* Note: you can write the iso on a usb key and boot from there, but you need a true serial port to use minicom, there is no support for anything like a usb to serial dongle at all *
About: PiTuX is a floppy based Linux distro that turns an old, low-RAM,
machine in a very useful serial terminal running minicom. Think about
your old laptop as a pure VT102.
Features:
PiTuX boots from a floppy and runs completely in ram so you can
even have a diskless PC.
New: persistent configuration! Configure minicom as you need
and if you want you can have config files stored and saved over reboots.
It works from 386, without math coprocessor, up and NEEDS
ONLY 4 MB RAM.
It doesn't have any kind of support for hard disks so it will
not mess up data on them
Most 386 and 486 can run even without a fan so you can have a
very silent serial terminal at the prize of a NULL MODEM
cable.
2.4 recent kernel, lightweight uClibc, and real minicom 2.1
full color, full ANSI mode!
Usage:
for administration of headless Linux/*BSD/VAX/etc, multiple servers/PC
without the need of a KVM switch, installations via serial console,
modem/router/firewall setup, monitoring equipment, embedded systems
development, talk to your exotic hardware, when ssh is gone and you're
running for the ultimate login...
Why:
I've got an old IBM thinkpad 340, with only 4 MB RAM, and I thought to
use it as a serial terminal, boot from floppy on a ramdisk and forget
everything else.
There are other minicom-ready floppy distros but I can't find one that
fits in 4 MB RAM so I made my own. This is my little linux toy!
Floppy creation, Linux:
insert a blank floppy in your PC, data on floppy will be lost!
cd /tmp
wget http://www.asashi.net/media/pitux-X.Y.Z.img
md5sum pitux-X.Y.Z.img
dd if=pitux-X.Y.Z.img of=/dev/fd0
wait...
when the prompt is back (hopefully without errors) put the floppy in the
machine you would like to use and boot from floppy.
to test it with qemu:
qemu -fda pitux-X.Y.Z.img -boot a
or
qemu -cdrom pitux-X.Y.Z.iso -boot d
Persistent configuration:
a shiny new feature of my toy now let you drop into the floppy root
three minirc.* files, during the boot sequence if they are found there
they are used to overwrite the same files on the ramdisk so you can
have you own minicom configuration. If the script does not find the
second of them you are guided through an interactive configuration of
the minicom instance on the 1st tty.
The files must have these names: minirc.dfl: default config file [ttyS0,56700,8n1] minirc.tty1: config file for the respawned minicom on tty1
[ttyS0,38400,8n1], good for a default login over serial line on
a standard x86 linux machine minirc.tty2: use it as you like just call minicom as:
minicom -c on tty2
You'll find ready to use samples in /floppy/examples.
So you can mount the floppy (or loopmount the image) under any linux,
write your minirc.* files with these names or you can configure
minicom as you need from within PiTuX and then save your modified
files with this command "persist"... oh ALT+F2 gives you a shell
:-):
~ # persist
minirc.dfl saved on floppy
minirc.tty1 saved on floppy
minirc.tyy2 saved on floppy
sync floppy... ok
~ # _
The files are copied back on the floppy saved for the next reboot.
Bootable CD-ROM, Linux:
Here is a very small iso image that use isolinux: pitux-0.3.2.iso
it still works with just 4 MB RAM, but given it's on a really readonly
media you can't save any configuration.
So once you're dropped into minicom configure it at your needs, save
as default and restart minicom, your config will stay until
reboot.
Also here ALT+F2 gives you a simple shell from where you can
start another minicom with other settings:
minicom -c on tty2
Floppy creation, Windows:
grab rawwrite and
use it, it's point and clic and works from windows 95 to windows XP
Small history:
v: 0.4 ?next?: logging from serial line
v: 0.3.3 added dialog to disable or set console blanking timeout -
useful if PiTuX is used for debugging
v: 0.3.2 persistent configuration, floppy mounted under /floppy, more
than one minicom instance, minirc.* files now editable on floppy root,
aesthetical changes, other minor changes.
v: 0.3.1 us.kmap and ansi colors as default
v: 0.3 added simple keyboard layout choose at boot
v: 0.2 used syslinux to pass kernel options
v: 0.1 well... initial release, at last works on my own
laptop.
Todo: add mode keymaps, mount floppy to upload files,
man page, docs, and pointers to online documentation. someone asked for a cdrom version
framebuffer... larger console and tux boot logo :-)
Stay in the 4 MB limit, but ready to use more RAM: terminals on
demand !!!
logging... !
... well I'm testing a dual boot floppy, linux-minicom and
freedos-kermit, I can not include kermit due to licence, but it works,
I'll add a detailed how-to this week. Obviously 'couse the usage of a
ramdisk also for freedos memory constraints are more or less the
same.
