Building a tiny X.Org Linux System using Buildroot

This is my 3rd Buildroot howto, please read the previous ones in order to get started!

 

This howto was made using a Debian Squeeze 6.0 build host, with Buildroot 2011.02 (latest snapshot from the git repository)
Download and configure Buildroot :

Get the latest Buildroot and start configuring it (as a regular user)
$ cd
$ git clone git://git.buildroot.net/buildroot
$ cd buildroot && make menuconfig


How to create a very small Linux system using Buildroot

Have you ever tried to install a modern Linux distro onto a small capacity (usually 32 megs or even less) usb drive or compact flash card?

Even with a minimal install, such a distribution will not fit! Major Linux distros like Debian/Slackware/Arch/etc need a bare minimum of 300-400 megs of disk space.

The only minimal system I have been able to install so far on a 128Meg disk is NetBSD ( http://www.netbsd.org ).

But there is a way to achieve such a thing : we will be using Buildroot in order to generate a very small (embedded) Linux system (targeted at a standard intel x86  computer)