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http://tinyme.mypclinuxos.com/
http://tinyme.mypclinuxos.com/forums/
My 2nd [07/23/2008] 'excess' remaster of the excellent TinyMe 2008.0 (PCLinuxOS) 200MB ISO.
My favorite mainstream Linux Distribution is PCLinuxOS (originally based on Mandriva/Mandrake).
Naturally, I wanted to try a few PCLinuxOS variant remasters, including MiniMe (which I did not like much) and TinyMe (which I really like.)
The TinyMe 2008.0 FINAL ISO file was just released in late May 2008. The ISO file is under 200MB. The installed disk usage size is about 700MB. They pack an amazing amount of useful programs in that 200MB including Abiword word processing, Opera web browser, Transmission bittorrent program, a basic Winamp-clone music player, an Email program, CD/DVD burner software, a photo viewer, a PDF file viewer, a CD song ripper, and lots of other programs and utilities.
Like PCLinuxOS, for slightly more advanced Linux users, TinyMe has the ability to 'remaster' itself to make a new Linux distribution, often with different goals than the original. I made my own remaster which I designated as TinyXS Linux. The excess remaster includes a lot of additional software, more ease-of-use features and customization.
Upon hard disk installation, 2.14GB of disk space will be used including 28MB of sample audio and video files for testing.
Wired ethernet and audio and video file players should work without any further configuration.
Sample *.wma and *.mp3 (Audacious audio player) and *.avi *.mov *.mpg *.wmv (smplayer video) are located in:
/root/Audio-and-Video-Test-Files
You can test mplayer and flash audio/video Firefox plugins from 'web tv/radio' link at http://newcityvegas.com
Warning: As with TinyMe, in the beginning I could NOT get wireless networking to work. When trying to 'connect' to my configured network, TinyMe/TinyXS 'locked up' my notebook PC requiring a 'power-off' reboot.
Added:
Macromedia flash plugin
mplayer/smplayer with Firefox plugin
Audacious MP3 and WMA plugins
Adobe Acrobat Reader and plugin
Firefox 3.0.1 (customized theme and setup) with Google Toolbar
CUPS printer support
Pidgin IM (internet messenger)
Sun Java JRE
Wine Windows Emulator
Leafpad Editor
Picasa photo manager
NTFS-3g R/W file utilities
Webcore Fonts
... and more
Deleted:
Opera web browser (replaced by Firefox)
Sylpheed email (replaced by Mozilla Thunderbird)
Asunder CD song ripper (could not recognize my Sony/NEC DVD/CDROM drive)
Hard Disk Install: to install to hard disk, you must log in as 'root' (CDROM password is 'root' . For hard disk install, you will also be required to create an 'ordinary (non-root)' user. For most people, the only advantage to not using your required 'root' login is to recover files in case you forget your chosen 'root' password or if you are not the only one using your PC.
This TinyXS distro uses the small and efficient Openbox windows manager, not KDE, GNOME, xFCE or E17 etc. Openbox is great but is not as end-user friendly as KDE/GNOME/xFCE etc. It is a good candidate for 'mod-it-then-set-it-and-forget-it' PCs for casual PC users. TinyXS loads fast, works fast, and shuts down fast when compared to Windows and most other Linux distros.
All updates to the original TinyMe programs are current as of July 23, 2008. It is still a good idea to occasionally start up the Synaptic Package Manager to update your system. To do this, click on RELOAD (checks the TinyMe and PCLinuxOS software repositories for up-to-date file list) then MARK ALL UPGRADES. If the green check APPLY icon is highlighted, click on it to install the upgrades. You also use SYNAPTIC to upgrade, delete, or install individual software.
For instance, if you only use internet-based email programs like Google's gmail or Yahoo mail, you can remove Thunderbird. To do so, click on SEARCH 'thunderbird'. You should see a list of programs. There should be one listed as 'mozilla-thunderbird'. To romove it, right-click on the appropriate box, click on MARK FOR REMOVAL, and then click on green 'APPLY' icon. If you prefer only using Open Office, you might also remove the Abiword program.
MORE NOTES:
(1) My wireless did not work and caused a lock up of my notebook PC requiring a 'hard reboot'
UPDATE: I finally got my notebook wireless networking (Atheros AR5006X) working. I had to use ndiswrapper. First I used Synaptic to install ndiswrapper-net5211 (Atheros). Next, start PCC->Networking->Delete Network Interface. Choose ath0 (Atheros). After deletion, to avoid lock-up problems TURN OFF switch to built-in wireless (on my Fujitsu notebook, a slider on the right side.)
Next, PCC-Networking->Setup New Networking->Wireless. Select "Use a Windows driver (ndiswrapper)". Choose ndiswrapper net5211. Since your wireless detection switch is OFF, set up networking MANUALLY. For me, WPA-PSK works well. Finish up and reboot. At GRUB screen TURN ON your wireless switch. Start TinyXS and (for me) my Atheros AR5006X WPA-PSK wireless networking now works fine.
I also tried two different USB ethernet adapters, one using the ZyDas 1211b chip and the other a Ralink RT2500 chip. Initially these also did not work with TinyXS. Again I had to use ndiswrapper. However, this time none of the built-in ndis modules worked. Instead, I used the same ndiswrapper steps as above except that I choose "install new driver". You need both the *.inf file and the *.sys file. For the ZyDas device, I copied the two Windows files to a USB memory stick:
NOTE: change forward slashes to backslashes.
C:/Program Files/ZyDAS Technology Corporation/ZyDAS_802.11g_Utility/InsDrvTemp_USB/ZD1211BU.INF
C:/WINDOWS/system32/drivers/ZD1211BU.sys
After setting up my WPA-PSK again and "connecting", ZyDas 1211b USB wireless started working.
(2) TinyXS recognizes video DVDs, data DVDROMs, and data CDROM disks ... but NOT my MUSIC CDROMs
(3) Except for 'root' user, desktop links require chmod 755 icon and executable file READ permissions
(4) Creating new desktop links is NOT a simple right-click, create, 'drag and drop' process like Windows or KDE. Partial Correction: You can 'drag and drop' the icons. Unlike Windows, you right-click to drag (instead of left-click).
(5) Two menu systems: (1) click the lower left TinyXS START button (2) right-click on the DESKTOP. This could be confusing since there are both different programs and overlap between the two menu types.
(6) smplayer will play a standard video DVD directly. However, for non-standard data DVDs containing VOB AVI WMV MPG video files, use the very efficient pcMan file manager to click on the appropriate video file (which starts up smplayer).
(7) If you will be reading from USB pendrives or Windows partitions, it is a good idea first to click on the HOME icon (pcMan, upper left Desktop icon), then click 'drive view' icon (lower left), and then click on USB or Windows partition to force file list index creation. Many programs use this index to find a file (e.g., *.mp3 file) to read.
ISO md5sum: 1f59289fe3ff891385b36b6a9bdcb2b3
Update to login 'Sessions' menu. Since I did not create TinyMe, I am not sure why there are too many (most not working) menu choices. I made a workaround fix.
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