win98-PC with 48M RAM. What Linux for it?

[penguinv]

Hi,

I inherited this cherry aaptop, Compaq, sporting Windows 98. This computer is pretty useless to me since I have a more modern setup. It has no optical drive but it does have an ethernet card in the PCMCIA slot. I feel like I've moved back in time talking about it, lol.

I wonder if linux would go on it. (I expect yes.) Which distro?
It could get the internet through the ethernet and afaik that's how I'd need to install it.
How do I do that?

BUT, Once adapted, could it do anything? What would it be able to do, what not? Is there any way of limiting the inflow of images or their size?

Windows 98 works fine on it. Is there anyway in which this perfect piece of machinery could be useful in the world?

Thanks.

I'd gladly donate it. Maybe to a museum, lol.

[oz]

Welcome to the forums!

I'm not aware of many Linux distributions that will run on just 48MB of RAM, but maybe Tiny Core would work on it:

Tiny Core Linux, Micro Core Linux, 10MB Linux GUI Desktop, Live, Frugal, Extendable

Some other very lightweight distributions can be found here:

Mini Linux - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[rokytnji]

I think 48 meg of ram is even to small for Tiny Core. But he might get Lucky. I would try Tiny Core before Damn Small Linux.

Damn Small Linux even though it looks like it is not maintained anymore might be his other option with the 2.4 kernel.

Maybe DSLN ?

Tiny Minimum

What are the minimum requirements?

An absolute minimum of RAM is 48mb. TC won't boot with anything less, no matter how many terabytes of swap you have.
Microcore runs with 36mb of ram.
The minimum cpu is i486DX (486 with a math processor).

A recommended configuration:
Pentium 2 or better, 128mb of ram + some swap

[penguinv]

One more piece of info:

Compaq laptop, Pentium (null), 48M ram
floppy, ethernet in PCMCIA card.

Thanks ozar, I'll look at those distros.

[reed9]

Slitaz will also work, but you'll need the loram-cdrom image.

I think TinyCore will be fine once you get it booted. The RAM requirements are high because (like the default Slitaz) it runs in RAM.

You can do a network install of Slitaz or TinyCore.
SliTaz PXE | #!/Community
Netbooting : Tiny Core Linux

EDIT: There is also a 1.44MB floppy boot image for slitaz.

[penguinv]

I think 48 meg of ram is even to small for Tiny Core. But he might get Lucky. I would try Tiny Core before\
(url not allowed until I have made 15 posts or more)
wikipedia Damn Small Linux"

Why would you try Tiny Core first?

From the Wikipedia DSL page:

DSL supports only x86 PCs. The minimum system requirements are a 486 processor and 8 MB of RAM. DSL has been demonstrated browsing the web with Dillo, running simple games and playing music on systems with a 486 processor and 16 MB of RAM. The system requirements are higher for running Mozilla Firefox and optional add-ons such as the OpenOffice.org office suite

Does this mean that it will NOT work on a Pentium (not an x86)?

(url not allowed until I have made 15 posts or more)
damnsmalllinux dot org Damn Small Linux even though it looks like it is not maintained anymore might be his other option with the 2.4 kernel.

Maybe "news.softpedia.com/news/Damn-Small-Linux-Not-21951.shtml" ?

Tiny Minimum

This looks complex for me.
Wikipedia for Tiny Core

As of version 2.8.1, the core is designed to run primarily in RAM but with 3 distinct modes of operation:
"Cloud" or Internet mode - A "testdrive" mode using a built-in appbrowser GUI to explore extensions from an online application extension repository loaded into RAM only for the current session.
TCE/Install - A mode for Tiny Core Extensions downloaded and run from a storage partition but kept as symbolic links in RAM.
TCE/CopyFS - A mode which installs applications onto a Linux partition like a more typical Linux installation.

But I can ask in #tinycorelinux
I wonder can Tiny Core go online? This needs to be more useful than Windows 98. I want to use what works. I'm not doing this to learn about linux. That happens anyway.


------------------------------
DSL looks ok, if it were to work.
I'd really like to install it from the internet, or from 1 floppy and then the internet.
Making a floppy has become a problem "these days".

DSL does this -- Boot from within a host operating system (that's right, it can run *inside* Windows

Maybe it's better if I give the whole list here.

Damn Small is small enough and smart enough to do the following things:
Boot from a business card CD as a live linux distribution (LiveCD)
Boot from a USB pen drive
Boot from within a host operating system (that's right, it can run *inside* Windows)
Run very nicely from an IDE Compact Flash drive via a method we call "frugal install"
Transform into a Debian OS with a traditional hard drive install
Run light enough to power a 486DX with 16MB of Ram
Run fully in RAM with as little as 128MB (you will be amazed at how fast your computer can be!)
Modularly grow -- DSL is highly extendable without the need to customize

Thanks.

PS I think the HD is 8G

---> The DSL looks like what I am going to follow up because
1. The website makes it look supported.
2. If I cant run firefox or do something useful it's time to pass it on. Just installing linux isnt my choice of something to do. I want my neighbor to use it, if possible.

AND all assistance appreciated.


(I am using an old (AGP,PCI) AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2600+ with Ubuntu 9.10 with a 1.5 cable internet connection. I know a lot more about linux than I did before. That's all I can say.)

[reed9]

The main issue with Damn Small Linux is that the project is no longer active. So there's not much support, no development, no security updates, and because they use such an old kernel, hardware support is much worse. (Of course, it it happens to work with your hardware, that's a moot point.)

I haven't used either TinyCore or Slitaz much, so I can't be of too helpful there. Any mini-distro strips out a good deal of stuff to get it down to size. TinyCore and Slitaz both initially offered poor wireless support, but that has improved with time. Ethernet should rarely be a problem in either.

TinyCore is probably a larger departure of what most of us are used to in either linux or Windows. The extension idea isn't really too difficult though. Basically, TinyCore is just, well, a core system. In conception, it isn't installed to the harddrive, but always run "live" or from a frugal install.

Normally, running a live distro means you have a pristine environment with each boot - changes are not saved. A number of distros offer the ability for a "persistent" live environment, where some changes can be persistent across reboots. The TinyCore extensions are a way to add programs to the core system to be available across reboots. Unlike a normal install, I believe they are compressed files, which, like running from a live USB/CD, are decompressed into RAM on the fly.

[rokytnji]

Why would you try Tiny Core first?

One reason would be the guy from Tiny Core came from Damn Small Linux and it has the newer kernel and is syill maintained plus all of what reed9 says.

I wonder can Tiny Core go online? This

Yes. With Firefox even. Though your laptop will probably run like a dog with firefox 3.5

If I cant run firefox

Dsl still comes with Firefox 2 I think in the distro.

If you want another recommend. You might be able to install and run

Puppy Linux Discussion Forum :: View topic - Uhuru 421 - Now extremely lighter as first promised!

Edit: and it aint like I haven;t gone thru this before with a Compaq
Yet Another Technology Site: Damn Small Linux 4.0 install on Compaq 1540DM

Yet Another Technology Site: Compaq Armada 1540DM running Windows 95 and Linux Puppy 2.15CE

[oz]

The wiki over at PuppyLinux.org claims that later versions of Puppy need at least 128MB of RAM to run properly, but it's still worth a try to see what happens:

PuppyLinux: MinReq

[arochester]

Puppy increased their minimum requirements from 64Mb to 128Mb. The older version is still available.