Minimum RAM for ELKS?

Minimum RAM for ELKS?

[Dave Mills]

Hi,

I'm planning to fiddle with ELKS on an 8086 system at some time in the
near future. The system has very minimal RAM (~200k). Does anyone have
any idea (or even better, experience) about ELKS in such a low RAM
configuration?  I realise that I'll probably not get much more than the
kernel booting, as other software running will require more RAM than I have.

Getting to the stage where ELKS boots and my application prints "I'm
alive!" over the serial port is my first target.

cheers,
Dave

Re: Minimum RAM for ELKS?

[Vikas Kumar]

Hey Dave
Use Bochs emulator. Set the RAM to how much ever your target machine
has, and use an elks image and see if it works.  iF it works on this
setting, it should work on your target hardware as well.

Vikas


On 5/15/06, Dave Mills <dave@webshed.org> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm planning to fiddle with ELKS on an 8086 system at some time in the
> near future. The system has very minimal RAM (~200k). Does anyone have
> any idea (or even better, experience) about ELKS in such a low RAM
> configuration?  I realise that I'll probably not get much more than the
> kernel booting, as other software running will require more RAM than I have.
>
> Getting to the stage where ELKS boots and my application prints "I'm
> alive!" over the serial port is my first target.
>
> cheers,
> Dave
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-8086" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>


-- 
Capitalization is the difference between "I had to help my uncle Jack
off a horse.." and "I had to help my uncle jack off a horse.."

Re: Minimum RAM for ELKS?

[Tom McCabe]

--- Vikas Kumar <walburn@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hey Dave
> Use Bochs emulator. Set the RAM to how much ever
> your target machine
> has, and use an elks image and see if it works.  iF
> it works on this
> setting, it should work on your target hardware as
> well.
> 
> Vikas

I remember there being an option in the ELKS
configuration about how many 64 KB memory pages were
necessary, and the minimum was 4 (256 KB). Also, I've
noticed that even on a modern system with the full 640
KB possible, the ash and rc shells don't run (if sash
isn't linked to /bin/sh, it crashes on bootup).

> 
> On 5/15/06, Dave Mills <dave@webshed.org> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I'm planning to fiddle with ELKS on an 8086 system
> at some time in the
> > near future. The system has very minimal RAM
> (~200k). Does anyone have
> > any idea (or even better, experience) about ELKS
> in such a low RAM
> > configuration?  I realise that I'll probably not
> get much more than the
> > kernel booting, as other software running will
> require more RAM than I have.
> >
> > Getting to the stage where ELKS boots and my
> application prints "I'm
> > alive!" over the serial port is my first target.
> >
> > cheers,
> > Dave
> > -
> > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line
> "unsubscribe linux-8086" in
> > the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> > More majordomo info at 
> http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> >
> 
> 
> -- 
> Capitalization is the difference between "I had to
> help my uncle Jack
> off a horse.." and "I had to help my uncle jack off
> a horse.."
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line
> "unsubscribe linux-8086" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at 
> http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> 


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com 

Re: Minimum RAM for ELKS?

[Dave Mills]

Tom McCabe wrote:
> 
> --- Vikas Kumar <walburn@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Hey Dave
>> Use Bochs emulator. Set the RAM to how much ever
>> your target machine
>> has, and use an elks image and see if it works.  iF
>> it works on this
>> setting, it should work on your target hardware as
>> well.
>>
>> Vikas
> 
> I remember there being an option in the ELKS
> configuration about how many 64 KB memory pages were
> necessary, and the minimum was 4 (256 KB). Also, I've
> noticed that even on a modern system with the full 640
> KB possible, the ash and rc shells don't run (if sash
> isn't linked to /bin/sh, it crashes on bootup).

Thanks Vikas & Tom.  I'll give the bochs idea a try. I'm really just
trying to get the smallest kernel running that I can.

cheers,
Dave