ChamesleChamesle Linux tries to do everything for you. Chamesle Source does nothing for you. It's a kernel and an editor, and everything else you write yourself.
What you get
- A Linux kernel. The same one Chamesle Linux ships.
- vi, as the first and only program. Not a vi clone: Bill Joy's own ex 1.1 from 1977, the first vi there was, brought over to today's C. It runs as PID 1, where an init system would normally be.
- A C compiler behind it. tcc is built into vi. Save with
wqand what you wrote is compiled and run. If it doesn't compile, you stay in vi and see the errors. - A libc in one file.
c.h, about 800 lines, our own. It's all the C library there is.
That's it. There's no init, no shell, no ls, no cp, no network tools.
What you make
The first thing you write is a shell, because there isn't one. Then the commands you're used to: listing
files, copying them, mounting a disk. Then a way to install the system onto that disk, so it survives a restart.
Then wget, so the computer can download something, and tar, so it can unpack what it
downloaded. With those two you can fetch a real compiler, gcc, and from there build bigger things.
Every program on the system is one you typed in, in a 1977 editor, on top of a libc that fits on a few pages.
fbttywm
ttywm is the window manager Chamesle Linux uses for its TTY Flavor: the console, with floating windows on top. fbttywm is the same idea without Xorg underneath. It draws straight to the screen and reads the keyboard and mouse itself, and every window is one of its own terminals.
It ships with Chamesle Source, but only as source code. To get windows you need gcc, so first you need
wget and tar, and before those a shell and the basic commands. You have to earn it.
Why
Making a distro easy is mostly about hiding work: drivers sorted, apps found, settings that already make sense. Chamesle Source is that work with nothing hidden. Knowing every layer from the kernel up is what makes it possible to build the easy version properly, and having done it the hard way is the proof.
It also answers a question people sometimes ask about small distros: is this just someone else's system with a new wallpaper? Chamesle Source has nothing of anyone else's in it except the kernel, the compiler and a 1977 editor.
Try it
The code is on GitHub. It runs in QEMU with one script.
Should I use it?
No. Nobody should use it for anything real. It's a side project for fun and for learning. If you want a computer that works, get Chamesle Linux.