486 100mhz too slow????

[heega1]

I've tried installing linux-mandrake 7.2 on my 486 100mhz machine. It has 32mb of ram and a 2 gig HD. I can get linux to install, but when i restart, it starts talking about grub. Thats all it will do. I NEED HELP.

[Evil Jeff]

Use lilo. I get errors with grub on my brand new 950 mghz machine with new video card, etc. Use your boot disk, log in and use linuxconf or your favorite editor to set up lilo (boot options under linuxconf). I'm not sure what it takes to set up grub, but lilo works on almost every system possible.

BTW, mandrake is compiled for i586 (pentium class) and not supported for anything slower. Just to let you know. I have a 486 that it won't even let me install it on. Just so you know.

[heega1]

Well thanks for the information. the 100mhz machine was just a second one I was using (hoping to set up a network). Oh well, I'll just keep playing with it on my newer machine. Once again, thanks for the help.

[Malakin]

There is a copy of Mandrake 7.? for 486's. I don't have a link but it does exist ;) Appears there's no 486 version planned for 8.0.

I'd try Debian.

When installing Linux on a 486, usually the cpu speed isn't as much of a problem as the ammount of memory and disk space.

Most likely a 486-100/32M/2GB can run Debian well.

[heega1]

I went and checked out debian.org, when it came to downloading debian though (this will be a stupid question) I get the parent directory of /debian. So do i need to download all of the files listed there? Or what do I need to do.

Also, will debian be compatable with mandrake in a network, or would I have to install debian on both machines?