The Freon WIKI

NOTICE: Freon is still well under heavy development!

Introduction

Freon is not for the faint hearted GNU/linux enthusiasts. There's minimal function to the OS, and little software/scripts to help on most daily tasks. Installation is automated for the sake of time, but as for gaining access to new software; GCC or TCC is your only bet if what you need is not available within Freon's package repository.
Lucky enough, I've been chipping away at the polishing aspect of Freon and it's really come to stable grounds as a VM distribution. In my time of using it, it's made a really stable base system for a user comfortable with a *nix environment, so I've shifted the development focus of Freon toward being the most powerful, flexible, and lightweight virtual machine oriented distro!

Installing Freon Linux

First step to installing Freon Linux, boot the disk media! Once greeted with a login prompt, login as root (default no password).
Next step, let's format the drive that'll be used for the finished installation of Freon. If using Freon with standard QEMU-KVM execution (IDE emulated disks), /dev/hda would be your first disk. If using SATA, the kernel would recongize the drives over ATA and register as /dev/sd[X]
# fdisk /dev/hdX (*** X being the letter of the drive you are going to use. Ex. /dev/hda or /dev/sda)
Need some assistance with fdisk? fdisk How-To
Next up, let's get a install configuration file from Freon's installation utility freezedry
# freezedry config /root/install.conf
If you are installing from a disk, and installing to the first hard drive via IDE, the default configuration file will work as-is. Else modify /root/install.conf using 'vi'. To install, simply...
# freezedry install /root/install.conf
freezedry will automatically format the hard disk partition, install the base system, and install grub!

Installing packages

So at this point, lets say you're installed and using Freon. If that's the case, grab a hold of our utility for package management. Freon Linux uses a simple package manager for its software known as "thaw". For updating the package repository:
# thaw update
For installing a package (ex: thaw get-install bash):
# thaw install [package_name]
For searching packages / build scripts within the Freon repository (ex: thaw search bash):
# thaw search [query]
For updating the system kernel:
# thaw upgrade-kernel
Last, but not least, thaw officially has the ability to compile software from source code using official OS build scripts and Freon's toolchain:
# thaw build [package]

Using chttpd (Freon's webserver)

CHTTPD is a lightweight and functional web server written by me! Out of the box, CHTTPD is preconfigured with Freon. From Freon's init script, chttpd is launched on boot. The configuration file is located at /etc/chttpd.conf
  • Starting CHTTPD: # /etc/init.d/chttpd start
  • Stopping CHTTPD: # /etc/init.d/chttpd stop

Installing X environment

Freon has a lightweight X server known as Xfbdev. We used the forked TinyCoreLinux tinyx (similar to Puppy Linux's fork) to achieve a lightweight but functional X mainly for the futures xrdp client. After all, Freon Linux is going to be attended for embedded installations or for potato's worth of a computer.
Install X:
# thaw update
# thaw install x

With the X server downloaded, lets start X
# startx

You should have an operating TinyX installation. TinyX is wonderful, and with its small footprint in the system; it was the obvious choice for Freon. On the flip side, it also has its downsides and that mainly being the lack of accelerated rendering support or any real GPU drivers. Freon, of course, is really meant to be used headless as a lightweight VM distribution. TinyX is in Freon for the sake of having a GUI, and soon for xrdp!
Need to change your CLI / X resolution? In freon, with no accelerated support, this would be done at boot time by setting vga='decimal code'.

res / depth 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x720 1280x1024 1440x900 1600x900 1600x1200 1920x1200
8 bit 769 771 773 (none) 775 864 843 796 893
16 bit 785 778 791 (none) 794 866 844 798 (none)
24 bit 786 789 792 891 795 867 845 799 (none)

Compiling from source

Now, down to being able to extend Freon in where you need or might want. Freon requires the installation of the development toolchain to compile software for itself. Luckily, GCC and TCC were some of the first packages added into the software repository.
Installing the Freon toolchain:
# thaw install toolchain
This will install necessary components like GCC, make, autotools, and more. After so, perl will be compiled on the system for autotool dependencies.