filesystem icon
Linux Filesystems
Distribution Download Size Compatible with Checksums
Source 32/64 bit (MB) UML KVM  md5    sha1  sha512
Busybox 1.13.2 64 1 works*1 works hash hash hash
Slackware 12.x 32 90 works works hash hash hash
64 61 hash hash hash
Gentoo 32 576 hash hash hash
64 580 works works hash hash hash
64 multilib 355 *6 hash hash hash
Debian Jessie 32 62 works works hash hash hash
64 61 hash hash hash
Debian Wheezy 32 79 works not working*2 hash hash hash
64 75 hash hash hash
Ubuntu Trusty 32 47 not working*2*3 works*4 hash hash hash
64 52 hash hash hash
Damn Small Linux 4.4 32 47 works works hash hash hash
Fedora 21 *7 64 200 works works hash hash hash
32 200 hash hash hash
CentOS 6.x 32 120 works works hash hash hash
64 120 hash hash hash
OpenSuse 12.1 64 119 works*5 works*5 hash hash hash
32 74 hash hash hash
  1. Some minor tty issues: may show spurious tty warnings on the console
  2. Serious console/tty issues: not shown, disconnections, etc
  3. No login shell: it is not possible to login using the text console
  4. Silent boot: the services will be started silently and there may be a long delay before the login prompt shows up
  5. No init: drops you directly to a root shell
  6. UML does not support "multilib" - only 64-bit binaries will work
  7. The filesystem needs to be relabelled, append "enforcing=0" or "autorelabel" to the kernel's command line if it supports SELinux
If you find solutions to any of these issues, please let us know.

About these images

These disk images are provided for your convenience only.
They are certainly not endorsed by any of the distributions they are based on, if you would prefer doing it yourself, you can use the scripts provided or a dedicated tool like febootstrap.
All are in raw disk format which can be loop mounted, or used directly as a raw disk with KVM (or QEMU), User Mode Linux and many others. See below for some examples.
Note: there is no bootloader! Use your own kernel or install a bootloader via a chroot.
These images were made as small as possible: no unnecessary packages were installed.
The root password has been left blank.
Many older releases are available here (no longer supported)

Ancient Releases

Here you can find some of our favourite distributions of all time. These are so old that only the brave will use them for anything but experimentation. (32-bit only)
Distribution / Source Year Download Checksums
 md5    sha1  sha512
RedHat 7.2 2001 download hash hash hash
RedHat 5.2 1998 download hash hash hash


Usage via chroot

This is by far the simplest option, just mount the image and chroot into it, ie: 
wget http://fs.devloop.org.uk/filesystems/Fedora21/Fedora21-x86-root_fs.bz2
bunzip2 Fedora21-x86-root_fs.bz2
mkdir Fedora21-x86-chroot
mount -o loop Fedora21-x86-root_fs Fedora21-x86-chroot
mount -t proc none Fedora21-x86-chroot/proc
linux32 chroot Fedora21-x86-chroot
umount Fedora21-x86-chroot/proc
umount Fedora21-x86-chroot

Usage with UML

Download (or build your own) UML kernel, then boot the image, ie: 
wget http://fs.devloop.org.uk/filesystems/CentOS-6.x/CentOS6.x-x86-root_fs.bz2
bunzip2 CentOS6.x-x86-root_fs.bz2
wget http://uml.devloop.org.uk/kernels/kernel32-3.12.7.bz2
bunzip2 kernel32-3.12.7.bz2
chmod +x kernel32-3.12.7
./kernel32-3.12.7 ubda=./CentOS6.x-x86-root_fs.bz2 mem=256m
For more detailed usage information, see this howto.

Usage with KVM (or QEMU)

Since these images do not contain a bootloader, you must use the -kernel ./bzImage switch when using KVM, here is an example command line (assuming you have your own bzImage to use in /boot/): 
wget http://fs.devloop.org.uk/filesystems/Fedora21/Fedora21-x86-root_fs.bz2
bunzip2 Fedora21-x86-root_fs.bz2
qemu-kvm -nographic \
	-m 512
	-kernel /boot/bzImage-3.1.1 \
	-drive file=./Fedora21-x86-root_fs,if=ide
	-append "root=/dev/sda earlyprintk=serial,ttyS0,9600 console=ttyS0,9600n8"
For more information see KVM Wiki and QEMU home.

Usage with VirtualBox, VMWare and others

Since these images are in raw disk format, you can easily convert them to any other virtualization disk format, ie:
  • To VirtualBox VDI: 
    VBoxManage convertfromraw --format VDI \
		Fedora21-x86-root_fs Fedora21-x86.vdi
    (see VBoxManage convertfromraw manual for more information)
  • To VMWare VMDK format:
    qemu-img convert -f raw Fedora21-x86-root_fs -O vmdk Fedora21-x86.vmdk
    (see VMWare converter FAQ)

Note: the resulting disk images are NOT bootable since there is no bootloader installed on the original disk images.
You will need to boot a recovery CD or another working disk image to access it (and install a bootloader if you wish to do so).