I have an old 486 DX100 Packard Bell with 40 meg of ram and a 1.2 gig HD that I am trying to see if I can make work, just for the heck of it. I tried Peanut linux, which works fine until it is time to install the main files, then it sort of sits there and the hd and cdrom lights cycle forever and I have no idea if it is doing anything.

Okay, so I figured I would try Debian. Install went fine, but I couldn't get X to install due to some kinda file dependency prob. (had the same problem on an AMD-K6-500 that I am playing with too)

So figured, what the heck. I downloaded a Slackware install CD and gave it a go. Everything went fine, tho it took FOREVER, I rebooted as per the instructions after the install, everything seemed fine. It sat overnight, booted it next morning....KERNAL PANIC!!!!

I tried installing it on the AMD. Same problem...didn't wait overnight for the second reboot, tho. What gives?

Did you choose the low memory kernel during install? You'll probobly get a kernel panic otherwise.


How fast do you want install to be, its a 486.


Id also cut down on as many packages as possible, no X, etc.

So 40 meg of ram would be considered low memory...or is it something to do with the memory management of a 486...I also point out that I had the same problem on the AMDk-6, and it has 128 meg of ram. It runs Mandrake, Redhat, Knoppix, and Peanut just fine. Plus the Slackware distro worked okay until a seconde reboot, at which time it puked.

128MB wont need the low mem kernel.

Unless you give some log outputs or be more descriptive, we cant really help you that much. "It doesnt work" doesnt help much.

Ummmm. I have no idea how to access a log when I can't even get the system to boot. But thank you for your assistance anyway.