I am a Windows Refugee that is considering Haiku but am also realistic enough to realize that this is a work in progress. As a result only want to develop small application specific software until things get finalized.
With Windows 9X my co developers and I were able to reduce all versions significantly. Our favorite ver was Win95B since it did not have the early flaws of A and the IE bloat of C. We were able to get basic sizes of around 5-10 MB.
Have read that the first version of Haiku will be essentually BeOS5 so would like to start working with a minimal install of BeOS. Have done a number of searches but have been unable to find any documentation as to the minimum necessary files to get a working BeOS5 with GUI.
I am a Windows Refugee that is considering Haiku but am also realistic enough to realize that this is a work in progress. As a result only want to develop small application specific software until things get finalized.
With Windows 9X my co developers and I were able to reduce all versions significantly. Our favorite ver was Win95B since it did not have the early flaws of A and the IE bloat of C. We were able to get basic sizes of around 5-10 MB.
Have read that the first version of Haiku will be essentually BeOS5 so would like to start working with a minimal install of BeOS. Have done a number of searches but have been unable to find any documentation as to the minimum necessary files to get a working BeOS5 with GUI.
Appreciate any suggestions or tips.
Gene OHara
For the system to start you must have the kernel_intel, libroot.so, libbe.so, the app_server, disk drivers, PCI bus drivers, mouse/keyboard drivers and a few other things. These add up to a few megs.
However, a working system customised to run just on your own hardware, minus MIDI and joysticks support, is around 17MB. You won’t get it as low as a 95 install, but you’ll have to admit that the 95 install was completely useless at 10MB - BeOS is still very usuable at 17MB.
You can easily make a 100MB Zipdisk install of BeOS R5, even with the addition of extra software. Unfortunately you can’t boot BeOS off a USB key
Yes the 5-10MB Win95B were custom builds for specific hardware. The lowest figure was for apps that needed no Dlls like Solitaire, but it only took a few Large Dlls to get it over 10MB.
Do you have a File List for your 17MB BeOS? Am especially interested in the Core System Files that are needed for all or most hardware.
this will also be important when I get Haiku running on Dreamcast. It only has 16MB RAM. But then again, it only needs a few custom drivers. No IDE, or PCI.
Edit: Don’t ask when it will be ready, cause I’ve not even started. I’ve got as far as taking a look at NewOS on dreamcast, and it’s borked. :x
Only problem it is for BeOS 3 am wondering if there is an updated one for BeOS 5? I only have BeOS 5 PE so hope it may be included in the Pro or Developer Docs.
You probably want to look at /boot/beos/bin/makebootfloppy - it’s a script that copies all neccessary files from your computer to disk; if you know your way around PC hardware you’ll able to tell (in most cases, I guess) what to keep and what to throw out.
Also, for a full system you’ll need most of the stuff in /boot/beos/system/lib, e.g. libtracker.so, libbe.so (~1.5M, IIRC), libtextencoding.so, libnet/bind/socket, and some other things. You’ll need the boot script, /bin/sh and various others…
Basically, just start off with the default /boot/beos folder and start deleting things you know you can be without; last time I looked at it, it wasn’t possible to fit in BeOS w/ Tracker and Deskbar on an 1.44M floppy, but I believe it’d be possible on a 2.88M one, so you’ll definitely have a usable system in ~5M.
If you’re not going to use Tracker and Deskbar, i.e., some kind of embedded system running only one app at a time, you can remove libtracker.so/Tracker/Deskbar, but you need to add the BFilePanel class and various helpers from libtracker.so (get them from the OpenTracker sources) to your own library named libtracker.so. It’s used in Open/Save dialogues.
Basically, just start off with the default /boot/beos folder and start deleting things you know you can be without; last time I looked at it, it wasn’t possible to fit in BeOS w/ Tracker and Deskbar on an 1.44M floppy, but I believe it’d be possible on a 2.88M one, so you’ll definitely have a usable system in ~5M.
But BFS itself would eat around 1MB of the 2.88MB disk…
tracker+deskbar+appserver+kernel+basic drivers would bring you over 2.88 anyway, ignoring the BFS headers
However, BeOS on a 100MB Zip disk or an LS-120 is easily done. It’d even fit on a 16MB USB stick if we could boot off USB - but R5 can’t
I’ve got just the thing for you. A friend of mine in the community named Ken Olsen has actually done what you’re describing. I don’t remember if the file list includes drivers, but if it doesn’t, that’s the only variable in the whole thing.
