[ILUG] Linux for a 386?

[Darragh Rogan]

the spec for the machine is:

cpu: 40mhz 386
ram: 4meg
hd: 163meg
cddrive in as well, it works when you boot from a dos startup floppy
net card: Netgear I think - I put it into my P3, and mandrake 7recognised it
as a ne2k - ne2000
modem: rockwell - worked in the P3

I'll try cleaning the floppy drive, or replacing it - but I really want to
just have it running as a gateway. would it work if i pt the hd into the P3
i have, and install smoothwall on that, then transfer the hd back?

Thanks,

Darragh

----- Original Message -----
From: Rick Moen
To: ilug at linux.ie
Sent: Monday, May 07, 2001 1:55 AM
Subject: Re: [ILUG] Linux for a 386?


begin Darragh Rogan quotation:

> I inherited an OLD 386 recently, and want to install Linux of some
> form on it. I was thinking of setting up smoothwall on it, but it
> tells me 0x10 or 0x40 error when I boot from the smoothwall floppy....

You didn't specify:  At what point in the boot process?  Did you try
three or four other floppies, in case the first one was physically bad?
Did you try substituting a different floppy drive borrowed from
elsewhere, just to see if the one in the 386 was marginal?

Floppy media quality is a serious problem, and any floppy drive still
living in a discarded 386 is likewise suspect of being dodgy at best.

> What would be a good all round distrib for the 386 i.e.: an install
> floppy, and a cdrom iso?

You didn't specify:  How big a hard drive(s)?  How much RAM?  What role
do you want the machine to do?

Personally, I wouldn't even try:  http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/faq/#386

(See also:  http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/faq/#486 )

--
Cheers,     Microsoft Corporation Gandhi-o-meter, revision 2001-05-3 beta01.
Rick Moen  "They ignore you." "They laugh at you." "They fight you." "You
win."
rick at linuxmafia.com                       WE ARE HERE.>> ^^^^^^^^^^


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