Run linux on old computer?

Discussion:

(too old to reply)

Bengt Boysen

2005-01-07 14:14:21 UTC

Hi!
I have found an old computer, which has a 20 Mb harddrive and 8Mb of RAM. It
is currently using Wndows 3.11 for workgroups and DOS 6.22. Is it possible
to run a small version of Linux on this box, if so which one would you
recommend? I have no further information on hardware specs.

Marko

2005-01-08 20:06:08 UTC

Permalink

Post by Bengt Boysen
Hi!
I have found an old computer, which has a 20 Mb harddrive and 8Mb of RAM. It
is currently using Wndows 3.11 for workgroups and DOS 6.22. Is it possible
to run a small version of Linux on this box, if so which one would you
recommend? I have no further information on hardware specs.

Probably the machine would run ANY linux without graphic environment.
(shell only). You should try it.

Moe Trin

2005-01-09 02:12:14 UTC

Permalink

Post by Bengt Boysen
I have found an old computer, which has a 20 Mb harddrive and 8Mb of RAM.

Damn, that's REALLY tiny. ALL main distributions (Debian, Mandrake,
Slackware, SuSE, Fedora, etc) wouldn't have enough memory to start,
and not enough disk space for the kernel, libraries, and a few utilities.

Post by Bengt Boysen
It is currently using Wndows 3.11 for workgroups and DOS 6.22. Is it
possible to run a small version of Linux on this box, if so which one
would you recommend? I have no further information on hardware specs.

Is it a 386 or better? That's an absolute requirement. You should see
that much in the boot messages. I pretty much doubt that it can, but
you can have a look at

http://www.distrowatch.com/

or one of the sunsite mirrors - posting from .se... try

* Finland
+ Espoo ftp.funet.fi/pub/Linux/mirrors/metalab/
* Germany
+ Dresden ftp.tu-dresden.de/Linux/sunsite/
+ Göttingen ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/mirrors/sunsite/
+ Karlsruhe ftp://ftp.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/sunsite/
+ Mannheim ftp.ba-mannheim.de/pub/linux/mirror.sunsite/
+ Rostock ftp.uni-rostock.de/Linux/sunsite/
+ Stuttgart
ftp.rus.uni-stuttgart.de/pub/unix/systems/linux/MIRROR.sunsite/
+ Tübingen
ftp://ftp.uni-tuebingen.de/pub/linux/mirrors/ftp.metalab.unc.ed
u/pub/Linux/
* Norway
+ Trondheim ftp.nvg.unit.no/pub/linux/sunsite/
* Poland
+ Warsaw sunsite.icm.edu.pl/pub/Linux/sunsite.unc.edu/

Those are anonymous FTP servers - log in as 'anonymous' with your e-mail
address as password, and change to the indicated directory. Then change
to ./distributions/ and grab the 'index.html' page. That directory has
about 100 different distributions you can download - some of them _might_
be small enough. If so, you certainly won't be able to run X or any of the
modern GUI applications. You really want something bigger and probably
faster.

Old guy

E. Charters

2005-01-27 20:49:30 UTC

Permalink

you can run some distros off the cdrom. 8 megs is tiny for
X windows, but twm might make it. 16 or 32 is more like it.

A distro inside ten megs is possible. I think yggdrasil
had something like that. Fall 95. Would run off the CDROM.

EC<:-}

OLDACK

2005-06-23 21:00:06 UTC

Permalink

Try the live cd KNOPPIX. It may answer most of your questions.

Ciao, Ack;