Looking for a fast CLI Linux distro

Solution 1:

Why not try out Arch? You build it from scratch and can stop building as soon as you have enough stuff.

Although there's a little bit of time investment, what you get at the end is exactly what you want They have an outstanding wiki and good community support.

Solution 2:

try grml, you can pick between different sizes and put it onto an usb-stick:

• distribution for sysadmins and users of text tools
• Debian based distribution [use existing infrastructure]
• usability by the visually impaired right out of the box
• geeky community

Solution 3:

Well, while its primarily a distribution meant for GUI use (at a whopping 30 mb) slitaz does have a 8mb version that's text only, and has its own repository system.

I've tried ttylinux, and its a little too minimal to be of any use. IMO.