Hi,
There are distributions that fit onto a single floppy - just don't expect to do much with them... (search Freshmeat.net)
They might not have bash (more used shell), and they certainly don't have X so you can forget about GNOME/KDE or WM/E/whatever.
Quite whether your 386 machine will survive the month after december I haven't the foggiest, and you'd have to bear in mind that with 8Mb RAM you'll (AFAIK) be lucky to erun X no matter what distro you use.
If I were you I'd grab RedHat from somewhere (any vers) and do a custom-install. That way you can cut out devel packages (gcc and the like), GNOME and KDE, Apache, Postgres and numerous other things you simply won't use and it should fit into 120Mb.
I know it can be done - I know someone who did it. And FWIW, dual-booting is quite easy and comes up as as an option in the RedHat 5/6 installer.
Let us know the outcome...
Thanks for the information. I guess I should read what I write before I post it :o) I'm actually after a distribution that might be available on a floppy as the 386 doesn't have a CD drive fitted. I'll go for a trawl on the various websites and see what turns up. l8rs Al
-----Original Message----- From: Green, James M K [mailto:jmkgre@essex.ac.uk] Sent: 23 November 1999 11:48 To: alug@stu.uea.ac.uk Subject: [alug] Floppies
Hi,
There are distributions that fit onto a single floppy - just don't expect to do much with them... (search Freshmeat.net)
They might not have bash (more used shell), and they certainly don't have X so you can forget about GNOME/KDE or WM/E/whatever.
Quite whether your 386 machine will survive the month after december I haven't the foggiest, and you'd have to bear in mind that with 8Mb RAM you'll (AFAIK) be lucky to erun X no matter what distro you use.
If I were you I'd grab RedHat from somewhere (any vers) and do a custom-install. That way you can cut out devel packages (gcc and the like), GNOME and KDE, Apache, Postgres and numerous other things you simply won't use and it should fit into 120Mb.
I know it can be done - I know someone who did it. And FWIW, dual-booting is quite easy and comes up as as an option in the RedHat 5/6 installer.
Let us know the outcome...
-- James Green jg@linuxnewbie.com Site Manager LinuxNewbie.com
-----Original Message----- From: Al [mailto:BioHazzard@mad.scientist.com] Sent: 23 November 1999 11:26 To: alug@stu.uea.ac.uk Subject: [alug] Floppies
Hello, I've been lurking for a few months now, and I've seen references to various distributions. Unfortunately I haven't been brave enough to try and run two OS's on my main machine as I use it for work. I have got sitting in the loft an old 386 machine that is gathering dust. it has a tiny (read 120mb) HD and and insignificant amount of ram (8mb) but I was wondering if there is a floppy distribution that might fit. Initially I really only want to learn the basics, once I am confident I can break and fix it again then I'll see about setting it up on my main machine. Any advice one way or the other would be appreciated. Thank you Al
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On Tue, 23 Nov 1999, Green, James M K wrote:
Hi,
There are distributions that fit onto a single floppy - just don't expect to do much with them... (search Freshmeat.net)
Isn't this a bit defeatest? Fun can be had with very slow systems and little space.
They might not have bash (more used shell), and they certainly don't have X so you can forget about GNOME/KDE or WM/E/whatever.
Quite whether your 386 machine will survive the month after december I haven't the foggiest, and you'd have to bear in mind that with 8Mb RAM you'll (AFAIK) be lucky to erun X no matter what distro you use.
For many purposes you don't need x. My first Linux box was setup on an old 386sx20 with 2mb ram and one 40mb hdd (of which 8mb was swap and 8mb for users!!). Obviously it didn't work too well but I have transplanted in into a 486 33 with 8mb ram and that works fine (as long as you don't want to run x).
If I were you I'd grab RedHat from somewhere (any vers) and do a custom-install. That way you can cut out devel packages (gcc and the like), GNOME and KDE, Apache, Postgres and numerous other things you simply won't use and it should fit into 120Mb.
The above 486 now runs debian which is on a 120mb disk with a fair bit installed.
I know it can be done - I know someone who did it. And FWIW, dual-booting is quite easy and comes up as as an option in the RedHat 5/6 installer.
As long as you make a backup floppy with is it restoreb it is fine!
Simon
-----Original Message----- From: Al [mailto:BioHazzard@mad.scientist.com] Sent: 23 November 1999 11:26 To: alug@stu.uea.ac.uk Subject: [alug] Floppies
Hello, I've been lurking for a few months now, and I've seen references to various distributions. Unfortunately I haven't been brave enough to try and run two OS's on my main machine as I use it for work. I have got sitting in the loft an old 386 machine that is gathering dust. it has a tiny (read 120mb) HD and and insignificant amount of ram (8mb) but I was wondering if there is a floppy distribution that might fit. Initially I really only want to learn the basics, once I am confident I can break and fix it again then I'll see about setting it up on my main machine. Any advice one way or the other would be appreciated. Thank you Al
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The above 486 now runs debian which is on a 120mb disk with a fair bit installed.
Yep - deb seems to scale down to small installs quite well - from what I can remember, the smallest install you can do is about 28 MB (admittedly it's not terribly useful at that point) and you can build it up with the bits you want from there.
Paul
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On Tue, Nov 23, 1999 at 02:00:19PM +0000, Paul Russell wrote:
The above 486 now runs debian which is on a 120mb disk with a fair bit installed.
Yep - deb seems to scale down to small installs quite well - from what I can remember, the smallest install you can do is about 28 MB (admittedly it's not terribly useful at that point) and you can build it up with the bits you want from there.
Paul
Sounds familiar - I seem to remember having a 386SX25 running apache at one point (40Mb HDD, 6Mb RAM)...then I went up in the world...486SX25, 120Mb HDD, 8Mb RAM - apache + sendmail + X + Netscape...the fun u can have with old machines ;)
Brett Parker
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On Tue, 23 Nov 1999, Brett Parker wrote:
On Tue, Nov 23, 1999 at 02:00:19PM +0000, Paul Russell wrote:
The above 486 now runs debian which is on a 120mb disk with a fair bit installed.
Yep - deb seems to scale down to small installs quite well - from what I can remember, the smallest install you can do is about 28 MB (admittedly it's not terribly useful at that point) and you can build it up with the bits you want from there.
Paul
Sounds familiar - I seem to remember having a 386SX25 running apache at one point (40Mb HDD, 6Mb RAM)...then I went up in the world...486SX25, 120Mb HDD, 8Mb RAM - apache + sendmail + X + Netscape...the fun u can have with old machines ;)
Yes Linux = more fun with less cost or in my case it could be called skipware owing to the source of the bits!!
Simon
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-
Al -
Brett Parker -
Green, James M K -
Paul Russell -
Simon Jude