[NTLUG:Discuss] Question...

[Kevin Ivey]

Steve Baker wrote:
> 
> D wrote:
> >
> > Greetings everyone...
> >
> > I have a very poor hardware sitting at my place.  P-I 133MHz -
> > 32 Kb RAM 2GB HD and a 32X CDROM.  I have tried installing
> > Redhat 6.0 but I couldnt get X to run on it.  So now I am
> > planning on going with either of the following:

I'm sure you meant 32MB RAM.....
> >
> > 1) Redhat 7.1/7.2 ???
> > 2) Suse
> > 3) Mandrake
> >
> > Can anyone suggest me on which of the above is better?  I know
> > there will be huge differences in everybody's opinions.  I also
> > know that I will get answers like 32 RAM is too low, but this is
> > what I have and I dont have money + source of money for
> > upgrading hardware.  So if you were to suggest me unbiasly from
> > your favorite, what of the above will be a way to go?
> 
> My favorite is SuSE.  RedHat and Mandrake tend to be kinda similar
> because Mandrake used the RedHat distro as their starting point and
> kinda track the versions and hacks that RedHat do.
>
Most newer distros are pretty tough to install with a small, tight
install.  Your best shot would be Slackware from about a year ago.
 
> But I doubt that any of the latest versions of these are gonna work well in 32Mb RAM (or even install with only 2Gb of disk).  As you correctly guess, my first suggestion *is* "get more RAM".  RAM is spectacularly cheap right now - a friend of mine bought a 128Mb stick for $27 last week.  If you can get up to 64Mb - that would be enough.

Wow, that is double what I just paid for Micron CAS2 good stuff.

> I bet you could find someone who has a machine with another 32Mb that they are chucking out that you could scrounge.
> 
> If you are determined to go with just 32Mb, I suggest looking for an OLD distro - there was a time when I was running X on a 16MHz 486 with only 8Mb RAM and a 250Mb hard drive...so it's certainly possible.  It's just that the most popular Linux distro's are the ones with the most goodies...which eat RAM and disk space.
> 
I started with Slack 3.3 on a 486 laptop with 4MB.  No problems until I
wanted to run X, then I had to upgrade to 8 MB.

> You could look at one of the small distro's - there are a couple out there that fit on two floppies - including X - I would imagine they'd also run in very little RAM.
> 
Check freshmeat for the mini-distro section.  There are a bunch of small
distros there.

> Good luck!

Indeed.

keVIn