Looking for distro for laptop with 8MB ram

navilon · 07-20-2006, 03:34 PM

I have a CTX EZBook 700 series laptop with only 8MB of ram, a floppy disk controler, 2 pcmcia slots and 2 GB of HD storage. I would like to know what distros are out there that would be best for this kind of setup.

PS:
1. Is is possible to run X Windows with only 8MB ram?
2. I have a pcmcia usb 2.0 controler and a pcmcia linksys wifi card, will these newer cards work on a laptop like this?

Thanks in advance,
Simon

michaelk · 07-21-2006, 04:37 AM

Here are a couple of ideas.
Zipslack (can run x)
Basiclinux

I could not determine the type of PC card slot in the laptop so I do not know if new cards will work or not.

JunctaJuvant · 07-21-2006, 05:27 AM

I once installed Slackware 7.1 on a Toshiba T1950CT (8MB RAM, 200MB HDD), so I think that may work for you too. Did not run X though, but I'd read on some page with installation notes that it is possible with old hardware like this (but very slow!). I used the floppy installation method. It took a long time, and I had to split some files for transfer, but it worked.
I hope that helps.

theYinYeti · 07-21-2006, 07:16 AM

I used to run X on my Atari ST with 4MB RAM, so it certainly is possible. Just don't use X.Org or XFree86. Try and find a really tiny X server and run it in monochrome (black and white).
You may also be interested in QNX, a different OS.

Yves.