Re: X on an old laptop
> I haven't found a debian version that will run on a 386 but here are a few
> links to some minimal slackware versions. [snipped]
> -- Andy
It may not be a laptop but starshine.org's internal mailhub is a 386, running
debian, and a fairly happy camper it is too.
Disk space may be an issue; how to install it might be tricksy; but the CPU
certainly is not a problem.
Anyways, it runs X fine ... better than one of the other clunkers around the
place, an EISA 486. But the vidcard in that monster is crappy, whereas the
386 has an extremely well supported Oak. Not that I -recommend- this, it's
still slow as F'ing molasses compared to all the laptops in the house (min.
P133 with more vidram than it has).
Use one of the wm's that keeps screen effects minimal (sawmill perhaps) and
it'll probably feel rather spiffy. I use fvwm but the only toy I load is
Buttons.
> P.S. If there are mini-debian versions let me know I'm compiling an
> exhaustive list of all linux distro's. Or if you know a link to a
> mini-debian HowTo please forward that as well. Mini to me means
> floppy (1-10) install. pygmy is 6 floppy's and runs as loop-linux.
> inside windows.
>From my recent delving into the longer-than-anyone-really-wanted-to-read
list at LWN:
floppyfw
http://www.zelow.no/floppyfw/
"Floppy firewall" - essentially a screening router. debian
based but probably not designed for update that way.
DLite
http://opensrc.org/dlite/dlite.html
Debian Lite for ISPs. Predated apt, is still ongoing tho.
Laetos
http://www.laetos.org/
Seems o be young project to have better installer for Debian.
normal sized, not floppy - Bad Penguin (italian), PROSA(also italian),
and Libranet.
plus of course Debian itself, Corel, and Storm. To summarize, yeah, there's
a few derivates that are small, but no close relatives are (by default anyway).
btw I haven't tried Corel, but Storm hated the video on the laptop that I
tried it on. SInce the install wants to be graphical I didn't go far, I was
getting dizzy :P
> On Tue, Apr 18, 2000 at 07:23:59PM -0500, John Parejko wrote:
> > So, what do you all think my chances are of getting X working on a Zeos
> > Laptop 386 (yes, that is its name). It is a 386SX/16 with 4 megs of ram,
> > and a 540 meg HDD (I upgraded it to that, up from a 20). I've got Debian
> > on it right now, and it is pretty happy (mmm... 6 virtual terminals... DOS
> > can't do that ;-).
[snip]
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