Linux Filesystems: Distribution Disk Images

Distribution / Source	32/64 bit Download	Checksums
Busybox 1.13.2	64	md5	sha
Slackware 12.x	32	md5	sha
Slackware 12.x	64	md5	sha
Gentoo	32	md5	sha
	64	md5	sha
	64 multilib	md5	sha
Debian Lenny	32	md5	sha
Debian Lenny	64	md5	sha
Debian Squeeze	32	md5	sha
Debian Squeeze	64	md5	sha
Ubuntu Oneiric	32	md5	sha
Ubuntu Oneiric	64	md5	sha
Damn Small Linux 4.4	32	md5	sha
Fedora 16	64	md5	sha
Fedora 16	32	md5	sha
CentOS 6.x	32	md5	sha
CentOS 6.x	64	md5	sha
OpenSuse 12.1	64	md5	sha
OpenSuse 12.1	32	md5	sha

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
RedHat 7.2	2001		md5	sha
RedHat 5.2	1998		md5	sha

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/Fedora16/Fedora16-x86-root_fs.bz2
bunzip2 Fedora16-x86-root_fs.bz2
mkdir Fedora16-x86-chroot
mount -o loop Fedora16-x86-root_fs Fedora16-x86-chroot
mount -t proc none Fedora16-x86-chroot/proc
linux32 chroot Fedora16-x86-chroot
umount Fedora16-x86-chroot/proc
umount Fedora16-x86-chroot

Usage with UML

Download (or build your own) UML kernel, then boot the image, ie:

wget http://fs.devloop.org.uk/filesystems/Fedora16/Fedora16-x86-root_fs.bz2
bunzip2 Fedora16-x86-root_fs.bz2
wget http://uml.devloop.org.uk/kernels/kernel32-3.1.1.bz2
bunzip2 kernel32-3.1.1.bz2
chmod +x kernel32-3.1.1
./kernel32-3.1.1 ubda=./Fedora16-x86-root_fs

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/Fedora16/Fedora16-x86-root_fs.bz2
bunzip2 Fedora16-x86-root_fs.bz2
qemu-system-x86_64 root=/dev/hda -nographic \
	-kernel /boot/bzImage-3.1.1 \
	-drive file=./Fedora16-x86-root_fs,if=ide,boot=on

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 \
		Fedora16-x86-root_fs Fedora16-x86.vdi

(see VBoxManage convertfromraw manual for more information)

To VMWare VMDK format:
qemu-img convert -f raw Fedora16-x86-root_fs -O vmdk Fedora16-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).