Lightweight Command Line Linux In The Gallery?

[MartinPacker]

Could we have a lightweight Linux image that can run in UTM SE eg on an iPad?

There are lots of things I can't do on iPad OS this would enable.

I don't need a GUI so a command line build would do fine.

I do need a proper package installation capability.

Also this would need to be save-able.

[lgrachov]

There is already an Arch Linux machine in the gallery and a Debian 10.4 Custom i3. Which one fits you the best? All of them are command line and the Debian 10.4 Custom i3 has a console and VGA display.

[MartinPacker]

Thank you. The one that successfully got me to a command line was Arch Linux. However, trying to run pacman -S python got me a 404. In fact any pacman -S attempt to install anything gives me the same result.

I would've preferred the Debian route but I can't get to a command line when it starts.

[MartinPacker]

Actually fixed the pacman issue with pacman -Syy - to update its list of packages.

[tosigus]

Thanks for the pointer to Debian 10.4, it helps but some programs are working in my existing workflows better with Ubuntu. Would a minimal Ubuntu Server version also be possible?

[lgrachov]

Thanks for the pointer to Debian 10.4, it helps but some programs are working in my existing workflows better with Ubuntu. Would a minimal Ubuntu Server version also be possible?

Yes. If the .iso you have is Ubuntu Server 22.04, then there is an Ubuntu 22.04 and 14.04 guide in the UTM Gallery

[lgrachov]

I would've preferred the Debian route but I can't get to a command line when it starts.

I have read the documentation of Debian, the operating system prompts you to first choose whether you want to use Option or Command as the $Mod key. The $Mod key stands for the modifier key, which is the same thing as the Command key. The Command can be used with the Space key to open the Spotlight menu. The prompt is shown only when the config file does not exist at ~/.i3/ or ~/.config/i3/.

The virtual machine template has it set to Command or Option. Try pressing them to see which one is the modifier key. After the modifier key has been set you can press Modifier+D to open the application startup dmenu. With dmenu you can then open a terminal or text editor to read or modify the configuration file.

In the configuration file, you can add key binds to open applications with this format:

bindsym $Mod+<key> <command> <arguments>

So to open Firefox with the Debian site by pressing Modifier+F, you can do this:

bindsym $Mod+F exec firefox www.debian.org 

Note

Restarting the window system does not restart the system! It only closes the windows and stops the desktop from appearing (because it is rendered via i3)!

You will have to restart the window system (i3) for the new configuration file to take changes:

$ i3 restart

Tip

You can set the restart command to a key bind can save a lot of time during configuration:

bindsym $Mod+<key> restart

For more information about setting up i3, check their documentation.

Hope this helps!

[leszek-s]

I recently tried using antiX linux distro (I checked antiX-23.1-Base 32bit with lightweight gui but there is also core variant without gui on their website) on my ipad in UTM SE and while it was still very slow it definitely worked better than other linux distros from utm gallery (and also better than reactos) so perhaps you might want to try that. I also wanted to try freedos but I had problems with setting it up. Perhaps this antiX (or something similar with very lightweight gui) or maybe freedos (if anyone is able to set it up) could be added to offical utm gallery so we have there something that works faster on iOS with UTM SE?

[lgrachov]

or maybe freedos (if anyone can set it up)

This is a guide for macOS, but I hope you can figure it out.

Create a new virtual machine and choose Emulation. It is gonna be slow because we chose emulation. Choose your .iso file in the Boot iso path. Set about 100 megabytes to the main drive. That is enough to run DOS. Then, set anywhere about 512 megabytes of memory. Choose Open VM settings after creation.

Add a new drive. Set it to a floppy drive, and save all of the changes. Adjust the order of the drives so that the floppy is in the bottom, the CD-ROM is at the top, and the main hard drive is in the middle.

When booted, press 1 or Enter. Then, choose the run fdisk option. If it asks if you want to use FAT32, choose yes. Choose option 1 for the primary disk partition. Then, choose yes. (the partition you install FreeDOS onto must be active so it boots.)

Boot from the CD, and run SETUP. Format the drive if asked to, and continue the setup. I provided an existing UTM template so you don't have to do this yourself. I don't have a FreeDOS .iso, but I made the template on iPad mini 6.

FreeDOS.zip

[lgrachov]

@MartinPacker If you can make a lightweight Linux virtual machine, you can then ask to submit it to the gallery.

I found out that you can contribute to the gallery. It was explained in #3807 .