Wolf one

http://www.woalf.uklinux.net/

Web-browser might work as file manager??

Other options might be here ...

http://www.linuxlinks.com/Distributions/Floppy/

 

[thedaver]

Or Knoppix if you can tolerate a CDROM

Surfinbox.com Business Internet Services - National Dialup, DSL, T-1 and more.

http://www.surfinbox.com/ds3.php

 

[stormbind]

Uh, I'm in trouble now!!
The Win3x solution will read, but it won't write to Fat32.

Note that I'm not familiar with Linux, and I'm easilly confused when exposed to new files of unknown function.

Re: Lepton... There appear to be complications. My boot disk must be created in WinNT, and Lepton setup appears to be for Linux only.

Re: MuLinux... MuLinux comes with DOS setup tools, but I haven't got it working yet.

In either case, I need some kind of GUI (emphasis) and I'm not sure what the above examples offer. As you may have guessed, this is an emergency file-recovery watchimowidget.. There are hundreds of files, and I don't know where on the drive they might be :/

Brainstorming: Other antiquated systems I have access to are WinNT3.5, AT&T UNIX 2.x, GeOS 1.x ... but I think all are GNDN (Goes Nowhere, Does Nothing)

Isn't there a really old generic GUI for UNIX that I can slap on a Linux Kernel?

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I'm willing to trade custom scripts for... [see profile]

 

[manarth]

I'm searching for a simple OS that will fit on a floppy....
The OS should have a filemanager, and preferably support NIC + TCP/IP, and FAT32.
I need some kind of GUI (emphasis)....As you may have guessed, this is an emergency file-recovery watchimowidget.

If it's feasible, you may be better of taking out the hard-disk and putting it on another PC which is already running a fully fledged o/s.

Or (as thedaver suggested) plugging in a CD-ROM and running knoppix.

File recovery can be a messy business - hence the best solution is to remove the defective disk and slave it to another PC, then ghost the drive's data. This way you can recover to hearts content without risking the data in the event of a dodgy recovery program.

The exception is if the fault on the disk stems from hardware (such as a failed disk head)....in which case plugging the disk in could cause more damage to the data - the only way to recover from this is to use a specialist agency which will strip the drive and remove the data media to their specialist reader.

<marc> i wonder what will happen if i press this...[ul][li]please tell us if our suggestion has helped[/li][li]need some help? faq581-3339[/li][/ul]