murtu52 Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 Well, i finally pushed myself to consider putting onto a computer, however, last time i tried to install my knoppix onto the harddrive, it was quite complicated...So i guess i'm looking for a simpler distro. I have this OLD laptop that is just been sitting around for a long time (we are talking about a 486 processor here, with 8MB of RAM). It currently has windows 95 on it, and since i'm considering linux here, I was wondering if i could Damn Small Linux on it (It is small, i so it'll meets the space requirements). I am just worried about the RAM and processor, if it'll be able to run it. If not, i guess i'm outta luck.If i am forced to install it on a another computer, I was considering getting Gentoo. I heard it was kind to beginners, and since i'm now getting into programming, i wanted a bit more robust OS. So, linux experts (and even those who aren't), what do you guys think? Will my first option work, or should i go with option 2? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
iccaros Posted March 7, 2005 Report Share Posted March 7, 2005 I have to say while linux can run well on a machine with your specs.. a easy distobution was not made with you in mind. they are made for people with new dells and stuff.slackware is easy to install just has no gui.. it has an install program but you move your curser insted of your mouse. it is compiled for 486 systems. as for an x system you would be looking at tiny X (DSL runs that ) try dsl if that does not work let us knwo And I 'll go through slackware asn see what optinos you need. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
murtu52 Posted March 7, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2005 Thanks....where can i get dsl from? Basically, all i want is the computer to be able to run a word processor and maybe even a decent C++ compiler. Even though the compiler isn't mandatory, i really need the word processor.... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
hitest Posted March 7, 2005 Report Share Posted March 7, 2005 I have to say while linux can run well on a machine with your specs.. a easy distobution was not made with you in mind. they are made for people with new dells and stuff.slackware is easy to install just has no gui.. it has an install program but you move your curser insted of your mouse. it is compiled for 486 systems. as for an x system you would be looking at tiny X (DSL runs that ) try dsl if that does not work let us knwo And I 'll go through slackware asn see what optinos you need. I agree with iccaros I think dsl will work better. Slack will run but, not with x windows. Slackware needs at least 64 MB of RAM to run a gui. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
iccaros Posted March 7, 2005 Report Share Posted March 7, 2005 DSL is damnsmallinux found at http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/ Quote Link to post Share on other sites
murtu52 Posted March 7, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2005 DSL is damnsmallinux found at http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/ sorry about that...I was kinda brain-dead at the time and didn't realize that dsl was damn small linux....Alright, i'll be sure to try it out....Thanks. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
murtu52 Posted March 8, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2005 Well, this isn't good....upon investigation, i found out that this computer doesn't have a cd drive! I thought it did, but unfortunately, i was wrong. So, i was wondering, is there any way to load an OS onto it with a floppy drive, a dialup modem, a serial port, a parallel port, and a Game port? I really want to get this computer up and running with linux, even if it is limited to home use (needs power adapter in at all times). Any ideas? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jcl Posted March 8, 2005 Report Share Posted March 8, 2005 (edited) Well, this isn't good....upon investigation, i found out that this computer doesn't have a cd drive! I thought it did, but unfortunately, i was wrong. So, i was wondering, is there any way to load an OS onto it with a floppy drive, a dialup modem, a serial port, a parallel port, and a Game port? I really want to get this computer up and running with linux, even if it is limited to home use (needs power adapter in at all times). Any ideas?You can use a boot floppy and perform a network installation. If the modem isn't supported you should be able to rig up a network over the serial or parallel port. It would be, uh, educational. (Read: not fun.)Alternatively, you could find an old floppy-based distro, install it on a small partition, use it download a more recent distro, and then install from the hard drive. Also educational, but less so.Memory is going to be a problem. Full-blown word processors are out of the question, but if you're more interested in producing nice documents than with easy preparation, you could use a text editor and a typesetting system (e.g., groff). As for programming, you're not in much better shape. The GCC C++ compiler is a memory hog; it eats over 18MiB compiling the quadratic formula code you posted in the Programming forum. Edited March 8, 2005 by jcl Quote Link to post Share on other sites
iccaros Posted March 8, 2005 Report Share Posted March 8, 2005 yes memory is a big problem.. BSD would probaly run better (I have it runing in 16 megs ) but I also have distcc for gcc. distcc woudl allow you to compile on other computers but use that one for linking and config. if you look at the thinstation.sourceforge.org site. they have boot floppies that may help. here is how distcc helps..I have 3 xboxes running linux.. (totaly leagal as Linux is not pireted software....)it took 23 hours to compile mythfrontend on the first one.. I tried distcc. have distcc connectiong to the two other xboxs and one amd2800 xp. it took 4 hours this time to compile it and dvd:rip together. the specs for the xbox are 64 megs of ram shared with video.. I have about 32 megs free at any given time. when compiling with out distcc compiling takes all the memory it has.. with distcc it uses about 8 megs.. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
murtu52 Posted March 8, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2005 All of these are very good suggestions....I'm not the expert here, so which one should i try first? If i have any problems, i'll post them here.... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.