Ron,
Having run (and still running!) Linux on a range of 486's with 8MB ram up,
I would say that there should be no problem. However, and as Jim points
out, you need to use a "386 friendly" distribution, i.e. Mandrake is a no-no.
Currently I use RedHat 5.2 on most of the 486's I admin, although this is
coming from a Slackware 3.0 system
HTH
Geoff
On Tue, 18 Apr 2000, Jim Darrough wrote:
> Use Suse 6.3 and specify i386 boot kernel. I have run it successfully on
> three different 486 systems.
>
> Regards, Jim
>
>
> At 08:53 PM 4/18/00 +0200, you wrote:
> >Shawn,
> >
> >After reading this mail i've got a question. I've tried lot's of time to let
> >an 'old' 486 with 16 mb talk linux. Until now i'm not very succesfull.
> >With multiple distributions i've tried but unfortenately unsuccesfull.
> >The problems arise at booting time, when the kernel itself is loaded. Almost
> >al of the time, i get kernel panics. Booting from flop, cd or disk does not
> >matter. all fail.
> >
> >I've tried to compile different kernels but all with the same result.
> >
> >I'm not able to read all those error messages appearing when 'hanging' but
> >maybe you can give me some hints..
> >
> >the machine is an ICL 486, on-board video, 16mb, a temporary disk (want to
> >boot via ethernet which physically works except for the kernel), and monitor
> >attached.
> >
> >
> >I just wanted to make a simple terminal for monitoring and config use for my
> >linux server which is in an (cold) different room.
> >
> >
> >
> >All info is welcome,
> >
> >Ron Jochems
> >PD1ACF
--
Geoff Blake geoff @ palaemon . co . uk linux 2.0.36
Chelmsford g8gnz @ g8gnz . ampr . org sparc - i586
Intel create faster processors - Microsoft create slower processes
The product of a MicroSoft free zone - without a single reboot
