Linux-2.4.20 on a 4 MB Laptop

Hermann Himmelbauer
2003-04-09T13:50:24Z

Hi,
I currently try installing Linux on an old IBM Laptop. (IBM Thinkpad 340,
486SLC 25/50 from 1994). The laptop only has 4 MB RAM, so I installed a
simple Linux distribution on a better computer, recompiled Linux 2.4.20 and
stripped out everything I could (with menuconfig): No networking. FPU
emulation. The only "luxury" I left is "ext3" - perhaps this uses a lot of
memory?

Well - anyway, the kernel boots but right stops after:
INIT: Entering runlevel:3

The next line is:
INIT: open(/dev/console): Input/output error
INIT: Id "2" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
...

That's it.

What I want to know is if this happens just because of the low memory (4MB) or
if there is another reason for this behaviour.

What do you think: What are the minimum requirements for Linux on such a
laptop (no X, of course, very simple setup): 8MB, 12MB?

Best Regards,
Hermann

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