What version of linux is best for an old 486?
The Gimme A Buck Guy
I recently came across an older IBM 486DX2 machine and would like to run
linux on it as a web/mail server for a hobby site.
Can anyone tell me what they feel would be the best free version of linux to
install on it? I place to run Apache and Sendmail as the web/mail servers.
The machine has 32MB RAM and a 250MB harddrive. I suspect I won't be able
to run the graphic interface, but that's ok.
Thanks for your help,
The Gimme A Buck Guy.
www.gimmeabuck.com
Claudiu Cismaru
Mmm.. I preffer Slakware. But you can try RedHat, too. RH is more
easy to config than Slack, it have a lot of configure scripts, if you
are newbie. But at instalation, install _only_ what you need. Use a
custom install. I think RH will fit on 250M. And don't install
XWindosws system or something related to XWindows (Gnome, KDE) and/or
XWin appz. But be verry carefull what you install and what you don't.
Claudiu
Quiney, Philip [HAL02:HH00:EXCH]
>
> Hello,
>
> I recently came across an older IBM 486DX2 machine and would like to run
> linux on it as a web/mail server for a hobby site.
>
> Can anyone tell me what they feel would be the best free version of linux to
> install on it? I place to run Apache and Sendmail as the web/mail servers.
> The machine has 32MB RAM and a 250MB harddrive. I suspect I won't be able
> to run the graphic interface, but that's ok.
>
I have a 40MHz 386 running RedHat 5.1 quite happily although rather
slowly. It only has 16M RAM but a 340MB HDD. The graphics card is a very
old EGA card so it is text mode only - although I can use another Linux
box as a remote display.
RedHat 6.1 would need some careful choosing of packages to fit in 250MB
but you have enough RAM - you can get an .iso image to burn on CD from
the Net -it is however a large 600M+ file so you will have to work out
if it is cheaper to just buy it on CD.
Regards
Phil Q
--
Phil Quiney CSIP Demonstrator
pqu...@nortelnetworks.com Nortel Networks,
Telephone: +44 (1279) 402363 London Rd, Harlow,
Fax: +44 (1279) 402885 Essex CM17 9NA,
United Kingdom.
"This message may contain information proprietary to Northern
Telecom so any unauthorised disclosure, copying or distribution
of its contents is strictly prohibited."
Yash L. Khemani
had issues with lilo and the non-ide cd-rom drive that
was installed, but the system works fine. we didn't
bother with X, but if your video card is supported, then
you can run X with 32mb ram. i don't recommend it, but
you could run it :-). space may be an issue, though.
a rh5.x (5.2 with patches) would perform a little better.
yash
The Gimme A Buck Guy wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> I recently came across an older IBM 486DX2 machine and would like to run
> linux on it as a web/mail server for a hobby site.
>
> Can anyone tell me what they feel would be the best free version of linux to
> install on it? I place to run Apache and Sendmail as the web/mail servers.
> The machine has 32MB RAM and a 250MB harddrive. I suspect I won't be able
> to run the graphic interface, but that's ok.
>
Somchai
e-mail server. It work well.
"Yash L. Khemani" <yash.k...@amazingmedia.com> wrote in message
news:389804DC...@amazingmedia.com...
Phil DeBecker
> The Gimme A Buck Guy wrote:
> >
> > Hello,
> >
> > I recently came across an older IBM 486DX2 machine and would like to run
> > linux on it as a web/mail server for a hobby site.
> >
> > Can anyone tell me what they feel would be the best free version of linux to
> > install on it? I place to run Apache and Sendmail as the web/mail servers.
> > The machine has 32MB RAM and a 250MB harddrive. I suspect I won't be able
> > to run the graphic interface, but that's ok.
> >
> Hi,
>
> I have a 40MHz 386 running RedHat 5.1 quite happily although rather
> slowly. It only has 16M RAM but a 340MB HDD. The graphics card is a very
> old EGA card so it is text mode only - although I can use another Linux
> box as a remote display.
>
> RedHat 6.1 would need some careful choosing of packages to fit in 250MB
> but you have enough RAM - you can get an .iso image to burn on CD from
> the Net -it is however a large 600M+ file so you will have to work out
> if it is cheaper to just buy it on CD.
I'll second that -- I have RH 5.1 running on my old firewall box as well. The RH
5.X series use the 2.0.X kernel and are well suited to lower end hardware. If I
were setting up a new server on such a box, I'd go with RH5.2 -- basically it's
the same as RH 5.1, but with some bug fixes, and it is still supported by RH with
updated package releases whereas RH5.1 is not. In any case, if you're going to
use it as any sort of server, be sure and download all of the updates, since a
number of nasty security related bugs were fixed since RH5.X were originally
released.
--
Phil DeBecker
"Give me a lever long enough, and a place to stand, and I'll break the lever."
Markus Wandel
The Gimme A Buck Guy <sendmon...@gimmeabuck.com> wrote:
>
>I recently came across an older IBM 486DX2 machine and would like to run
>linux on it as a web/mail server for a hobby site.
>
>Can anyone tell me what they feel would be the best free version of linux to
>install on it? I place to run Apache and Sendmail as the web/mail servers.
>The machine has 32MB RAM and a 250MB harddrive. I suspect I won't be able
>to run the graphic interface, but that's ok.
That's a loaded question because people get very opinionated about the answers
and flamewars erupt. At the risk of triggering one, I would say use
Redhat 6.1. Why? Because it's the most standard. You will be glad when
the time comes to install a binary RPM...
The way to do it is uncheck _all_ the options when it comes to selecting
packages. It will install its notion of a bare bones system which will be
close to the capacity of your disk. Then list the RPMs (rpm -qa) and nuke
all the ones you don't need. Your basic server stuff without a C compiler
environment will end up at about 100-120MB including swap space. Then you
can carefully add goodies, one RPM at a time. C compiler (without all the
heavy libraries) should be OK, as should a very basic X installation (say
only the bare XFree86 plus the fvwm95 package.)
This sort of shoehorning can be fun. But then you can just spend the $30
or so and pick up a secondhand 500MB-1GB hard disk to add. Then you can run
the whole distribution! You have enough memory and (barely) enough CPU.
Markus
ti...@my-deja.com
"The Gimme A Buck Guy" <sendmon...@gimmeabuck.com> wrote:
>
> I recently came across an older IBM 486DX2 machine and would like to
run
> linux on it as a web/mail server for a hobby site.
>
> Can anyone tell me what they feel would be the best free version of
linux to
> install on it? I place to run Apache and Sendmail as the web/mail
servers.
> The machine has 32MB RAM and a 250MB harddrive. I suspect I won't be
able
> to run the graphic interface, but that's ok.
>
Slackware might be your best bet here. I have run Slack (3.2, kernel
2.0.29) on an old 486 25SX with 16MB of memory. X was sluggish, but it
worked. I'm currently running Slack on a 386 laptop with a 60MB HD and
6MB of memory. I haven't tried X on this one yet, and probably wont.
But I still have full TCP/IP through a PPP link and text based browsing
via Lynx (try that trick with NT).
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
va...@tir.com
The Gimme A Buck Guy wrote:
>
>
> Hello,
>
> I recently came across an older IBM 486DX2 machine and would like to run
> linux on it as a web/mail server for a hobby site.
>
> Can anyone tell me what they feel would be the best free version of linux
to
> install on it? I place to run Apache and Sendmail as the web/mail
servers.
> The machine has 32MB RAM and a 250MB harddrive. I suspect I won't be
able
> to run the graphic interface, but that's ok.
>
> Thanks for your help,
>
> The Gimme A Buck Guy.
> www.gimmeabuck.com
>
>
--
Posted via CNET Help.com
http://www.help.com/
John Smith
running DHCP Server, Apache, Sendmail and Bind server. X windows gui ran
(KDE) but a tad slow, not slow enough to be unusable, but slow enough that a
upgrade in RAM made a big difference.
<va...@tir.com> wrote in message news:s9jsqu...@corp.supernews.com...
Emmett Black
I'm running RedHat 6.0 on a 25 Mhz 386 with 16Megs & 2 NICs -
running Apache, and IPMasq to give my intranet access to the net via
DSL.
I deliberately left off X; emacs-nox is running just fine there.
This setup is running observably better than the previous arrangement;
a bloated 133MHz pentium with 128M running win98 and WebEtc.
(and that thing would crash and burn periodically)
--Emmett [N2...@virtualVE.com]
Arjan Drieman
<sendmon...@gimmeabuck.com> wrote:
>I recently came across an older IBM 486DX2 machine and would like to run
>linux on it as a web/mail server for a hobby site.
>
>Can anyone tell me what they feel would be the best free version of linux to
>install on it? I place to run Apache and Sendmail as the web/mail servers.
>The machine has 32MB RAM and a 250MB harddrive. I suspect I won't be able
>to run the graphic interface, but that's ok.
I'm doing all that (and some more) on the same hardware with Debian.
Works fine. Any decent distribution should do the job though.
Arjan
--
Send plain text emails, so everyone can read them
without problem! Ban HTML from emails!
Torleiv Flatebo-Ringert
David C.
>
> I recently came across an older IBM 486DX2 machine and would like to
> run linux on it as a web/mail server for a hobby site.
>
> Can anyone tell me what they feel would be the best free version of
> linux to install on it? I place to run Apache and Sendmail as the
> web/mail servers. The machine has 32MB RAM and a 250MB harddrive. I
> suspect I won't be able to run the graphic interface, but that's ok.
Ummm... And IBM 486? Would this happen to be a PS/2? If so, you may
have problems with the Microchannel bus. I don't think there's good
support for that.
If it's not a PS/2, the latest version of your favorite distribution
should work great. (I use Redhat, FWIW.) The CPU will be a bit slow,
but it should work just fine. 32M is enough RAM.
The only concern is the 250M had drive. You'll have to do a custom
install, and you'll want to be very selective of the packages you
install. (A full install of RH6.1 is over 1GB!)
If the computer's got an IDE interface, you may want to upgrade the hard
drives. About $100 can get you between 4 and 10G of storage, depending
on the vendor you buy from.
-- David
Joeseph Sottnik
get rid of a lot of unnecessary packages.
I have a 40MB DOS partition, 20 MB RAM with 40 MB swap. The rest of the
drive is Linux. As of today I still have over 260 MB free. It runs just fine
doing IP MASQ.
Arjan Drieman <qhp...@abqr0911.n2000.ay.invalid> wrote in message
news:slrn89tdh0...@node0911.a2000.nl...
> On Wed, 02 Feb 2000 07:51:22 GMT, The Gimme A Buck Guy
> <sendmon...@gimmeabuck.com> wrote:
>
> >I recently came across an older IBM 486DX2 machine and would like to run
> >linux on it as a web/mail server for a hobby site.
> >
> >Can anyone tell me what they feel would be the best free version of linux
to
> >install on it? I place to run Apache and Sendmail as the web/mail
servers.
> >The machine has 32MB RAM and a 250MB harddrive. I suspect I won't be
able
> >to run the graphic interface, but that's ok.
>
Rando Christensen
Joeseph Sottnik(joeso...@home.com) be all Re: What version of
linux is best for an old 486?
Slackware and debian will both install happily onto lower-end systems.
Anything else gets bloated, somewhat. Slack can install smaller than debian,
but debian has a lot more options at easier reach. it's a matter of taste,
though, and i use both on my machines. i've ran both on 486's.
They are both more recommended for more advanced users, Though.
--
Rando Christensen
ey...@xanthor.net
Joeseph Sottnik
get rid of a lot of unnecessary packages.
I have a 40MB DOS partition, 20 MB RAM with 40 MB swap. The rest of the
drive is Linux. As of today I still have over 260 MB free. It runs just fine
doing IP MASQ.
Arjan Drieman <qhp...@abqr0911.n2000.ay.invalid> wrote in message
news:slrn89tdh0...@node0911.a2000.nl...
> On Wed, 02 Feb 2000 07:51:22 GMT, The Gimme A Buck Guy
> <sendmon...@gimmeabuck.com> wrote:
>
> >I recently came across an older IBM 486DX2 machine and would like to run
> >linux on it as a web/mail server for a hobby site.
> >
> >Can anyone tell me what they feel would be the best free version of linux
to
> >install on it? I place to run Apache and Sendmail as the web/mail
servers.
> >The machine has 32MB RAM and a 250MB harddrive. I suspect I won't be
able
> >to run the graphic interface, but that's ok.
>
> I'm doing all that (and some more) on the same hardware with Debian.
> Works fine. Any decent distribution should do the job though.
>
>