The most minimal Linux
 

What is the best Linux 'distro' to run mprime on, in terms of the smallest system usage.

For example, tomsrtbt, fits on a single floppy (bumped out to 1.7MB).
But almost assuredly, there are things in there that don't need to be in place just to run mprime on a machine that is only going to crunch. And if it is sneaker-net, no nead for any nasty network card drivers etc., and isn't 80x25 enough text space?

Well, you can run Linux and mprime from a single floppy, but you wouldn't have room for the save files... Just look for the Mprime/MemTest86 thread...

(I'm not saying you want to do this! But you did ask for the smallest!)

Does that tend to run any faster than a 'full' distro?

Single Floppy Linux
 

I think a single floppy Linux system plus application could be put together in a similar way to the mprime bootdisks in this thread: [url]http://www.mersenneforum.org/showthread.php?t=2098[/url] but in a more general way that would allow any application (small enough to fit on the rest of the floppy) to be run.

The base system would consist just of the bootloader, linux kernel, init, shell, and a boot script that mounts the floppy filesystem and runs an install script. The install script could unpack the application to the ramdisk, restore any save files, start the application, and create a cron job that periodically copies the save files from the ramdisk back to the floppy.

Since the application is not pre-installed on the boot ramdisk it could be changed just by replacing a tarball and install script on the floppy, and could be distributed separately from the base system. For example if mprime is the application then with a suitable install script all that would be needed to update to a new version would be to download the new sprime-x.y.tgz from the gimps site onto the floppy.

Someone may have done this already in which case it might just be a matter of writing a script for mprime, but if not I might try to put one together when I have some time later in the year.

However any machine with enough memory to run linux from a floppy like this can almost as easily (with a cheap 10/100 network card and cable) run as a diskless nfs client, which is a much more flexible and easily administered option (once the server is set up at least).

I am still dreaming of getting my 200MMX machine to factor, but I donn't have a server at the mo'.

burn to a cd i know it takes longer but think of it in a positive way.

[QUOTE=Uncwilly]Does that tend to run any faster than a 'full' distro?[/QUOTE]
A full linux distribution will be just as fast, maybe even a little faster because the bootdisk kernel is optimised for size rather than speed, and a full distribution will load libraries optimised for your specific processor. However mprime doesn't spend much time in the kernel or library code so the difference should be minor.

[QUOTE=moo]burn to a cd i know it takes longer but think of it in a positive way.[/QUOTE]
Yes a CD would work too, just a different bootloader, but you need a floppy for the save files anyway so it seems nicer to just have everything on the floppy and avoid depending on a CD.

[QUOTE=Uncwilly]I am still dreaming of getting my 200MMX machine to factor, but I donn't have a server at the mo'.[/QUOTE]

A little awkward, but to use this bootdisk [url]http://www.mersenneforum.org/zip/[/url] for factoring you could do this:

1. Create the bootdisk floppy as per the instructions in the zip file.
2. Create prime.ini, worktodo.ini etc. for your factoring job on a blank floppy.
3. Boot from the bootdisk, and when the torture test starts press Ctrl-C.
4. Press Alt-F2 to switch to the second console and press enter to start the shell.
5. Insert the blank floppy. At the console prompt $ type:

$ mount -t vfat /dev/fd0 /mnt
$ mprime -d -W/mnt

6. When done press Ctrl-C to stop mprime and type:

$ umount /mnt

The results.txt will be on the floppy. Use wordpad to edit the files in windows, notepad does funny things to unix files. Any problems let me know.

[i]Edit: Link fixed...[/i]

I choosed tomsrtbt
 

I used tomsrtbt at night. It's the fastest Linux I ever tried, even a little faster than full distro-es, like Red Hat 9, Mandrake 10.0 or Knoppix-on-HDD. I am very satisfied, but I think it can go faster, the tomsrtbt kernel is 2.2 or 2.4 one, so further optimisation is possible. The problem with newer kernel, 2.6 for instance, is that they are to big, even woth most features checked out, and cannot fit on a single floppy. But a bootable CD-RW is always a choice.

[QUOTE=geoff]A little awkward, but to use this bootdisk [url]http://www.mersenne.org/zip/[/url] for factoring you could do this:[/QUOTE]

This link doesn't seem to work anymore :no:

Luigi

[QUOTE=ET_]This link doesn't seem to work anymore[/QUOTE]
Sorry my mistake. The real link is [url]http://www.mersenneforum.org/zip/[/url]