Linux for an old laptop
 

:Pengy:

I have a very old laptop that is currently running windows 3.1, It has 16 Mb of ram and it only has a floppy drive. I was wondering if anyone has had a similar computer and successfully installed linux on it with a GUI. I was able to boot it with floppix, a linux distribution on 2 floppies, but it wasnt graphical.

I basically need a version of linux that will fit on 1.4 Mb floppies and has a GUI, other than that i dont care, but i havent been able to successfully find one yet. Any help or comments would be appreciated, Thanks - Mike

No offense Mike but your dreaming. Those GUIs chew up a lot of memory. Some are better then others but even if you do get it to work it will run like a dog. I'd stick with the shell.

But, if thats the case, then why can i run a graphical windows environment

also, are there any programs that would be useful in a shell?

Because windows 3.1 (and, except for the shapes, newer
versions don't either ... wonder why THEY are so chubby ;})
knows nothing about shapes, various displays,
network transparency, ...

You can try to run a minimalistic window manager
like blackbox, however, chances are that you'll
experience a whole lat of swapping :}

And, to answer your last question:
yes ;)

Cheers,
Tink

So is there a good distribution that fits on 1.4 mb floppies that includes some type of text editor?

Well you can install a simple text editor like vi or pico. They work in the shell so you don't need a gui. I would recommend pico because its easier to use then vi. Most people who use vi love it because of the power it has but its pretty confusing if your used to easy text editors.

how big is the laptop's hd? if it's a 2.5" ide hd than all you have to do id get a bigger hd and install linux and win3.1 on a dual boot setup ;)

the hd is 320MB and it is some type of cartridge

id doesnt look like an ide plug though

hmm, well 320mb isn't too bad if you want bare minimun, just use a nondestructive repartitioning tool, and create a small dual boot ;) easier said than done however :p

16mb ram is enough for a gui. You should be able to run X and a simple window manager like blackbox or even IceWM. It won't be very fast but it will work.

Have a look at BasicLinux: http://www.volny.cz/basiclinux/
You can add slackware packages to get a gui as explained on that site.

There is also 2diskX, a linux distro with a simple gui on 2 floppies:
http://www.angelfire.com/linux/floorzat/2diskXwin.htm

I think you can run a GUI comfortably, I have done it on very basic machines, but not on a laptop, so YMMV.

Look at my post
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...111#post197111
and the whole thread, in fact.

Good luck
Steve :)

ok thanks, ill try some of these suggestions and then report on how well it worked.