I've been trying to install Mandrake 8.2 to an old Compaq 486 that i've got. I can't boot to CD. Either my cd's aren't bootable (got them from a friend), or the pc won't try the cd and i can't get to bios.

Anyway. . .so I made a Linux boot disk, and when i boot to it, at first everything seems great like I've hit pay dirt. It comes up with a dos-ish looking screen from Mandrake and tells me to hit Alt-F1 to continue.

When I do that, the CD-ROM starts spinning, looks like an install is happening, and I'm thinking "Cool!" Then the sky falls and I see the following messages:

- in 2nd stage install
- install exited abnormally
- sending termination signals. . .etc. . .etc

this is AFTER the CD-rom was chugging for a good minute and it really seemed like something good was happening.

What am I doing wrong? btw, the pc currently has win 95 on it. i tried the same thing on a totally clean, reformatted 486, with no luck there either.

THANKS.
ngj

Aah, but how much memory is on this machine? I'm thinking not enough.

i think it has 32 megs. is that the problem? i have heard that linux can run on minimal specs. . .maybe not that minimal?

ngj

It can *run* on minimal specs but getting it installed gets more difficult. I'm trying to remember what size ramdisk 8.2 likes to create for install, did you happen to see any error messages go by, or something saying it was creating x number of ramdisks of xx size?

i viewed the logs and saw "Warning: ramdisk is not possible due to low mem." I guess you were right.

Do you think 64mg will be enough, if i can get some more in there? I know it has 32 now.

thanks!

I'm not sure, but isn't Mandrake compiled for a pentium? Unless this is a version they made for a 486 (I know they made some, but not sure what version), I don't think it will run.

Do you have to use Mandrake? 8.2 is pretty old anyway. Maybe you would be better with a newer distro aimed at older machines. Vector 4 just came out, and regular Slackware would probably run.

I'm pretty new to linux myself, but I run Slackware 9.0, and I have had that running on a machine with 32mb ram. I have also used Mandrake, but I couldn't get 9.1 working with my video.

The bottom line is, if you plan to run X, 32mb is pretty low. You would probably be better off with something like Vector and a lightweight wm. DON'T run KDE of Gnome!

Hope this helps.

hey cap'n, i'm going to take your advice and bag mandrake. I'll give Slackware a whirl. I've just been on their website and it says they support 486 (cool).

thanks cap'n leaky!
ngj