Forum Home
Press F1
 
Thread ID: 43720 2004-03-24 12:54:00 linux's on a 486 pc palmeriain (5441) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
224893 2004-03-24 12:54:00 I have a 486 which I would like to run linuxs on. I don't know any specks of the pc other than its a 486 with 250 mb hhd.

What verion of linux's should I run?? redhat, etc
palmeriain (5441)
224894 2004-03-24 13:48:00 How much success you will have depends on the amount of RAM it has. Add as much as you can.

The current debian stable will install on a 16mb machine (including X and a lightweight window manager) without problems.

If the machine has 8mb or less your options will be much more limited. Look for something really old. I managed to get Slackware 4.0 installed on an 8mb machine with a bit of fiddling.
bmason (508)
224895 2004-03-24 21:41:00 I'd recommend Vector Linux 4.0.

Ive run it on a few slower boxes and it seems good enough.

Just bear in mind that it'll never be lightning fast with a box of that specs.

Cheers


Chill.
Chilling_Silence (9)
224896 2004-03-24 22:22:00 I am not sure which versions of Linux will run on that computer but you will probably be looking at one that does not have a GUI as they are the hogs of system resources. Susan B (19)
224897 2004-03-24 22:59:00 Make up a hardware firewall for your own pc with it

www.ipcop.org
rmcb (164)
224898 2004-03-25 00:07:00 > Make up a hardware firewall for your own pc with it

That is a good use for an older computer like that but remember doing that means the firewall is the only thing that can be run, ie you cannot play with Linux on the same computer as well.
Susan B (19)
224899 2004-03-25 04:18:00 Well, I've still got Linux on a 386SX20 with 6MB ram and 40Mb disk. :D That's Slackware with the 2.0.9 kernel. But I never bothered with any GUI on that one. Or compiling kernels. I tried to install RH7.2 on a 48633 with 32MB ram, and that would have worked, but it insisted on loading too many MB onto the 300 MB disk. That one finished up with the same Slackware, which let me decide what to load.

Many "modern" distributions (like Mandrake) won't work on a 486 because they have been compiled for "Pentium and above" CPUs.
Graham L (2)
224900 2004-03-25 04:27:00 I have installed Redhat 7.0 with the GUI on a P100 with 64M RAM - it is slow but usable (just). A GUI on a 486? - possibly but not one of the fully featured ones (KDE or GNOME). JohnD (509)
224901 2004-03-25 06:21:00 i would reccomend peanut linux
http://www.linuxiso.org
Megaman (344)
1