EAB Linux RFC

[gilgamesh]

Hi all,

there's been interest in a Linux that can boot to UAE. So I thought it would be a good idea to have our very own EAB Linux distro.

It should

• boot directly into UAE. Users don't even need to see they are using Linux
• be tiny (<100MB) so it fits on a USB stick alongside your ADF collection
• have a small footprint so it can run off a RAM disk even on older PCs or netbooks
• be boot from mobile media like CD and be installable to hard drive as well
• be persistent when run off a writeable medium like an USB stick
• have minimal boot time
• support modern hardware (especially nVidia, AMD and Intel graphics cards)
• be reasonably secure out of the box

It might

• support ARM
• feature guest install inside Windows

It should not

• be a general purpose OS. You can check your emails with something else.

We might take SliTaz or Porteus as a platform.
Please comment.

[DDNI]

Sounds good, I would definitely use it. How would this differ from AROS?

[gilgamesh]

AROS is a complete reimplementation of AmigaOS 3.1. It is an OS just like Windows or Linux and does not emulate anything. That is, if you run AROS on a x86 machine, you can't run your old programs compiled for Amiga on it.

EAB Linux would be UAE on top of a Linux system. It is more or less a one trick pony, and its trick is running UAE. You can run old Amiga games or AROS for m68k in it, if you like. One might say that it turns your PC into an Amiga.

[Leandro Jardim]

I would like to use it, the most quickly possible!

UAE is my main toy on my Windows PC and I would love to use it on Linux too, specially with a USB stick.

But please, put on the ISO only things that remind the computer. Specially a great boot screen with the visual of the real system, and not a retouched GIMP/Photoshop photo...

[jimbob]

Great idea. I'd like to help but I think I'd be more of a hindrance if I was involved since I am about 95% noob when it comes to linux.

Do you have a plan to get the required kickstarts into the distro since you can't distribute them? At least certainly not under gnu license. I guess you will need a little config tool to insert your own ROMs into the image before you can use it.

Look forward to hearing what you will name it

[Leandro Jardim]

Would be perfect to run on some cheap computer like the Raspberry Pi. Do you think in add support for it someday?

[gilgamesh]

Raspberry Pi already comes with Linux. It would be much easier just to install UAE. Anyway, I doubt that its performance is enough to emulate an Amiga without JIT. Anybody with real knowledge of the Raspberry is welcome to prove me wrong.

[gunni]

UAE on arm debian is ridiculously slow at 800MHz so I doubt the Pi will manage it without some kind of optimisation/miracle

[lesta_smsc]

This would be a great idea - an alternative for those without AmigaForever, or who want a bit extra!

[DDNI]

Sounds like xamiga.
http://eabmobile.abime.net/showthrea...t=33024&page=3

What ever happened to that project?

[Gundam]

A "very" minimal Linux distro with FS-UAE would rock !

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Gundam

A "very" minimal Linux distro with FS-UAE would rock !

[Hewitson]

Why have a distro which can only run UAE when you can have one which can run absolutely anything? I don't get it.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Hewitson

Why have a distro which can only run UAE when you can have one which can run absolutely anything? I don't get it.

Just read the opening post. It's clear enough, I think.

[lesta_smsc]

Has anything further fruited from this? For a lightweight linux there is slax or mint but also quite a selection on linux support discs.

[Leandro Jardim]

Since you asked for help, I would like to give some ideas for you to think, they are not interesting for everyone, for sure, but feel free to accept or reject they, just you guys doesnt need to be unpleasant with me.

I would like to see a Linux/UAE CD-ROM, that booted to a custom UAE version that looked like an ordinary AMIGA computer, with one unbranded option, without logos or trademarks, but the "insert floppy disk" disk image for GRUB, and did allowed to change emulation options with a graphical menu, like the famous "Early Startup", looking like gadtools gadgets, and with the venerable amiga mouse pointer.

Do you see what I mean? It needs to be the most realistic possible we could get with an emulator, since computer emulation is by nature, not very realistic, and the distro should be fun to use (anyone that have an old AMIGA computer that no one cares, or else loves to play on emulators, should understand this, or they cannot be playing or worse, working, with these things.)

Another idea would be an "EAB toolkit" for Windows, for burning a custom Linux CD-ROM or DVD, complete with the boot picture, Kickstart ROM and HDF that the user wants. A bit like AmigaForever, but customizable and free.

[gulliver]

He, he, he

I read it quickly, and I thought you were talking about creating a Linux M68K distro, to run on our Amigas and UAE. which would have been awesome.

But if you ae talking PC (x86/x64), then it should only be interesting for me if it works more or less like what Leandro Jardim just mentioned.

Generally speaking, another PC distro that is a UAE frontend is not very interesting, as there were lots of projects like that (AmigaSYS, Xamiga, KXlight from Amiga Forever, CommodoreOS Vision, etc), and they are really easy to accomplish, and dont bring anything new to the table.