SPB-Linux 2.1 beta

Update 2007-12: SPBLinux 2.2 is on it's way:

Why should I use SPBLinux? There is knoppix, slax, puppy linux, damn small linux ... (insert your favourite live distro here)

If you want to customize your own live system, SPBLinux might be of interest

it is completely modular; only addons found in the folders given as boot parameter are loaded
many properties of SPBLinux can be set as boot parameter (and the boot menu is editable)
each addon can be changed from SPBLinux itself with the command changeaddon
compilation of programs is done in a chroot gentoo environment (mostly emerge cool_program is sufficient to compile a program for SPBLinux); the gentoo stage3 prepared for SPBLinux 2.2 is available here.
scripts to build the SPBLinux kernel and external modules are found here.

A prerelease of SPBLinux 2.2pre8 (non pae) is made available on the Sourceforge download page.

the general layout of SPBLinux 2.2 is like version 2.1 but all programs are updated.
kernel 2.6.23.8 plus lzma compression, squashfs and aufs; boot splash graphic.
hardware: pentium mmx or better cpu, 256 MB RAM (64 MB in textmode)
firefox 2.0.11, xfce 4.4.1
with syslinux based boot menu. When kernel and initrd ramdisk are loaded booting can continue from:

local devices (cdrom, harddisk, usb storage device) or from network (tftp, ftp, http, nfs, cifs, nbd)
if the boot device is writable the boot menu section "fastboot" can be used: instead of loading all addons file after file, SPBLinux gets started from 2 files (which are created on the first fastboot run)

new command loadaddon which allows to load addons when SPBLinux is already running (e.g. loadaddon gimp)
SPBLinux is prepared to run as paravirtualized guest in xen 3.1 (which usually needs the pae kernel version)

Documentation: (most of it is valid for version 2.1 and 2.2) version 2.0 is still here.; some more documentation can be found at the wiki pages.

Key features of SPBLinux 2.1:

loads from USB storage or other boot devices

runs in RAM; after bootup no access to boot device required

modular:

basic system fits on two 1.4 MB floppy disks (Linux 2.6 with midnight commander)
all other components are added as addons: bz2 (and sqf) files in subfolders of folder spblinux on the boot device
choice which addon subfolders are loaded is at boot time (grub menu and/or grub edit); command loadaddon allows to load addons manually when SPBLinux is running.

SPBLinux can be built and modified inside SPBLinux

the command changebz2 your_addon.bz2 opens the addon with midnight commander
if the gentoo chroot environment is installed, programs can be emerged and compiled
more information is in the SPBLinux Wiki

targeted users:

users who want to create their own customized system

support and documentation:

read the release notes in the download section (click on the book symbol) and the readme files inside the zip archives
SPBLinux Wiki
the basic concept of SPBLinux is explained at the SPBLinux 2.0 site
development of SPBLinux follows the needs of its users; if you need a hint how to add a feature to SPBLinux, feel free to use the email address at the bottom of this page

installation on fat formatted USB devices

run SPBLinux and use the scrip makebootable
to get a running copy of SPBLinux, you can download the iso image in spb2.1-install-cd_b13.zip

SPBLinux is not intended as out of the box solution; in this case you might want to try Puppy Linux (http://www.puppylinux.org) which started to use USB boot devices some years ago, at the same time when SPBLinux did.

How does SPBLinux 2.1 look like?

with XFCE: see the screenshots section of sourceforge

just with X: click on the picture in the middle on the top of this page (or here).

Releases: (back to top)

SPBLinux 2.1b14 development:

SPBLinux runs smoothly and fast inside coLinux:

standard disclaimer: coLinux and the X server XMing are beta software and might crash your pc
Scribus 1.23 compiled for Linux runs as as window of Windows XP (screenshot)
(the package scribus-spb2-colinux-xp.zip contains all required components)

english (default) and german user interface preconfigured
access from SPBLinux to Windows by a shared folder

user who want to make their own customized version of SPBLinux/coLinux can start with minimal-spb2-colinux-xp.zip

SPBLinux, only textmode: screenshot; (if graphical programs are wanted the scribus package should be used as starting point)
ssh daemon running (default root password is root)
optional, access from SPBLinux to Windows by a shared folder

SPBLinux 2.1b13 preliminary release:
download is here (sourceforge download section);
included are (see also the release notes inside files download section):

updated iso image of bootable install cd
- now with kernel 2.6.12.2
- choice in bootmenu between Xorg and XDirectFB X11 server (support for intel centrino 855GM graphics,
including 1400x1050 patch; just type e inside the bootmenu and change the resolution)
- with qtparted to create and resize partitions (fat, ntfs, reiserfs)
- with extended makebootable script (including option to install SPBLinux to a harddisk partition)
- with k3b, the excellent cd/dvd burning program of KDE
- boot with the install cd, create a new SPBLinux iso image in ram, test it with qemu and burn it (only one cd drive needed)
- with qemu pc emulator

some additional addons
- xfce 4.2
- mozilla firefox 1.04
- intel centrino wlan drivers
- adobe acrobat, macromedia flash player firefox plugin

using the makebootable script SPBLinux, started from the install cd, can be copied to a USB storage device
(see readme file inside spb2.1-install-cd_addons.zip file)

a new gentoo stage2 in the development section

Details about configurable options are listed in /etc/spb.conf (these options are set either as kernel bootparameter spbconf=... (grub bootmenu files) or in the spblinux/spbcfgX (X=0,1...9) files), e.g.

keys=ge (sets the keyboard layout to german; currently supported: us, ge, sg, ru, pt, tr)

x:desktop=1 and x:startprog= ( brings back the xfce desktop of SPBLinux2.1b12; if xfce addon is loaded)

x:desktop=0 and x:startprog=idesk and x:startsu=1 ( which is the default setting of the install cd, loads idesk as root superuser (idesk displays icons); if idesk addon is loaded)

SPBLinux 2.1b12:
see the screenshots section of sourceforge and the release notes; download is here (sourceforge download section);
new are:

iso image of bootable install cd , 2004-01-02
- with qtparted to create and resize partitions (fat, ntfs, reiserfs)
- with extended makebootable script (including option to install SPBLinux to a harddisk partition)
mozilla firefox 1.0 and mozilla thunderbird 1.0, 2004-12-28
xfce 4.2rc2 (desktop, panel and filemanager plus Terminal from xfce goodies),
kernel 2.6.9
improved makebootable script (added options to use grub shell instead of installing in two steps)
...

This version has been compiled inside SPBLinux using chroot into Gentoo (on a 512 MB pentium III machine).

New: compile programs: on the download page is a gentoo based stage2 with gcc:
Just cd into it and compile programs. (new 2004-26-07: 2 files, stage2 and stage2patch1 have to be downloaded)

New: asterisk with hfc cards: on the download page is a bootable iso image with asterisk which is configured for 2 cards: one in nt mode, the second in te mode;
(mainly useful for people with 2 hfc cards (that is, use your isdn phone as isdn AND VoIP phone)).

vfd the virtual floppy disk mounter for windows xp has been added to the windows tools section together with SPBLinux boot floppy disk image (usb and cdrom).

SPBLinux version 2.1 beta 11 is available for download: minor bugfixes of 2.1 beta 10:

network module autoprobing did freeze on some machines:
moved spbnet2.bz2 from spblinux/basics to spblinux/other and removed some modules (details: see release notes in the file download section)
(if you do not want to load spb2.1-usbboot1_b11.zip (12MB): here is the updated spbnet2.bz2 file)

acx100 22MB/s pci and minipci cards now supported; serial mice now supported; (details: see release notes in the file download section)

information: pc freezing during boot phase with isapnp? Use kernel parameter noisapnp to disable isapnp.

Version 2.1 beta 10:

kernel 2.6.3 and reworked vm86d patch
(stable in my environment, only switched on if boot parameter video=vesafb:vm86d is given and vesafb is activated by vga=... )
some entries in /etc/fstab were broken by switching from kernel 2.4 to 2.6 and are fixed now: commands like mount /sda1 do work again.

update to mozilla firefox 0.8

ntfs write access with captive-ntfs
use command ntfsmount to mount an ntfs partition with true write access using the original microsoft drivers on your harddisk.
(ntfsmount -f tries to get the driver files; rc_ntfs_rw copies the driver files into SPBLinux addon ntfs_rw.bz2)

i18n and captive-ntfs (german umlaut ae...): does work, but only on the console; you have to switch to unicode with unicode_start; unicode_stop switches back to normal console.

mount remote filesystems tunneled by ssh: sshfs which is part of lufs (linux user mode filesystem)
a) create public key authentication with remote machine with command lussh
b) mount the remote filesystem: lufsmount sshfs://user_name@www.yourserver.org /mnt

tunneling X applications by ssh is now working in SPBLinux
a) start X and connect from xterm to remote machine with ssh -X -l user_name www.yourserver.org
b) now you can run X applications in your ssh session (displayed on the local machine, running on the remote machine)

new grub boot menu in 2 steps:
a) first choose if you want acpi or apm and which video mode
(vesafb+vm86d mode switching or pure vesafb or hardware fb modules or textmode)
b) then choose what you want to load
(mplayer is hidden in section 'other')

some acpi support:
a) cpufreq kernel modules with cpudynd to automatically switch to cpu power saving on many cpu's
b) radeontool to switch lcd backlight of on notebooks with mobile radeon video card
c) command batleft displays status of the battery (more info in /proc/acpi and /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq)
c) acpid: the scripts in /etc/acpi still have to be writting

Changes after 2.1b9:

IMPORTANT BUGFIX (second try): spb2.1-kernel_b9fix2.zip: Use this kernel instead of the one included in usbboot1 (or use the stable kernel without vm86d functionality; see below).
(When working with vesafb (aka vga=xxx) on the text console (=directfb gui not running) the kernel could crash if the console got lots of error messages without user interaction, e.g. wlan overflow messages).
Download spb2.1-kernel_b9fix2.zip from the sourceforge download area or here
(md5sum: 3d3c09101ae4a5ddd4c0fb6c0076bf2d)
If you do not need vm86d functionality you can use the kernel without vm86 patch: spb2.1-kernel_b9novm86.zip (download at sourceforge or here)
(md5sum: d7dfb8352962c1c6a60ee44087d22ea8)

discovered that default setting acpi=off is not always the best:

on newer hardware interrupt routing is done by acpi; if you cannot access your usb device, try to remove acpi=off (hit button e in grub menu or edit boot/grub/menu.gz)

finally got the console to work with hardware specific framebuffer driver modules from fb_all.bz2:

with updated init6.gz and fb_all.bz2 you can try if your hardware is supported (which might work better than vesa+vm86d)
updated versions are here: init6.gz(which goes into spblinux/), fb_all.bz2(which goes into spblinux/basics/)
the drivers from fb_all.bz2 are loaded if the kernel parameter vga=791 is removed (hit button e in grub menu or edit boot/grub/menu.gz)
default resolution is 1024x768 (use fb:x=1111,fb:y=2222 to change the default)
what had to be changed: console has to be activated by con2fb and mode switching is done by stty rows nn cols mm and fbset (credits go to T. Winischhofer for pointing this out)
you might want to try dfb:accel=no because in some cases the accelerated directfb driver (which works on top of the hardware specific framebuffer kernel module) is slower than the standard directfb framebuffer driver; I would like to get reports about this.

remark: SPBLinux parameters go into spblinux/spbcfgN (N=0,1,2...) files and get loaded by kernel parameter spbconf=cfgdevN=sda1,.... (SPBLinux options can as well be set inside the kernel parameter spbconf=cfgdevN=sda1,....,fb:freq=100,... which is useful if you boot with grub and want to edit the parameters at boot time)

The version 2.1 beta 9 is available for testing: new are:

Automatic switching of monitor refresh rate in vesafb video mode using vm86d (requires a vesa 3.0 compliant graphics adapter):

The data of the monitor is automatically read and used to set the refresh rate
video mode using vesa is no longer fixed but can be changed with fbset (use make_fbmode to prepare a mode)
credits go to Tony Daplas for his vm86d project (which has been adapted to kernel 2.6.1 for SPBLinux)
vbetest displays all vga=... video modes supported by your graphics card
new SPBLinux parameters: fb:x=..., fb:y=..., fb:freq=..., fb:res=... to set the video mode (see /etc/spb.conf) (with fb:fbset=no the new automatic mode switching can be be disabled)

Support for hardware specific framebuffer driver modules (nvidia, ati, sis, ):

rename fb_all.bak to fb_all.bz2 and boot without vga=xxx parameter
works in graphics mode (directfb); but does not work with the console; recommended is vesafb+vm86d.

Update to kernel 2.6.1 (supporting more current hardware) and busybox 1.0pre5

Including mplayer 1.0pre3 in SPBLinux 2.1 (add subdirectory video to SPBLinux parameter: addons:dir=basics:x:video)

Semi automatic download of acrobat reader (and acx100 firmware):

use the commands rc_acrobat (and rc_acx100 after renaming acx100.bak to acx100.bz2)
(acx100.bz2 contains the (beta) driver for 22Mps wlan cards)

So many changes that probably new bugs have been introduced: I need feedback (see email link at the bottom of this page); especially I need to hear if there are kernel crashes due to the vm86d patch; if necessary a kernel without vm86d will be released.

A wiki for SPBLinux at www.spblinux.de/wiki/ (in english language)

new default settings:

quickhalt is disabled (set SPBLinux parameter quickhalt=yes to enable it)
acpi is disabled (remove kernel parameter acpi=off to enable it)

experts only: some award bios versions (e.g. asus pundit) can boot from usb flash with usb zip setting by reformatting the usb pen memory with fdisk:

original zip devices seem to have 64 heads and 32 sectors per track
to make the usb flash device bootable one has to set the number of heads and sectors like a zip device (the cylinder number has then to be changed so that the total count of sectors is less or equal than it was before)
warning: all data on the usb device gets lost and the usb device might get unusable
steps with fdisk: delete old partition / set new head/sector/cylinder count / create new active fat 16 (type 6) partition; then mkdosfs -F 16 /dev/your_device (in spblinux: mkdosfs2)
YMMV - you have been warned.

Changes with beta 8:

Java for Mozilla

flash and acrobat now longer included (only template to download them)

bugfixes: booting from network; telnet and ssh shell initialization.

download is now at sourceforge

Changes with beta 7:

booting from network:

Server: SPBLinux can act as network boot server: simply select the corresponding line in the boot menu
Client: SPBLinux boots from PXE-enabled netword interface cards

upgraded to Busybox 1.0 pre 3 (a big compliment to the programmers of busybox!): increase in functionality and decrease in size for SPBLinux
changed files: usbboot.zip, usbboot2.zip, usbboot4.zip (cups updated and moved from usbboot4.zip to usbboot2.zip)

Changes after beta 6:

bug fixes for cups (mozilla run by user www could not print; jobs could not be canceled; printers could not be configured); remark: only for postscript printers (or printers attached to a remote cups server: with cups-polld).

Version 2.1 beta 6:

boot menu completely updated to version 2.1 (easier installation; more instructions; fastboot included)
printing with cups to either a postscript printer (using parallel port or usb or network) or to a linux box where cupsd is running (all printers on the linux box except 'raw printers' can be used).
MozillaFirebird displays flash
pdf documents can be displayed
security feature: the browser runs now as a normal user named www (was running as root)
the home directory of user www can be automatically saved when shutting down (variable autosave:user=www); e.g. your bookmarks will be stored between spblinux sessions.
directfb with matrox graphics driver (you get more than 60 Hz vesafb refresh rate if you have a matrox graphics card, including older matrox millenium or mystique cards)
fast shutdown :-)
the boot messages can now be displayed in directfb and X with dmesg, dmesg2 and dmesg3
lots of small fixes

Changed files: usbboot, usbboot2 and usbboot3; new file: usbboot4. (doc_all.bz2 is removed; you can use the version of spblinux 2.0)

New in beta 5: "fastboot": the filesystem of SPB-Linux is written into two files which are directly loaded, when booting: e.g. Mozilla is up and running in 1 minute on a pentium II 266MHz machine booting from harddisk (just use the bootmenu entry fastboot). - Modules for more than 1 network card are loaded.

Changed files from beta 4to beta 5: only usbboot.zip (includes the post beta4 fixes).

New in beta 4: Mozilla Firebird and the compressed filesystem squashfs (mozilla will run with 128 MB); WLAN support; bugfix in script makeboot which makes usb devices bootable; the script did sometimes stop with error: busy cannot umount.

Download: (back to top)

At the moment you can download:

Version 2.1 beta 10 / beta 11 at sourceforge (release notes and changelog)

usbboot1:

directory /spbsetup contains instructions how to make an usb storage device bootable
directory /bootdisk contains instructions how to make a boot floppy (if booting from usb does not work)

basic system with addons acpi, apm, directfb, disktool, libs, libs2, nettool, plip, smb_cl (samba client), ssh, ssl, zipunzip (details in SPB-Linux 2.0 homepage, section addons)
ntfs_rw: write access to ntfs partitions
some more experimental addons are in folder spblinux/other; move them to spblinux/basics, if you need one
- aes (loop-aes encryption)
- acx100: support for '22MB/s' wlan cards
- ieee1394.bz2: attach external harddisk by firewire
- libsdl from SDL project: cd to /usr/bin and try the test programs
- pdf2html: convert text of pdf files to html
- plip: connect 2 machines by parallel null modem cable (aka laplink cable)
- strip: remove debug symbols from binaries
pcmcia 6a (including wlan support
- for some pccards (new spblinux parameter net:wep=s:mywepkey): airo_cs, orinoco_cs ...

usbboot2: x_dfb the X server based on directfb with sawfish window manager and CUPS printing system.
usbboot3: Mozilla Firefoxb 0.80
usbboot4: Acrobat Reader and Flash Player (only templates; the software will be autoatically downloaded from Adobe and Macromedia if you run rc_acrobat and rc_flash from SPBLinux). In folder spblinux/other there are the qt-3.2 libraries, just in case somebody needs them.
usbboot5: java (sun jre2 version 1.4.2)
usbboot6: mplayer 1.0pre3
spbnet2.bz2 (which is now included in usbboot1 zip file): additional network interface card modules
modules-2.6.3.tar.bz2: all modules compiled for spblinux - in case you need some (included are ...)

Download of version 2.1 b8 and later is at sourceforge

Version 2.1 beta 7: (back to top)

usbboot.zip (7.2 MB ):
- directory /spbsetup contains instructions how to make an usb storage device bootable
- directory /bootdisk contains instructions how to make a boot floppy (if booting from usb does not work)
- basic system with addons acpi, apm, directfb, disktool, libs, libs2, nettool, plip, smb_cl (samba client), ssh, ssl, zipunzip (details in SPB-Linux 2.0 homepage, section addons)
- aes (loop-aes encryption)
- pcmcia 6a (including wlan support
  - for some pccards (new spblinux parameter net:wep=s:mywepkey): airo_cs, orinoco_cs ...
  - and experimental driver acx100_pci: working with allnet 292 pccard: edit the file /start_net)
- usbboot2.zip (6.7 MB ): X
- usbboot3a.zip (1 MB) + usbboot3b.zip (10 MB ): Mozilla Firebird 0.6.1 with flash player.
- usbboot4.zip (9.5 MB): Acrobat Reader
- spbnet2.bz2 (0.5 MB): addon file supporting additional network interface cards (to be copied into folder /spblinux/basics; see also)
The zipfiles have to be unpacked with directories into the root folder of your usb storage device. Then follow the instructions of readme.txt (or have a look at the documentation of spblinux 2.0: concept & installation, section boot from usb)

Some more details: (back to top)
- running X window system (screenshot):
  - double click on the titlebar of a window: window reduced to titlebar
  - right click on the titlebar of a window: window put to background
  - with <winkey> pressed directfb windows, like mc in spblinux, are moved
    (more <winkey> shortcuts are in the bottom part of the directfb readme)
  - <alt> + left mouse button hold moves windows created by X, like xterm in spblinux
  - minimized windows of X are in the window menu (displayed by the green button on the bottom of the screen).
  - the red button shuts spblinux down.
- with kernel 2.4.21 which supports usb 2 (booting from usb 2 is tricky, like booting from usb 1. - It depends on hardware and bios version; you have to try; there are usb 2 memory sticks and card readers which do boot (in my case loading of kernel and first ramdisk (= together 1.4 MB) are slow; the rest is loaded with usb 2 speed):
- new spblinux parameter spbroot to be able to load the rootfilesystem as ramdisk instead of loading the bz2 files of the addonst (when booting more than once).
  - boot time from selecting a menu entry int the GRUB boot menu until Mozilla is up is 2 minutes (with an compactflash to ide adapter as boot device on a pentium 166MHz machine)..
- new spblinux parameter initsqf to be able to load the compressed squashfs for /usr from the boot device instead of compressing it (when booting more than once).
  - boot time from selecting a menu entry int the GRUB boot menu until Mozilla is up is about 1 minute (with an USB 2 memory pen and initsqf=1 and a fixed ip address).
- with squashfs, a compressed filesystem to reduce RAM requirements
- with directfb 0.9.19 multi-application core (using vesa framebuffer; only 60Hz, best used with TFT monitors; use dfbterm instead of xterm to run mc)
- use kernel parameter acpi=off if powermanagement works better with apm (e.g. on my dell inspiron 4100 automatic standby when closing the lid works only with apm, which gets loaded if acpi is disabled).
- to display the boot messages: new with dmesg, dmesg2 and dmesg3
- append: ,debug=yes to kernel parameter spbconf to switch off the compressed readonly squashfs.
- Only minor changes from beta2 to beta3: fixed that F2 menu of mc did not work in X; updated script loadaddon from 2.0 to 2.1; mc now in root menu of sawfish.
Requirements: (back to top)
- Pentium compatible CPU
- at least 128 MB RAM when running Mozilla Firebird, 256 MB when using XFCE
- network interface card: rtl8139, ne2000 (pci), 3com 3c59x, ether express or via-rhine (=network modules 3c59x, 8139too, eepro100, ne2k-pci, via-rhine);
  many other cards with addon spbnet2.bz2; included with the basic SPBLinux version (is in folder spblinux/other; to be moved to spblinux/basics)
Windows tools (back to top)

These tools are hosted here for convenience; if you want the latest version and security fixes, look at the homepage of the tool.
- rawritewin 0. 7 (write floppy disk images), homepage
- tightvnc 1.2.9 (remote desktop client and server); homepage
- putty 0.58 (ssh client, replacing telnet); homepage
- winscp 3.7.6 (comfortable ssh based file copy tool); homepage
- XMing 20050705 (X server for windows; 10 MB), homepage
- Qemu 0.7.2 windows version (emulator which can run SPBLinux; slower than coLinux, but emulates more hardware), homepage
- coLinux 0.6.3pre13 windows version (emulator, fast, runs Linux only with kernel patch, see SPBLinux 2.1b14dev; 5 MB), homepage
- vfd 2.1 (to mount floppy disk images in windows xp; works without a floppy drive; allows to prepare floppy disk images for bootable cdroms), homepage
- vdk 3.2 (command line tool to mount harddisk images in Windows XP), homepage
- boot floppy disk images (to boot SPBLinux from floppy+usb or floppy+cdrom or bootable cdrom with floppy disk image)
License: GPL (free non commercial and commercial use as described by the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE)

Feedback welcome: osth@freesurf.ch
Christian Ostheimer, 2007-11

(back to top)