The miniRTL project is developing a minimum sized real-time Linux small enough to boot from a single floppy (or small Flash memory device) into a ramdisk, yet with the most important features of Linux. miniRTL is intended to be useful as the basis for embedded systems, but also provides a means for real-time “newbies” to learn more about real-time Linux.

miniRTL is a standalone networked Linux system with:

• shell-access (ash) at the console and via ssh/telnet (ethernet/plip/slip)
  
• file access fia scp/tftp (nfs mounting is possible with additional modules)
  
• RTL-V2.X / RTAI-V1.2 (both Kernel 2.2.14)
  
• glibc 2.0.7 (lots of security limitations, but 2.1.2 is too large)
  
• all basic system services (syslog/cron/outgoing-mail)
  
• tinyhttpd with full cgi-bin support (you can monitor the system via http and execute commands via cgi-bin using “brute force” ash scripts that are close to being embarrassing)

The system hardware requirements are, currently:

• CPU: 386DX/486DX+
  
• RAM: 8 MB total RAM (4MB ramdisk + 4MB DRAM); on SMP it currently requires 12MB
  
• Boot: can boot from a 1.44MB floppy, so no HD is required; a 2MB Flash device should work well

 
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