Introduction
Recently, I started studiying computer sciences in conjuction with economics at the Technical University of Clausthal.
I met another Linux enthusiast, Christian Perle. He told me about one of his ongoing projects. And that one was maintaining the HAL91 Linux distribution..
This article should be a short description of what is HAL91 and where could it be used for.
Please contact the maintainer of HAL91, Christian Perle, for further information.
I just want to tell you about its existence...
What is HAL91?
In short, a quote of the HAL91 boot message:
_/ _/ _____/ _/ _____/ __/ http://home.sol.no/~okolaas/linux/hal91/
_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ __/ -=[ Floppy Linux ]=-
_____/ _____/ _/ ___/ _____/ _/ ver 0.2.0
_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ okolaas@online.no
_/ _/ _/ _/ _____/ _/ _/ (c) 1998 0yvind Kolaas
HAL91 is a minimalistic Linux distribution that fits on one floppy disk (1.44MB).
Special about HAL91 is that it comes along with a whole set of useful utilities for maintaining
and troubleshooting a linux system, including some limited networking support.
The HAL91 Project was started by Oyvind Kolaas but Christian Perle is now the
maintainer of the HAL91 distribution.
Features of HAL91
In order to keep HAL91 as small as possible the whole HAL91 system currently
uses the libc5.
Kernel 2.0.36 is the current kernel version.
HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS:
You just a need a minimal system with a 386 processor and 8MB of RAM.
HAL91 comes along with harddisk and CD-ROM support but it runs directly from floppy out of a RAM disk.
A special feature of HAL91 is the included minimal support for NE2000 compliant network hardware and the
ability to establish a PPP connection over a null modem cable (via the
ppp-nullmodem script).
The following programs and tools are included with the HAL91 distribution.
| tool/program | Description
|
| bash | bourne again shell
|
| bunzip2 | uncompress bzip2 files
|
| bzip2 | compress files to .bz2
|
| cat | concatenate files
|
| chmod | change file permissions
|
| chown | change file ownerships
|
| chroot | change root filesystem
|
| cp | copy files
|
| dd | read/write devices and files
|
| df | show free disk space
|
| dir | show contents of directory (symlinked to ls)
|
| dmesg | show kernel messages
|
| du | show disk usage
|
| e2fsck | check/repair an ext2 filesystem
|
| elvis | clone of the vi editor
|
| fdisk | partition hard disks
|
| free | show memory statistics
|
| ftp | ftp client
|
| grep | search for patterns in files (symlinked to rgrep)
|
| gunzip | uncompress gzip files
|
| gzip | compress files to .gz
|
| halt | halt the system
|
| hostname | show/set hostname
|
| ifconfig | configure network devices
|
| init.net | simple script for configuring ethernet
|
| insmod | load kernel modules
|
| less | display files
|
| ln | create links
|
| loadkeys | load keymaps
|
| ls | list contents of directory
|
| lsmod | show loaded kernel modules
|
| mkdir | create directories
|
| mke2fs | create an ext2 filesystem
|
| mknod | create special device files
|
| mkswap | set up swap partition
|
| more | display files (symlinked to less)
|
| mount | mount filesystem
|
| mv | rename/move files
|
| ncp | server/client to copy files/directories over network
|
| npoll | receive stdin over network (symlinked to ncp)
|
| npush | send stdin over network (symlinked to ncp)
|
| open | open virtual consoles
|
| ping | send ICMP requests
|
| ppp-nullmodem | simple script for PPP using nullmodem cable
|
| pppd | PPP daemon
|
| ps | show process status
|
| reset | clear the screen
|
| rgrep | search for patterns in files
|
| rm | remove files/directories
|
| rmmod | remove kernel modules
|
| route | configure network routes
|
| sh | bourne shell (symlinked to bash)
|
| sleep | pause for a specified time
|
| swapoff | turn off swap (symlinked to swapon)
|
| swapon | turn on swap
|
| sync | synchronize cache with disks
|
| tar | tape archiver
|
| telnet | remote login client
|
| tr | translate characters in files
|
| umount | unmount filesystem
|
| update | automatic syncing of filesystems
|
| vi | vi editor (symlinked to elvis)
|
| zcat | concatenate gzip compressed file (symlinked to gzip)
|
| zless | display gzip compressed files
|
HAL91 - what to do with it?
In short, you could use HAL91 as a rescue and trouble shooting disk.
It comes along with all needed tools and it runs out of the box without requiring the hard disk to run.
The included tools can be used for network trouble shooting.
HAL91 can be used as a boot image for bootable CD-ROMs and it could be used as a base Linux
to install another Linux.
Last but not least, it is a very good starting point for learning about the creation of a running
distribution.
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