Distro for low-spec machine

[Database Administrator]

Hello,

I have an old 386 lying around doing nothing, so I thought of putting
some version of Linux on it to use as a firewall box. My preferred
distro, Debian, won't even install - what I need is something quite
old-school. It's a 25MHz 386, 1Mb RAM, 40Mb hard disk.

Any advise?

[Database Administrator]

On Sun, 03 Jun 2007 13:41:40 +0200, L D wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I have an old 386 lying around doing nothing, so I thought of putting
> some version of Linux on it to use as a firewall box. My preferred
> distro, Debian, won't even install - what I need is something quite
> old-school. It's a 25MHz 386, 1Mb RAM, 40Mb hard disk.
>
> Any advise?

I run debian on my router, and I have about 1GB of stuff installed on
it. To include compilers and the -devs needed to compile a custom
kernel. The kernel alone if 400MB-ish once compiled.

You'd be hard pressed to make a router on only 40MB's of space. It
probably could be done, but you should be looking at distro's geared for
PDAs, not desktops. Coyote or DSL might install on it. DSL being damn
small linux. With only 40MB, you can't even install gcc to compile
anything. I don't even think that holds the tarball of the current linux
kernel sources.

[Database Administrator]

On Jun 3, 12:41 pm, L D wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I have an old 386 lying around doing nothing, so I thought of putting
> some version of Linux on it to use as a firewall box. My preferred
> distro, Debian, won't even install - what I need is something quite
> old-school. It's a 25MHz 386, 1Mb RAM, 40Mb hard disk.
>
> Any advise?

have a look at www.freesco.org

it has a linux router /firewall on a floppy.

i have no idea how they manage to fit it all on a floppy disk but i
used it once on a pentium 1 to connect to my dial up ISP using an
external modem and it worked a treat !!

i assume your 386 has a floppy drive ?

download it at http://freesco.sourceforge.net/

[Database Administrator]

http://www.freesco.org/index.php?id=o

SOME TECHNICAL INFO:

* Minimum install requires a 386sx 16 with 8mb of ram. 16+mb of
ram is recommended for enabling servers

[Database Administrator]

Shadow_7 (wwwShadow7@yaNOhoo.comNULL) writes:
> On Sun, 03 Jun 2007 13:41:40 +0200, L D wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> I have an old 386 lying around doing nothing, so I thought of putting
>> some version of Linux on it to use as a firewall box. My preferred
>> distro, Debian, won't even install - what I need is something quite
>> old-school. It's a 25MHz 386, 1Mb RAM, 40Mb hard disk.
>>
>> Any advise?
>
> I run debian on my router, and I have about 1GB of stuff installed on
> it. To include compilers and the -devs needed to compile a custom
> kernel. The kernel alone if 400MB-ish once compiled.
>
> You'd be hard pressed to make a router on only 40MB's of space. It
> probably could be done, but you should be looking at distro's geared for
> PDAs, not desktops. Coyote or DSL might install on it. DSL being damn
> small linux. With only 40MB, you can't even install gcc to compile
> anything. I don't even think that holds the tarball of the current linux
> kernel sources.
>
So?

Why would you feel a need to compile on a machine intended for a dedicated
task?

If you don't have another computer, then you're hardly going to need
a router.

And your notions are way off, no way is a kernel going to be 400megs.
I just checked mine, and it's 1.3megs.

The problem with Linux is that too many people have come to it late,
and from Windows, so not only do they view the world from a Windows
perspective, they have no clue of what came before.

I had enough installed on a 240meg hard drive when I first tried
linux in late 2000. A browser, lynx, and a mailreader, Pine. Not
much else, but far more than a router should need.

Michael

[Database Administrator]

Thanks for the suggestion. I wonder why it has such high RAM demands? I
guess I could give it ago and see what happens with 1Mb.

On 3 Jun 2007 at 16:35, navti wrote:
> http://www.freesco.org/index.php?id=o
>
> SOME TECHNICAL INFO:
>
> * Minimum install requires a 386sx 16 with 8mb of ram. 16+mb of
> ram is recommended for enabling servers
>
>
>

[Database Administrator]

On Sun, 03 Jun 2007 18:53:01 +0200, L D wrote:

> Thanks for the suggestion. I wonder why it has such high RAM demands? I
> guess I could give it ago and see what happens with 1Mb.


Have you been marooned on a desert island for 30 years? Why would you
think that it would be possible to run any modern system in 1M? That
system can run DOS and that's it.

[Database Administrator]

On Jun 3, 5:53 pm, L D wrote:
> Thanks for the suggestion. I wonder why it has such high RAM demands? I
> guess I could give it ago and see what happens with 1Mb.
>
because it creates a ramdisk and runs everything from there.

why dont you try installing it on the hard disk and have it run from
there .

mind you 1mb RAM isnt much is it.

perhaps a really old version will run in that much memory. i really
couldnt say.

[Database Administrator]

On Jun 3, 6:21 pm, General Schvantzkoph
wrote:
> On Sun, 03 Jun 2007 18:53:01 +0200, L D wrote:
> > Thanks for the suggestion. I wonder why it has such high RAM demands? I
> > guess I could give it ago and see what happens with 1Mb.
>
> Have you been marooned on a desert island for 30 years? Why would you
> think that it would be possible to run any modern system in 1M? That
> system can run DOS and that's it.

Personally I think he might be a windoze troll but what the hell .
maybe he IS stuck in some benighted third world country with a 386 and
1 mb of RAM and no hope of getting anything better.

In that case he should be humored.

Just to be on the safe side , for karmic reasons you understand,

[Database Administrator]

> I run debian on my router, and I have about 1GB of stuff installed on it.
> To include compilers and the -devs needed to compile a custom kernel.
> The kernel alone if 400MB-ish once compiled.

That's the kernel source tree. There is no need to compile the kernel on
the router.

> You'd be hard pressed to make a router on only 40MB's of space. It
> probably could be done, but you should be looking at distro's geared for
> PDAs, not desktops.

It isn't that hard.
--
John Hasler
john@dhh.gt.org
Dancing Horse Hill
Elmwood, WI USA