WelcomeWelcome | FAQFAQ | DownloadsDownloads | WikiWiki

Author Topic: Question on emulating TinyCore's methodology for a multilib x86_64 Linux build  (Read 4980 times)

Offline daxm

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 11
With RAM being relatively cheap and HDD throughput being such a bottleneck I've loved the ideas behind TinyCore Linux.  (TinyCore Linux's concept that a HDD is to RAM is what a tape drive is to a HDD.)  The idea that the WHOLE OS is running in RAM and that the HDD is just for archiving purposes really rings home with me!

Sadly, I have yet to find a Linux distro that shares TinyCore's ideals while yet allowing for larger than 3GB of RAM.  (i.e. a 64 bit Linux OS that runs purely in RAM and archives to the HDD).  I even read the whole CLFS doc hoping that it would discuss the idea of booting to tmpfs filesystems.

So, to my question.  I'd like to find/build a 64 bit Linux distro to access my additional RAM, to run in RAM, and use the HDD as an archive/backup mechanism.  I've even speculated how the system would boot (load a very small OS off of the HDD, mount a tmpfs, tar -zxvf archived/backup file to tmpfs filesystem, chroot to the tmpfs mounted dir.  Then occasionally archive tmpfs filesystem to protect against loss of power.)  Honestly I have no idea how to do this though.  :-(

Any suggestions on where I could get started?  (The best option being that it already exists, of course.)

The end goal is a "normal" home workstation that runs VMWare Server, GNS3/Dynamips and various typical office type apps (seamonkey, openoffice, VLC client, etc).

Any suggestions/hints/miracles are greatly appreciated.
If I can't see your mirrors, you can't see me.

Offline ^thehatsrule^

  • Retired Admins
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1726
TC places everything into the initrd... could start by seeing how to create one.

Offline curaga

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 11026
You could also just compile a 64-bit kernel for TC (remember to enable 32-bit functionality) and so you can access all the ram. For each app there's still the 4gb border, but this solution might be enough.
The only barriers that can stop you are the ones you create yourself.