dpkg fails on low-memory-hardware
Hello everybody, this is my first post to this list.
Some time ago I wanted to upgrade an old laptop (Toshiba T4900CT,
from 1994) from Debian Etch to Debian Lenny. Unfortunately dpkg
(resp. apt-get or aptitude) was running out of memory. The maximum
amount of RAM for this laptop is limited to 40 MB.
I use this laptop for daily work for many years now. The limited
memory is no problem for this purpose. All programs I need, run fine
with this amount of RAM (jed, latex, tin, mutt, fbi, fbgs, links).
The only problem seems to be dpkg or associated programs, like
aptitude oder apt-get. Strangely enough, the laptop has 256 MB of
swap-space which dpkg (aptitude, apt-get) seem to ignore. Other
programs use swap, so it should be no general problem.
I know this laptop is old hardware and modern hardware is cheap. But
I got used to this machine so much and I would really love to keep it
alive. Plus I would like to continue using Debian. I tried NetBSD on
it. It works fine but I prefer Debian.
So could someone tell me please, how I could use dpkg with max. 40 MB
of RAM or how I could tell dpkg to use swap-space?
TIA, Martin
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