An older linux?

[dawynn]

Here's my dilemma. I have a laptop computer that is kind of old, but that I'd like to squeeze a little more life out of. It also has several applications on it which I'm not legally able to use.

So, the thought comes up -- why not Linux? Great. Here's the problem. 486 SX w/ 4 mb memory (not certain on this -- may be as much as 8 mb). Not a high performer.

Still, I'd like to be able to put a copy of Linux on it that will boot from the hard drive. Unfortunately, just about every distribution I've seen that works on lower end machines expects to be run off of floppies.

Can anyone point me in the right direction to find a Linux that I can install on the hard drive (in place of the current Windoze 3.1), but that can work well with a lower end machine? Ideally, one that installs from floppys -- I don't have a CD-rom drive to hook it up to.

David Wynn

[bdg1983]

Check out the 'How I did it' forum as I have seen others here suggest a well written post on installing linux on a 4MB system.

[drmbb]

Have you checked the HOWTOs:
http://www.linux.org/docs/ldp/howto/4mb-Laptops.html http://www.linux.org/docs/ldp/howto/Laptop-HOWTO.html

Also take a look at the mini and speciality distro list at http://www.linux.org/dist/english.html

TINY Linux may work for you, but it requires at least 8Mb of RAM - http://tiny.seul.org/en/

Cheers

[Ben Briggs]

I also have a MicroMachine... I installed Slackware. With Slackware you can install the base distro and the networking (including PPP) with floppies (onto your hard drive), and then download everything else you need.

To see how your box stacks up, here are my specs:

Pentium 100
541MB Hard Drive
8MB RAM (41MB swap)

[RageAHolic]

Debian 2.1 managed to squeeze it's way onto my 486SX/33 4MB laptop...13 floppies or something like that. Pretty cool experience.

The lowmem README on the 2.1 CD was more than enough to get me working. Then just put .deb packages on floppy and installed them that'a way :)