Re: Wanted to build: bare minimum Debian system
12 MB of RAM... I wished that my Toshiba T3600CT (laptop 486/50, 8 mb of
RAM and 512MB drive) had that much memory! I installed Sarge on it. I'm
using XFree86 3.3.6 since 4.2 doesn't support my old videocard. I both
used the 2.4 and 2.2 kernel (both minimalistically reconfigured). I am
not yet using wireless networking, just LAN networking (PCMCIA card). It
is working fine as a X terminal (X login in remote GDM). I do not have
much harddisk activity at all, when I open a new webpage often no HD
activity at all. If I get HD activity it is rarely for more than 1-2
second. So in your case it should be no problem. I tried to keep the
kernel (currently 2.4.20) as small as possible (image < 550 kb, hardly
any modules) and deactivated most of the init.d scripts. That's all.
Ronald
On Fri, 2003-07-25 at 04:21, Kirk Strauser wrote:
> 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
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