Re: About 386 with 8mb RAM

[Dan Olson <dano@agora.rdrop.com>]

> Somebody probably can, but it's unlikely to be on this list. The
> Linux-8086 list specialises in the ELKS operating system, which is
> basically a version of Linux for sub-386 processors.

True, though you must admit that this list is perty close :)

> I don't know TinyLinux myself, so can't comment specifically on that. I
> run Red Hat Linux almost exclusively here, so my comments are biased
> towards that simply because it's the one I have experience of. However,
> given that, here's my comments on your hardware.

I've been using Slackware, more recently off of CD, but I've installed off
of floppy too.  I recall it being perty simple, just copy the files from
whatever source you're using to disks, even on the CD the packages are
broken up into "sets" that are no more than 1.2M is size, and the setup
program prompts for the next disk automaticly when you install from
floppy.  To get X-windows, you want the "X" package.  There's "x apps"
that may be useful too.

> If you can upgrade your RAM to 12M, you will be able to install Red Hat
> Linux 5.2, and with 16M you can grab Red Hat Linux 6.2.

Sorry, but I would avoid Red Hat on this system as I think Slackware
(maybe Debian and others too) have traditionally been better about using
less drive space and letting you install just want you want.

 Both come with
> X-Windows as standard, and will install it for you. Although a 386 is
> very definitely underpowered for X-Windows, it WILL run on it, although
> it'll be slow and you'll need to allow for plenty of swap space, most
> preferably in a separate partition as that's how the Red Hat installer
> prefers it.

I've got a 386 running Slackware, I think it's an 8 meg machine, as I
only have 1 meg (30 pin) simms, and of my pile of old hardware, I couldn't
fine anything with more than 8 slots.  It's slow to boot and slow to start
X up, sure, but I just have a network card in it and use it as an X
terminal, it works great for that.  I didn't know you could have swap with
anything but a swap partition!  You probably want to avoid swapping if
possible (ie don't run too much) as it'll drag things to a crawl.

> You don't say how large the hard drive is, so these figures may not be
> appropriate, but if you want to run X-Windows, you should allow for at
> least 256mb of swap partition on a machine with less than 32mb of RAM.

You're kidding, right?  My 386 has a 300 meg drive, I think I made a 16M
or 32M swap partition....do you know how long it'd take to just write
256mb of swapped data?

> If you wish to email me off-list with more details of your system, I'll
> advise you further, but NOT on this list where the subject is very much
> off-topic.

Same here, don't know if there's much else to add :)  Good luck!

	Dan