LinuxBIOS with X11 server, completely in Flash

[audiovoodoo]

Now, this is one cool project (and video) from Alan Carvalho de Assis (and friends), as announced on the LinuxBIOS mailing list: LinuxBIOS with X Server Inside (YouTube video).

The setup: LinuxBIOS + a Linux kernel + BusyBox + a tiny X11 server (Kdrive) + the Matchbox window manager + rxvt.

All of this in a normal BIOS chip (2 MB), without any hard drive connected (who needs hard drives when you can fit everything in the BIOS just fine)...

The thing boots into BusyBox in less than 6 seconds, then in ca. 2 seconds into X11 + rxvt. There's probably even room for improvement there...

Read the full article and watch the videos here www.hermann-uwe.de

 

[linux_0]

very kewl

Thanks for posting :trophy:

 

[audiovoodoo]

Thought you might like. Do you think we should have a few more post of general linux interest? I come across a few things and I'm sure others do.

As for the BIOS thing.. a few comments I saw were of the oh wow I can do that with a pen drive type but I can see more in it than that. Low cost single board solutions could be very interesting.

 

[bmouring]

People in the comments area are missing the most important benefit of such a system: if there is something broken or hobbled in the proprietary vendor BIOS, you now have to wait for them to roll out an update. With this one, since you have direct access to the code, you can work on it yourself (or wait for others to work on it or pay a freelance coder, etc.)

Also, some of the traditional limits built into BIOS to support legacy systems can be removed as they are no longer needed for all but the most extreme edge cases (I'm looking at you, 16-bit legacy setup code that is now handled better by drivers).

Once I can get some time and track down a BIOS Savior (a general-purpose an external "dual BIOS" device) I was planning on giving LinuxBIOS and a new payload a go as my board is apparently supported.

 

[Anoobis]

Stick that in your SuperFetch/ReadyBoost pipe and smoke it Windoze.