386 install
Hanky
this NFS installation to the 386 boxen, however now I recieve a "Not enough
system memory" error and then reboots.
Any ideas?
Of course if there is anyone in Melbourne east subs who would be willing to
donate any amount of 2 or 4 mb pairs of 30 pin simms then that would be just
as helpful. ;-)
PS
SPECS
386 DX40
8MB ram
hda = 340MB
hdb = 640MB
NE2000 ISA NIC
Matthew van de Werken
G'day Hanky:
Red Hat has a terminal problem with the installer, in that it doesn't like
to have less than about 16MB of RAM. It will run fine in less than that, of
cours, but the installer takes a fair amount of RAM. If you want to install
Linux with less than 16MB of RAM, try Slackware, it will install
comfortably (well, tightly, anyway) on a machine with 8MB.
Cheers,
MvdW
ken_yap_f4...@yooha.fycmwg.com
I don't like your chances at all. Most distros have gone to all singing
all dancing GUI installers which need 16 or 32 MB at least. Somebody has
mentioned Slackware, another to try is Debian. These distros also have
the advantage of allowing you keep the installation slim. For Debian you
need to make a set of floppies for the base system, 5 I think, and once
that's running, you can pull the rest over the LAN or even over the Net.
Have a look at lwn.net's list of distros, there are some small ones out
there.
Here's a tip, if you have a faster machine, and you can temporarily
attach the HDs there, it might be faster to install on that, then move
the HDs back.
And once installed you will have to limit yourself to command line,
unless you seek out the TinyX packages (but which use libc5 I think).
What were you going to use the machine for? It would make an ok gateway
for say smoothwall or one of the floppy based firewalls, but if you were
hoping to learn Linux on it, it might be less frustrating to pick up a
low-end Pentium mobo from the markets. Or get someone to donate you a
486 with 16MB, there must be quite a few in garages now.
Hanky
<ken_yap_f4...@yooha.fycmwg.com> wrote in message
news:FixW7.14802$wD1....@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
Thanks Ken. I want to use the 386 for a gateway as you suspected. This way I
can use my current gateway (P100) as the http/ftp server. I really don't
care what distro I use so long as I can run iptables and pppd + wvdial. That
is all it will be used for. Xwindows is not needed. Can you tell em more
about smooth wall. Have heard of it but not sure about what I can do with
it.
ken_yap_e5...@yooha.sznrfn.com
|> for say smoothwall or one of the floppy based firewalls, but if you were
|
|can use my current gateway (P100) as the http/ftp server. I really don't
|care what distro I use so long as I can run iptables and pppd + wvdial. That
|is all it will be used for. Xwindows is not needed. Can you tell em more
|about smooth wall. Have heard of it but not sure about what I can do with
|it.
Smoothwall (www.smoothwall.org) is a 20MB distro that makes a
gateway/proxy out of an old machine. It does do dialout, but uses
ipchains. You can install it over a LAN using a boot floppy. You might
have to give up squid and some of the frills of Smoothwall due to your
low memory and 386 situation. Other floppy based distros you can try are
floppyfw (www.zelow.no/floppyfw), Coyote, LRP, Eigerstein, and FreeSCO.
A google search should find their home pages.
These specialised firewall distros would be easier to get going than
trying to adapt a general purpose distro.
will kemp
> Thanks Ken. I want to use the 386 for a gateway as you suspected. This way I
> can use my current gateway (P100) as the http/ftp server. I really don't
> care what distro I use so long as I can run iptables and pppd + wvdial. That
> is all it will be used for. Xwindows is not needed.
in that case, use slackware.
however, why not pull the 386 m/b out of the box and throw it away and
find a 486 m/b in a secondhand shop for 5 or something bucks and use that?
386s really are well past their use by date! and i'm not saying that as
someone who uses the latest technology - not by any means! i've got a
486dx50 laptop and an ancient serial terminal sitting on the desk in front
of me - and a 386 box sitting by the door, which i'm about to take the m/b
out of finally and use the box for something else!
and that 386 was the computer that provided what was almost certainly the
first walk-in public access internet email service in brisbane (in 1994)
and i built the thing myself in aug 94, so i haven't been in a hurry to
pull it apart!
will
--
Darren Cash
wrote:
<snipped>
>
>Thanks Ken. I want to use the 386 for a gateway as you suspected. This way I
>can use my current gateway (P100) as the http/ftp server. I really don't
>care what distro I use so long as I can run iptables and pppd + wvdial. That
>is all it will be used for. Xwindows is not needed. Can you tell em more
>about smooth wall. Have heard of it but not sure about what I can do with
>it.
>
You could also look at FreeSco (www.freesco.org), however it uses
ipchains as opposed to iptables.
It's a fairly small distro (a couple of floppy disks - but can also be
installed onto a hard drive), and it's easy to configure and setup
(and very quick as well).
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Darren
>
Carl Fink
>Thanks Ken. I want to use the 386 for a gateway as you suspected.
Have you thought about the Linux Router Project (linuxrouter.org)? Their
distro can boot from a *single floppy*, making installation, well,
nonexistent: you generate the floppy image on another box, put it in the
drive, and boot.
--
Carl Fink ca...@dm.net
Manager, Dueling Modems Computer Forum
<http://dm.net>
Mark Addinall
>
> What is the minimum amount of RAM to install RH 7.1? I am still attempting
> this NFS installation to the 386 boxen, however now I recieve a "Not enough
> system memory" error and then reboots.
> Any ideas?
Ouch. Drop back a few releases. 7.1 may be a little large for a 386.
1.1.13 -> 2.1 will run well. Forget X, so as a desktop it is pretty
crappy, but
you will be able to run a mail server, or a quite credible C development
box. I still remember when my *NIX engineers use to regard
the 386 Compaq as a 'Beast'. Sooooo powerful ;-)
If you run into hassles gimmie a yell. I have a number of old
Linux cds hanging around that would fit a little box. You do have
a CD?
Mark.
>
> Of course if there is anyone in Melbourne east subs who would be willing to
> donate any amount of 2 or 4 mb pairs of 30 pin simms then that would be just
> as helpful. ;-)
> PS
> SPECS
> 386 DX40
> 8MB ram
> hda = 340MB
> hdb = 640MB
> NE2000 ISA NIC
--
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Jonas Due Vesterheden
[snip]
> Thanks Ken. I want to use the 386 for a gateway as you suspected. This way I
> can use my current gateway (P100) as the http/ftp server.
should be able to do it...
Regards Jonas
--
"A conservative is a man who is too cowardly to fight and too fat to run."
-- Elbert Hubbard
Registered Linux user #198786 (http://counter.li.org)