Linux distro

i have an old laptop im would like to put linux on. it curretnly has dos6.22 and windows 3.1.
it a 120 MB hard drive, 25 MHz processor, and 4 MB of RAM. so i will need a very small and simple os. any suggestions?

I really likeBSD for smaller/older systems...
There is even another distro branched from FreeBSD called PicoBSD...

try this link http://www.linux.org/dist/list.html it has alot of linux distros and a bunch of them are even very small. it gives a small overview of the distros and their features too.

PeacE
-BoB

I go to http://www.linuxiso.org/ for different linux Distros and for Freebsd :D

I don't know if you can get a modern kernel to run with so little ram.
Also, you may have trouble with installing, even if the kernel loads ok.
Maybe an older distribution, bare bones, no GUI. The smallest system
I've installed is Redhat 6.0 on a 486-66 with 32 megs and a 450 meg
hard drive, and there's very little hard drive space left over.
:cool:

If you go to my link. you can search for the "minimalist" distros they could help since they would be so small.

PeacE
-BoB

What about those distros that boot on a floppy? I think Trinux was the name of one. I'm sure that would run well on a system that small.

Some others, um, lol, 'Floppix' and TIny Linux found (with more) here:

http://xunil.hypermart.net/topic_linuxdist.html

I'm not sure what the sys reqs are, but if they run on a floppy, I doubt they will be eating as much memory as Win 3.11 ;)

Um, sorry I'm not much more help than that right now, um, I'm googling right now, I will report back if I find something great worth making another post! :D

Dave

i correct myself... you can not run PicoBSD on less than 8mb of ram...
http://people.freebsd.org/~picobsd/picobsd.html

Yea like some of the members above have said single floppy disk bootable linux's distros maybe of some use to you, theres a directory on google that has some usful links in it

http://directory.google.com/Top/Comp...y_Sized/?tc=1/

You didnt say whether it had a CD drive, I assume it doesnt although if it does then an option may be a bootable CD distro such a "knopix" or "warlinux" (pretty cool has some good progies for war driving)

The only problem with the CD ones is that I think (dont quote me) that if you want to install a program you have to write a new CD each time, not excellent but not a major problem

I loved Knoppix, get it here

www.linuxiso.com

along with other bootable and normal distros

i2c

As someone has mentioned a bit earlier in this threat, I suggest you to look at linux.org's list of Linux OS's. There are quite a few Linux's out there that boot from floppies and CD's as well.
If you can find the site, you can always go for MeneutOS (Not sure if that's spelled correctly) which can be found at http://www.****microsoft.com on the left side of the page.

Quote:

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Originally posted here by i2c
Yea like some of the members above have said single floppy disk bootable linux's distros maybe of some use to you, theres a directory on google that has some usful links in it

http://directory.google.com/Top/Comp...y_Sized/?tc=1/
The only problem with the CD ones is that I think (dont quote me) that if you want to install a program you have to write a new CD each time, not excellent but not a major problem

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Nah, don't need a new CD at all.

Just make your existing HD /home and install program to ~/bin

Problem solved.

Steve

Knoppix CD & USB pendrive - forget about owning a 'puter, just borrow other people's!

How about good old slackware ? I got it running on my old 486 with 80 mb hd and between 2 and 8 mb RAM worked fine, just leave out the fancy stuff.

I don't know why vampelle got negged here, but menuetOS does exist. It's an OS entirly written in assembler and because of that fast and small. It fits on a 1.4 mb diskette and has a "graphical UI with 16 M colours up to 1280x1024", altough I doubt that will work with the graphical card that works in a 486. The lower resolutions work fine. The official site is http://www.menuetos.org/, if I recall correctly.

p.s.
so that's nothing fancy at all. With a second thought I think my hd was 120 mb, but it would still fit. Kernel sources have to be left out, but I thought I had enough space for a compiler. Compiling the system itself on the machine with a new (2.4. or something) kernel is not a good idea, because it would take a year or two. So the bare.i kernel that comes with slackware is good. I used slackware 8.1.

gentoo linux is pretty small go to www.linuxiso.com.

hackohreak56

gentoo linux will take a few years to compile on a 486 andthere's no precompiled version for 486 (if I recall correctly)

Quote:

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To install from the build CD, you will need to have a 486+ processor and ideally at least 64 Megabytes of RAM. (Gentoo Linux has been successfully built with 64MB of RAM + 64MB of swap space, but the build process is awfully slow under those conditions.)

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I took this from here : http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-x86-install.xml

It seems possible if you use the stage-3, although it would be slow and take some time.
Anyway i got an old P1 here, and that one will become Gentoo nr. 3 in this house ;)

Just my thoughts,

it already takes awefully long on a 486 with 64 mb ram, worm wood has 4 and 64 mb swapspace, worwood has 120 mb hd, so half should be swapspace ?
:s

If you are gonna compile on a 486, set it up and go to sleep, go to the pub, get laid, and drive around the world three times and by the time you come back, it should be ready for you.