just wondering if it's possible to run any linux distro on this ancient machine:

8 megs of ram
486dx2 66 mhz
250 meg hd
cd-rom drive (bootable after installing Smart Boot Manager)

i've tried booting a fedora core and mandrake installer
both went fine until a kernel panic with:
Out of memory and no killable process

i've seen alot of people run it on a 100 mhz with 16 megs (lotsa threads on that already) but i don't have that even :-(
Thanks

You can, but you should use a basic install with just a console (e.g. debian). You can use console apps such as mp3blaster to play music, use mutt for mailing etc with the old beast A simple setup uses about 100 Mb, so you will have some space left.

Anything graphical is a problem, but you do have the minimum requirements. Use a fully supported graphics card and it might just be usuable.

http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-HOWTO...WTO.html#AEN68

Debian is huge which cd's do you think i would need?

get a minimal net install cd, and just use the os from the console.. nothing graphical.

You might be interested to try NetBSD (kern, base & etc) or FreeBSD. Just do a base install and add lynx, mc and other light packages.

I've run 'linux' recently on an amd386sx25 with 3 meg ram and a floppy. IMO that is about the absolute minimum system And to do it you need a specialized small pc distro. The big distros will need 32 meg ram as a minimum - ie you can run mandrake 9.2 on a p150 with 32 meg ram and a 2gig drive and have a usuable box, esp if you crank the ram up to 64 meg...

But an 8 meg 486 needs a small distro especially made for such a machine - and with only 8 meg I'd suggest text based only, tho there are mini X distros that may run on that with fvwm perhaps...

But seriously. There are tons of pentium class machines being thrown away out there - even pentium 2 machines. I have shelves stacked with this stuff and the last pentium desktop I built for my sister was 90% out of the dump... I'd keep an eye out for a better machine unless you are just doing it for the challenge of getting a really old tiny box running linux...

Yeah i certaily don't wanna waste that PC and a P2 would work for a small server even.
I tried booting a debian woody netinst cd i burn a while back (3 months) it was pretty scratched up but it stops and does nothing at:

RAMDISK found at sector 0 (or something like that)

I left it for half an hour and still nothing.

It says it requires 12 megs of ram

try FreeBSD 5.3 disc 1..choose minimal installation.. just the base.. then use pkg_add to insall mutt and links and irssi thenyou have web, mail, and IRC

It'll be slow.. real slow.. but it'll work... sounds like a fun project.. also... if you can scrape around somewhere... see if you can find some more RAM.. that'll help a bunch...

I know nothing about BSD but if nothing else seems to work i may try it but i like linux and use it everyday.

The MOBO is full for ram (at 8 megs) and i really don't think i can get a new mobo, but i do have a machine with 24 megs of ram but it's floppy is busted and it has no cd (i'll try and move it over right after i post this.)

Hi...I would suggest checking out this site:
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/dis...ions/baslinux/
I've used basiclinux lots of times...installed it to an old laptop. Its roots are Slackware.....
Good Luck
Neil