[NTLUG:Discuss] 486SX Distro

[Tom Woody]

Just a reminder linux isn't bound by the bios and drive size limits.  I have installed a linux system on a 486dx2-66 (using redhat 6.2) on a 6gb harddrive with no problems whatsoever.  As long as linux can detect the drive information (Heads, Cylinders, Sectors, etc - or you provide it to the boot loader) it will boot just fine.

On 13 Jul 2002 11:08:45 -0500
David Stanaway <david at stanaway.net> wrote:

> On Sat, 2002-07-13 at 09:43, Paul Ingendorf wrote:
> > I'm looking for a distro that will support a 486SX 100 with X windows on 16mb of ram.  :-)  I know the constraints make this a tough system to work with which is why I thought I would post this as a question to the group as someone is bound to have actually done this and know of a distro that will do it fairly well.
> 
> I installed Debian on a 486DX33 with 16M of ram and ran X on it for a
> while.
> 
> I gave up running X on it though as it was too slow.. but it does work.
> 
> I installed potato on it I think, or maybe it was slink, but it has
> since been updated to testing (Which is the soon to be released next
> version of debian).
> 
> 
> You probably just want to install the base system (About 25M) and
> manually (IE with apt-get install, rather than tasksel) install desired
> packages and maybe delete some files you don't need as I imagine you
> also have a spalce limitation on your 486.  Unless you have some older
> <2G drives about.
> 
> I somehow fudged the bios into booting the 486 off a 10G drive but it
> was fairly tricky.
> 
> --
> David Stanaway.
> 


-- 
Tom Woody
Systems Administrator
NationWide Flood Research, Inc.
phone: 214-631-0400 x209
  fax: 214-631-0800

If you have any trouble sounding condescending,
find a Unix user to show you how it's done.
		--Scott Adams