Distribution for work on Compact Flash

Question

linux

There is an x86 industrial motherboard with very modest parameters: Celeron 600 MHz, 256 MB of RAM. There is VGA, USB. There is the possibility of connecting as a CF hard drive.

Now a 128 MB CF is installed there and x86 OpenWRT runs with the jffs2 root file system (to spare the flash drive). The main disadvantage of this Linux is that it does not have a gcc compiler in its packages, and, optionally, there is no X. Of course, all this can be assembled and configured, but in my opinion it is easier to choose a ready-made and time-tested solution.

Can you recommend a lightweight Linux distribution that could work from a flash drive, sparing it, and had a fairly rich repository? As you understand, with such parameters, lifecd is not very satisfied. Plus, I want to be able to install packages and change settings.

For reference: The motherboard will be used as an experimental server, where I will debug my hardware and programs.

Answer 1

www.aweiler.com/linux/debianonflash.html

Answer 2

Given the strong size limit, you can use unionfs + squashfs(ro, created in advance on another machine) + ???(rw). Well, some lines can help: help.ubuntu.ru/wiki/ssd .
Ubuntu 12.04 is fine, I think: at 128MB (packaging in squashfs will reduce the size), the base system fits just fine.
And, yes, you can benefit from a noticeable part of the space by loading the kernel over the network (is this a rare operation?).

Answer 3

Build what you need on Gentoo, with a minimum of unnecessary dependencies, and good optimization. The process is noticeably more time-consuming, of course, but the profit in terms of resources and speed is noticeable.

Answer 4

With flash, I have Linux Puppy on this shop.nativepc.ru/15--alix-3d3.html
worked smartly, although also relatively, sites in Chromium still loaded very slowly. Another plus of Puppy is that it is a fairly common system, that is, there are a lot of packages and descriptions on the network how to put it.
Ubuntu also started, but there because of the graphics, since there is no video, any action that changed on the screen caused a very long reaction.
But it was all within the framework of a hobby project, that is, just to play around.