#Floppynux

Kevin Karhan :verified:kkarhan@infosec.space
2025-06-16

@lmemsm basically the Idea behind it is to be a brutally simple #toybox + #musl / #linux distro that grew out of the necessity for me to actually think about #firmware for some projects.

Basically I want something that is so simple and auditable that it's practical to make it pass any #verification demands for #SecureTerminal|s in #CriticalInfrastructure and #Communications.

  • OFC one may point at my other projects and say: "Why don't you just put #RaspberryPiOS on a #microSD?" ignoring that the smallest image is >330MB in size and that seems kinda overkill for essentially my demands for a minimalist #Linux with very few programs in userspace.

Not to mention a #GNUfree - #Linux distro is the way to go if I want that thing to not get bricked constantly by minor #GlibC-changes...

  • End goal is something akin to #MSDOS in it's brutal simplicity, but way more extendable.

I hope that answers your question...

  • Sorry for the delay.
Kevin Karhan :verified:kkarhan@infosec.space
2024-07-26

@SweetAIBelle that's why I started @OS1337 : I looked at #Floppynux by @w84death and while it works with #BusyBox it doesn't do much beyond cat and vi and doesn't even have like drivers to store anything.

OFC #OS1337 isn't much better as of now but I do share the motivation that made @landley start #toybox:

A simple, clean, lean and adaptible, #smol #Linux distro that can be the solid foundation for anything.
youtu.be/MkJkyMuBm3g&t=1408
Whilst #mkroot is nice, I think there is some room for improvement and building an actual #distro.

  • Also he has made excellent documentation including a live demonstration on how to basically DIY a minimalist linux from scratch with #musl & toybox: youtu.be/Sk9TatW9ino

I feel that "Just chug in a #RaspberryPi with the lite Version of #RaspberryPiOS seems quite overkill (it's a 350MiB (!!!) image) for most projects and espechally when it comes to #security-related stuff like #Cryptofon, #PocketCrypto and #LambdaCrypt.

  • I think that besides "Don't DIY encryption! There are excellent implementations ready to grab and go!" the #KISS-Principle is key, cuz I'm a shit coder and I want to avoid having to fiddle around and instead make it easy to fix stuff just by updating versions from upstream.

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