Want distro. H/W Pentium-S 75MHz, 8MB RAM...

[aditya.shevade]

Hi

I just got a new (old) PC. It's a pentium-S (dunno when that was launched). 75MHz, got 8MB RAM and a 850MB HDD. No CD drive, no modem, no Ethernet card, 2 Floppy drives (both sizes). (I can get the CD drive of one of my slightly newer Desktop for installation, if required).

Is there any Linux distribution which can run off that? If yes then which is the best one in your opinion? I already tried DSL, but it does not boot.

Please guys (and gals, if any). I am searching, but I cannot find any. So please help me.

Aditya

[sam_1710]

googled to find this : http://www.delilinux.de/#about

and also try a linux distro called mepis (old versions) they might work!!
----------------
EDIT: hey, i also found this : Tiny Linux

[mehulved]

With that amount of RAM, I wouldn't expect it to run X server. Try obtaining some old floppy images of slackware or debian or such from the archives.
See ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/historic-linux/distributions/
But, I'd recommend you to try and find if some 2.x kernel based distro works on your PC.

[cynosure]

Offtopic::
@aditya: And how are you planning to use that PC?

[Gigacore]

wow what a PC! do as mehul says he is mastermind of open source section

[aditya.shevade]

Originally Posted by cynosure

Offtopic::
@aditya: And how are you planning to use that PC?

Aah... It's just for fun and learning (if I can)....

Basically I use HP nx6110 laptop P.M. 1.6GHz. 512MB RAM. So I have forgotten how the old ones used to be.... So I am giving it a try

By the way. New problem. The BIOS does not detect the harddisk. (configured as primary slave). I installed Deli. 1 partition of 750MB and 100MB swap. And I cannot boot..... But the PC where I installed Deli on the HDD using CD, detects the HDD (So HDD is fine). Any guesses what the problem might be?

[anantkhaitan]

Few weeks back I was also trying some distros on my prehistoric PC (I don't know its configuration ) Well a distro named Caldera worked fine.. though X server was not working.. but I was able to do everything there.. U may try it..

[praka123]

Floppy disk distros that u may try

[mehulved]

http://cpu-museum.de/?m=Intel&f=Pent...F+P54C#cpu0002
Something on the CPU ^^
I believe you should try for some distro optimised for 386 or 486. And no X will run on this. I would strongly suggest a slackware based distro for this PC.
Also, give the output of lshw and cat /proc/cpuinfo

[infra_red_dude]

yeah look out for a distro which is optimised for 3/486. pentium-s doesn't support mmx instructions. its quite old. i think distros wid older versions of xf86 will surely run. one of my frenz was running xf86 + afterstep (and windowmaker too) on a pentium 90 wid 12mb ram, RH 5.0 distro. u may later try to upgrade the kernel (from 2.0 to newer) but leave everything else as it is.....

i'd say first do a normal install, tweak the system then enable the x server.

[mehulved]

I don't think X server will run cos from what I have got, X server needs minimum 8mb of free RAM to run.
And I'd say try to compile a custom kernel for it.That will reduce the unnecessary overhead.
And if you want to be more daring, use your current PC, to compile a new distro optimised for your old PC and just put the required softwares.

[aditya.shevade]

Are, but the PC does not detect the Harddisk. Not only that 850MB one but also the 20GB one that I had. And these 2 are fine....

Is there any chance that the reason might be the 750MB initial partition? I mean, maybe thats why it cannot boot?

[gary4gar]

check this
slackware 3.9
[

B]Hardware Requirements[/B]

  What kind of system is needed to run Linux? This is a good question;
  the actual hardware requirements for the system change periodically.
  The Linux Hardware-HOWTO gives a (more or less) complete listing of
  hardware supported by Linux. The Linux INFO-SHEET provides another
  list.

  At the very least, a hardware configuration that looks like the
  following is required:

  Any ISA, EISA or VESA Local Bus 80386 or 80486 system will do.
  Currently, the MicroChannel (MCA) architecture (found on IBM PS/2
  machines) is not supported.  Any CPU from the 386SX to the 486DX2 will
  work. You do not need a math coprocessor, although it is nice to have
  one.

  You need at least 4 megabytes of memory in your machine. Technically,
  Linux will run with only 2 megs, but most installations and software
  require 4. The more memory you have, the happier you'll be. I suggest
  8 or 16 megabytes if you're planning to use X-Windows.

  Of course, you'll need a hard drive and an AT-standard drive
  controller. All MFM, RLL, and IDE drives and controllers should work.
  Many SCSI drives and adaptors are supported as well; the Linux SCSI-
  HOWTO contains more information on SCSI.

  Linux can actually run on a single 5.25" HD floppy, but that's only
  useful for installation and maintenance.

  Free space on your hard drive is needed as well. The amount of space
  needed depends on how much software you plan to install. Most
  installations require somewhere in the ballpark of 40 to 80 megs.
  This includes space for the software, swap space (used as virtual RAM
  on your machine), and free space for users, and so on.

  It's conceivable that you could run a minimal Linux system in 20 megs
  or less, and it's conceivable that you could use well over 200 megs or
  more for all of your Linux software. The amount varies greatly
  depending on the amount of software you install and how much space you
  require. More about this later.

  Linux will co-exist with other operating systems, such as MS-DOS,
  Microsoft Windows, or OS/2, on your hard drive. (In fact you can even
  access MS-DOS files and run some MS-DOS programs from Linux.)  In
  other words, when partitioning your drive for Linux, MS-DOS or OS/2
  live on their own partitions, and Linux exists on its own. We'll go
  into more detail later.

  You do NOT need to be running MS-DOS, OS/2, or any other operating
  system to use Linux. Linux is a completely different, stand-alone
  operating system and does not rely on other OS's for installation and
  use.

  You also need a Hercules, CGA, EGA, VGA, or Super VGA video card and
  monitor.  In general, if your video card and monitor work under MS-DOS
  then it should work under Linux. However, if you wish to run X
  Windows, there are other restrictions on the supported video hardware.
  The Linux XFree86-HOWTO contains more information about running X and
  its requirements.

  In all, the minimal setup for Linux is not much more than is required
  for most MS-DOS or MS Windows systems sold today. If you have a 386 or
  486 with at least 4 megs of RAM, then you'll be happy running Linux.
  Linux does not require huge amounts of diskspace, memory, or processor
  speed. I (used to) run Linux on a 386/16 MHz (the slowest machine you
  can get) with 4 megs of RAM, and was quite happy. The more you want to
  do, the more memory (and faster processor) you'll need. In my
  experience a 486 with 16 megabytes of RAM running Linux outdoes
  several models of workstation.

read more

[aditya.shevade]

^^ I tried all the options I had. The system is not able to recognize the HDD all of a sudden. My newer system can, however read the same HDD. First need to solve that one.

Then, I installed Red Hat 9 (no X windows) on the HDD (The oldest CD's I had.... FDD of this newer system does not work). I created a 10MB boot partition in case the old hardware was unable to boot into a big partition. But alas, as swiftly as it runs on this new system of mine, the older one just ignores the HDD, and it was working fine some 10 days ago when it had DOS installed on it.

Aditya