Not enough memory to boot kernel -- does slack 12.2 rally need more than 256MB???

darreng · 04-18-2009, 05:52 AM

Hi

I am trying to install 12.2 on an old machine (PI), since it used to be that slack was one of the better distros for older hardware. I know PI is quite old, but I've got 256 MB RAM, which helps, and swap partition on a different harddrive to /, which also helps. My goal is to get a reasonably usable install of slack with one of the lighter window managers.

I've been able to install debian-lenny-xfce but I don't like it. I've been able to install vector 5.9, but I'd rather put current slack on it. But I can't boot the kernel on disk 1 of the three isos.

It says I don't have enough memory to boot huge.s. Is 256 MB rally not enough? What happened to slack while I was not looking?

The old bare.i does not seem to exist any more -- the install disk only has huge kernels on it, and anyway this computer can boot current xubuntu, current vector, current debian...etc. It ought to be able to boot huge.s. Is slack really that inefficient that it needs over 256MB for booting? I doubt it.

Before you say, I've played with the ISA 16 MB memory hole in bios, enabled and disabled, and it makes no difference.

Is there anything in shadow ram settings, interrupts, what? I am not a newbie, I've done installs before and I am a regular user, but I can't find any useful info on this on the web.

Is it just that a PI is too old for 12.2? Is it an i686 and higher distro these days, and I missed that in the docs?

The chip is pentium 166 MMX. Is that the problem?

Is there a boot option I should be passing?

Any help is welcome.

Darren

onebuck · 04-19-2009, 08:03 AM

Hi,

The memory requirement for Slackware is 64MB but more is better.

I suggest that you try the generic kernel;

Code:

excerpt from 'CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT';

As stated earlier, it is recommended that you use one of the generic kernels
  rather than the huge kernels; the huge kernels are primarily intended as 
  "installer" and "emergency" kernels in case you forget to make an initrd.
  For most systems, you should use the generic SMP kernel if it will run, 
  even if your system is not SMP-capable.  Some newer hardware needs the 
  local APIC enabled in the SMP kernel, and theoretically there should not be
  a performance penalty with using the SMP-capable kernel on a uniprocessor 
  machine, as the SMP kernel tests for this and makes necessary adjustments.
  Furthermore, the kernel sources shipped with Slackware are configured for
  SMP usage, so you won't have to modify those to build external modules
  (such as NVidia or ATI proprietary drivers) if you use the SMP kernel.

  If you decide to use one of the non-SMP kernels, you will need to follow the
  instructions in /extra/linux-2.6.27.7-nosmp-sdk/README.TXT to modify your
  kernel sources for non-SMP usage.  Note that this only applies if you are
  using the Slackware-provided non-SMP kernel - if you build a custom kernel,
  the symlinks at /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/{build,source} will point to the
  correct kernel source so long as you don't (re)move it.