Version 19.1
Kalinx is a loopback filesystem Linux distribution. A free partition of the hard disk is not required. The necessary files are packed into normal files of the existing file system. Kalinx is currently based on Debian Buster.
Linux is booted from the USB drive. All files are on the standard FAT partition. You have your own system including your own files on the USB drive with which you can boot from most modern computers from BIOS or EFI. In the EFI settings, Secure Boot may need to be disabled. You need approx. 1 GB free storage space. The system files are located in the directory Kalinx, the data files of the standard user are located in the directory Data*.
Unzip the ZIP file, insert the USB drive and start install.bat (with Windows or Linux).
The user accounts are: me/me (standard user) and root/root (administrator).
The system can be extended and updated with the standard packet manager.
Entire applications can be packed into special files and copied to the Kalinx directory. When booting, these applications are mounted and the necessary settings for the start menu are created.
Example: Integration of GeoGebra (math tool)
cd /tmp
tar xvf $HOME/Downloads/GeoGebra-Linux-Portable-*.tar.bz2
cd GeoGebra-Linux-Portable-*
rm -rf jre*-i686
cat >geogebra.desktop <<'EOF'
[Desktop Entry]
Name=GeoGebra
Comment=Dynamic mathematics software
Exec=/opt/geogebra/geogebra-portable
Icon=/opt/geogebra/geogebra.png
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Education;Math
MimeType=application/vnd.geogebra.file;application/vnd.geogebra.tool;
EOF
cd
mksquashfs /tmp/GeoGebra-Linux-Portable-*/* geogebra.fsf -noappend
Linux is booted over the network. In the initramdisk the necessary network card drivers are loaded and a CIFS share is mounted. Then the root filesystem is mounted in “/<CIFS-Share>//Kalinx/root.fs”.
Example pxelinux.cfg for the host duke with the share publ:
.
kernel krnl.z
append initrd=ird.img lan=duke:publ
.
It makes sense to mount the user directory with CIFS Link. In //duke/publ/Kalinx the operating system is located in root.fs and the files options (for the root password), netusers and netserver. The latter are copied to /etc/kalinx at boot time.