Levinux - A Micro Linux for Education

What Is This Project About?

The micro Linux distribution known as Levinux (download ~25 MB) is a tiny virtual Linux server that runs from USB or Dropbox with a double-click (no install or admin rights required) on Macs, Windows or Linux PCs—making it the perfect learning environment and launching-off point for other projects, requiring just enough operating system and a quick introduction to generic nix systems.

Levinux combines with another Github project of mine called Pipulate, so that you can see a live Python/Flask app running from http://localhost:8888. There will be a minimal (busybox) webserver on http://localhost:8080 after first run. But what's going on under the hood to make this all possible? Easy, Levinux is the remix of QEMU and Tiny Core Linux that has just been waiting to happen.

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Installation Instructions

Download the zip, unarchive it and...

1. If on Windows, double-click Pipulate.vbs.
2. If on Mac OSX, double-click Pipulate.
3. If on Linux, double-click Pipulate.sh and select Run in Terminal.

Machine-specific issues

1. Windows may prompt you to allow it to run and unblock firewall.
2. Mac OS X may require you to right-click or Control-click and open.
3. Ubuntu 14.04 Nautilus / Edit / Preferences / Behavior / Executable Text Files, "Select Ask Each Time"

Including additional packages

Inclusion of additional packages is simple, but requires a few steps be taken to optimize and set up.

1. Download the package and any dependencies from http://distro.ibiblio.org/tinycorelinux/6.x/x86/tcz/ (dependencies are listed in the {package}.tcz.dep file).
2. Add the downloaded .tcz files to /Reset/Server/Ingredients/Custom
3. Add the name of the downloaded package without the .tcz file extension to /Reset/Server/Ingredients/extras.lst

Optional: /Reset/Server/Ingredients/install_extras.sh can be duplicated and point at a file other than extras.lst. This can allow for different packages to be grouped and have group output silenced by pointing the output to /dev/null

Note: Ensure you do not write below the last line in the extras.lst file

Upgrade Instructions

Generally speaking, Levinux will use the most recent version of TinyCore Linux available. If it is out of date, it will be upgraded in a timely manner. For the time being, this upgrade will be performed by @miklevin himself to ensure the validity of the image.

That being said, if you want to upgrade on your own, the process is simple:

1. Download the latest core-current.iso from http://distro.ibiblio.org/tinycorelinux/downloads.html Use the ~9MB file labeled Core.
2. Open the .iso image and go into the boot directory. Some versions of Windows may require special software for this.
3. Copy the files named core.gz and vmlinuz into the MacOS directory and overwrite the existing versions.

That's it. Start the levinux application and it should show the version number.