My first steps...

[iGUaNa*]

Hey.
I know *almost* nothing to all that Linux business... Since I thought this was a lack, I want to learn, so I've decided to make an use of my old computer. It's an 486dx33, with 8mb ram, and a 120mb HD. I wish to do a "server" with it, that will allow me to, at the same time, learn Linux and provide the computer I use (pii450.. blah blah blah) with my cable connection.

Now, I would like to know a couple of things.
1) Which distro should I use (THE question :P).
2) Should I upgrade my old computer? Because I could find a cheap HD with < 1GB, or some RAM... is it needed for my purpose or for the installation of the distro required?
3) Is it *recommended* to use my 486 w/ linux installed as a server to my other computer? Is there any disadvantages in doing so?

Thanks a lot for the support!
iGUaNa

[Evil Jeff]

There are small enough distros that would fit on that hd, but they won't contain a lot of the perks that make linux easy to use. I would upgrade to about a 5gig hard drive if you are just starting. That will allow a nice, expandable, installation that would allow you to learn linux the easy way. Also, you might want to look at your bios file; it might not support a hd larger than 468 megs. Or at least I think that was the normal limit for bios files on 486s back in the day.

Evil Jeff
www.hellincorporated.com (http://www.hellincorporated.com)

[iGUaNa*]

Anybody else? I really need the advices... http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/confused.gif.
Thanks, iGUaNa.

[ph34r]

A bump on the ram to 16mb and some more disk space (about a gig total) will really let you start experimenting with it. I'd go with a console only install (no x), and probably choose Slackware 7.1 or Redhat 6.2.

[YaRness]

<off topic> i thought it was a bug to allow user names with special characters (aside from maybe "_" and "-"
</off topic>

a lot of new distributions are compiled for 586s. someone else here might know more about that though.

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"Assembly of Japanese bicycle require great peace of mind."
Registered Linux User #188285 http://counter.li.org/
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[Epyon]

A little over 1 gig will be enough to have a good installation with everything you need. You could run X on that, but it would be slow. Still, if you have to have a graphical interface, Blackbox is suggested. Works great on my P133 with 16 megs of ram.

Upgrading the RAM would help if you used X, but it's not needed if you'll just use the console for your server.

As for distros, this will start a flame war. Slackware and Debian are both good distros for a box like that, although you could put a different distro on that box, like Caldera.

[Unruly]

I dunno if you wanna run it as a server (not that you can't), I think what your looking for is a gateway or a firewall.

Try slackware or debian -- you really can get away with very little. Or, if their a bit too cramped on that drive, you can try a specialty distro and see if that works.

Take a look around on the net, do a general search for linux and try to find a distro that might work for you.

[iGUaNa*]

The thing is that my desire to make a "server" (or a gateway, a firewall, or all of the above http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/wink.gif) is only a reason to learn Linux I'd have say. So I don't want to install a "limited" version of a distro, because my main concern is not the server, it's the learning process.

So, should I really bother installing X since it will probably be incredibly slow (I guess on my 486dx33...)? If so, should I consider learning more Linux "console" or X? I guess the knowledge of the console is more powerful when well known... but will it tend to become obsolete, disappearing a la DOS to make place to X, therefore making good knowledge of X a better asset (I strongly don't think so, but you guys probably know more than I do http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/biggrin.gif)?

Thanks!
iGUaNa.

[MPETNUCH]

The redhat 6.2 server installation take about 320 megs. You need at least 32 maybe 64 megs of swap. You should seperate your partition to include some /home space but your already maxed out. So you going to need a new bigger (only slightly though) hard drive.
Making your computer a gateway, which is what you seem to want to do and possibly mess with ipchains or something is really pretty simple once you have everything installed. You basically edit your /etc/hosts and a few other little scripts and set up your workstations to use the ip you make for them. In all it took me about an hour and I was on the net for all of them. Their is a great resource here on that stuff so print it out. Bascially what you want to do, pending that you get a larger hard driver, have all the necessary utils (i.e. 2 nics in that box) you should be all set. BTW I don't think X will make the console obsolete. Matter of fact, it won't. The console is too powerful. I do belive that the more and more we get crossovers that want to learn but don't want to try will not make use of that power but it is here to stay.
Goodluck... :-) Oh btw up the mem too, 'round 24.

[iGUaNa*]

Thanks for that detailed answer..! I really appreciate it. But something caught my eye reading your message: <quote> i.e. 2 nics in that box </quote> So I need 2 NICs in my old computer... and 1 in my new? So 3 on total?

iGUaNa.

[JuanTanamera]

yeah you need two nics in a gateway firewall
on nic will be connected to the cable modem and the other to a hub or switch that all your other machines connect to
so all traffic from the net gets filtered and analyzed at your gateway/firewall
BEFORE communicating with your other machines
I would really suggest upping the memory to 32
as far as X *eek* on a 486/33
I have run a firewall and gateway (RedHat 6.2)on a 486 with an 800 meg HD I would really recommend 1 gig and up
as far as a window manager go with something small like mwm or owm or fvwm or blackbox if you MUST use X at all
and install ssh on the gateway and an ssh client on your client (win box)

best wishes
http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/cool.gif