> I have Woody installed on an IBM 340CSE laptop with a 486/50,
> 12MB of RAM,
> and a 10GB drive. It currently boots, but hits swap the
> instant I start the
> PCMCIA card services to bring up wireless networking; even a
> "ps axw" starts
> grinding in single-user mode.
>
> Now, I don't expect wonders from this little machine. I just
> want it up
> enough to use as a thin X terminal with no programs running locally.
>
> I've already built a new 2.4.21 kernel without initrd and
> with everything
> non-vital removed. Is the 2.2.x series significantly smaller?
>
> Can I reduce the hard drive cache? RAM is *much* more
> valuable to me than
> buffered reads and writes.
>
> Is Debian even reasonable on this tiny box, or should I be
> looking at a
> slimmer distribution? If so, any suggestions?
>
> Many thanks - I await running my 640x480x256-color Mozilla with bated
> breath.
> --
> Kirk Strauser
>
I have a compaq 4130T laptop with 32mb ram and a 133mhz processor. I would recommend that (if possible) you up your ram. I use a 2.2.2 kernel on this thing and have had no problems. slow, but no problems. I avoid running Mozilla, Gnome, KDE, Evolution, etc. and instead use Fluxbox, Lynx/Mozilla-Phoenix, Sylpheed/Mutt, and also use TightVNC to control some of the other machines on my network. Mp3Blaster plays all my music (over the network) and I use the bigger programs through that.
Debian can be as slim as you want, so I would just concentrate on your tasks at hand.
Preston