[romforth]

To build minimal linux systems, I've found Minimal Linux Live [^1] and Floppinux [^2] useful. There was a list of build steps for 486 [^3] as well, in case you are targeting older machines.

[1]: https://github.com/ivandavidov/minimal-linux-script [2]: https://github.com/w84death/floppinux [3]: https://www.insentricity.com/a.cl/283/booting-a-486-from-flo...