504box Live i686 Fluxbox

504box Live i686 is a customized Debian minimal install created for older computers with low-medium resources.

It has a small set of applications and once installed to hard drive
can be expanded via Synaptic pkg manager, or kept small and light.

Developer comments

I specifically made it small so that you can take a full Debian system
with you anywhere on a 512MB and up USB with full persistency!

Debian Live
http://live.debian.net/
uses a persistent file or partition labeled "live-rw"
Please see here:
http://live.debian.net/manual/html/persistence.html

I included 5 different sized pre-made "live-rw" files in the download
1 for each; 128MB, 256MB, 512MB, 1GB, and 2GB.
Just unzip the "live-rw.zip", inside are the 5 compressed live-rw's
live-rw256.zip,etc
Unzip one of whichever size you want and copy it to a fat32/ext2/ext3 usb
or hard drive partition and boot with the persistent option.
NOTE!
The live-rw file must be on a different partition than the Debian live system.
Meaning, for example using a 2GB USB, make 2 partitions
if usb is sdb

sdb1 (at least 400MB) fat32 boot flag set active, syslinux 3.71 or higher installed

sdb2 (any size bigger than live-rw file) ext2 (Place live-rw here)

Easiest way to do this is partition USB as above and then use Unetbootin
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
to install 504box to USB.

Unetbootin is included in 504box, so if you burn 504box to CD and then use
Gparted and Unetbootin to setup your USB easily!

It boots fast and has been tested on 4 different PC's
A HP Pavillion a810n AMD Athlon64 3300+ 1GB RAM
A Emachines no-name with Nvidia MX4000 GeForce AMD AthlonXP 2200+ and 512MB RAM
A Dell with Celeron 512MB RAM and Sparkle card
and a Toshiba 7000CT Portege Pentium II 160MB RAM 266MHz Laptop
504box performed well on all of them!

Requirements:
i686 or better with 128MB of RAM or better in X mode
64MB RAM or better in Text Mode (enter "textonly" at boot command line)
(hit TAB key and edit boot line)

Build:
Debian Live 5.0.4

Desktop:
Fluxbox err...504box
504box is a custom build of the Fluxbox Window Manager.
You'll love it if you're a Fluxbox fan!

Display manager:
Slim; sourced from SlackBuilds 13.0 repository and converted to Debian

Kernel: 2.6.26-2-686 Lenny/Squeeze with lenny proposed updates/ debian backports.

username: root
password: 77

Note: There are no user accounts, only root/administrator. You can setup a regular user easily in Menu

Included utilities are:
grub
syslinux
Testdisk
Fsarchiver
ddrescue
gddrescue
grub-rescue-pc
e2undel
ext3grep
gzrt
crack
wipe

Other tools include:
Bum services manager
GrubConfig* Added script /usr/sbin/grubconfig (very cool)
isomaster
squashfs-tools
xnest
ntfs-3g
gpart
Gparted
parted
kpartx
util-linux

Text:
leafpad
vi/vim
nano
mc

Filemanagers:
PCMANFM
Rox
MC
Isomaster
xarchiver

Audio:
alsamixergui
audacious
Graveman
burn
cdrecord

Browsers/network:
Flash 10
Iceweasel
w3m
links2
links2 text

gftp
grsync
wireless-tools
gnome-network-manager
wifi-radar
xchat
ircii
weechat

Graphics:
the Gimp

Other stuff:
Plop bootmanager
Netbootcd 3.2.1 (net install a major distro)
remastersys backup and hd installer
Unetbootin (yep)
Live-Magic (make your own Debian Live!)

Note, lxpanel at top
you can turn any/all apps that start with fluxbox by editing /root/.fluxbox/startup

Burn to CD-R/CD-RW: Use k3b/brasero in Linux or Nero or ImageBurn freeware in Windows.
always "burn" image to CD, at slowest speed, usually 8x.

Persistent/Non-Persistent USB/HDD install:
use Unetbootin and see persistence.html in docs folder

Hard drive Install:
Full Install= approx. 1.1GB(small)
Remastersys-Installer, runs similar to Ubuntu installer,
very easy to use.

Please contact me at thepenandpaper AT gmail.com if any questions!

The iso itself is about 365MB and also comes with Plop bootmanager and NetbootCD-3.2.1 as above.

Product's homepage