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??)

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/

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.

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...