[plug] [Fwd: Difficulty trying to load Slackware 3.1 system onto 4mb RAM 386SX]

[David Buddrige]

Further to my last email, can anyone suggest a really basic distro that I
can download off the net (fairly quickly) that requires virtually no
hardware?

My ideal would be to see if I can get this slakware 3.1 system to install
though (I know the best idea is to boot up a couple more megs of RAM but
unforutnately this thing is soooo old it doesn't have any more slots....
8-(

cheers

Dave.

David Buddrige wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I have a mate of mine - a 14 year-old doing computing who wants to learn
> how to program... Subsequently, I'm introducing him to Linux as a very
> good programming environment.
>
> He has a _REALLY OLD_ 386SX with 4 megs of RAM... I'm trying to load it
> up with a bare-bones Slakware 3.1 system (just the basic system +
> compilers + documentation)... it doesn't have a CD-ROM so I've copied
> all the packages onto 3.5" floppy disk, and attempted a floppy based
> installation....
>
> This kept crashing, so I then created a 50mb DOS partition on his 160mb
> hard-drive and copied all the packages onto there... I then attempted to
> install from the hard-drive partition... unfortunately, this crashed too
> (although it got further than the floppy based install)....
>
> I think that the basic problem is that the install program loads the
> entire (root) file system into a RAM disk, which has the effect of using
> up all (or most) of the available RAM.... then when it tries to access
> the lib.so library, it bomb's out... I have tried to install it without
> using RAM disks, by typing mount root=/dev/fd0 at the boot: prompt on
> the boot floppy, however this immediately crashes before even getting to
> the login prompt....
>
> Has anyone got any ideas on how to load Linux onto a REALLY low-end
> machine like this one (maybe even something I can download of the net?)
>
> I've spent 6 hours on this so far without much luck....
>
> Ta.....
>
> David Buddrige


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From: David Buddrige <dbuddrige at ozemail.com.au>
Subject: Difficulty trying to load Slackware 3.1 system onto 4mb RAM 386SX
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1998 18:50:06 +0800
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