Re: Debian on an old PC

[Kent West <westk@acu.edu>]

CW Harris wrote:

> On Fri, Jan 07, 2005 at 12:53:11PM -0600, Kent West wrote:
>  
>
> > Paul Johnson wrote:
> >
> >    
> >
> > > On Thursday 06 January 2005 01:44 pm, John Schmidt wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >      
> > >
> > > > Old pcs often can't boot from a CD even if they have one.  You might 
> > > > be able to flash the BIOS to upgrade it, but that assumes there is an 
> > > > update out there (highly unlikely).  
> > > >  
> > > >
> > > >        
> > > If it's too old to boot from a CD, wouldn't it also pre-date flashable 
> > > BIOS?
> > >
> > >
> > >      
> > No, I remember flashing old AT&T 6300 (4.77MHz 8086 PC) PCs here on 
> > campus because they had a Y2K-style glitch in the BIOS; it wouldn't go 
> > beyond 1987 or thereabouts (my memory is hazy).
> >    
>
> Hey! I'm using one of those as a text terminal (typing this on it
> actually).  The display is a bit slow on long listings, but I *really*
> like the feel/key placement of the keyboard.
>
>  
I vaguely remember liking the old machines; maybe it was the keyboard; I 
can't remember for sure.

And back to Paul's question, the more I think about it, the more I think 
the 6300 BIOS patch may not have been a flash after all, but rather a 
TSR (that's Terminate and Stay Resident, for you young whippersnappers; 
the DOS-days equivalent of a background service/daemon). So perhaps Paul 
is correct.


--
Kent West
westk@acu.edu