Linux on a 386
 

Currently, I have linux running on a 386 with 4 Mb RAM, I did it just for the fun, but now I really want to do something with it.
Does anyone have any suggestions?????
And I don't want to do anything web-related.

If your on a network, they make great routers, firewall or proxy server. Is that too web related for you?
not much else I could think of with so little power. You could turn it into a MP3 machine and put it in your car, I hope to do that soon.

Well, that's all I have on ideas.....anyone else....!

Yes, an MP3 machine is a good idea! But I can't get my CD-Rom player to work. And the harddisk is too small.

More idea's?

Um, target practice?

Isn't that a waste for a perfectly good machine?????

Ya, but what are you really going to do with it? It's good for learning, but I guess i don't have any real suggestions...

It was just for fun to get Linux on the machine, with no CD-Rom. Now I just want to do something usefull with it.

Use it as a minimal workstation connected to a fileserver, linux or windows.

For what?

You can make a nice configuration to do graphic (hardware) programming on it if you connect it to your normal PC with a serial nulmodem. That's also usefull when you mess up XWindow. Finally you can use it as a console to log the kernel boot messages when messing with the kernel.

What about getting a few more of them, stack them all together and build a "supercomputer"?

I read somewhere that linux is capable of building one "virtual" machine that consists of several machines.... don't know exactly what its called though.... :(

after that you could have it participate in the distributed.net or seti@home program ;)



[Edited by bako on 02-13-2001 at 09:43 AM]

I believe that is called a 'cluster'. I saw a book on building linux clusters at Barnes & Noble. I always thought I'd be cool. I did read where a guy picked up like 20 old 386 -486 PCs that a school was throwing out. He took everything out of the cases and fashioned a rack to hold all the motherboards and stuff. He claimed that you could use any PC you wanted, you could mix and match a 386 with a P3, or several of each and they all teamed up as one.

Sounds fun.

-Mark

Games!!!
 

There's only one thing you should use a 386 (or worse) for (if you only have the one, anyway) -

retro games machine!!

you are in an uncommon position to run lots of really great games which were designed to run as fast as the processor could go, and as a result are completely unplayable on fast machines...

unfortunately I cant really think of any at the moment...

http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu

or maybe http://www.parabon.com/cac.jsp
once the linux client is done

check out http://www.parabon.com for others

or http://www.distributed.net

Great idea's!!
A cluster is a nice thing!! I think I'll do that!

Old but not out
 

Hello.
I read your post with interest.
I myself am running a 486/66 with 12 meg of ram (Red Hat 7.0), which is our gateway to the internet for a few windows based comps.
It runs great, even though I was told that it would die.
We run it as a file and print server, a firewall, and more recently, a chat server for when some of my friends and I want to chat..... and don't want to wait around for ICQ.
Also it now runs a basic setup of ProFtp, so that we can shuffle files around as well.
Never given any trouble, and runs all day without a complaint.
Thats Linux for you I guess.


[Edited by Wazza on 02-26-2001 at 06:45 PM]

Yeah, Linux on an older machine runs GREAT! It is even faster than the Novell network at my work!

Hey DGTL_Magician,
I have an old IBM 386 20 mhz with 2MB ram and 40MB hard drive. Do you think I can install Linux on that????
If not I will have to live with what currently installed it which dos... or does not do much....

You'll need at least a bigger harddrive, or you have to search for another distro. I used debian, but it won't install on a 40 Mb Harddisk, I tried it.....
Now I got a 100 Mb harddisk and it works fine.
I'm busy with writing a 386 Server howto, so let me know if anyone out there is interested in one.
I think with enough swap space, the 2 Mb won't be that much of a problem, but I never tried it.
Let me know what you've done.

I installed Slackware (the a package) on one of my computers. i386 300MB.
The installation took about 50 meg so I think that you baybe can shrink that to fit your drive. Just skip some of the programs during installation. I installed about 90% of the contained programs.
Visit http://www.slackware.com and download the A package, it fits on 16 floppys.

ugge,
How much RAM did you have in yours??? 2, 4MB??.. The problems is some Linux distributions will complain about the amount of system memory you have and installation just halt.
Is there a work around for that anyway.

Also, instead of having to put installation files on floppies, how about doing installation online via ftp, I have a nic card in machine and can provide it a raw DSL line connection, Any ideas????

[Edited by nabil on 02-26-2001 at 05:09 AM]

DGTL_Magician
If you are going to do anything with linux clustering, let me know. At one time I was interested in setting a Beowulf, but the idea got complicated. Also tried the already setup CDs from Scyld Beowulf at http://www.scyld.com/ but still had problems..
Let me know what you come up with if you head that direction.

Do me a suggestion on Linux clustering, and maybe I'll try it. For now I use it as a server for my home computers, maybe a cluster would be nice (cross-platform clusters are maybe nice too! Windows and Linux working along??)

Amount of memory
 

I don't know how much memory I have on my 386 but it might be 8 or 16 Meg, but slackware is supposed to install on 4 Meg I think.
But you have to activate swap at the beginning of the install prosess.
It's all on their web page.

I heard a long time ago that linux required 4 meg to run, but there are special distros focusing on small systems as well as emeded.
With some work you might find something.
You might want to try this site:
http://www.linuxlinks.com/Distributions/

Linux clusters
 

The 'cluster book' is out-of-date and is being rewritten. The current incarnation (and the subject of the new book) is the Beowulf cluster. Scyld, I think, is the developing company. Searches on 'beowulf' and 'scyld' should give you the leads you need to find out more.

I think you'll find that you need to provide modified software for Beowulf clusters. Have a look at Mosix. It shifts processes around between boxes transparantely so you don't need to recompile any of your software, I keep meaning to have a go but haven't got around to it yet, clearly you want some good LAN connections to make this work otherwise the time taken for communication outweighs the gains of the distribution of processes. They're at http://www.mosix.org

cheers

Jamie...

I was going to suggest filling it with concrete and using it as a boat anchor, but clustering is cool too.

:D

Hey, I got a 386 up in my bedroom with windows 3.1, and i want to put linux on it (on a HD) but I don't know what distro, or what version of a major distro to use. What distro and version of linux do you have running on your 386?

Check out this site... http://edge.linuxhq.com/dist.html
it has a list of small distro's towards the bottom of the page.. you might want to check out some smaller distro's that can easily run linux with a command line if that is what your looking for.
there are some that fit on a floppy...

I used to have an old 386, but it got destroyed. If only I knew all about this then, I could have saved it. I still have it lying around though. Anyone interested in rebuilding a pc?

thin client
 

All of you with older hardware might want to check out a thin client use?

http://howto.tucows.com/otherhowto/Thinclient-HOWTO

i read an article on what you can do with an old computer...put linux on it, and using samba and other tools, create an automatic backup machine for your network!

i believe it was in Linux Journal.

thanks for the link. as far as floppy distros are concerned, i don't think they're really THAT worthwhile, but still handy. so far, the best i've found is NucLinux.

What about using it for external logging? Shut everything down, lock everything down, allow logging only and you just gained some extra security.

I have no clue how to do it - but I have read about it & considered it.

386AT
 

I got very interested by the topic since I got an old-386 4 MB RAM lying around for couple of years now.

The main problem is: it is not easy to install Linux when you got 4 or less MB of RAM.

I tried Red Hat 4.0 but I could not install it because it needs more RAM. Same for Debian and any other distros.

I lurked at Small Linux but this was more a test distro and wasnt very usable in any way.

I do, by chance, find the CD of Slackware 2.0 using the 1.0.9 kernel in my room. So I put the interesting packages on floppies (about 20) and the installation was pretty straightforward.

Now I got it running doing much less nothing except cracking keys for the Distributed NET client. I'm heading to install IP-Masquerading and use it as a firewall/router.

I dont know about performances and the like for now. But this is an interesting projet, better than putting this machine to the crap pile.

Later,

Tb

I think NASA did somthing along those lines with Beowolf

thin clients
 

The best use I have seen for this old machines is as thin clients. The only program the thin client has to run is XFree86. Everything else runs as X clients from a server.

For more details, see
http://www.ltsp.org

Aside from clustering... hmm... I have to do that one day:

Print server! I've got an old 386, printerstand, great machine, oddly enough the Xerox inkjet sitting ontop of it has more memory.

Nethack server! Okay, you could have anything doing this, but just stick the machine outside your firewall, give it a static, and just let people HaX0r the thing if their bored. Null login, get a dynamic DNS entry for it. Anyone could login and play.

SETI@home crate! Watch this startling machine crank out a work unit a week looking for LGMs.

PI machine! Have it sit in the corner and crunch Pi forever! See what kind of uptime you can get it!

Cheers,

Finegan

I'm intrested ;)

-Progster

I have a 468DX2/66 4MB running Debian happily. I've used it for gaming. Mainly roguelikes like ADOM or Nethack. But its also good for learning.

clustering 386's ???
 

I can't believe that anyone would seriously cluster 386's. Don't you have anything better to do?

Yes, they are good as little servers and as thin clients too ( http://www.ltsp.org ), but clusters? That seems like a waste of electricity! Newer machines produce much more computation per unit of energy.

If you want to play with virtual clusters, see my next post...

virtual clusters
 

If you want to play with clusters, you can create virtual clusters. Here are some pertinent links:

http://user-mode-linux.sourceforge.net/
http://bochs.sourceforge.net/
http://www.plex86.org/info.phtml

Here is a duplicate thread:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...7373#post67373

If you're into programming, you could make it a dedicated programming machine .

I took a look at the "packages" available from Debian.

I'm amazed at what's out there - Basic, Pascal, several flavors of C, modula-2 - you could even use it for writing native code for the Intel 386!

Perhaps you might like to use it for CAD programs, which are available too - do something really productive.

I keep a 286, 386 & a 486 around (running DOS 6.2) just so I can use some of the old DOS programs, which - funny enough - NEVER CRASH. MS did get something right when they wrote DOS.

Interestingly enough, RAM used to be the achilles heel of older machines.

One day, I went into a local Computer store, not the Circuit City type but the Mom'n'Pop fixit store. Asked the owner if he had any old memory SIMMS I could have and he brought out a box from the back and told me to help myself. Found several 30 pin 2Mbyte sticks which I glom'd onto.

Also found, on-line, an outfit that would sell 2 Mbyte 72-pin SIMMS for 75 cents each.

Usually, the old MB's had 4 slots for memory sticks, whether it was 30-pin or 72-pin. This would raise MB memory to 8Mbytes pretty cheaply.

Installation of Red Hat Linux on 486 Machine
 

Need some sugestions . . .

I have an old PC with 200Mhz processor and 64MB memory. My question is, can I install Red Hat Linux Enterprise Edition on this PC?

Thanks . . .

Red Hat 7.0
 

Comrad good day . . .

Can you provide site reference where can i download Red Hat 7.0.

Thanks a lot . . .