Re: Debian & Old Toshiba Laptop
On Mon, Oct 16, 2006 at 10:39:42PM -0400, Kevin Mark wrote:
> On Sun, Oct 15, 2006 at 11:34:25PM -0500, Mike McCarty wrote:
> > Scarletdown wrote:
> > >On Wed, 2006-10-11 at 01:07 -0400, Kai wrote:
> > >
> > >>I have a very old Toshiba laptop and I am looking to put Debian or
> > >>some other form of linux on it.
> > >>Details:
> > >>CPU: Pentium I
> > >>HD: ~700MB
> > >>RAM: 16MB
> > >>2 PC Card slots, but some newer cards (such as wireless cards) do not fit
> > >>Linksys EtherFast PC Card
> > >>A wireless router, however I can not seem to set up a Windows network on
> > >>it
> > >>A Sony Vaio CD-RW drive PC Card
> > >>an external bootable floppy drive on a special floppy port
> > >>A working dock with parallel, serial, PS/2 and monitor ports
> > >>
> > >>I can boot and install from a large stack of floppys (20-25 disks),
> > >>but I want to install from a CD or network and choose certain
> > >>packages. I can access the CD during installation, and after install,
> > >>but I can't boot from it, even using a Smart Boot Manager floppy. I
> > >>want to install any base packages (preferably ash, not bash), and I
> > >>want to use Xfce or IceWM-lite as a GUI, because the computer is so
> > >>limited.
> > >
> > >
> > >The simplest way to get started is to get an adapter so you can plug the
> > >hard drive into the IDE controller of a desktop computer that can boot
> >
> > Can Debian run in 16MB of RAM?
> >
My old reliable computer is an IBM PS/ValuePoint 486DX4-100 with now 32
MB ram but it did OK with 16 MB too. It can't boot CDs either.
I've never been able to install Sarge directly because the installer
uses too much ram. Instead, I install Woody (3.0) from CD but booting
with floppies. I can and have also installed straight from floppy (all
20). Just install the minimum with the floppies, then update to stable
(now Sarge). You can also boot from floppy and install from the net
with Woody.
I keep this computer as a solid bastion of reliability (I know, the
memory is getting old. I'm building a new bastion of reliability). I
use mc, lynx, pinfo, man, mutt, X, icewm (regular), dillo, gv, gqview.
When a website I need to access uses java, I start mozilla. Everything
but mozilla runs just fine although any graphics rendering (dillo, gv)
is somewhat slow. Console is very responsive. Mozilla is a click, have
a snack, click, make lunch, click...
I think that the issue for you is that its old hardware and the current
and future debian-installers are busy trying to work with all the new
hardware. It needs too many resources to do this. So install woody and
upgrade.
Good luck.
Doug.
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