_______ .______          ___   ____    ____  ____     ___      __   
 /  _____||   _  \        /   \  \   \  /   / |___ \   / _ \    / /   
|  |  __  |  |_)  |      /  ^  \  \   \/   /    __) | | (_) |  / /_   
|  | |_ | |      /      /  /_\  \  \_    _/    |__ <   > _ <  | '_ \  
|  |__| | |  |\  \----./  _____  \   |  |      ___) | | (_) | | (_) | 
 \______| | _| `._____/__/     \__\  |__|     |____/   \___/   \___/  
Linux for i386 machines

Are you interested in Linux on i486 machine? Take a look at gray486linux. Currently, it's not possible to run gray386linux on i486 machines (but it's possible to run gray386linux on Cyrix 486DLC and similar CPUs). However i486 machine is still able to run actual Linux kernel (2022).

It's easy. Just take a look at bin directory. There is 2 folders named:

fpu - version for machines with FPU coprocessor installed.

no_fpu - build with software FPU enabled.

NOTE: only AMD cpus are enabled by default now.

NOTE2: gray386 linux is source based distribution so binaries can be older than current configuration.

Tested build environment: Fedora 35 with Nix installed.

If you want just default build, and you have installed make and bash then you can just type make in src directory. You are done and GOTO 100. But if you don't like make, you can just type ./graybuild.sh in src directory. In both cases, results will be placed in results directory.

In case you want to make some changes then follow next steps.

Nix-shell scripts take handle of it.

If you don't want to use nix-shell, just type:

export GR_CPUS=$(nproc --all)

cd src/build-kernel-env-with-nix/

nix-shell --pure

make headers_install ARCH=i386 INSTALL_HDR_PATH=../gray386/

exit

cd src/build-env-with-nix/

nix-shell --pure

CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -I$(realpath "${PWD}/../gray386/include")" ./configure --target=i386 --prefix=$(realpath "${PWD}/../gray386/")

make -j"$GR_CPUS"

make install

(optional) make menuconfig

make -j"$GR_CPUS"

make install

autoconf; autoheader

CC="$(realpath $PWD/../gray386/bin/musl-gcc)" ./configure --enable-static --enable-bundled-libtom --disable-syslog --disable-harden --disable-zlib --disable-shadow --disable-utmp --disable-utmpx --disable-wtmpx --disable-loginfunc --prefix="$(realpath $PWD/../gray386/_install/)"

make -j"$GR_CPUS"

strip dbclient

cp dbclient ../gray386/_install/bin

exit

cd src/build-kernel-env-with-nix/

nix-shell --pure

There is mapping hidden in .config and you need to change it to UID of user under you compile a kernel.

CONFIG_INITRAMFS_ROOT_UID=1001

CONFIG_INITRAMFS_ROOT_GID=1001

Then you can do some other changes with:

make -j"$GR_CPUS" ARCH=i386 nconfig

(optional) make -j"$GR_CPUS" ARCH=i386 nconfig

make -j"$GR_CPUS" ARCH=i386 bzImage

Results are in:

arch/x86/boot/bzImage usr/initramfs_data.cpio.gz

exit

You need to have qemu installed.

In kernel directory just run

./test-build.sh

git clean -f -d -X