minimal install questions
 

I've been trying to install linux on an old laptop with just 250 megs of hd space and no cd-rom, using a pcmcia ethernet card.

I started out with slackware 9 to see if it was possible, it went fine, I even got X up; but even though I just installed the essentials, I was not satisfied with it, it took up too much space and I could not include any compiling stuff.

So I went on and tried slackware 7.1, same problem here but I could fit in the compilers in the installation and got X running, leaving just 13 megs of hd space for my files.

I'm going to have to try something different, and I'm asking you if you have any ideas. Leaving out the compilers wouldn't bother me if I could get all the apps I need from the distro.

This is what I would like to fit in there:
the base stuff
tcp/ip, dhcp (and essential networking utils)
a gui word processor with swedish spell-checking
a textmode webbrowser
a gui webbrowser
a gui chess game
+ whatever there might be space for, leaving 20 meg for swap and at least an additional 20 for my files

Furhermore, I want as NEW software as possible.

Slackware 7.1 have been the most promising choice this far, if I could leave out the compilers I could probably fit in a wordprocessor and webbrowser, the problem is that there is no wordprocessor in that distro.

All kinds of tips and hints are welcome, distros, apps that will install without make, gui apps that don't require X, etc. (just don't tell me to install win3.11 instead ;) )


Albin

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Try Damn Small Linux or Peanut.

There also is demo Linux. it is about 650MB and is made to run from a cd. Don't put winblows 3.1 back on it! :tisk:

You could even use LRP (Linux Router Project). I fits onto a floppy and turn it into a broadband router but, no X, games, or stuff. It may take some :study:

http://www.linux.org/dist/index.html

A few major suggestions to what I think would be best: Peanut definitely looks like the best functionality givin the space constraints. Vector is peanut based (or maybe it's vise versa) but is bigger.

Try CoreLinux if you're willing to put some time into making the system yourself.

Then after that there's about eleventy billion floppy sized distrubution but they will sacrifice the GUI functionality for that size.