Help for Linux on bare-bones 386

[Eric Galliher]

Speaking of MIT flea markets, does anybody happen to know
when the next one is?

~eric galliher

On Mon, 4 Jan 1999, jethro wrote:

> 
> The first time I tried to install linux, it was on a 386 with 4MB and two 
> 40MB hard disks.  It didn't work out (couldn't get past all the 
> segmentation faults) and it stayed a dos machine until someone gave me a 
> 486 motherboard with 8MB of RAM which is still in this machine.  At that 
> point I had a 100MB hard disk, and that configuration was definately 
> useful.  So with that as my background, let me see if I can answer any 
> questions:
> 
> Op Mon, 4 Jan 1999, Bill Horne schreef:
> > I've a 386 with 8MB Ram, 5.25 floppies, a 40MB hard drive, with a
> > monochrome monitor. Please tell me if it's a viable platform for 
> <snip>
> > 2. Can I run a word processor (like emacs) or a spreadsheet on it if 
> > I use Linux?
> I found Emacs to take up something like 5-10MB of hard disk space (I 
> forget now) so I deemed it not worth it.  That's not going to be 
> comfortable on 40MB.  I don't much about spreadsheets, but I can't 
> imagine it being that small.  But the real answer is yes, if you could 
> fit it on the hard disk.
> 
> > 3. Since the machine has no CD-ROM, what options do I have for
> > obtaining/loading the software?
> Without a CD-ROM, this is not fun.  The simplest solution is to download 
> a distribution onto floppies and install from there.  When I tried to 
> install it on that 386, I wound up with 20 disks (and each one takes 
> about 10 minutes to download from a computer lab in a university).  I 
> picked up a 4xCD-ROM for $20 at the MIT flea market; a week later 
> a store was selling 16x for $30.  The CD player is worth it for the 
> install alone.  Of course then you have to invest in a distribution CD, 
> although it's worth it in my opinion.  Or you can borrow it from someone, 
> one of the joys of GPL'd software.
>  
> > 4. Will I need more RAM or hard disk?
> I still have 8MB and it goes okay.  Compiling programs can take a while; 
> I can run X but not do much without a lot of hard disk thrashing, but for 
> most things I don't notice.  I would definately get more hard disk, though.
> A basic install that included gcc and perl but not emacs or X (what my setup 
> was) took up 60 MB.  You can probably get a 200MB hard disk cheap; they 
> sold them at the MIT flea for $10, but that won't happen again until 
> spring, but I am sure there are other places you can find them.  Also 
> beware; they're kind of used and junky, I found a 1GB there for $10 but 
> when I took it home it refused to work.
> 
> > 5. How much of a learning curve will an experienced DOS user have in
> > stepping up to Linux?  My sister has never used a "point and drool"
> > interface, so she's used to using a command line, but I don't want to
> > give her a system that's going to need several months to master:  she
> > has five kids and little spare time.
> To be honest, I'm far more familiar with unix than dos.  However, I would 
> think for basic things, it should be simple, ie copy-cp, dir-ls... 
> although I was in for a shock the first time I tried to get my new system 
> to read a floppy disk (mount /dev/fd0 /mnt I would have never guessed, 
> and I couldn't find this information anywhere when I first looked for 
> it).  However, there is a lot more to learn, but it isn't really 
> necessary.
> 
> > 6.  How much of a learning curve will *I* have to climb in order to get
> > this system working?  I have used UNIX at school, and know the basic
> > commands, but I haven't programmed in years and have never assembled 
> > an OS from source.  What time commitment should I plan for?
> I thought I knew enough about unix before installing linux, but I 
> overlooked the fact that you have to do some basic system 
> administration.  It's not too much, though, and there is lots of 
> documentation available.  If you are already familiar with tar and gzip, 
> you should be mostly fine.
> 
> My overall recommendation:  for that particular machine, leave it as a 
> DOS box.  If you get a larger hard disk and a 3-1/2 floppy drive (I have 
> a spare floppy drive I can give you) and really want to do this then go 
> for it.
> 
> For recycled machines, I would have at least 8MB RAM and a 100MB hard
> disk, with CDROM (even if only borrowed for the duration of the install,
> and returned afterwards) and 3-1/2" floppy.  I have never seen linux
> successfully running on a 386, so I suppose that's a recommendation in
> itself.  A smaller hard drive is possible, but then you wouldn't have
> enough space for applications such as emacs and other miscellanious stuff. 
> And don't forget a swap partition!  At 40MB, using 8MB of that as swap 
> will seem like a huge amount.
> 
> Also, as far as various distributions are concerned, I would recommend 
> Slackware over Redhat for small hard disks.  I tried to get Redhat to do 
> a "minimum install" which well exceeded my 100MB hard disk, whereas that 
> 60MB install came from Slackware.  I haven't used other distributions so 
> I can't really comment on them.
> 
> Hope that helps
> jethro
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