I made a build VPS box to do some custom builds using gcc4 only, as previously mentioned, but I still haven’t broken the 100MB barrier yet. The 78MB build I did failed to boot, and I’m switching from making ISOs to VMWare as I can’t stand making any more coasters!
From what I can tell the kernel core is around 1.8MB in total plus some required libraries, so I think it’s possible to get the minimum install well under 100MB. (kernel, app server, input server, tracker?)
The goals I’ve set for my education/knowledge of this very fine OS are:
1.) To see how low I can get a minimal install to boot - even if there are no applications
2.) Develop a framework for application + system updates - I have a basic implementation on paper, now I just need to implement it and see how much of the existing build system needs to be tweaked
3.) Understand the internals better as it’s been a while since I’ve done any OS tinkering
I think 1 is gonna be easy to do this week, #2 will be a good tinkering test but #3 is already forcing me to break open my old OS design books and relearn some things.
Since I left the GGL back in January and moved down to Washington DC to my new job I still feel this urge for working on a project, even on the side, that gives back to gaming and, just maybe, helps gaming grow in some way.
So I’ve been tinkering with some ideas I’ve had recently, some old but most are new. I’ve taken that opportunity to start using new technologies (to me). I’ve been a LAMP (and FAMP) guy for over 10 years now. I’ve looked at PostgreSQL in the past but wrote it off and never really gave it a chance until now. I’m just getting started but it’s pretty interesting so far… consistency, stability and correctness have never been so nice — even if it means I need to (re-)learn a few things about databases 
I’m also fooling with a new framework more and more, Yii. The design fits my requirements pretty well, but more on that as I need to tinker more to make a proper post about it.
Ah this brings back some memories of my venture through Yellowstone 2 years ago with Kate..
Yesterday I finished the re-install of my IBM ThinkPad T42 using the factory install disks. After completing the re-install, I diligently started the Windows Update process to make sure my laptop was up to date before pushing all my data back onto it. After 2 patches, SP3 update was next and I let it do its thing for the next few hours and went to bed. This morning I woke up to try and install a few optional updates and generally wrap the reload up and found I couldn’t install ANYTHING!
.NET 2.0 had a critical update that would take, nor would any of the optional hardware and software updates work. Finally after googling around I found a post here that says:
This problem will not exist on the final version of SP3.
It can be fixed by running this command:
regsvr32 wups2.dll
Sure enough, after registering that dll file with the above command I am now able to apply all updates to the system. Good for both future reference and for anyone googling around wondering why they can’t update their XP system anymore!