The Linux Router Project
Encyclopedia
The Linux Router Project (LRP) is a now defunct networking-centric micro Linux distribution
. The released versions of LRP were small enough to fit on a single 1.44MB floppy disk, and made building and maintaining routers, access servers, thin servers, thin clients, network appliances, and typically embedded systems next to trivial.
The oldest embedded Linux distribution, LRP in whole or in part formed the basis of many other embedded system distributions and commercial products which followed it. Several parts developed or specifically enhanced for LRP are still found in common usage today such as POSIXness and BusyBox
.
LRP 5.0 development was headed towards a complete rewrite and reimplementation of Linux userland with a new standard design outside of the POSIX specification. The stated purpose of this was to provide a modern standard base operating system suitable for any application including embedded systems, appliances, servers, and desktop computers.
Cinege however stopped work several months later due to financial reasons. He refused to release any further work, or even the name of this OS, due to animosity towards the computer industry and what he perceived as the plundering of open source authors' work by large corporations.
On May 6th, 2003 Cinege updated the LRP website to reflect that the project was being abandoned.
Linux distribution
A Linux distribution is a member of the family of Unix-like operating systems built on top of the Linux kernel. Such distributions are operating systems including a large collection of software applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, media players, and database applications...
. The released versions of LRP were small enough to fit on a single 1.44MB floppy disk, and made building and maintaining routers, access servers, thin servers, thin clients, network appliances, and typically embedded systems next to trivial.
History
LRP was conceived and primarily developed by Dave Cinege from 1997 until 2002. It began originally as a 'router on a floppy' and evolved into a streamlined general purpose network operating system.The oldest embedded Linux distribution, LRP in whole or in part formed the basis of many other embedded system distributions and commercial products which followed it. Several parts developed or specifically enhanced for LRP are still found in common usage today such as POSIXness and BusyBox
BusyBox
BusyBox provides several stripped-down Unix tools in a single executable. It runs in a variety of POSIX environments such as Linux, Android, FreeBSD and others, such as proprietary kernels, although many of the tools it provides are designed to work with interfaces provided by the Linux kernel. It...
.
Pioneering Features
- Small base OS footprint
- A simplified packaging system
- Menu based system and package configuration
- Strict separation of volatile, non-volatile, Read Only, and Read/Write areas of the root hierarchy
- Unpacked and run from ramdisk or run directly from flash
- A system to commit configuration changes to a non-volatile medium (Disk/Flash)
Unreleased Work
Dave Cinege worked on a rewrite of LRP 4.0 from late 2000 into January 2001. He then began testing some ideas he had with proof of concept code in which he claimed was a radical departure of the status quo. To his surprise this new direction seemed ideal, and it prompted him to abandon all work done on LRP 4.0 and begin from scratch on a new OS code named LRP 5.0.LRP 5.0 development was headed towards a complete rewrite and reimplementation of Linux userland with a new standard design outside of the POSIX specification. The stated purpose of this was to provide a modern standard base operating system suitable for any application including embedded systems, appliances, servers, and desktop computers.
Cinege however stopped work several months later due to financial reasons. He refused to release any further work, or even the name of this OS, due to animosity towards the computer industry and what he perceived as the plundering of open source authors' work by large corporations.
On May 6th, 2003 Cinege updated the LRP website to reflect that the project was being abandoned.
LRP 5.0 Proposed Features
- A base OS size of 8MB
- A new shell and scripting language unrelated to bourne shell
- A new packaging scheme that would retrofit other OSes
- An application management system
- A core process management system